Sam Humphries - Reddit AMA

[Plawsky]

Yesterday, Sam Humphries started an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit to promote his upcoming Uncanny X-Force run, but he also talked about... well, anything. And that includes his Ultimates run.

Here's the link.

Anyway, here's everything he said about his Ultimates run. I'll update it if and when he says more. Some of it we already knew, some of it not so much. As you would expect, there's nothing huge here, but it's still a cool gesture to fans.

----------

Did Hickman have a longer story in mind for Ultimates before he left? Did it change at all when you took the reigns? Or is it still pretty much what was going to happen?

He did, and I took some elements but changed it. The first conversation I had with him, he told me: this is your book now. You're the captain of the ship. Write what you want to write. Don't try to write what I was going to do.
So that's what I did. He was very generous like that.

----------

Will we be seeing more of a mutant presense on the Ultimates' roster in the near future?

No mutant presence in the near future on the Ultimates, but Brian Wood and I talk on the regular and we're always looking for ways to interconnect (like Nick Fury in Ultimate X-Men) so you never know what's going to pop up.

Any plans on bringing back anyone else, like doctor strange, black panther, iron fist, or she hulk? And do you have any plans for hulk or reed, or are they going to disappear for awhile?

You named six characters in your question, at least two will be popping up in the next six months. (I'm pretty sure Ultimate Dr. Strange is dead, so that narrows it down for you.)

Well he is magic, so it wouldn't be to ridiculous to bring him back. But ultimate universe rules and all, I get that he's not coming back. Happy to see more characters though, keep up the good work.

I am always looking for loopholes, thanks for that one!

Writers never followed up on the Ultimate Doctor Strange dangling thread from Ultimatum. Some shadowy person arrives, says one line, and disappears with Strange's corpse. As far as I know, the shadowy character was never revealed, and his/her motives remain a mystery. Loophole enough for you? Ok, that's as nerdy as I get. :-P

HUH I don't remember that, I'll go back and check it out. Thank YOU!

----------

Uncanny X-Force is the second book you've taken over which featured a Captain Britain in some capacity. Do you have any plans for the character either in X-Force or his ultimate counterpart over in Ultimates?

Not currently. Rick did a great job with Cap on his run, so I don't feel the need to go back to that. I love Jamie Braddock in Ultimates but I haven't found the right "in" for him yet, y'know? Every issue I think about him though.

----------

Your Ultimates feels very similar, in terms of tone and in some ways plot, to the Avengers film. This makes it, in my opinion, the perfect book to give to people looking to read more about the Avengers after the movie. Was this part of your intended goal, or just a happy coincidence?

Happy coincidence, but thanks for the high compliment, I love the Avengers movie. Accessibility was certainly a goal, but I had written a few issues before the movie came out.

----------

Long term plans for The Ultimates? Also any teases of what is coming?

ULTIMATES: INFINITY

----------

Hello, I was really into Ultimates run, but what put me off was the constant inconsistency of art. There were like zillion people working on it, with different skills level and it shows. Drawings aren't bad, but it's distracting, especially when you see a page that tells me "I just don't feel like putting effort in drawing or I just had to little time to finish it". I stopped buying and reading the title, but I'd like to go back, because I liked where you were taking the story. Just ... the art. Is it still the case? Where this situation is coming from and do you have any saying in it? It really feels like the Ultimates are really low in the food chain in general, so nobody cares too much. Sadly. I liked it a lot. I also can't wait for the Uncanny X-Force, best luck with this title!

Well, what can I say. No one likes having inconsistency in the art. But everyone does their best, y'know. Sometimes a book is in an impossible position and you have to split the pages. Sometimes an artist is in a schedule crunch and has to draw faster than they would otherwise. Sometimes you put an artist on a book and it just doesn't turn out to be a good fit.
But I can tell you that everyone on these books -- myself, the artists, editorial, EVERYONE -- really does care about them. You never have an ideal world -- you just try to make the best books you can with the circumstances you have. Sometimes you hit, and sometimes you miss.

----------

What character do you want to bring forward into the Ultimate Universe? (Loving some of the re-imagings such as Maria Hill as a tough as nails cop)

There will be five new Ultimate versions of Marvel Universe characters coming up in issue #22!
Oh and a couple obscure ones in issues 20 and 21.

YEAH!!!!!! (Now if we can just get Dr. Nemesis in there, my world would be complete)

He's a mutant, so that would involve some horse-trading with B. Wood. Dude drives a hard bargain.

