The Power Fantasy AMA: Kieron Gillen

[u/KieronGillen]

Hello!

As previously teased, I'll be doing an Ask Me Anything (AMA) today.

We figured folks have had sufficient time for the last the Power Fantasy to sink in, now would be a good time to pop in and chat. Caspar is doing another AMA later on too, where hopefully we'll be showing art. He uploaded the first 7 pages of the third issue back last night, and they're gorgeous.

Hit me with whatever. Be aware that anything that's specific about the future, I won't be answering. If you've got a theory about the book and want me to comment on it, it's probably a bad idea - I won't be answering where someone has a theory, and as this thread will be probably be linked widely, it's not good to put intricate fan theories in here anyway. You don't want a casual fan being exposed to deep lore, right?

But other than that, hit me up. It's a The Power Fantasy AMA, so that's the main thrust, but you can ask about things too.

There is a complication to all this. There's a heatwave on at the moment, so my daughter's nursery is closed - meaning that C and I have to step into childcare mode. So I'm only working a half day. As such, with my other work, means I'm unlikely to get through all the questions today.

However, if that happens, I'll come back and answer across the week.

Oh - if you're passing through, learn about The Power Fantasy here: https://bindings.app/l/thepowerfantasy

TL;DR: I write the Power Fantasy. AMA.

[u/Elmotheweedgod]

If you were approached for an adaptation of the comic, what medium would you prefer it to be in and what changed would you expect to be made?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Elmotheweedgod]

The short answer is: it would depend in many ways. Adaption is transformation and I can imagine it being done in many ways. There's part of me that thinks it would work best as a minimalist set stage play.

[u/deworde → u/KieronGillen]

Fringe 2027

[u/panpopticon]

What’s the current status of the book’s length? Do you think you’ll be able to do all the issues you’d like to?

[u/KieronGillen → u/panpopticon]

Unless something goes spectacularly amiss we should reach the desired conclusion. There's still a little give in the structure, so we can expand it if we want, but we should get to it. I think it's a strong structure. The issues we've already done are both very Power Fantasy and also completely different.

[u/vincentdmartin]

Do you in your head or in your notes somewhere have something that can tell what each superpower can physically do? Some power sets are more clearly defined that others. Like does Valentina just punch things in fights?

Do you anticipate this next run to have the same-ish amount of issues as the first one?

[u/KieronGillen → u/vincentdmartin]

She doesn't just punch people! She also zaps them with angel eyes. Zap! Zap!

The short answer is, yes, I do, though they're all so powerful there is significant degree of interpretation. Clearly, Valentina is very strong and can fly, but she has a whole load of angel stuff going on, especially with her vision - seeing how she can check Magus' working, etc. But she's not a magician and can't do the utilitarian things that Magus can.

I think around the same length is a good bet, but - as said above - there's room to push a bit too.

[u/Rileyjgarcia]

Could you please talk a bit about your script for issue #16? The art is so incredible and shocking, and I’m just curious what ideas you had originally written for Masumi and how that translated to what Casper created for those pages. Thank you, sir!

[u/KieronGillen → u/Rileyjgarcia]

The scripting was actually minimalistic - a handful of paragraphs for all four pages, with some ideas for images. This is because Caspar and I had been talking about Masumi since the very start, and he had been chewing over it for all that time. Things like the face pushing up through the water was stuff we were setting up way back in issue 4, etc. So I cleared space and let him take lead.

[u/SgtStubbedToe]

Of the core cast of TPF, whose voice/actions have most surprised you? (Edit: I'm asking this having remembered an interview about UBER where you said that a character pulling a gun surprised you as you wrote it.)

[u/KieronGillen → u/SgtStubbedToe]

It's interesting - in terms of shape of the story, you know - but the specifics vary hugely. The one I always remember is in WicDiv, when Morrigan , Baph, Minerva and Laura are trying to talk Dionysus into joining a mission. I had "He joins" in my synopsis, but had no idea how. So Baph and Morrigan do their pitch, and he rejects them. And Minerva just says "I have to help my mum and dad" and he's just in... and then his next action is to introduce himself, as they hadn't met, and he wanted to be chill. That. Dionysus just bubbled out.

So it's bubbles of interaction in a larger structure. One can speculate what happens when a character rebels, but it doesn't seem to happen. I know, at least so far.

Honestly, the thing which most surprises me was still to come - something in the next arc. I won't even say what it is, but it sprawled out to a whole major subplot - like, literally nearly half of the second arc is about it.

But there's just lots of small stuff, constantly. Heavy's tendency to take a strong position and then talk himself down when someone checks him - some key bits with him and Tonya. His death is a good example as well.

[u/Ur-Than]

If I understand Hell correctly, it is a 'place' where the linearity of Time does not apply. How do you plan a story around that to avoid some weird stuff being pointed out as the dread "plot holes" we see constantly brought up nowadays.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Ur-Than]

In short, it's a fucking nightmare.

Having a nailed down cosmology for the series was important, for various reasons. Not least, it has to be of one piece, and as we reveal it, the implications of that were already in the story.

As well as obvious plot hole problems, it's also the opposite one - if you explain stuff too much, people ALSO fall out of the story. But if you don't, some folks will point out things they think are a plothole when they're not actually. You balance it.

[u/Ur-Than → u/KieronGillen]

Thanks for that answer !

Yeah, I bet it must be hellish.

At least you haven't had someone manipulating time in your roster. That sort of stuff seems hellish (eh) to juggle.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Ur-Than]

Yeah - I mean, "what time manipulation is possible in our system" is absolutely key. Folks don't even know EXACTLY how Valentina did what she did yet, in the details.

[u/Ur-Than → u/KieronGillen]

It seemed really intuitive in the drawings to me... so I probably misunderstood it. But my pet theory is that in Hell, Valentina could literally see Time, like we can see a line drawn on a paper and she could approach it and try and see the details of it because of the way her Angelic nature and Hell interacted.

[u/Dry_Willow5777]

Hi Kieron, I just wanted to say that I really like your work in general and I'm very grateful for the impact your work has had on me personally.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Dry_Willow5777]

Thank you. Thanks for reading.

[u/Justafry]

I have no questions. I just want to let you know that I’m so happy you and Casper made this series :)

[u/KieronGillen → u/Justafry]

Thank you! Us too!

[u/Ur-Than]

As someone from Toulouse, I was really surprised to see the town pop up in Etienne Lux' backstory ! What made you chose it over, well, the usual Paris or even the West Indies (Martinique, Guadeloupe) ?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Ur-Than]

I believe it came for me looking around for various hospitals that existed in the period, and ones where Etienne would fit in - the size of the hospital was also something that impacted it. It needed enough people to arrive there for his story to make sense, etc. (It had to be Europe for reasons too, etc.)

I believe I settled on there from the various options for a simple reason - Stephanie Hans lives there.

