Fans first knew Brian Reed as the co-writer of the Ultimate Spider-Man video game with Brian Michael Bendis, and his status has shot up since! He has since become one of the "go-to" guys for the House of Ideas, helping to lay the groundwork for the current Marvel U with books like New Avengers: Illuminati and Captain Marvel. Reed also treats fans to the monthly Ms. Marvel series. We recently caught up with Brian to ask him about his recent big reveal in Captain Marvel and his upcoming work. SPOILER ALERT: If you’re not up-to-date on “Secret Invasion,” you may want to hit the pullbox before moving on with the interview.
How does the real New York compare to the one you write about every month?
I actually took a picture as I was walking along and I realized where I was. I posted it to my website and said that Hell’s Kitchen looks a lot cooler in the Marvel Universe.
There aren’t as many trendy restaurants in the Marvel Universe Hell’s Kitchen.
[Laughs.] A few less thugs, a few more trendy restaurants. I was like, “What’s Daredevil doing here?”
[SPOILER ALERT!] Captain Marvel #5 recently came out where it is revealed that Captain Marvel is a Skrull. Was that always the intention behind his recent return?
That was how it was presented to me when we started. Marvel wanted to do a miniseries that was built on the return and they didn’t know if he would be a Skrull or not, so I was asked originally to give them a pitch that was kind of nebulous as to if he was or not so they could decide come “Secret Invasion.” Then they had a retreat where it got nailed down that yes, he was a Skrull, because when you really take a step back and look at it, what’s the point of the miniseries if he’s not? We’re not really doing anything new with the character. Yes it’s another adventure, yes it’s cool to see him in action again, but as soon as you take that route of “hey wait, he’s a Skrull and he doesn’t know it,” all of a sudden you’ve got a story that is totally worth telling.
Where does Captain Marvel’s one-panel appearance in Secret Invasion #1 fit in with him finding out he’s a Skrull?
That is what the one-shot, Who Do You Trust?, answers. [Captain Marvel artist] Lee Weeks and I have put together another eight-page story in there that gets us from issue five of Captain Marvel to issue one of Secret Invasion.
How long have you been in on the Skrull secret?
I knew about it back when it was just going to be a story in Avengers, before it was the big event.
Has being clued in for a while allowed you to work it into your own work on Ms. Marvel?
Yeah, there has been ground work laid to unveil people that ended up being pulled off the list as Skrulls. It was actually this big piece of work to put in enough stuff and enough clues to set it up so that if that person needed to be a Skrull they could be and it would make total sense, and if they weren’t a Skrull we could walk away from it and no one would ever know we did it.
You’ve really assembled a strong supporting cast of forgotten Marvel heroes on Ms. Marvel, including Sleepwalker, Araña and Machine Man. Do you have a fondness for those characters?
Oh, yeah. You know, everybody is somebody’s baby. What’s funny is Araña happened because I just needed a warm body to fill a slot, and I just needed somebody that Carol [Danvers, Ms. Marvel] had recruited. She was supposed to be in for two pages and gone. As soon as I got her in the book, all of a sudden I just loved the chemistry that her and Carol had. Having her be this almost-but-not-quite-a sidekick, it was just this whole thing that I kept wanting to play with and kept playing with for 10 issues.
The Ms. Marvel series was started with the character wanting to raise her profile and become an A-list hero. With Ms. Marvel getting an action figure and a leading role in Mighty Avengers, do you feel you’ve done a good job of raising the character’s profile in the comic community?
Seeing her get an action figure, seeing people coming to the cons dressed as her, all stuff that wasn’t happening two years ago is definitely a nice little ego boost. It’s not all coming from the Mighty Avengers. It’s pretty cool.
How was writing The Circle for Image?
It was fun while it lasted. My joke was that it was the [TV producer] Tim Minear comic series of the year. He gets a show on Fox like Drive that everybody loves but nobody watches. That was the feeling with The Circle. We never got a single negative review. Like, our worst review was, “Well, you know, it’s a B.” [Laughs.] And that was our scathing review. Everybody loved it and nobody bought it.
Are you looking to do more creator-owned series?
Oh, yeah. Ian Hosfeld, the artist on The Circle, and I are talking about what we want to do together next.
What characters would you like to write that you haven’t already written?
You know, a nice seat on the Spidey brain trust would not be a bad way to spend my days. And, of course, everyone has to answer Cloak & Dagger to that question.
They could always join the supporting cast of Ms. Marvel...
Oh, I’ve thought about it. [Laughs.]
What books do you have coming out that you would like to promote?
We just announced at the New York Comic Con the Amazing Spider-Man “Secret Invasion” tie-in, which is my taking all the cast of “Brand New Day” and putting them in the middle of the “Secret Invasion” and the big roller coaster ride that results from that. This is really the first chance that we’ve had to get that cast that all got introduced in Amazing involved in the rest of the Marvel Universe. It’s their coming out party. Then, of course, there’s Secret Invasion: Front Line that’s coming up, which is you and I on the city streets trying to survive this thing. Bendis is doing Godzilla with Secret Invasion and I’m doing Cloverfield with Front Line.
Brian Reed will be appearing at both Wizard World Philadelphia and Wizard World Chicago conventions! Reserve your tickets today for the chance to meet this mighty Marvel writer!
