Jonathan Hickman Works On More Films Than Anyone Will Know

Posted in: Comics, Interview, Lucca Comics & Games, Marvel Comics | Tagged: jonathan hickman, marvel

We chatted with comic-book writer Jonathan Hickman about his Marvel work and current projects ahead of his appearance at Lucca Comics & Games.

Comic book writer Jonathan Hickman is heading to Italy for Lucca Comics & Games 2026 at the end of October, the Western world’s biggest comic con. And he’s one of their biggest comic guests, just ahead of the Avengers Doomsday movie, which seems to be based on several of his comic book series. Now, as Hickman reinvents Marvel and the X-Men once more with the Midnight Universe, and takes his 3W3M Universe to print, he shared his thoughts on all of this with Bleeding Cool. And revealed a few things that nobody knows…

BC: So, starting off, the new footage from Avengers: Doomsday, along with the stuff from the multiple Earths fighting each other, it’s kind of clear that a lot of that is coming from the stuff that you did with Fantastic Four and Avengers in the Secret Wars storyline. What are your thoughts on that influence and the way that’s developed?

JH: It’s been really interesting. I don’t know that it’s common knowledge, but I consult for studios and read almost all the movies that they’re making while they’re in development. So it has been fascinating watching that change over the past two and a half years since I’ve been reading scripts for it. There was a big shift when The Russo‘s came back on, and [Steven] McFeely came back on, and they announced that Robert Downey Jr. was going to be joining the cast again and all that kind of stuff.It has been really, really interesting. Those guys are very, very nice to me and take care of me, I’m very excited about what they’re working on. I have not seen a final cut or anything like that. I’ve seen work in progress and all and whatnot. But I think they’re really excited about it. I’ll tell you the most interesting thing about the whole thing was I have never seen a movie before while it was being worked on, in that there was no CGI involved. So you would see scenes where they hadn’t added any special effects and then two much later, you see the final version. It’s kind of wizardry, actually. I found the whole process rather fascinating.

Does it kind of blow your mind to see they’re on a green screen with a bunch of rocks that don’t have any kind of real shape or form, and then all of a sudden they’re on a battlefield?

That’s the very simple version, but yes, those visual effects guys are unreal. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to act under some of those circumstances. I think it seemed like alchemy to me, not just technical prowess or whatever. But its’s been interesting and cool.

We’re kind of a world away almost from House of X and Powers of X. Famously, the people behind it have continued your plan from Act One from Age of Krakoa, rather than switched from the planned Acts Two and Three. Can you share any of the plans that would have followed Act One if they had continued through that, or is that kind of hush-hush, maybe for the future?

Yeah, maybe for the future. I hate that when we talk about projects that we didn’t get to do. So let’s keep that gun in the holster.

What do you think of the story that’s been going on from that then?

I have to be honest, when I usually leave a book, I tend to not read it for a prolonged period of time after I’ve worked on it because it’s impossible to read with any kind of fairness or clarity or anything like that. So I’m not quite sure where they’re at in their story. I obviously have heard all of it pitched in the room at the Marvel Summits; I’ve heard exciting stuff from Jed [MacKay] and Gail [Simone] and all those people that are working on the books now. But I don’t know exactly where they’re at in the story right now.

So 3W/3M came from your original X-Men plans when the Lockdown hit, having comics designed for a digital audience and readership spread across many creators, but kind of bringing it all in a manner for sci-fi and influence and whatnot. It’s now kind of come to print with Dark Horse. How do you think the transition from planned-for digital to print has impacted readers differently, if at all?

We always did the special printings for people that subscribed to the site. So the object was always to make these really cool-looking books, a little bit different shape, a little bit nicer paper, and all that kind of stuff. We were just trying to make really pretty books to go along with all the stuff that we were doing, I guess community-building stuff we were doing through Three Worlds / Three Moons. But we knew that we would eventually have a publishing partner that would make it so the books could have wide distribution. And that’s what’s going on right now with Dark Horse. They’ve been very cool and very nice and fun to work with. I’ve never worked with them before. So it’s been interesting for me, to be in the industry as long as I have and not have worked with someone. So they’ve done a really, really great job, and the books look good, and we’re all super stoked.

Any particular titles from that run that you’re looking forward to people getting their hands on and seeing for the first time?