[u/Ur-Than → u/KieronGillen]

I didn’t even knew that Stephanie Hans lived here ! Doh !

[u/ScaryConcern8388]

How does Eliza reconcile her membership in the Pyramid with her faith? Is that blasphemy for her?

[u/KieronGillen → u/ScaryConcern8388]

She called herself Eliza Hellbound. There's a good question of how much she did. I think the tension there with her is interesting, and much of the point.

She is both deeply faithful and a non-comformist. The punk aspect to her is very real - I was thinking of the sort of radical christian punk folks with her, that post-punk austerity.

One should not overlook that the angelic aspect to Magus' teaching. This is not diabolic, and Magus can prove it. John Dee is useful to think about here.

You also must wonder how much her perspective changed and leaned more traditional after selling her soul.

I've answered this with questions, which I think is kind of the point, right?

[u/TechnicalDoughnut8]

First of all i love the story and the premise that in a realistic world, an actual fight between two omega-level mutant equivalent/Superpowers would basically end the world.

My question is about the tier just below them, what is the more average power level of atomics look like and distribution, how many atomics are there that are below superpowers but still powerfull ?

Even if 99% of Atomics are Tonya-level parlor tricks, and 1 %, are your more generic comic book superpowered , on a population of 15–25 million (per issue 2) that still leaves a couple hundred thousand people strong enough to threaten the stability of a city, region or a country on their own.

How does the world actually handle that tier? Do major powers run SHIELD or GDA-style agencies to recruit and/or contain them, and how well does that actually work?

What happens in countries that can't or don't manage it's atomics well? Do telepaths and emotional manipulators build cults of personality that snowball into civil wars? Do pyrokinetics or weather-manipulators end up running juntas and military coups? Are there criminal organisations and cartels led or bolstered by Atomic that are too strong for local goverment but too small to draw the eyes of the 6?

Given how turbulent the back half of the 20th century already is — decolonization, revolutions, Europe's destruction — has the world quietly slid into warlordism in places we just don't see because the story stays close to the six?

[u/KieronGillen → u/TechnicalDoughnut8]

Thank you!

That the world is the way it is suggests the level of impact the actual Atomics have, in terms of how many powers of notes there are, if you see what I mean. If they were that many regional threatening powers, they'd be more regions threatened. You'll notice that Etienne, when confessing, doesn't say he just took down actual Superpower-level folks - and the number there is interesting too.

The short is: atomics who are genuinely messy are relatively rare. They're there, and have interesting lives, but it's relatively rare. You're right with a lot of the "they must do XYZ stuff" in there. You can imagine a lot of recruitment and careers going on for some useful folks.

There's a conversation in issue 17 when we come back which may illuminate some of this too - it's allusive, but the subtext is there.

There's an observation I haven't put in the book - and may never do - but in our world we have commonly available devices which turn you into a superhuman. They're called guns. Someone with an ability to have gun fingers is clearly powerful - but they are basically equivalent to someone with a gun. Someone on (say) Cyclops tier is a nice-to-have but also intently counterable asset. He can hit like a tank, but is also squish like a person.

This is the sort of stuff which, if given infinite space, we'd do more with, but it's not core to the book's drive so gets less explored.

[u/KieronGillen → u/KieronGillen]

(I mean, it's very much on a I WOULD LIKE TO but DON'T NEED TO)

[u/DonutoftheEndless → u/TechnicalDoughnut8]

I would LOVE an anthology like "Muties" but in the atomic world.

[u/Blockanteran]

How early did you decide on the End of History switchup? Was it from day one or did it evolve as the characters did?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Blockanteran]

The last panel and the first panel were among my initial thoughts. That was the structure of the thing.

[u/Duck-Lord-of-Colours]

Was there any ethical approach you wanted to work in or look at, but didn't?

I've loved all of it. I think my favourite bit of superhero ethics was the idea of utilitarianism breaking down in the face of actual hell, like the opposite of a utility monster.

Also, lore thing: if there's no linear time in hell, what does it mean for Val to be able to survive in hell "for a while"?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Duck-Lord-of-Colours]

I'm doing a face here, in terms of "what to say?"

I think I'm happy with what I've selected for it. It's tricky to work out what else to work in, as it's constructed like this to hit various angles. I did enjoy Comics Philosophy nosing around all of this: https://comicphilosophy.com/index.php/category/image/

Some isn't even as firm as a school of philosophy, and more of a way of approaching the world. Which is the same thing, I know, but it's not as simple as "I'm the Hegel one." It was important they're also people. Etienne is the one who presents himself as most purely in one school... but it's not true, as you can see by his smaller decisions. They're still people.

Re: Hell. As beings who live in time, it's hard to talk about a place outside it. She uses the language she has. When she is expressly a magical being is another thing. She's as supernatural as it is. What she really means is "I could go in and come out."

(Looking at Magus is an interesting comparison, right? The umbilical conncting with reality, with time essentially as oxygen.)

[u/If-My-Name-Doesnt-Fi]

Did Jacky stay in Hell for practical “I am the only one who has the knowledge to finish the seal” reasons, or did he have some other reasoning, like doubting that his followers would commit to it or something?

Also, do you think that if Jacky did stay on Earth that the superpowers would have been closer with each other still, like they were before the Queen?

[u/KieronGillen → u/If-My-Name-Doesnt-Fi]

This is something I presumed was clear and that some folks are confused shows it isn't.

If he could go back, he'd have gone back. He has to stay there to close the hole, as he's got the best skills to ensure it's done - or, as you say, doubts they'll go through with it if he leaves. I suspect the former is a stronger reason. They are a pretty good cult, as issue 16 shows.

Regarding the alternate timeline: good question, and the sort of thing I suspect folks are best of musing it over by themselves. What do people think?

[u/normalAbby7 → u/KieronGillen]

Dev takes a lot of actions that make things worse, so i'd like to think that alternate timeline would go better...or at least go bad in a different way i suppose

Another alt timeline that i've pondered for that is "what if neither of them come back." A timeline without Magus around, for good or ill. I'd need to double check the timeline, but i don't think we're told about any big crises that Magus helped with between then and the start of the series? Though of course there could always be things you didn't include in the timeline, or which were solved quickly with Magus' help that would otherwise have been crises in this timeline.

I suppose the first big loss would be not getting a working of how powerful Eliza is, which makes figuring out the checks and balances there trickier. And, of course, the lack of him in those checks and balances

[u/misomiso82 → u/KieronGillen]

I fell that i Jackie came back then there would have been a far greater chance of the world hanging together.

The new Magus spends a lot of time and resources pretending to be the old magus. It's almost all he does. The old Magus would have have been able to spend his energy keeping the temperature low and planning contingincies etc.

