Interview conducted by Ernie Estrella

Jason Aaron’s short run on Wolverine continued last week with a fast-paced cat-and-mouse game with Mystique full of revenge and the past these deadly mutants share. This week, Aaron’s other Marvel book, Ghost Rider continues his one-man mission to confront the angel who made him who he is. His stint on Ghost Rider is planned for two years and Aaron recently signed an exclusive contract with Marvel that will allow him to continue his excellent series, Scalped for Vertigo, while trailblazing fresh territory in the Marvel Universe. The first step in this new deal is doing the Secret Invasion arc for Black Panther this summer. In Part One of this Interview, the rising talent shares his thoughts on writing Marvel’s characters A-List to Z. Be sure to check back in a few weeks for Part Two when he digs deep into Scalped, The Other Side and where a kid from Alabama gets his comic fix.

PopCultureShock: In the creative process, since you’ve created Scalped, Dash is a jumbled Rubik’s cube but you know the solution. You control the turns and how much you solve the puzzle each issue. With Logan and Johnny, you’re coming into the middle of the story. Before you even plot out the stories, do you have to deconstruct these characters and figure them out or has it been a more organic process?

Jason Aaron: Wolverine and Ghost Rider are both characters I was already familiar with. I’d already read plenty of different stories featuring them. So it was a pretty easy process to put together my ideas for them. Actually it’s harder to work with the characters in SCALPED, because there are no pre-set boundaries, no guidelines, except what I set for myself.

After a few months in, do you feel as comfortable with writing Logan or Johnny as much or if not more than Dash, or are you still feeling your way?

It’s different than writing a character you create yourself and totally control, but I do feel like I’m getting pretty comfortable with these particular guys.


Logan’s a tricky Marvel character who has such a massive story untold, so coming in, you could go one of two ways, establishing parts of his past or moving the character forward. What made you decide to take the approach you’ve taken?

I think I’m trying to do both of those things with the current arc: move the character forward and also tell a story from a previously unseen bit of his history. If you’ll notice, that’s pretty much the same thing I do with most every issue of SCALPED.

In trying to define Logan’s past, are you ever concerned that it could all be wiped away as a one of his dreams or fake memories?

No, I don’t worry about what any writer after me will do. All I can control is what I’m writing and making that as good as it can be.

Whether it is Logan, Johnny or Dash, you’ve got all of these solo renegade adventures. Still relatively a young writer, do you find it easier to work with one feature character? Does juggling a team book even sound appealing to you because some of those opportunities could come up being exclusive to Marvel?

You’re right, I’m still pretty new to all this, but I think I’m ready for a team book. It’d be a fun challenge. I don’t have one on my plate right now, but you never know. And I do already juggle a pretty extensive cast in SCALPED.

I know your run on Wolverine is short, but if this story goes well, would you be interested in doing more? or perhaps something like Man-Thing, or other characters of that ilk.

Yes, I definitely hope to come back to WOLVERINE in the future. And I already know exactly what I’d like to do next with the character. Man-Thing would be a lot of fun too. I love all of those Marvel horror characters from the 70s. RIP Steve Gerber, by the way. That guy was a genius.


People like myself are now picking up Ghost Rider for the first time since the early 90′s. Some of us are even cursing doing so, BUT that said you’re quickly making a fan out of me. Since Ghost Rider is relatively free of large crossovers and exists in his own corner of the Marvel Universe. Was that a factor in accepting this assignment?

Not really. I wouldn’t mind writing a book that was more tuned in to the Marvel Universe. It’s just that I think Ghost Rider works best when he’s off in his own little corner of that universe.

Would he work even better under the Marvel Max imprint?

A Mature Readers version of Ghost Rider would definitely be a lot of fun, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

Johnny Blaze is not one of Marvel’s A-List guys, but that gives you a lot more creative freedom doesn’t it? Are you hoping to make Johnny an A-list character or is that too lofty?

I don’t worry about who’s A-List or B-List. It’s not like I spend less time working on GHOST RIDER than I do on WOLVERINE, just because I already know that WOLVERINE is the more high profile and is going to dramatically outsell GHOST RIDER no matter what. I’m just trying to tell the best GHOST RIDER stories I can. Anything else is for the fans to decide for themselves.

It’s interesting in Marvel that there are different degrees of heaven and hell. Matt Murdock’s a serious catholic, Doctor Strange is a sorcerer who contacts spirits, and Ghost Rider clearly exists on the plane of devils and angels and has come face to face with the devil. Is there a difference between characters like Matt Murdock and the way he treats the faith having not known what’s beyond death, where Johnny does?

Yeah, because with Johnny, it’s not about faith. He knows that there’s an afterlife. He’s been to hell. He’s been punched in the face by the devil. There’s illusion or mystery left. I’m just trying to play off Christian mythology the same way Stan and Jack used Norse mythology to create their version of Thor or Greek mythology to tell the adventures of Hercules.

What would you say is the biggest challenge in writing Wolverine and Ghost Rider that goes unseen to a reader?

Just dealing with the expectations of hardcore Marvel fans. Whatever character I’m writing, I’m always hoping to bring something new to the table, but there are always fans out there who don’t seem to want anything that’s too different from what they’ve read before. If there are plot threads left dangling from some other writer’s run years ago, these fans are still expecting them to be addressed. They have very definite ideas of how these characters should be handled, and sometimes it’s hard to get past that. But then again, it all comes with the territory, and it’s a thrill to be working on characters that fans are so passionate about. And I’ve been very pleased with the response we’ve been getting on both WOLVERINE and GHOST RIDER.

Is the Marvel work an escape from the really heavy Vertigo work?

It’s all an escape, I suppose. They’re all just comic books. And they each have their own unique challenges.

You’ve worked with a stable of unique and some upcoming artists, what would you say is the strength of each of the following:

Ron Garney
Ron’s work on WOLVERINE is just so clean and beautiful and his sense of storytelling is dead-on. Maybe I’m biased, but I think this is some of the best work of his career.

Roland Boschi

Roland has a very loose and exciting style, and he’s only getting better and better the more he does. I think he really shines in the action scenes, especially the big highway chase we have in GHOST RIDER #22.

Cameron Stewart
In THE OTHER SIDE, Cameron really captured both the beauty and the horror of war in a way that I couldn’t have imagined. He was also able to bring to life any idea I threw at him, no matter how crazy or bizarre.

RM Guera
I love Guera’s layouts. I usually give him at least 6 or 7 panels on a page, and he always turns in an amazing and unpredictable layout. And I think he’s a master of emotion. His characters are always terrific actors. His pages are just brimming with emotion.

All these guys deserve more notoriety in the business, are your scripts translated (for the international artists) or written a specific way for each artist?

No, I write in the same format for every artist, but my scripts for Guera are probably a little different, just because I’ve worked with him more than any other artist.

Do you consider your scripts very tight or loose given the wide range of art styles in each of your books?

I think my scripts are pretty tight, but I feel like I still leave a lot in the hands of the artist. I don’t dictate camera angles or anything, unless I fee like it’s vitally important for some reason.

The biggest theme I see in your writing is loneliness; this “Me against the world” vibe. Even Mystique and the women of Scalped are lonely souls, you’re tapping this area an awful lot, are you working something out of your system?

Maybe some from my sullen and withdrawn teenage years, I don’t know. But these days, I’m married and have two boys, so I never have a chance to get lonely.

Does Jason Aaron need a hug?

I could always use a hug.

Remember to come back in a few weeks for part two of PopCultureShock’s Jason Aaron Interview where he tells all about Scalped, The Other Side and Hellblazer!