Bonus
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The Right Amount of Deaths
Like life, death is inevitable, but it must arrive randomly. The reader shouldn’t predict the death of a character. Death should serve as a driving mechanism for the drama, to create new opportunities so that the story can continue to develop. Death should not be used as a means to spice up a bland story.
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Story density
Many people bemoan the fact that stories published by Marvel are increasingly fast reads. Authors are now trying to write only what’s essential, and we agree with this approach to scripting scenes. However, one of our collaborators pointed out recently that there are also fewer panels per page, which reduces how much the reader is getting out of reading. Webcomics get around this problem because it offers comic strips for free, which eliminates the issues readers may have with the cost and time involved in reading a strip.
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Why Kill Off Character?
Let’s go back to the idea that our main characters can die. In our opinion, this approach keeps the stories from having to become over-dramatic. Our heroes don’t have to outsmart schemes that become larger and more intricate with each passing story, in order to keep readers interested. Of course readers may wonder which characters will still be standing at the end. On that subject, Brian Michael Bendis and Geoff Johns wrote (at www.comicbookdaily.com, “Whosoever Holds this Hammer”) that the reason Marvel is more interesting than DC is that characters in the Marvel universe don’t have an aura of invincibility. And this gives the stories more appeal.
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Built like Athletes, Not Bodybuilders
We don’t give our characters (good and bad) oversize builds. For example, the Black Orchestra’s suppression team is in great physical shape, without necessarily looking like bodybuilders. Even Fabien, who’s been trained for hand-to-hand combat, doesn’t look like he spends 20 hours a week at the gym. This approach to the physical appearance of our characters is in line with our desire to set our story in a universe that’s relatively believable.
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Are all of the characters going to die?
One of our readers wants to know if we are going to kill off all of our main characters. Naturally, the answer is no, but it’s important to keep in mind the context of the story. There are two secret organizations involved in a brutal clash and each one does what’s necessary to disable the other. It would be abnormal if no one died, even among the good guys.