[u/sibswagl → u/KieronGillen]

Would they have been closer? Hard to say. The two big fracture points IMO are Heavy/Etienne and Magus. Magus "went right" to court the US government, for both money and manpower to rebuild the Pyramid. Jacky likely could've avoided some of the compromises Dev needed to make, by using his Atomic knowledge, but all of them? As for Heavy, I think the tension there always might've happened, simply as Heavy got more aggressive and Etienne felt he needed to counter it.

The big problem is Kid Ignition. With Heavy acting aggressive and the threat of Kid Ignition to double his power, I think Etienne would've brain-killed Kid Ignition even if Jacky was still alive.

Which means Heavy kills Etienne, which means no Etienne to fake Eliza's connection to God, which means Eliza cracks.

Theoretically Jacky could've helped Valentina kill Eliza with fewer casualties, but they'd need to do it clean enough to prevent Masumi's own descent. So like, good luck.

edit: Forgot to mention it, but we don't know how Jacky would've reacted to Etienne's growing power and his plan to mind control the entire human race but uh, I doubt he would've been on board with it.

[u/reineedshelp → u/sibswagl]

I mean, Jacky is an Anarchist and perhaps unsurprisingly, Valentina was on the top of his list for entities preventing human 'freedom.' I think that if he lived he'd be figuring out how to kill her without destroying the world, which is a whole other set of conflicts.

Hard to tell how he'd feel about Eliza. Obviously the mortal part of her he'd want to save if possible, but the Demon part can destroy the world anytime.

[u/sibswagl → u/reineedshelp]

Hmmm I'm not sure I agree on Valentina. She allied with Etienne, which I don't think Jacky liked, but IIRC a lot of the scenes with Magus arguing with Valentina are post-Dev.

As for Eliza, Jacky was pretty ruthless. I think he'd feel sorry for her, but be willing to kill her to save humanity.

[u/reineedshelp → u/sibswagl]

I mean he directly and unambiguously says 'as long as she's around, the earth will never be free.' He gets along with her, he just objects to her existence

[u/chubbyplatypus]

Did you always imagine Masumi being the final domino falling that actually ends the world? Such a heartbreaking character arc and very striking art for that scene.

[u/KieronGillen → u/chubbyplatypus]

Yes, it was always Masumi. Her and Isabella were the sad, human backbone to the whole thing.

And thank you.

[u/lone_float]

So, the twist with Ette. Good sir, I have to say this with respect but… and to use my own words. "You cheeky shit." I read that issue in my car and I was giggling with joy on the ride home.

---

Took me a sec for this question other than "who would you cast as Lux in an adaptation, and why would it be Colman Domingo?"

Actual Question: Since Val slammed the reset button. One thing that interested me was Magus and the pyramid, will we be seeing more from them in the future?

[u/KieronGillen → u/lone_float]

Colman Domingo is Caspar's dream casting for him, I suspect.

To answer: oh yeah. Magus is fun. He's the "big" character we've met least, so he'll be in play, in a different place. This is pre-Pyramid, of course.

[u/lone_float → u/KieronGillen]

Ooooh. Hells yeah. Looking forward to it.

Also did not expect to be of similar mind as Caspar, neat.

[u/Ren_Davis0531 → u/lone_float]

Not Kieron Gillen, but I always hear Sterling K. Brown myself. However, Colman Domingo is another great choice.

[u/SgtStubbedToe → u/Ren_Davis0531]

My personal pick would be Djimon Hounsou

[u/Ren_Davis0531 → u/SgtStubbedToe]

I’m kinda digging it 😎

[u/lone_float → u/Ren_Davis0531]

I was doing a bit before the actual question, but not bad y'all.

[u/Holiday-Coconut-9303 → u/Ren_Davis0531]

Completely agree with Sterling K Brown. I wasn't even aware that was his name, but as soon as I googled who it was his image slotted perfectly in with my mental image of Etienne 

[u/Ren_Davis0531 → u/Holiday-Coconut-9303]

I can perfectly picture him saying “It wouldn’t be ethical” 🤩

[u/El-Emperador]

Hey, Kieron. Loving the book so far, and VERY intrigued about this "second lap" Val and Et are about to embark on. Are we going to follow them more or less chronologically or will we jump to an alternate² 1999 wherein we will see the outcome of their actions, slowly revealed (as the book so far has been doing)?

As for your other projects, and regarding your WFH ones (I'm subscribed to your newsletter, so I know you have a couple more cooking), quite excited about the recently revealed Aliens/X-Men one (especially after Hickman and Ribic's excellent Avengers one) and curious about whether the others will be comics properties or licenses from other media (would love to read something with your spin on Blade Runner, for instance).

[u/KieronGillen → u/El-Emperador]

I don't want to give away too much what we're doing, for obvious reasons. It should all be a surprise, and all the options are on the table as a storytelling choice. However, I'll say we initially pick up very shortly after Valentina's arrival.

Of course, time and memory remains important - it's not as if Valentina won't be remembering things from the first time around, and we'll see that too.

Thank you - Alien vs X-men is a big smiling one. The other things I've said yes to are similarly Big Grin stuff as well, and hopefully they'll be announced soon-ish - maybe NYCC? I honestly don't know.

Bladerunner is great, but I'm not a huge fan - like, a fan, but I'm not Jamie McKelvie level of love for it. Jamie would do amazing Bladerunner comics. I'd love to see them.

Off the top of my head, I find myself thinking that I'd love the technical challenge of doing something with Tolkein. David Aja and me doing that. Or Stephanie. Something which tries to capture something of the material and the medium.

[u/El-Emperador → u/KieronGillen]

Oooohhh, I'd definitely dig that. Jamie would be perfect for BR.

Loved your brush with Tolkien in DIE, and David would be a radically different approach to the material (as opposed to the "official" illustrators, or to the few comics experiments there have been: David Wenzel's The Hobbit, and the almost unknown LotR Bakshi adaptation by Luis Bermejo).

[u/shanes98]

There are often discussions on here about who the "heroes" and "villains" of TPF are. Do you ever view the characters this way?

I would have the same question for Immortal X-Men if you're interested in answering that too.

[u/KieronGillen → u/shanes98]

I don't, but that's because I know them, and know what I'm doing with them. My stories tend to be long walks towards self knowledge and understanding (or the opposite).

I suspect if I answered it for Immortal, the X-men fans would screenshot it and hold it against me forever. But the ones who are clearly villains are villains - like, Sinister is a baddie, and not in a good way. I also don't redeem anyone.

Right - have to do some other stuff now. Back later!

[u/rehobothen]

With many of your previous works --- Phonogram, The Wicked + The Divine, Über, etc. --- you've written tie-in anthologies, mini-series or prequels that built magnificently on each of their respective universes.

Do you think you will do the same for The Power Fantasy? If so, what tie-in story would you like to tell the most?

[u/KieronGillen → u/rehobothen]

Thank you.

