Fearless Defenders: Cullen Bunn & Will Sliney Q&A

[protege]

Dani's costume is something Will and I need to discuss with editorial.

As for powers of the Valkyrie, you will see something to that effect, but not initially.

You'll be seeing Brightwind, but there are no plans for Hel-Puppy.

Dani's leadership abilities will be important to the team.

I was always a big fan of Dani's ability to manifest the fears of others.

Darn. i was looking forward to finding out about the Hel puppy. In Fact, there's a lot about MS. Moonstar that I apparently missed.

[Songbird/Diamondback]

Eventually, yes. There will be a Valkyrie Effect, but you won;t see it for a while.

Thank you so much for answering our questions!

[protege]

I love that character design so much.

Hippolyta will definitely plan on reclaiming the Amazons. Now... if they agree or not is another question. But it is a story we'll explore.

I wonder how Valkyrie is going to feel about that?

[wsliney]

Hey, and good day to you both Cullen, and Will. It's very nice of you two to be doing this.

Will I was wondering if you're self taught or if you went to school to learn your craft, and what artist were you biggest influences?

Cullen you've talked about there being a lot of guest stars, but is that because it's what you want or have you been mandated to put high profile or fan favorite characters in as guest stars?

Will could you explain what your process is on laying out/drawing your pages?

Cullen I read about your creator work the Sixth Gun being picked up by NBC for a pilot, congragulations.

Will have you had to change your style for this book or is this your normal style, and do you do your work the classic pencil, and paper way or digital? I really liked all the preview pages shown so far for the book.

Self taught to a point. I did have a very important, year long college module in illustration. but most of what I learnt was from spending countless hours at the drawing board.

My process is fairly typical. You will actually see a touch of it hopefully in an upcoming AR video. I start with tons of thumbnails before deciding on the page layout. I work digitally so I usually have about 4 layers of artwork. But you can think of it as the skeleton layer, followed by the anatomy layer, followed by the clothes layer. All the this basically becomes the pencils. Then I do the inking layer.

My early influences were Joe Mad, J. Scott Campell etc but my style and tastes have evolved over the years. For the last few years I really like Stuart Immonen, Dan Panosian, Olivier Coipel and Leinil Yu.

I think style wise this is where my work has always been going. Its definitely the most polished work I have done, and thankfully gone are the days of having to turn around really quick books to help out other publishers. It will definitely look different from my previous work but I think it is the best representation of how I like to have my art appear.

[Seresecros]

Hello Cullen and Will Smith Thanks for yours time in this Q&A

Will, do you still find time to celebrate Big Willy Style, or does Fearless Defenders take up all your time nowadays?

[wsliney]

Thank you, Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sliney, for taking the time to answer our questions.

Valkyrie has had a few costume changes over the years. Will she only be wearing the costume shown in the Fearless Defenders promos so far, or might she change it up now and then and wear something else? Does anyone remember her yellow costume from her Defenders days? I think that could be a cool look for her if it was updated a bit. And the armor she wore at the end of the Fearless series was interesting. Will we be seeing it again?

Also, as a huge New Mutants fan, I've been dying to see these characters break out of their standard New Mutants uniforms and graduate to individual looks. I think Magik looks great over in Uncanny X-Men with her new Bachalo-designed costume. This was asked above, but I just want to re-emphasis it - please give Dani a new, unique costume!

I think one of your questions will be answered in a soon to be revealed cover.

[Harbinger of Apocalypse]

1) Early on in writing the first arc, it was suggested that I could bring a dead character back. Looking at my options (and looking at how we planned to bring someone back) Hippolyta made the most sense and brought the most to the group. the fact that no one expected her means she was perfect for this kind of team!
2) Yes, she will be user friendly. All you'll need to know to follow the character from the beginning will be revealed. I will be sprinkling in some history along the way, but you don't need it to get started. Actually, that's how I'm approaching every character in the book.
3) You bet you will!
4) Yes... I think you'll be seeing some connection to other stories. Valkyrie has some unfinished business with the DOA and Sin. As for the Covenant. Hmm. They are very important... even though you won't see them... from early on.
5) The beast the Dreaming Maiden was summoning was not intended to be connected to the Death Celestial. It's funny. I was working on that idea... Matt was working on the Death Celestial... and Remender was working with the Undead Celestial all around the same time. This creature, though, has a history I think is pretty interesting. And what makes you think that is a non Fearless Defenders question?

