Got "Annihilation" Questions? Ask Editor Andy Schmidt!

[Jonah Weiland]

Hey "Annihilation" fans! Series editor Andy Schmidt has agreed to stop by in the coming weeks to answer your questions about the series as it unfolds. Did something happen in an issue you don't quite understand? Or are you curious about the motivations by a certain decision? Andy's the guy to ask, so post your questions in this thread and Andy will stop by later to tackle 'em all!

Special thanks to Andy Schmidt for taking part in this Q&A with Marvel fans!

[Expletive Deleted]

Nifty! Thanks, Jonah and Andy!

Andy, if it's not a "wait and see" thing, what's the status of the Beyonder now that the Kyln's been blown to cosmic smithereens?

[The Adventurer]

Just from a logical stand point, how can the entire Nova corps have been wiped out and only Rider survive? Surely if one survived more could have fallen through the cracks in the battle. Perhaps coming together to become a Nova Squad, to be picked off slowly over the course of the Nova series.

Not really a question I guess, just an opinon on the only real unlikly circumstance of the Prologue.

[Cayman]

Will Tamara Rahn show up? She's really pretty.

Cay

[thetechnocrat]

Will we be seeing the last Spinster and/or Tyrant?
Will Beta Ray Bill be around?
What about Cap'n Reptile/Reptile?

Thanks for the time Andy!

[SavantTheory]

When you sat down to select the characters for the Annihilation story line I was curious if there was a series of benchmarks characters had to meet to make the story. Building a story on this scale, obviously you had access to more characters for outright roles or 'guest' appearances than most books get a run at.

Regarding the editorial process how does Marvel handle requests by books such as Annihilation to use characters currently playing predominant roles in their own or other books? Rumor has it Genis-Vell had been wanted for a role in Annihilation but was stuck in the events of Fabian’s Thunderbolts run.

Can't wait for your take on maintaining Marvel's continuity and author privilege regarding their control over what happens to characters under the pen. Keep up the great work on Annihilation Andy!

[Zenith23]

Will we be seeing a whole lot more of the cosmic guys making appearances after Annihilation? and especially after the dust settles in Civil War? not just characters like silver surfer but interaction between Earth (U.N) and the established powers like the Kree and Skrull Empires what remains of the Nova Corps or the Shiar? by this I mean something like the appearance of a Kree ambassador to earth like in House of M.
Most people on 616 must know by now of the existance of these powers thru the likes of events with the FF and Avengers why not acknowledge this Earths existence in the greater scheme of things?
great work so far though i'm looking forward to it all.....

[Thanos]

Will Thanos be involved in any good fist fights during this series?

- Thanos

[StoneGold]

Why would any rational sentient have placed in trust in the Nova Corps anyways? Weren't they just reformed "a few months ago?" (Marvel time, anyways)


Although I'm still trying to figure out how Rich would have mated with the Centauri. Don't they have some weird physiology? I know they're marsupials. For that matter, why would her mating with him for life be a good thing from his perspective? Did he only hear the word mate, didn't hear the end of the sentence?

[Andy Schmidt]

Nifty! Thanks, Jonah and Andy!

Andy, if it's not a "wait and see" thing, what's the status of the Beyonder now that the Kyln's been blown to cosmic smithereens?

Check out the Surfer series...

[Andy Schmidt]

Just from a logical stand point, how can the entire Nova corps have been wiped out and only Rider survive? Surely if one survived more could have fallen through the cracks in the battle. Perhaps coming together to become a Nova Squad, to be picked off slowly over the course of the Nova series.

Not really a question I guess, just an opinon on the only real unlikly circumstance of the Prologue.

I don't think we outright said everyone else was dead. We might have, but maybe some are just cut off or trapped like Richard was. If you pick up Nova #1, you'll get a clearer idea of the devastation to Xandar. What we know for sure is this: all of the Nova Corps were on Xandar at the time it was hit. Reports from their have been sketchy.

Does that answer the question?

[Andy Schmidt]

Will Tamara Rahn show up? She's really pretty.

Cay

Cay, I'd be lying if I told you a definitive answer one way or the other. The structure and the conclusion of ANNIHILATION is mapped out. But with four writing teams and a cast of thousands, I'm making sure Keith, Andy, Dan, Simon, and Javi all have room to adjust their stories as they go forward.