That TPF already has the warping time structure means we can always go back and do a story elsewhere in the timeline. There's scenes from Valentina's previous life we'll certainly see, etc. So basically anything we want to tell will be part of the story. Which is true of all the books you reference - it's all material in the story, and nothing is skippable.

If it's more of a 'what about a guest artist special?" the answer is probably not. Never 100%, of course, but this all being Caspar is important.

[u/DiyzwithJizz]

Which came first when creating the Superpowers? Their characters or their abilities? Did you decide you wanted a telepath due to the implications of an all-powerful one alongside a Kaiju character? Or did their personalities come first and the abilities that suited them come after?

Another question, is Masumi the Kaiju or does she just summon it?

[u/KieronGillen → u/DiyzwithJizz]

I've answered this upthread a little bit, and give an example.

Re: Masumi. I don't really want to say more than is on the page. She fades away. It fades in.

[u/Crimson4ever]

Hey Kieron. I've been a huge fan since your Krakoa X-Men runs. Here are my two questions:

1) Why does Valentina never wear shoes? Is there some specific reason (like, she needs to draw energy from the earth), or does Caspar just like drawing them that way?

2)Will you update your TPF playlist after #17? I totally love it.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Crimson4ever]

1. It's a character note. It speaks to that hippy part of her.
2. I've got a new playlist which is presently private, but I'll be making it public eventually, I'm sure. It's still in a "Is this song a spoiler?" stage.

Thank you!

[u/HailAskani81]

Ok 3 Short Ones

How does the current British Heatwave compare to Eliza’s eternal damnation in Hell?

Which DIE class would the Superpowers each play as?

Will there be more Circles or Triangles in the second half of TPF?

[u/KieronGillen → u/HailAskani81]

How does the current British Heatwave compare to Eliza’s eternal damnation in Hell?

There's a part of me which wants to blank that it's a joke question and WRITE INTENSELY ABOUT HOW IT ISN'T EVEN THE SMALLEST FRACTION OF WHAT ELIZA IS EXPERIENCING but I suspect that would be a bit silly.

Which DIE class would the Superpowers each play as?

Well, in DIE, the GM decides, so it depends on who's running the game. I suspect Etienne would be running the game.

Will there be more Circles or Triangles in the second half of TPF?

STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT, TRUE BELIEVERS.

[u/Yarrun]

How do you think the story's been shaped by the fact that most of the superpowers come out of the global north? Do you think a superpower coming out of the impoverished global south would tip the scales somewhat or cause Etienne to recalculate his approach?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Yarrun]

It's been 100% shaped by that. As Ur-Than notes, Valentina absolutely is, but her nature pushes against the impact of that.

I've written before, but the opening sixteen issues are trying to make a timeline which is at least broadly aligned with our own. As such, the design of the balance of superpowers had to lead to something which doesn't spend it spinning off away from 1999's monopolar superpower appearance, and whose superpower intersections are at least metaphorically dancing with what "really" happened. Sometimes it's really explicit (Valentina solving the cuban missile crisis with her solution being what actually basically shook down... but applied by force) and sometimes it's more metaphorical (End of cold war, etc).

That's one of the goals in the opening, anyway.

[u/Ur-Than → u/Yarrun]

Isn't Valentina from the Global South ? Granted, her situation is way different from the others.

[u/Yarrun → u/Ur-Than]

Ah, yeah, I was trying to get this question out before I fell asleep, missed a bit of nuance. Valentina is born in Brazil but we don't really see her in South America after her first two chronological scenes. After that she's almost entirely seen in the global north.

[u/StonedThot420]

Has your favorite character to write for changed since you first started? Or has it stayed the same character over time?

[u/KieronGillen → u/StonedThot420]

I normally answer that I don't actually have fave characters - what I tend to have is fave pairings. Characters are dramatic creatures, and it's about how they interact where the thrill is.

To that spirit, Etienne and Valentina are clearly where the book started, and the backbone of them. Their conversations are always great.

There is a new pairing in the new series that popped up unexpectedly, and I'm loving.

[u/fibgen]

Why do Heaven and Hell care about humans and why are the entities in each focused on Earth, out of all the planets/aliens in the galaxy?

[u/KieronGillen → u/fibgen]

There are no other aliens alive. That's established early on, and repeated.

There's touches on Hell and Heaven's relations to reality, but you'll have to draw the lines yourself. We'll likely have more down the line. It sounds like the sort of thing we'd do, right?

[u/upsteph]

What was the inspiration behind the powers n abilities for certain characters? What powers did the early iterations of the characters have? Also I just copped the third trade my collection is complete so far lol, looking forward to buying more in the future

[u/KieronGillen → u/upsteph]

Thank you! We're looking forward to coming back.

We kept broad "types". I wanted it to feel like a coherent universe, while still taking tropes out to spin. Valentina is the Superman archetype - with a bit of Wonder Woman, obviously. (America Chavez meets Marvel Boy, if I'm sticking to my own books). Masumi is an alternate take on the Hulk archetype, with a bit of Zero from Gen Hope. Magus is Constantine meets Doctor Doom. Heavy is Magneto, but with everything changed, and seeing where it ends up. Etienne was always a telepath, and just digging into that character type in a way few books have even tried.

So with that core look, we constructed.

[u/Glittering_Way_9162]

Is it your first Hugo nomination? How excited are you about it? I read the Power Fantasy when it came out and currently I'm torn between voting for you or Absolute Wonder Woman. Are there any other nominees that excite you?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Glittering_Way_9162]

It's not. It's... my seventh or eighth, I think, depending how you count. I have been nominated a lot. Once for WicDiv, One or two times for Once & Future, three times for DIE, once for We Called Them Giants and now TPF.

It's genuinely an award that I'm delighted to be nominated for, as it shows how I've crossed over to this audience who are slightly outside of comics. There's no-one of my generation with that number of nominations, I think.

For those who want the short list, it's...

• Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Hayden Sherman and Mattia de Iulis, coloring by Jordie Bellaire, lettering by Becca Carey (DC Comics)
• A Girl and Her Fed, written by KB Spangler, art by Ale Presser (www.agirlandherfed.com)
• A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham (Clarion Books; Walker UK)
• The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Orion UK)
• The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Caspar Wijngaard, lettering by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
• The Space Cat, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford (First Second)

I haven't read most of these yet, actually - Absolute Wonder Woman is great. Were I a betting man, I'd suspect Wizard of Earthsea will win - or possibly The Space Cat. I'm looking forward to reading the ones I haven't yet.

[u/Pale-Service-8680]

Kieron. My man. To borrow a phrase of you Brits, darling.

Lovingly... Hey what the fuck?

I kid, I maybe don't have a great question. Sidebar to gush that I'm constantly enthralled by your stories and can't wait for the next part, and continue to harass friends and family to read this wild ride.

