Milligan on 5 Ronin

Last week, CBR ran an interview with Peter Milligan in regards to the upcoming 5 Ronin. Like the previous interview about the Red Lanterns book, there wasn't a whole lot of new information to be gleaned.

I don't know if it's just me, but Milligan does seem like he's more invested in this story than in the Red Lanterns series. Perhaps part of it is because this is a finite story? It also sounds like he isn't worried about an editor jumping in the middle of the story and effing everything up.

Each issue focuses on one character, with all of their lives "linked, woven together by something or someone they're not immediately aware of." It sounds like there's some good potential for Milligan to write about one of his pet themes, identity.

CBR also ran a few sample pages of art. It's looking pretty good so far.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is a page by Goran Parlov

You can read the full interview for yourself here:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30494

Milligan News Round-up

Earlier this month, DC announced that Peter Milligan would be writing a new ongoing series, The Red Lantern Corps, a spin-off of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern stuff. I find this interesting news because it's about the last thing I would expect from Milligan. The last spin-off he did for DC, the Infinity Inc. ongoing series which brachiated from 52, didn't seem to do so well. It was canceled after a year and didn't really have a smooth ending.


I always assumed he got the Infinity Inc. gig because of his friendship and mutual respect with Grant Morrison, but I shouldn't be surprised if Johns has respect for him as well.


I'm hopeful that this would increase Milligan's profile with the general superhero comics-buying masses, and maybe even lead to more work. The cynical part of me has a feeling that this series will get canceled before its prime, or that Milligan will have to appease so many ridiculous editorial mandates that he will lose before he even begins. My general feeling with DC's editorial lately is that they really don't know what they are doing, so I have no confidence in them. They are fortunate that Grant Morrison is writing so many of their Batman books because most of the rest of their DC Universe line is just unimaginative, middle-of-the-road stuff.


Just read the Joe Casey interview with The Comics Reporter that I pointed out last month for some evidence on how sour an effect DC's amateurish editorialship can have on a seasoned, talented creator.


Here's the link with a few comments from Milligan himself about the upcoming Red Lantern book:
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/03/dcu-in-2011-peter-milligan-announces-red-lanterns/


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Moving on to Marvel, there's been some more news on March's upcoming 5 Ronin miniseries. I'm definitely far more interested and excited by this series than the DC news. For one, I have more confidence in Marvel letting their creators play around in their sandbox, particularly on out-of-continuity miniseries like this one. Second, it's going to be released weekly. (March has 5 Wednesdays.) Third, the artists lined up for the issues is pretty stellar by my standards.


Last week, CBR posted an interview with Milligan and I thought he did a good job of selling the miniseries. It sounds interesting and fun. The covers are rather attractive, too.


http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30334

March 2011 = Milligan Marvels

Marvel announced an upcoming Peter Milligan miniseries. It's a five-issue story entitled 5 Ronin. Interestingly enough, it will be released weekly in the month of March. Sounds like one of those fifth-week events, because March has five Wednesdays.

The story features Wolverine, Psylocke, the Hulk, Deadpool, and the Punisher existing in feudal Japan and living as masterless samurai. I presume it's some sort of what-if type of story.

Each issue will be illustrated by a different artist. The artists are Tomm Coker, Dalibor Talajic, Laurence Campbell, Goran Parlov, and Leandro Fernandez. Quite an appealing lineup. Coker has done some fine work in recent years; he illustrated Charlie Huston's final issue of Moon Knight, and I will always believe that Huston's Moon Knight run would have been classic if Coker had drawn the whole thing. Laurence Campbell did some excellent work on the Milligan-penned Moon Knight: Silent Knight one-shot that came out two winters ago. Goran Parlov, of course, is probably best known for his superb work on Punisher MAX with Garth Ennis. (Parlov also did some fine work filling in for Pia Guerra on Y: The Last Man.) Fernandez, too, did excellent work with Ennis on Punisher MAX. (I've actually never heard of Dalibor Talajic.)

All in all, I'm looking forward to this. Milligan often does his finest corporate-owned superhero work when he doesn't have to think about fitting in with the demands of universe-wide events and continuity. The only real question is whether I buy this one issue at a time or wait for the trade paperback edition. Decisions, decisions... I wish I could have my very own TV special just so I could announce my decision.

Check out this creative cover featuring the Punisher as a ronin by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Milligan's partner-in-crime over on Hellblazer:

Seriously, that's a nice cover. You have to love how Cammo created the Punisher's skull using two exploding heads as eye sockets, Punisher's knotted hair as the nose, and the backdrop of the moon as the skull.

You can read the official press release here:

Marvel's Deadliest Heroes: The 5 Ronin