MARVEL.COM: SINS OF SINISTER really opened you up to explore extremely bizarre, out-of-this-world concepts. Of all the far-flung ideas you got to include, what was the one that you’re proudest of? Why?
KIERON GILLEN: I think we all had a lot of fun with crafting messy nightmares. I was delighted seeing what Si and Al came up with. It felt like a nerdy freestyle rap battle.
I mean, Si’s Heirburst Bomb is a pun on a whole different level. The moment when you realize that Al is going to do an Orbis Stellaris as a Death Star beat? So much good stuff from both of ’em. Teleporting a solar system? Headshotting a Ghost Rider Galactus with a Juggernaut fired 1000 years previously? Al and Si just attacked the page and I was delighted and/or horrified, and knew I was in the best, bad company.
For my own stuff, it’s a tossup between Emma Frost and the Exodus worlds. Emma Frost, becoming a living red diamond and then ending up as a red diamond in a forehead of a huge Emma. It was originally a mile-high, diamond Juggernaut clone of Emma, but Alessandro [Vitti] took it in a robotic direction and Al had the inspired Mother Mold beat, but the core triple pun still is there.
For the Exodus worlds, it was just a really creepy idea, for me. Whole planets covered with clones with their minds trapped in endless cycles of chanting, all feeding a single Exodus… and there’s loads of different Exoduses, all facing off against one another. Talk about a bleak fate.
JORDAN D. WHITE: I agree with everything Kieron said. The whole thing was a really exciting formalist experiment, and one I think all three of these gents jumped into with gusto. The idea of telling their three issues decades and then centuries apart is not an easy task to pull off and still tell a satisfying story, but they nailed it. Every single issue has a bonkers thing that I adore that we only could do with this sort of “gloves off” setup.
But I also love that this story is not one that just vanishes into the ether—as you can see from the last segment of DOMINION, this impacts the new timeline in big ways, from Sinister being defeated, to Rasputin’s appearance, to Mother Righteous’ expanding library, to that killer final page shock.
MARVEL.COM: What is something that your many collaborators brought to the table that shocked or surprised you? Something that just absolutely stood out to you!
JORDAN D. WHITE: Ha ha—Kieron answered this question in his first answer! No psychic abilities there. It’s hard to pick favorite moments, but if I had to, I would say year 100 was my top era: Si’s devastating baby plot and surprise, Kieron’s betrayal of Hope by Exodus, and Al’s revenge double-cross of Destiny were all so excellent. Which is not say year 1000 does not also rule!
KIERON GILLEN: I mean, there was no way I was going to not mention my stuff before what everyone else did, right? For a project all about the monomaniacal ego of one man going out of control and ruining the galaxy, the execution is the exact opposite. We’re in this together—in a good way, not a ‘We All Have a Supervillain’s Programmed Evil Genes’ way.