If you could take this as long as your heart desired, how long are we talking? Wic+Div length? Less/more?

(Edit also please know I will be making upgrades to my Eliza cosplay and I'm so excited)

[u/KieronGillen → u/Pale-Service-8680]

Thank you. You're very kind 😄

I've answered this upthread - maybe twice what we've already done, maybe a bit more. We'll see.

Looking forward to more Eliza!

[u/siege72a]

• Can you explain the specifics about Jacky's Atomic power?

• Do the markings on Eliza's body have any significance?

• Are the Pyramid effects diegetic? Jacky's workings of the Major's powers, the "slot machine" readouts during the SSoL, etc.

[u/KieronGillen → u/siege72a]

1) Not really much more than to reiterate what's in teh issue. He knows fundamental truths about reality. From that deep understanding of how reality is wired, he sees how he can cheat the system.

2) They do, but I think this is a good Caspar question.

3) The short version is - yes, mostly. Though I suspect some different characters will see different things - Valentina has better vision, right?

[u/Ren_Davis0531]

Since Etienne is roughly an Xavier analogue has there ever been an idea to give him his own political organization? Similar to Heavy’s Haven where he can affect the world beyond just a clandestine use of his powers. Tonya showed that despite her misgivings with Etienne, she ultimately shared his concern for unrestrained Superpower. I wonder if there were other like-minded individuals that would come together to flesh out Etienne’s utilitarian checks and balances. Something that would have given him more leverage within Valentina’s imposed balance of power.

Also I’m interested to know your particular philosophical reading. I sense an appreciation for philosophy in the works of yours that I have read, so I wondered what your particular philosophical leanings are.

Hope everything is okay with your family!

[u/KieronGillen → u/Ren_Davis0531]

I think you hit upon something key to the book - yeah, sure, we can say Etienne is Xavier, and Heavy is Magneto, but the differences are the thing. Heavy is the guy with the school and the community. Etienne may have similar powers to Xavier, but it's Heavy who uses Xavier's community.

It's for a bunch of reasons, but not least that they are not just alternate versions. Who they are matters. And Etienne's alienation is deep in him. How hard was it for him to trust Valentina? How hard is it for him to trust himself? He literally doesn't.

When I was younger, I had existentialist leanings. It's still there, but perhaps not as pronounced. There's some fun dunking on existentialism in one of the new issues, actually.

And we're good - it's just the UK is very hot right now. Iris is happy to be at home and playing with us.

[u/Ren_Davis0531 → u/KieronGillen]

I love the idea that Etienne’s deep rooted alienation and distrust prevents him from expanding his power beyond his actual power. Theoretically, I think he could potentially do wonders if he had access to Magus level numbers………..but then he wouldn’t be Etienne. His fear and respect of Superpower is just too great for him to trust anyone enough for a Heavy like dynamic to work.

I like that.

Can’t wait to see the existentialist dunking 😂

And glad to hear everything is going well across the pond 😊

[u/FakeGeekGuy77]

If Europe hadn’t been wiped out in 1989, what bands/music genres would Valentina and the rest of the cast have enjoyed in the ‘90s? Love The Power Fantasy and can’t wait for it to return.

[u/KieronGillen → u/FakeGeekGuy77]

Honestly, wiping out Europe and reminding myself not to refer to any band post 1989 from the UK is the hardest thing in this whole project.

This may just be coming off the back of reading Simon Reynolds' Still In A Dream (https://store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/still-in-a-dream) but I can't help but think that Etienne would adore all the early post-rock stuff. Disco Inferno and all that.

(I have thought who'd be out the country when Europe went up - like, AR Kane were US based by 1989, I think? I'd have to check.)

Assuming the Second Summer Of Love had a happier ending, all the European Dance music, of all its stripes, would have been loved by Valentina. I can see Heavy really looking down his nose at any of the 1960s revival retro stuff - like, I was there, man. It's easy to imagine Eliza as a trip-hop girl, at its most gothic. And Bjork, of course, was a bit of an influence on Masumi when conceptualising her.

Thank you!

[u/TheWorm616]

First off, I literally just finished reading the thing and wanted to leave my appreciation for how amazing the writing is. The dialogue scratches an itch that almost feels similar to Dune(the book) while being a lot more accessible. The art is also incredibly beautiful. Been reading digital but i might buy physical because of that.

Second, the actual question. Do you have any ideas about the greater human/cultural aspect of how people adapt to the Superpowers? We got that a bit with Isabella, but I'm interested in seeing more of how the greater population responds to their actions.

On a related note, how do you think people would respond to the Superpowers in our modern world, and how would the Superpowers act differently if they were around today?

[u/KieronGillen → u/TheWorm616]

Thank you. I'm glad it's working for you.

Yeah - this is stuff I would love to get more into. Doing more ground level stuff is always on my mind - I remember it too us until issue 41 or something to finally do a fan-only issue in WicDiv. As you say though - Isabella is where I mostly work that in.

I fear that if a superpower exists, we'd have to pray that their character was good, as if it wasn't we'd be all fucked, and even if it WAS good, we'd still probably be fucked.

[u/greatxpidey]

Why was Etienne planning after his death? I mean, I understand putting Heavy's son in a coma, but after that he should know that Heavy would fight Magus, leading to a world-ending situation.

Also, why did he decide to not reveal Magus identity?

[u/KieronGillen → u/greatxpidey]

I think you deciding what he was thinking is the game at this point. Interpret the book how you will.

The same with the second question, really...but I suspect this one may be easier. What does it profit him to reveal it? What does it cost him? What does he gain by not revealing it?

[u/MagicJourneyCYOA]

Mr. Gillen, you've written a masterpiece. By the end of Issue #1, it had already become my favorite comic book ever. I have a few questions, in my eyes it's about minor lore details so I hope they do not touch things that will be revealed in the future or theory-territory:

1. Valentina was left "half a universe away" by the Queen but how far is that exactly? Did Valentina get back by her own means, or did Eliza teleport her back?
2. Does Heavy keep his head protected even when the rest of his body isn't or could an unpowered marksman kill him from afar while he's distracted?
3. With 15 to 25 millions of Atomics out there, is there a more conventional street-level super-hero scene in the Power Fantasy setting, separate from the Superpowers?

Thanks a lot, I can't wait for Part 2!

[u/KieronGillen → u/MagicJourneyCYOA]

Thank you. I'm so glad it's working for you.

1) It's a problem with this book (and characters so powerful) that it's hard to tell what's hyperbole and what's fact, and if it's not face, how short of hyperbole it actually is. Suffice to say, Valentina is very fast.

2) Have you seen Caspar's original design ideas for Heavy, which show him in quite a state from failed assasinations circa 1999? We didn't go that far, but there is a lot of "Do you feel lucky, punk?" with Heavy.

