JOSS WHEDON Q&A

The fanboy phenom takes a few minutes off the picket line to rap about his end to Astonishing, what the future holds for Buffy and pie.

By Danny Spiegel
Posted 01/11/08

It's like a stake through the heart: Joss Whedon comes to the end his phenomenally succesful run on Astonishing X-Men and his critically acclaimed stint on Runaways. Scheduled for release the same day in February, Giant-size Astonishing X-Men #1 and Runaways #30 are his final issues with artists John Cassady and Michael Ryan, respectively. (Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take over on Astonishing, while Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos pick up the baton for Runaways.) At press time, Whedon and his Writers Guild brethren were striking, but the vampire-loving scribe took time out from his picketing duties to talk with us about those simultaneous farewells, the status of Buffy's Season Eight and his new TV show for Fox. However, we should note, to warm things up for our full-length interview, we wanted to start out with something fresh and easy. And what's easier (and more delicious) than pie?

WIZARD: Before we delve into comic-related stuff, let's get this out of the way: What's your favorite type of pie?
WHEDON: You know, I'm very partial to making a strawberry-rhubarb at Thanksgiving and usually end of eating most of it myself. Strawberyy rhubarb is a thing of beaty.

Thanks. Now on to comics.
All right, but I think you're glossing over the very delicate pie issue. You know, most of the last X-Men is going to be about pie anyways.

Speaking of which, is it safe to assume that the "Giant Size" title is a nod to the classic 1975 issue which launched the mordern X-Men?
That was Johnny's insistance. We were supposed to do 12 [issues] when I cornered him and said, "I have the next 12," and he said, "Shut up! I'm busy!" And then I told him what the ideas were and he basically said, "F--- you!" And practically the first thing out of his mouth was, "And we have to go out with a giant-sized annual at the end of 24!" And I'm like, "That works for me." I actually thought he meant giant-sized, like, Superman Versus Spider-Man [Treasury Edition]-sized, and the found out that just meant longer. [I was] like, "But I want to see Spider-Man fight Superman... or Muhammed Ali, I don't care." I was a little disappointed that it isn't actually going to be larger, but it will be longer and "epic-er." Yes, that is a word now! Yay!

What can we expect from the Giant-Size issue?
Well, it wraps up all of the threads that I've been weaving - obviously, the Breakworld saga - and will involve characters from the Marvel Universe. (They'll all be dead - except Hawkeye.) For the first time since they locked horns with the Fantastic Four in issue #7, they will actually be a part of the whole, which means, of course, I have to keep writing my editor, like, "Who's alive? Thor's a clone? Okay. What is Spider-Man wearing these days? I'm very confused."

And will Blindfold's prediction from issue #18 about an X-Men not coming back actually come true?
Do you think Blindfold could not be right?

You never know.
Yeah, the issue ends with Blindfold going, "Psych!" and bumping into a wall. It's hilarious.

[Laughs] The terminology was that "not all of them" come back, so is it possible that may or may not mean death?
And that may or may not mean death. But is it going to be harsh? Let's see. Let me look in the mirror... "Oh, it's Joss Whedon!" Yes, it's probably going to be harsh.

Hopefully you don't actually have a mirror there.
No, actually, I really don't. I want to stress that I don't have a mirror.

Now that you've pretty much finished the run, is there anything you wish you had done differeny?
You know, not so much. I think the only major regret is that I don't think I'm ever going to do anything as cool as issue #4, when Colossus came back and ran through Kitty. And it's not good to peak at issue #4 when there's 25 of them. I know the Danger plot did not resonate with most audiences as much as I would have liked. I think I was so interested in the ideas behind it that I forgot to connect them to the humanity of it and people really feeling what Dander was going through.

Arguably, your streamling of the characters was part of the reason for the title's success.
You pick up the X-Men and you have so much history. you just have to say, "I will honor the history that the fanboys know." but I gotta write this for people who haven't read 14 other things and aren't reading them now. Which is why I stayed out of the Civil War and all of that because I wanted to make the book accessible to somebody who wasn't an X-fan, at the same time as having just a fanboy party the whole time. Simplification. Logan - what are you going to do with Logan? Well, what hasn't been done with Logan? How about turning him into a prissy Nancy boy? Which, again, was honoring his origin story. I didn't pull that out of thin air; that had already been created.

You know what also hasn't been don with Logan? A full body wax.
Well, spoiler alert!

[Laughs] Last X-Men question: In issue #21, when Beast and Agent Brand are caught in a snowstrike, she says, "I don't need your guts to keep me warm." And then something happens down below, off-panel and then Hank says, "Oh. My." Dare I ask what we're supposed to infer here?
Um, infer away because Giant-Size will reveal what she was talking about. Agent Brand has many more layers than she has heretofore shown. And that doesn't mean I won't kill her. But, yeah, we will find out what's really going on with Agent Brand and why there was glow.

You're also coming to the end of your time on Runaways. What should we expect?
I've put out a lot of threads. Actually, I created an entire 1907 Marvel Universe and they're going to war so... it's complicated. I keep having to go, "Okay, who's in this? How many people are fighting?" But it's just about paying off everything I've been heading up to and everybody coming out of the experience a little bit changed. At the same time, the whole 1907 [aspect] of it has just been an utter joy. I did a bunch of research and every character in it with, I think, two exceptions, is based on some historical fact or phrase or little tidbit.