----------

Ultimate Spider-Woman is one of my favorite ultimate characters. She makes brief appearances in The Ultimates and in Ultimate Spider-man but she has yet to have her own book. Is there any plans for her to have her own book? I would think she would have a very interesting story to tell, especially after Peter's death. I mean she essentially is Peter Parker. She has all his memories. She loves Aunt May just as much as he did and yet Aunt May doesn't even know she exists. That's a really interesting conflict to me and I was surprised no book for her was made after Peter's death.

No immediate plans for her to have her own book, but she is a cool character!

---------

Also, there's a really odd scene in Ultimates #17 where Cap comes into the battle with a flag on some sort of floating snowmobile to inspire the troops, but immediately gets shot down in the next page. Personally, I couldn't help laughing at this for a good 5 minutes straight because it almost had a B-Movie feel to it. Was this something you were going for in writing the scene, or was there some kind of miscommunication with Luke Ross on how to depict it. Either way, I think a tongue-in-cheek, 80's movie feel works really well for your take on the Ultimate Universe, so I wouldn't mind seeing more of it.

I dunno, I didn't read it that way. I thought Luke did great! He rules.

----------

Are we going to get a fun one-shot of Ultimates where president cap only has to deal with office problems, economic issues and politics for one day? no supervillains, just boring day-to-day stuff. I think it would be a blast.

Ha! I would love to write it, but no, that's not what the Ultimates are about.

----------

Great to have you once more Sam :), quick Ultimates question... since we've seen Susan in a few panels will we see more of Ultimate Ben Grimm? Love your work so far on Ultimates, keep up the awesome work!

Hey, thanks so much! Lots of plans for Sue but none for Ben right now.

----------

In Ultimates, Are we going to find out what happened to Captain Britain and Spiderwoman when they were knocked out? Or is that lost in the writing switch over?

Maybe one day we'll tell that story, it kinda got lost in the shuffle. We only get so many pages per issue. For now know that Cap released them when he became president.

----------

For bullet points, check the post below.

[Plawsky]

CLIFFS NOTES!

-No mutants planned to be in the Ultimates
-No plans for Captain Britain yet, but he's hoping to work him into the book
-Ultimates: Infinity is coming up
-The Ultimates get five new members in issue #22! It seems that they'll be new Ultimizations, rather than pre-established characters.
-There may also be some new characters (obscure ones) in issues 20 and 21
-No plans for Dr. Nemesis
-No plans for a Spider-woman book
-Sue Storm has a lot of plans, but Ben has nothing
-Captain Britain and Spider-woman were released from the Cube by Cap. There are no plans to revisit that dropped storyline.

[horsehead]

I have to say Sam always seems like a really nice guy in interviews. I really hope his shaky start to the Ultimates is due to having to finish off Hickman's story and then having to do the DWF crossover and that he wins us all over when he gets to do his own stories.

Originally Posted by Sam Humphries
Any plans on bringing back anyone else, like doctor strange, black panther, iron fist, or she hulk? And do you have any plans for hulk or reed, or are they going to disappear for awhile?
You named six characters in your question, at least two will be popping up in the next six months. (I'm pretty sure Ultimate Dr. Strange is dead, so that narrows it down for you.)

I hope this is Black Panther and She-Hulk but it is probably certainly going to be Reed and Hulk

[Mutant God]

Actually Strange Junior is dead, Strange Senior just dissappeared and hasn't been heard from

[MagnaInferno]

I asked him about Thor being Valhalla and Hela.

In your latest issue of the Ultimates (19), Thor visited Hela who "died" with the Asgardians in issue 2, is she just alive still due to her relationship with the undead, or is this the return of Thor seeing dead Asgardians due to his status as internal Valhalla? (side question, is he still "Valhalla" even?)

She is still alive due to her relationship with the undead -- you can't kill death and so forth. (This will be more clear in a future issue.)
The Asgardians stopped speaking to Thor at some point before issue 13 -- he mentions when he's chilling in the ruins of Asgard. Whether or not that still makes him Valhalla remains to be seen.

[Bugs]

I'm guessing ULTIMATES: INFINITY could be Humphries doing an Ultimate take on The Infinity Gauntlet.

[Codah]

I asked him about Thor being Valhalla and Hela.

Looks like he plans on addressing them both then. I'm telling you people, Ultimates is going to get good.

[Bugs]

I doubt it. It's very unlikely he'll go Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch level but at least right now he's done more good in a single book than everything Loeb in Ultimates 3. I'm more excited for West Coast Ultimates though.