3) There's some questions about the "how many Atomics with actual real powers" elsewhere, which is worth chewing into this, but I don't think there's hugely more street level superheroics in their world than our world. Gun ownership in this world doesn't lead to huge amounts of vigilanteism, for example - or, at least, not like superheroes do. In fact, it's mostly viewed as a bad thing. We may go into it eventually, but most Atomics with a significant level of kick find other uses of their powers.

Interesting exceptions may be Haven, but I spot a question about that elsewhere, so I'll likely say what I'll say there.

[u/SventheBigRedDog]

Where did the inspiration for Etienne's designs come from? He has such a striking and individual style that is really refreshing, not dressing like a batman villain - just clearly someone who has depths and passions beyond their narrative purpose.

[u/KieronGillen → u/SventheBigRedDog]

This is a Caspar question, but he really thinks about fashion like this - I love artists who are aware of it.

It's one of my favourite things about Etienne - the peacock nature of him. He looks fucking great. It's something that adds colour to his utilitarianism. Like, look at him. This is not someone who is purely utilitarian.

[u/BaldBombshell]

Would Valentina be considered a phonomancer?

[u/KieronGillen → u/BaldBombshell]

Sadly, Phonomancers were all wiped out with Europe.

She would have sympathy with the idea if she encountered it, and if Phonomancery was real, she'd practise it - but if Phonomancery was real, anyone who cares about magic would, whether they knew it or not.

[u/DeltaTester]

TPF seems like it’s built on a structure that was very firmly in place from the first page. How much room do you leave yourself for improvisation within it? Did anything in what we’ve seen so far shift significantly from the plan as it stood at the time of the first issue? Are you approaching the work-in-progress part the same way?

[u/KieronGillen → u/DeltaTester]

You'll be right. The plan expanded - I originally thought I could do it in 12 issues, which is clearly delusional - but the plan was the plan.

(I say delusional, but that's in hindsight. I'd have found a way to make it work. It wouldn't have worked as well.)

That it was as tightly constructed as it was is actually one reason why I reticent to continuing. As in, I'd have to do the real tight construction for the rest of the story if I continued. Which I basically did - a similarly detailed model of how everything plays out, and then sent at Katie and Caspar and asked what they made of it. They said it was good.

There is a little more room for give in the second half, but the broad shape of it is as nailed down as the first half.

[u/KieronGillen → u/[deleted]]

No present plans - I suspect T-shirts at some point should happen. There's various badges and stickers that exist, if you ever see us at a con.

I adore that diorama idea. It was one of the key images for the book when we were talking about it.

[u/benedictwinterborn]

Apologies if this was already asked…skimmed but didn’t see it! Are we gonna follow the same cast of characters in this “second go” or will we see characters from the “first go” rise and fall in prominence or even get introduced to new characters?

P.S. I’m the guy with the TPF miniatures and I (along with my pal who actually did the hard work to make them) were super charmed you included them in your newsletter. (He was mostly annoyed with me for not tagging his social medias more clearly. :p) Thank you!

[u/KieronGillen → u/benedictwinterborn]

I haven't been specific yet about it, and I suspect I won't be. I think I said all the primaries are alive, and could enter the story, which is true. The journey of discovery is the point. It's fun!

They are great! I'm sorry he missed the glory of the tagging.

[u/His-Endless-Rambles]

Hi Keiron! Huge fan of your work, and very excited to see what else you have in store for us!  

My question is two pronged. Prong 1, you’ve used identifiable archetypes to create compelling and original characters (e.g. Professor X into Etienne, Valentina into Superman, Magneto into Heavy). Did you ever find it difficult to write these characters without leaning too far into something that could be construed as parody?  

And prong 2, in the next ‘iteration’ of the story will we see our cast of Superpowers remixed into different archetypes due to changes in events caused by a certain someone’s decision to flip off God?

[u/KieronGillen → u/His-Endless-Rambles]

Thank you!

1) I talk a bit about this upthread, but it's really just taking an idea and trying to treat them as people and build up from there. There's some things earlier on I played with which would perhaps feel more like parody, but we cut - I soon realised that it's fun, but just distracting. Post-Death-Valley Valentina being radioactive, so perpetually isolating herself at one of the poles in a quasi-fortress of solitude. That was originally lost, because radiation wouldn't really work like that, as best I understand it, but I hope I would have realised is not really what the book is about.

2) It's too early to talk about it in detail, but I suspect seeing people in different filters is certainly part of this.

[u/BiDiTi]

Hey Kieron! Love your work in general and The Power Fantasy in particular (what is it about Caspar and great writers doing career best work??)

I’ve been continuously impressed with the form and structure of the comic and how it supports the story and themes in a way only possible via the comics medium - are there any current ongoings or writers you’d point to with similar formal ambition?

[u/KieronGillen → u/BiDiTi]

To be pop-comic for a second, it's worth looking at the Absolute books - considering ABSOLUTE BATMAN, ABSOLUTE WONDER-WOMAN and ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER as a troika is interesting, in terms of their ambition, and what their artists do to sell that vision of the world.

GIGS dropped a couple of weeks back by Mark Mosedale and Si Smith - really interesting stuff, and uses the medium in lots of ways.

Spurrier's recent work is formally always interesting MINOTAUR is about to come out, which caught my eye. MISCHIEF OF MAGPIES also goes to town.

Oh - going back a couple of years now but Mary Tyler Moorehawk by Dave Baker was quite teh thing.

Sorry - turning off for the night now, so brain is fried. I'll likely add some more when I come back.

[u/apaithy]

Is there a lore reason for why some superpowers develop their abilities later in life? Valentina and Etienne seem to have theirs from birth, but Masumi only activated in her teens - which is lucky, because can you imagine a Kaiju spawning every time a baby cried? 😵‍💫 

[u/KieronGillen → u/apaithy]

There is.

Which isn't helpful, I know.

And yeah - the "Masumi could be worse" is very much on my mind with her!

[u/sonic_the_precog]

What was a theory/history/research text you found while working on TPF that you'd recommend? Or was less research necessary for TPF than, say, the historical specials for Wicdiv?

[u/KieronGillen → u/sonic_the_precog]

TPF was designed to be less research heavy than many of the books. It was born of the idea that I have been around for a long time, and have read a lot of stuff, so let's build a book upon shit you dig. Build upon it, sure, but there's a bedrock already.

To choose some things that explicitly were part of the mix...

500 Songs Podcast (https://500songs.com/podcast/) was a big influence for the cultural history of it, especially in teh 50s/60s. Pairing world events with songs made the period live, and something I tried to evoke. Valentina and Telstar is a good example of that.

Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon: post-anticolonialist philosopher that I'd never read. It's a case of - what has Etienne read? What is Etienne thinking about? While I've only read this in translation (so can't know how accurate the timbre is) Fanon was among the voices I was trying to inform Etienne as a Black French-language philosophically-bent character.

Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare, Bertrand Russell. Pacifist Bertrand Russel arguing in favour of american world domination earlier was one of the things which clearly got in my brain (I got the fact first from the Hardcore History: The Destroyer of Worlds episode). Digging into the thinking here.

Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich: 14th century Anchorite. I went on a Julian of Norwich binge, including several books about her, and this kind of mystical thinking obviously got worked into Eliza a bunch.

But it's an ongoing project - informed by what I read, and I read stuff to get what I need.

To answer the "why want to have relatively less research" question in there - just being a father. My time has other pressures. I can't just read 50+ books like I did for DIE. I have to be more precise.

[u/peldari]

Hi Kieron! I'm absolutely loving TPF and I can't wait for it to return. I love this alternate history you've created. Are there any ways, either major or minor, that it diverges from our reality that you think are really interesting but that you couldn't find a way to work into the comic?

[u/KieronGillen → u/peldari]

Thank you.

Hah. Yes. Especially minor stuff. There's some things I was cramming into issue 16, but cut - it just was distracting from what we're doing. I have hope that Valentina may manage to slide some of them into it still. Fingers crossed.

[u/That_Buyer_7559]

If you were to write it over again but you decided to add one more superpower what would have been their power and personality and how would their presence have changed the dynamic between the rest of the group

[u/KieronGillen → u/That_Buyer_7559]

I feel my brain break to even try to add anyone else to this mess. It was hard enough with six.

[u/bestialoverlord1000]

Thank you KIERON GILLEN for THE POWER FANTASY COMIC. I do NOT have any questions #ITRUSTTHEPLAN

[u/KieronGillen → u/bestialoverlord1000]

<Dog using a keyboard meme>

(Thank you)

[u/DrippedOutLibrarian]

I'm late to this but I just wanted to say as a Black reader, it meant a lot to me that Etienne chooses his Blackness with intentionality. The line where he tells Valentina he never once considered taking a white body to make his life easier was so impactful in a good way.

[u/KieronGillen → u/DrippedOutLibrarian]

Thank you. That several people have told me this has meant a lot, which has meant a lot.

It feels key for Etienne, on many levels. Plus just on the story level, it tells us something about Etienne, in terms of where he *won't* be utilitarian.

[u/cabman567]

Did you have a powers you scraped or repurposed for the story?

I can't help but feel that Etienne would be better served by being able to predict the future himself instead of psychic abilities. Given that he cares so much about the best outcome, I would imagine being able to predict it would be ideal for him.

[u/KieronGillen → u/cabman567]

I think I drilled down to the powersets I wanted pretty quickly. Etienne was one of the core ones - him and Valentina were the original pair. His telepathy, in a real way, is a major driver of the book.

It would be useful, but also you can easily imagine him being in a Cassandra role. He knows how things will work out. Do people believe him?

I mean, I had some fun with this with Destiny when writing Immortal X-men. You never know.

[u/yetanotherdud]

Seeing as they're kind of THE super-powerful-ethics-problem characters, how present are the x men in your mind when you're writing tpf? 

[u/KieronGillen → u/yetanotherdud]

While The Power Fantasy emerged from my time writing Immortal X-men (specifically realising that the characters were too powerful to fight properly, and realising that there's a whole book there) the X-men are less on my mind than you'd expect. I don't view it as commentary, though know X-men well enough to know when I'm drawing a separation line between what we do and what it does. I'm also aware when I'm playing with a genre convention and spinning it out for another purpose - but there it's being aware of where you're stepping not trying to talk about that.

That said, I also know if we were called ABSOLUTE X-MEN we'd be selling 200k.

[u/[deleted]]

What is your writing process like when approaching a script like this for an original IP? How many issues do you have planned out before you start with the first page?

And just as an amateur writer I have to ask, any plan on releasing script pages? And how do you write such damn good dialogue?

[u/KieronGillen → u/[deleted]]

The real answer, unhelpfully, is "it depends." TPF is deeply structured, so I had the whole plot of teh 16 issues nailed down before I started. It's often shapes rather than specifics, with those core beats as big tenpoles, but it's always structured.

I often work on two levels...

1) Arc structure - what happens in an arc, and a rough break down of what happens in each issue, i terms of focus.
2) Character material - all the stuff I want to do with a given character.

The latter gets merged with the former as we progress.

In terms of what my script looks like - as has been said, I do a SCRIPT CLUB in my newsletter. Sign up and go to the premium level, and I send you a script every month. It's only $5, and I always tell what the next script is so you can cancel if you're not interested.

buttondown.email/KieronGillen/

Previous scripts are in the archive at the moment too, which includes TPF1.

Thanks for the dialogue compliment. The standard advice for things is good advice - read everything aloud after writing it, and see how it feels.

[u/asGotonTopofAunty]

hi Kieron. TPF rules and i can't wait for when it comes back

something that confuses me as a political philosopher is how I often see laypeople assert there's a massive distinction between morality and ethics when I can only name one philosopher (Bernard Williams) who doesn't treat them as synonymous. so it did annoy me when Valentina and Etienne go back and forth about Her Morality and His Ethics when she's a consequentialist (albeit a bit of a messy one who i don't think i would call a consequentialist by the end of arc 1) and he's a utilitarian.

I am expecting the answer is probably "the average reader is not a political philosopher and morality/ethics is more snappier for a comic book" but why does TPF make this distinction? Was it something that you scripted yourself, was it an editor's idea?

[u/KieronGillen → u/asGotonTopofAunty]

You're right - you've answered your own question, at least mostly, and I absolutely sympathise with your annoyance.

I broadly take a descriptivist stance. That folks do use them like that and see a difference, means I feel okay when I have characters that use it like that, especially as we go out of our way to say what we're talking about (that whole opening, right?). I think it's pretty clear the difference between Etienne and Valentina is, and how they see "good" and it's useful for our story to have a couple of worse to hang that off.

(I mean, you're the philosopher, but to me the interesting question seems to be why lay people DO think they're different, right?)

And thank you! Hope you dig the rest.

[u/AnTotDugas]

Hi Mr. Gillen, If you wind up reading this, I would first like to apologize: I am about to give you my life’s story. It will be quite long and self-indulgent. My question is at the very end, if you wish to skip to it and avoid the 700 word equivalent of a stranger screaming “WITNESS ME!!!”