One of the best lines was when they get a 1907 newspaper that talks about the original Typhoid Mary and Chase says, "Typhoid Mary. Didn't she fight Daredevil?"
Well, that's one of the joys. Anytime you have to delve into a piece of history, you're going to have more fun. You're going to have more texture. To put them into a place where, literally, the term "adolescent" had just been coined and teenagers did not exist had been just extremely fun. And now it's the last issue it's time to f--- 'em all up!

You've been writing teenage characters so well for so many years. What are the challenges of having the dialogue ring true as you get older?
You know, reading Runaways [when Brian K. Vaugha was writing it] really brough this to light. The moment I realized, "Hey, check out my oldness!" was when Chase drowned [in #16] and Gert gave him mouth-to-mouth and Molly shouted, "Bonus life!" I was, like, "Okay, that's a younger person writing young people." And there will come a time when [my teen characters] are going to look like Archie and Jughead, not actual teenagers. My feeling about writing adolescents is, simply, it is a timeless experience. Even when I was writing the movie of "Buffy," I didn't try to ape the way kids talk because they were changing it based on whatever movie they saw last week. So my rule of writing for young people was just "Keep it fluid. Keep things fresh. Just find a new way to say something that feels natural." Even if it's not what people are saying, it'll feel right. you gotta remember what's timeless and not try to be the sitcom writer using the word "wack" because he wants to sound hip.

Speaking of Buffy, in issue #3 of Season 8, it was mentioned in the letter column that this run could go as long as 40 or 50 issues. What's the status?
The status is that we've got [it planned] to exactly 40. We know almost every bit of who's doing waht and the main points of what we need to hit, where it's going, what it means, what the big climax is, who the villain is and mostly who the writers are for each bit.

Will it end there?
No, no, no. The last two arcs will be plotted out by me and Brad Meltzer. And he's going to write the first one; I'm going to writer the second one. [Issue] #40 will be the final issue of Season 8 and that will be absolutely the end of it until the beginning of Season 9.

How did Brad Meltzer join the team?
We've become e-friends a little bit. I've written the intro to the hardcover of Identity Crisis because I was so blown away by it. And so when I started this thing, I sent out a e-mail to every great writer that I knew, both from the shows and from comics. And Brad was the shocking, "Yes." You send these things almost sheepishly, like, "I don't want to wast eyour time, sir..." But he was, like, "Dude, I'm in!" [I was] like, "Wow."

When you write the Buffy comic, do you consciously still think of the original actors' voices who played them?
They're so ingrained in my brain, it really helps the writing. It makes it so much fun. I can always hear them talking. Tom Lenk [who played Andrew on "Buffy" and "Angel"] confessed that he reads his aloud when he's alone. So, yeah, absolutely. It really helps.

What's up next for you in comics?
I need to clear my plate a little bit. Buffy is still a constant and I'm writing the arc after Drew [Goddard]. After I help him with his comic I'm like, "Okay, now you gotta help me with mine!" But it is sort of a natural part of my life, to be working on Buffy. The other things, you know, I just need to clear the boards just a tiny bit.

I recently spoke with your pal and Buffy writer, Brian Vaughan, about Y: The Last Man and I asked if he'd like me to pass anything on to you, so he said, "He's a giant nerd in every respect but he loves Agent 711, [who's] the bondage dominatrix woman from the 'Safeword' arc. I just know he has sort of a creepy fetish for her and has always wanted to borrow her for something else."
Brian is fond of pointing out that I'm a dirty old man, which is a phrase that he first coined about me in an introduction [to the Runaways Vol. 3 trade], I'm happy to say, in an introduction. It's true that Brian is younger that I am and possibly more talented, so I pretty much just have to go with bald hokes, because I got nothing else. I think 'Safeword' is one of the best arcs. One of the most astonishing things I've ever read. [But] I'm not actually obsessed with her.

What's the premise of "Dollhouse", your new show on Fox?
It's about a girl who has had her personality completely wiped clean so that she can be imprinted with lots of different personalities for particular assignments; some of them criminal, some of them romantic, some of them sexual, some of them just... what's the word I'm trying to think of?

Avacado?
Some of them "avacado..." No, that wasn't it. "Altruistic." That isn't the word but it'll do. And then she gradually begins to become self-aware in her wiped-clean state and begins to wonder why she's here and who she is and suspect she may be in some danger.

And it stars a familiar friend of yours, E;iza Dushku who played Faith on "Buffy."
A very dear friend who was out on the picket line with me.

What's the status of "Dollhouse" now?
The day the strike is over, assuming the entire infrastructure of Hollywood has not collapsed, I go to work on it. And not the day before.

And finally, you have a uniwque type of celebrity. People aren't throwing themselves at you, but in certain environments, you're treated like a god among men. Is that the best of both worlds.
Well, I wish more people would be throwing themselves at me. It's nice to have fans [but] where are the groupies? The fact of the matter is that I think I really do have the best of both worlds because I have enough anonymity, but at the same time people do come up to me, often, and in unexpected places, to tell me that they love my work. And it's not like an actor, it's not, "I love your face" -- only my wife loves that -- but it's about the work. And so it's a wonderful feeling. The trick is not to go to those things constantly and then come home and be, like, "But, don't you know that I'm all that?" You have to reality check. When somebody calls you a "god" the first thing you have to ask yourself is, "How sh--ty am I?" because if you start believing it, guess how badly you're about to start writing?

Pretty badly?
Yeah! That's the truth.