That can include brining in characters who weren't involved or taking out characters who we thought fit but for whatever reason no longer serve much of a purpose in the story.

Sorry I don't have anything more concrete for you.

[Andy Schmidt]

Will we be seeing the last Spinster and/or Tyrant?
Will Beta Ray Bill be around?
What about Cap'n Reptile/Reptile?

Thanks for the time Andy!

See the answer above.

I gotta say, I really want to use Beta Ray Bill. I love him in a purely platonic way, but I do. Believe me, he's been in and out of this a couple of times. If he fits, he'll be there. However, I'm not going to just throw him in for no good reason.

So, if he shows up, you can bet he's going to kick some butt!

[Andy Schmidt]

When you sat down to select the characters for the Annihilation story line I was curious if there was a series of benchmarks characters had to meet to make the story. Building a story on this scale, obviously you had access to more characters for outright roles or 'guest' appearances than most books get a run at.

Okay, I'll take these one at a time. When selecting the characters, I made sure the writers wanted to write them. If the writer isn't into it, you're dead in the water. Given that, the main criteria was that each character have a reason to be involved, but also that each character had a story to tell. I originally wanted a Shi'ar character (that's a race from another galaxy, in case someone reading this doesn't know).

But, I didn't really have a good story for that character--at least, not one that also fit into ANNIHILATION. Each of the four characters from the limited series must undergo significant and substantial change. That's also why I pulled Drax off the list for a limited series. We'd just set Drax up in a new status quo and by definition, I was going to change the status quo to one degree or another for each of these character. (please note that when I say "I" or "me" that really means all of us involved from editors to writers to artists, I just do that because I'm a hot dog). So, since I didn't think we needed to reinvent Drax again, he was off the list.

So, the criteria was that each character needed a story about the character, not about the plot of ANNIHILATION. Does that make sense?

I'll tell you, I thought the story for Super-Skrull was the one least likely to develop into lasting change. That was, until I read Javi's first script and it was brilliant. This is the Super-Skrull as you've never seen him before and how he should ALWAYS be!

Regarding the editorial process how does Marvel handle requests by books such as Annihilation to use characters currently playing predominant roles in their own or other books? Rumor has it Genis-Vell had been wanted for a role in Annihilation but was stuck in the events of Fabian’s Thunderbolts run.

The way it works really is I ask the editor who controls each of these characters. My boss (who's been invaluable on ANNIHILATION) is Tom Brevoort. He's in charge of both FANTASTIC FOUR and AVENGERS. So pretty much both Skrulls and Kree--all of them--fall under his domain. As does Annihilus. So, I had to ask his permission. If he didn't smack me with his crowbar right away, he'd ask (or have me ask) the creators of the relevent books. I remember talking to Allan Heinberg (YOUNG AVENGERS writer) and Brian Bendis (NEW AVENGERS writer) while I believe Tom talked with JMS (FANTSTIC FOUR writer) to see if it would be cool to use some of these characters.

We had to move some stuff around and they were all kind enough to move plans arounds as well. It was difficult to orgnize, but ultimately, everyone in all the cereative teams was friendly and excited about ANNIHILATION. I was especially pleased that JMS let us use the Silver Surfer.

Can't wait for your take on maintaining Marvel's continuity and author privilege regarding their control over what happens to characters under the pen. Keep up the great work on Annihilation Andy!

That's another debate for another time, Savant Theory. Thanks for the questions.

[Andy Schmidt]

Will we be seeing a whole lot more of the cosmic guys making appearances after Annihilation? and especially after the dust settles in Civil War? not just characters like silver surfer but interaction between Earth (U.N) and the established powers like the Kree and Skrull Empires what remains of the Nova Corps or the Shiar? by this I mean something like the appearance of a Kree ambassador to earth like in House of M.
Most people on 616 must know by now of the existance of these powers thru the likes of events with the FF and Avengers why not acknowledge this Earths existence in the greater scheme of things?
great work so far though i'm looking forward to it all.....

The best I can hope for is a sound yes. If ANNIHILATION is well recieved and sells well, then yes, they'll be more active in the Marvel Universe.

If this bad boy tanks, then it's going to be a long time before any of them grace a Marvel comic again...

Currently, we're talking about what to do next, but that's still up in the air.

I honestly don't know how much interaction there will be with Earth after all of this. My plan is to make Marvel's outer space so damn interesting that you won't care about what's happening on that pale blue dot!

How's that?