Well, I had never gotten to write for Mike del Mundo before. That book actually came out at the end of September and was so much fun to do. That book is called Shift. Everybody knows what a genius he is, but it was really cool getting to work with him on sequential pages and tell a longer story. He’s a good dude. He’s such a good dude to work with. So, it’s been great.

You want to do more stuff with him in the future if the chance comes about?

Oh, sure! He doesn’t do a lot, he’s an in-demand cover artist, that he doesn’t do a lot of sequentials. But he’s so good that it would really suck if he didn’t do it again anytime soon. But we’ll see. I’m a partner with Mike on 3W/3M, and obviously [Mike] Huddleston and I have done books and Image before. Bboth of those guys I would work with them every day of the week if I could. They’re great.

You’ve kind of earned this reputation of being like Mr. Fix-It for Marvel in some ways. People will bring you in and you’ll kind of help retool or work on a project. Depending on the fandom reaction, sometimes it’s really awesome, and people are stoked out. And then other times you get a lot of criticism for it. How is it kind of being in that position and earning that title? And what lessons have you kind of learned over the years of being able to dive in and learn through success and failure, figuring out what works and what doesn’t?

It’s an art, so there is no formulaic kind of thing that works, which is what I think is the most interesting and fun part of it. It’s a problem-solving that never stops morphing into a different challenge every time you come onto a book. I really like to be helpful to other creators, and I like to jam on ideas and try to come up with stuff together. If I hear a pitch and I think it would be well serviced and maybe think about it from a different perspective, I offer that up. But I thoroughly enjoy trying to make interesting books and make books that are good into great books. I’m sure I’m difficult sometimes or something like that, but I genuinely tend to be pretty enthusiastic about trying to sharpen up pitches and stories in general. I find that to be an extreme amount of fun.

Is there any one particular story where, if you were a kid in school and you brought home your work, and you taped it up on the fridge, you’d be like, “this is the one I’m most proud of”?

No, no, I’m a well-known self-loather when it comes to the finished project. I heard [Matt] Fraction, he was the first person I heard say this. I can’t remember who he was quoting, but he said: “Books are never finished; they’re just abandoned.” They got to go print, and that’s the truest thing I think I’ve heard in almost 20 years of being in the business.

Looking at Marvel now in the current state of how the company is, how do you see the Stephen Wacker Marvel differing from the ones kind of without Buckley, Gabriel, Bogart, or Cebulski?

Well, I’ve seen this a couple of times. This is the first time we’ve had a change in publisher. Obviously, Buckley had been there the entire time that I was at Marvel. But I think change is good. Generally speaking, I think change is very good. It challenges all the creators. It makes people that may be comfortable uncomfortable. You can argue about the necessities and where Marvel’s at in the business or what studios are looking at from the company and all that kind of stuff. Me personally, I’m very excited for the books that I’m working on, and I’m enthusiastic about the changes in the company. I think they’ve hired some very smart, very capable people.

This is your first time at Lucca Comics and Games. Also your first time in Italy, as I understand. What are your thoughts going into the festival and having a chance to experience it for the first time?

I heard its big! So that’s cool. It’s in an ancient walled city. That’s cool. I have been all over the place in Europe; I just have never gone. It has all been Northern Europe. It has all been Germany, Switzerland, Poland. I spent a month in the Ukraine one time a long time ago, but I just never been to Italy or Greece So I’m stoked, I’m very excited. I’m sure the show’s gonna be a blast. We’re going to spend a couple of days just wandering around before we show up at the show. But we’re excited; we’re really looking forward to it.

side from the stuff that you have obviously scheduled to go do, is there anything that you’re looking forward to doing for the first time while you’re out there, or might possibly experience?

I’ve heard the food is really good! As long as that’s the thing, and I can have a couple of good dinners, catch up with some people I haven’t seen in a while, meet some new ones. That’s pretty much what the experience should be when you go to one of these kinds of things, and I’ll try and enjoy it as much as I can.

Is there anything that you want to talk about that we didn’t get to?

I probably should say that we’re very excited about the Midnight Comics release and that we feel very strongly about them . Initial orders were very strong, and Ben [Percy], Philip [Kennedy Johnson], and I are overjoyed with the amount of rope that we’ve been given by the company, and we feel pretty good about the books, so we hope people will check those out also.

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