DO THE WRITE THING

What appealed to you about The Defenders?

I very much liked the comic book concept, of the dark, powerful outsiders being forced to work together: the Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Dr Strange. It had a real frisson to it, and was a brilliant idea on Roy Thomas’s part.

What’s the secret to making a team comic book work?

For me, it’s the characters who are on the team. There definitely has to be a team spirit that encompasses them all – even with the non-team Defenders – but it’s the individuals who make you care if the team succeeds.

The Netflix version of Defenders includes Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. How would you have handled that dynamic?

An excellent question, and one that excites me just thinking about it, because I love the process of figuring out each individual and then finding the common thread. I think my mainstays would be DD and JJ – he’s driven to throw himself into Hell’s Kitchen and she’s driven to stay the hell out. Cage (the TV one, not my one) has a history with her but they don’t really owe each other anything; nobody’s as self-contained as she is but he’s selfreliant and would have trouble joining a team. If one or the other bought in, though, the other would be more inclined to go along. As for Iron Fist… I’d leave him by the side of the road and get somebody interesting for the fourth Defender.