The Official Ask Gail Thread

[Gail Simone]

Do I look fat in this?

Well, yes.

But it's an improvement over those shoes.

[dmh3000]

How many times do you get the question "How can I become a skilled writer like you" and when you say practice, you can just tell they were hoping there's a trick to learning it over night?

[K-DoG7p7]

I know I've asked this before, but i really don't have any other question

Why isn't Speedy in Birds Of Prey?
there are many reasons why i ask this a lot
1: Its 100% logical given her connection to Black Canary and the story that got Canary back in the birds
2: There is probably no other female character at DC that would have a better time getting mentored by Oracle (Well maybe "Proxy")
3: she sure as hell didn't have anywhere else to go

[bo bo]

Will you be answering this next batch of questions?

Oh and have you ever been asked to write one of those mega-crossover event?

[TomBelandTSSTG]

Okay, this is a tricky one, but please understand, I have NOT read a Wolverine comic in years, I have no idea what's going on there, so it is very likely that my opinion is WAY outdated.

Here we go.

I kinda hate Wolverine.

Now, I used to love him. He was one of the first anti-heroes I followed, and I was crazy about him. I thought it was thrilling to read his adventures.

Then I drifted away completely. I read a bunch of terrible Wolvie stories in a row, I got sick of him, sick of the Wolverine kid's toys and his (to me) very fake-seeming Japanese background, and all the endless and not-very-interesting berserker rages.

I just lost interest. I never really bothered to figure out why, but when he walks around in a kimono, I just hate it, it seems such a betrayal of the character's feral nature. I know it's supposed to be a dichotomy, but it comes off as stupid to me.

A few years back, Greg Rucka had accepted a Wolverine job, and we were talking about it by chance. We don't really do that a LOT, so I'm not sure how it came up, but he said he was struggling to find a hook for the character. And it hit me why I used to love him (wolvie, you weirdos) and hated him now.

It wasn't his berserker thing I liked. It was his UNPREDICTABILITY.

That's what I dug. In those early X-men issues, you didn't KNOW what would set Wolverine off. You didn't KNOW if he would pop his claws. There was always a feeling that he might just say, "fuck you!" to Xavier and join the other team. There was the thrill of not knowing. He was a wild card. He didn't look or behave like the other heroes.

A few years later, all of that was gone. We KNEW he was going to pop the claws every time. We KNEW his patterns. And even worse, and this is not Wolvie's fault, by that time, there were DOZENS of characters who looked and acted like him. Dozens of berserkers. And because they didn't yet have a pattern down pat, I found some of them more unpredictable and thus, less interesting.

By the way, I'm not taking any credit for helping Greg but he did mention the conversation at the time in interviews, as it apparently sparked something for him as well.

The last big Wolvie story I read was ORIGINS and I quite liked it. But my feelings for the character MIGHT be too broken at this point. I will say however that I usually find the love for a character when it comes time to write them, it seems an essential part of the process. I never liked J'onn til I wrote him, never really cared hugely about Bane, etc. Part of the job is to find what makes a character compelling and work it like a two dollar rent boy.

I think my first Wolverine story would be him getting therapy, seriously. Don't know if it's been done, but how fun would it be if a therapist actually found a way for Wolverine to deal with his rage, just when he actually most needs it?

Long answer, hope that makes sense, Das!

It's weird that you feel this way about Wolverine, but you loved writing Wonder Woman. That's not a dig... I'm just saying that she's been changed and revamped so many times, I kinda think she's the same as Wolverine in that sense.

I have a tough time with DC characters because I find that the alter egos have nothing to them. In costume, they're wonderful. Out of costume, it's basically "meh." I feel, in the stories I've read, that it's always a rush to get the character back into costume and into action.

The thing I miss about Wolverine is the fact that he didn't give a fuck what you thought, he was going to do what he wanted to. That included smoking cigars and drinking booze. Because of his healing factor, smoking didn't do anything to him. When they decided to clean him up, because it's not a good influence on the kids... I felt he sort of lost that rebellious side to him. That and the fact that are now a billion other characters who have claws and it's watered-down the coolness of Wolverine, especially for new readers.

[dmh3000]

I think my first Wolverine story would be him getting therapy, seriously. Don't know if it's been done, but how fun would it be if a therapist actually found a way for Wolverine to deal with his rage, just when he actually most needs it?

This is one thing that has always bugged me about super heroes. They know their friends are unstable, but usually ignore it.

Like Jason Todd. Why has Alfred not suggested inviting him over for dinner or holding an intervention?

[FemGeek]

I has a question about Jeanette. Will we be getting more of her backstory in the coming months, or perhaps her full backstory? There's a lot of cool little bits there, but one seemed slightly inconsistant to me; she was living during the time of the Blood Countess but her first husband was a Viking (was he meant to look like a Viking or Celt?) ?? I that gonna be cleared up? Will we see her death and her deal with a banshee? Will we find out why she doesn't like to wear knickers?

[Thequeerjock]

Hey Gail, who created Jeanette's design? Did Nicola come up with it, or you?

[ZimMan2]

I've been thinking about the South Park "Imaginationland" trilogy. Am starting to question my existence. Am I real?

[Cth]

What's the weather going to be like tomorrow?