Holey moley! That even further peaked my interest. Thank you for the replies and can't wait for Fearless Defenders to start now

[wsliney]

Will, do you still find time to celebrate Big Willy Style, or does Fearless Defenders take up all your time nowadays?

Hahaha, no I have moved back in with my Uncle Phil in Beverly hills. He keeps a pretty strict house.

[Cullen Bunn]

Hello Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sliney!

1. I know this is probably spoiler related, but outside of the villainess you've created for this first arc, what other enemies will these lovely ladies be facing down the road? I'd kind of love to see another union of the Hand and Hydra, or pretty much any other conglomerate of evil-doers. Of course, I'd also welcome an entirely unique rogue's gallery for this team.

2. It's been stated many times that a veritable army of female warriors will be assembled in this book, but I was wondering how interconnected with the rest of the Marvel U this book will actually be, or if it will be a pretty self-contained series (i.e. having the Avengers or other factions appearing in FD, and having FD appear in their books, etc.).

3. This one isn't a question, just an FYI...I'll buy just about any issue that Elektra guest stars in

Thanks for the time, gentlemen, I hope that this book is a success!

1. The villain from the first arc will be causing trouble for a while to come. But she won't be the only villain. There will be some new threats, some existing bad guys showing up, and a rogue's gallery VERY specific to the Fearless Defenders.

2. There will be some inter-connectivity, yes, and my hope that will grow as time goes on. The Fearless Defenders will be important to the Marvel Universe as a whole. But in the beginning the stories will be "sorta" self-contained.

3. Get ready to buy!

[Talisman]

Hahaha, no I have moved back in with my Uncle Phil in Beverly hills. He keeps a pretty strict house.

Do you do the Carlton?

[Cullen Bunn]

Does the team actually call themselves the "Fearless Defenders"? Or is it simply Defenders, or Fearless, or Valkyrior? Or perhaps they're a non-named non-team?

Will you tie into Fraction's Defenders at all, or ties to other Defenders series? Besides possible roster additions like Hellcat and such

They will call themselves The Defenders in terms of being a super-team (when they call themselves anything). You will definitely see some ties to the previous Defenders series.

[PhilT]

Ah, Talisman! There are so many Alpha Flight characters I just love (because that was a book I loved so much). Talisman, Snowbird, Marrina... sheesh! Sounds like I need a Canadian branch of the FEARLESS DEFENDERS!

I'm sure she will appear at some point. I'm not joking. If you have a favorite lady of Marvel, she WILL be featured in the book at some point if I have half a chance. But she will not be the magic user of the group (at least not initially). That role is already claimed.

Thanks for the reply!
Always good to hear of more writers who are Alpha Flight fans!
Should I read anything into you not mentioning Aurora?

[Cullen Bunn]

Hey, and good day to you both Cullen, and Will. It's very nice of you two to be doing this.

Cullen I've read most of the interviews you've done, but I'm still not sure about your villain(s). Is their anything more you can say about them?

Cullen you've talked about there being a lot of guest stars, but is that because it's what you want or have you been mandated to put high profile or fan favorite characters in as guest stars?

Cullen I read about your creator work the Sixth Gun being picked up by NBC for a pilot, congragulations.

.

I've been keeping the villain under wraps a bit... but here's a teaser. She's not been seen before, but she has ties to two of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe.

There haven't been mandates in terms of high profile guest stars. In fact, some of the guest stars will be seldom seen characters, too. The drive for these appearances probably comes from my own love of these characters. Haven't you noticed? Almost every time someone mentions a character, my response is, "Ohhhh! I love that character!"

Yes, NBC has ordered a pilot episode of a series based on my comic book THE SIXTH GUN. If you haven't checked that series out, now is a great time to do so!

[Cullen Bunn]

Thanks for the reply!
Always good to hear of more writers who are Alpha Flight fans!
Should I read anything into you not mentioning Aurora?

Don;t read too much into it. I liked Aurora, but I always liked the others more.

[TsaiMeLemoni]

Thanks for the answers!

I have another question, this one for Mr. Sliney:

What hardware do you use for your digital work (Wacom tablet, Cintiq, etc.)? I've dabbled in digital art, but getting used to the Wacom tablet has not been easy (sorry for this not being FD related!).