WAIT...WHAT? BENDIS & JENKINS TALK NEW AVENGERS #7
Spoiler warning – the following article discusses the revelation on the last page of last week’s New Avengers #7. If you didn’t read it, and don’t want the ending ruined for you, you may want to head elsewhere now.
Okay – so the internet didn’t crack in half because of the ending of House of M #3, but it took a slight bend thanks to the ending of last week’s New Avengers #7. The issue, the first part of the arc exploring the Sentry, and his reappearance in the Marvel Universe (by Brian Bendis and Steve McNiven), features the heroes looking for clues, and ultimately finding a whopper in the issue of the Sentry’s identity: they Avengers enlist the aid of Paul Jenkins.
Yes, that Paul Jenkins. On the last page of the issue, the Avengers introduce a very confused Sentry to a very confused Jenkins.
“Ah, yeah – that’s me,” Jenkins said.
“And it’s not my idea,” he added, chuckling.
“The Paul Jenkins in the comic is much younger looking than the real thing,” Bendis added. “And who cares if he’s okay with the idea - I own him! Honestly, I don’t know if Paul ever did approve it, because he never stopped laughing after I pitched it to him.”
Joking aside, Jenkins did give his approval for his likeness to be used in the issue, though both he and Bendis were mum when it came to more specifics on what Jenkins’ appearance means. Bendis did reiterate that he and Jenkins had a gentleman’s agreement in regards to the use of the Sentry.
“I didn't make a move without calling him, and I sent him the scripts as they were finished,” Bendis said. “He also sent me the first few for his upcoming miniseries. I would have changed anything he wanted, but there wasn’t much. I think he asked for one line or something. Paul, honestly, is the most generous guy in comics. He knows what a huge fan of his work I am and we've been friends for years and years. We’re also McFarlane survivors. It’s a special group. We have shirts.
“Oh, and the trick, for those hoping to try this in the future, is to type the words, ‘handsome and full head of hair’ into the physical character description and the subject will basically approve anything else you write.”
Jenkins agreed with Bendis’ version of events and approvals, saying that he liked the idea from the start. “It’s pretty neat, really,” Jenkins said. “If it makes sense in the story, fine – great. I wouldn’t want it to be for some silly reason for me to get my face in there. It partly came about from conversations I had with Brian where we felt that he needed to explain why the Sentry came back – what’s it all about? After all, when I left him, he was going back to his old life. Brian reintroduced him, so he needed to take the time to tell how he came back and why. This is a part of that – a part of the intrigue that will unfold as time goes by. Then, by the time Brian is done, he'll be in the place I wanted him for the start of my miniseries.”
As for a little bit of that intrigue, as Bendis explained, that’s what the Avengers are trying to get to the bottom of as well. “They don’t know what the Sentry is,” Bendis said. “Clearly, the Sentry is real, he's right there in front of him, but the only evidence that anything Sentry ever existed, to them, are these old comic books.”
Bendis’ use of the Sentry, as explained above, is a little different than the use of older Marvel characters. “The Sentry is a great comic creation and we've all, the writers in comics, have been talking about how protective everyone is of everyone else's creations. We have no problem using the sh__ out of every classic Marvel creation but any new character; everyone just assumes is only to be used by the person who created that character. And some of these characters, like the Sentry, are truly great, but they never bloom because everyone is scared to touch them.
“I had a similar feeling about Alias. When Allan Heinberg asked to use Jessica Jones, I was like, ‘Please, yes!’ I was hoping someone would, and I hit Paul up in a similar fashion for New Avengers. He had the same reaction. He said: “God, I was waiting for someone to do something with him.
“I hit Paul with some early ideas. A lot of which you've seen hints of, and told him we would need to really dig into something to make him part of the Marvel Universe. He was so open. soon after Joe told Paul to dust off his Sentry notebook because if the Sentry was coming back then it’s more than past time for a Sentry follow up. Paul was amazing about letting me get the character where it needed to be in terms of the Marvel U, and then he would pick it up from there and tell the story he wanted to tell.
“But yeah, as Paul has said, comic book iconography is a huge part of the Sentry story and I had this wacky idea about Paul being part of this story, just as Stan was a part of Paul's original story, in regards to why these comic books exist, etc. The Sentry is just a fascinating character and Paul and Jae's original series is a must have trade paperback. Go find it.”
Of course, creators meeting their creations are nothing new under the comic book sun - that much Bendis will agree upon. Where he notes a difference though, is with any claim that his New Avengers storyline is a riff off of anything that has come previously.
“I see this story as wildly different from the earlier stories,” Bendis said. “99 percent of those stories - and sorry guys, Grant Morrison far from invented it [in Animal Man] are creators writing themselves into the story, ala Grant, or Curt Swan's Superman Annual or Stan and Jack in…Fantastic Four #10 [a plotting device the two used to bring Doctor Doom back into the series].
“This is me writing about another writer meeting something he may or may not have created. If anything it’s a little like the Warren Ellis' guest star appearance in Powers a few years back…except that, if Warren met any of his creations they would probably molest him in an awful way.”
As for where the final page is headed, and what further revelations Bendis (and Jenkins) may have about the nature of the Sentry in the Marvel Universe, Bendis isn’t talking…much.
“Yeah – I’ll tell you where it’s headed – it’s all headed into the next issue,” the writer joked. “All right, all right - three words: Paul Jenkins = Ronin.”
Finally, there is one legal issue that Jenkins’ appearance in New Avengers does raise…that little thing in the indicia… “All chatracters featured in this issue and the distinctive names and likenesses thereof….are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc.”
“Yeah, technically, legally, Paul is a new creation of mine so I get points every time his name appears in a comic. I want to make Paul Jenkins the new Wolverine.”
And as for Jenkins? Though he said he’s not planning on using himself in the upcoming miniseries, the ownership thing is a stickler. “Apparently, yes, now Marvel owns me,” Jenkins said with a chuckle. “I didn’t realize that until they called last week and said I had to go to Comic-Con. When I told them I didn’t want to go, they told me I was, because they own me now. Give me a few more decades, and I’ll be public domain again, though, and I can start going where I want to go again, I guess.”
Oh, and given that Jenkins is now part of Marvel (the company’s press release boilerplate will have to be changed to read “with over 5,001 proprietary characters..”) is Avi Arad’s announcement of the film adaptation coming soon to Variety?
“Paul Jenkins: The Movie? I don’t think anyone would be lining up at the theater for that one…”
Man...Bendis has really pulled the rug out from under me on this one...i was so certain it was Jenkin's character!
Hyped to see what comes of this arc. Whoever he is, he ripped Carnage in half!
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