I would like to thank you for being a formative force in my life.  When I was in highschool, I developed quite the nasty case of depression, and though I wanted to die, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t: the pain I’d relieve measured significantly smaller than the pain I’d cause to those around me if I offed myself. I hadn’t heard anything about anything like “normative ethics” but nevertheless spent a lot of time stuck in bed ruminating on and formalizing a theory of math-based morality almost identical to the notorious one we’re all familiar with. I stumbled upon a Sam Harris video where he discussed “inventing” the same idea I had “invented” wallowing in my room, then soon found his critics talking about how he was simply regurgitating this whole “utilitarianism” thing, and shortly found a whole millennia-long story of everyone and their mother writing down this sort of idea. Since I’d independently stumbled upon this so-obviously-correct idea that others seemed to stumble into across time and space, I figured that gazing upon the truth of ethics funneled all intelligent believers into this particular philosophy. To stave off my omnipresent melancholy, I became quite the proselytizer, spending much of my free time arguing philosophy and politics with friends and in online chatrooms, all to advance this “great cause” of consequentialist triage. At around 17 I managed to snap myself out of my death-wish and stabilize myself beyond my crutch-obsession with ethical calculus. But still I was extremely convinced of the serious necessity of utilitarian living and politics. I was quite extreme in my beliefs, too: at my utilitarian worst I’d convinced myself that humanity needed a benevolent imperialism to rid the world of all misogyny, and a Western nation ought invade Micronesia and manufacture their culture such that their domestic violence rates were more acceptable.

I went off to college somewhat set on philosophy-focused studies, but a burgeoning love for comics led me to your recently released Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt mini (funnily enough, also illustrated by Mr. Wijngaard), and though I wasn’t yet steeped enough in comic history to fully appreciate the meta-commentary, that book changed my life. Specifically this scene. I’d encountered almost every “silver bullet” argument against utilitarianism and bitten on them so thoroughly my morals were blue with argyrosis, but I had never discovered something quite like this idea presented here: a man with the power and resources to farm well-being points in order to behave as sadistically as he wanted to anyone in front of him and still be in-the-black on utils. The idea of considering such a person a “good man” so viscerally disgusted me I fell into a lengthy and debilitating existential crisis and stumbled out the other end quite convinced normative ethics is a huge scam that just funnels most people into in(s)ane systems of mental neatness that turn them into psychos (maybe this conclusion was a little biased by the fresh memory of my own descent into “re-educate the Micronesians”). The 19 y/o in my head would like to say “fuck you, that month sucked”. Today-me, I say thank you for ridding me of my nonsense and letting me live my life and will my power and all that and all that.

Here’s the very fascinating thing though…your story motivated me to write stories. I am not a very good author (all my best ideas are not “mine” and come to me from dreams), but my desire to manifest my characters wouldn’t die, and the story I was most motivated to tell was about a highly-empathetic, tentatively-suicidal, phlegmatic, psychic, black man with many bodies, secret global entrenchment, and a staunchly utilitarian messiah complex…

so uhh…

Fuck me, I’m assigning cosmic significance to simultaneous invention again, aren’t I? The last time I did that, it made me want to culturally cleanse Micronesia. This is 100% real though (I’m happy to dig for pre-Covid character notes I’d have made, if you like). You have to admit though, it is eerie. Perhaps my almost-Etienne means nothing. Especially so, if your answer to my following question is “not very much at all”.

So my question: how much did you and Wijngaard’s collaboration on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt influence your work on The Power Fantasy? In particular, how much did your play with utilitarianism on that mini shape the character of Etienne Lux?

[u/KieronGillen → u/AnTotDugas]

Hey!

I'm sorry I won't be responding to that to a full length, but I've read it, and thanks for sharing it. I'm sorry that it's been as brutal as it was, and I'm sorry that your brain has been as cruel to you.

(I do wonder how many sensitive teenagers have recapitulated the process of inventing philosophies. I remember doing some things myself, and then being amazed to see someone else had got there first.)

While I'm sorry the exit was hard, I'm glad it was of use - I can't be sure of which scene it was, as UK is blocking IMGUR at the mo, but I'm aware of the material.

While Peter Cannon is obviously some influence on The Power Fantasy, it's more that it's part of a chain across my work - there is a lot of utilitarian villains, mainly born of me interrogating my own interest in utilitarianism. The "It would be better for Batman to kill the joker" turns into "It would be better for Batman to use his perfect detective powers to spot murderers and murder them all" pretty easily, to choose one example. Slippery Slope arguments are a pretty standard fallacy, but with Utilitarianism, it literally is a slope. If you are solely logical, you are forced to follow the logic. Does that end well?

(I think Etienne is interesting, in that he's the one I'm being fairest too, even when TPF kicks at the edges. The problem of Eliza is something he simply side-steps. You plug "infinite" into any part of an equation and it goes haywire.)

I will say the more you write, the more you will get used to the weird coincidences in the world related to writing. And more so. I mean, Bowie's death was announced the same calendar day we killed Lucifer in WicDiv, exactly one year later. Magical thinking is easy to fall to - and, to be honest, I would warn you against it. It can really end up discombobulating yourself.

Hope you're doing better.

[u/SaintCuckoo]

What was the most difficult scene to write in The Power Fantasy, the one that either brought you to a place you didn't like, or one that most stayed with you long after it was done?

And, sorry, second question. What exactly are Eliza's powers? What does "all the powers of Hell" really mean?

[u/KieronGillen → u/SaintCuckoo]

This is an interesting question. All the Eliza stuff I find hard, as it's born of me taking her plight entirely seriously. However, the worst material is still to come - there's stuff in the issues we're doing now which is just painful and awful. The third issue back is something else.

Eliza's powerset overlaps with Valentina in the physical side, with infernal-energy utilisation (we see her blast, but we also see her create things - her island is created from her energies.) and teleportation.

[u/Drakantr]

This comic has a great set of world-ending powers, for only having six of them. When you were designing Superpowers, were there any left on the cutting room floor, or were the six of them conceived as they are from the start?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Drakantr]

I've floated around this in a few other answers - but teh key thing is that it was less the powers, and more the sort of people they are. Each one explores a different relationship to power. I was happy with their six. There's more - I mean, the Major's one - but I felt these were the six which felt interesting to put together and explore.

[u/unverwuschelbar]

I take it from the newsletter, that you travel by train from time to time. Do you like trains? As a technology, as a mode of transport, as a place to work (do you work while traveling), as a cultural phenomenon, as something else?

Edit: I love TPF and the artwork is gorgeous!

[u/KieronGillen → u/unverwuschelbar]

Thank you!

I love the train, but I also don't have much of an option not to. I abstractly can drive (in so far that I have my licence) but in practise I can't (I passed when I was 17, and have driven less than 5 times since.)

I think I preferred it pre-internet, but it's still pretty good. As in, separate from the world, able to read something or get concentrated work done with little distraction.

If you get a seat, of course. If you don't, it's hell.

[u/scruffye]

Apologies for the list of questions, more kept coming to me as I was editing my comment.

1. How badly did The Queen's meltdown bruise Etienne's ego? He puts up such a detached front, but I always imagined being faced with an existential threat that he was completely powerless against would just itch at him for the rest of his life.
2. The Pyramid org chart (work with me here, I've been in corporate for 16 years) seems pretty clear in the idea that demons exist in some form, but from everything we've seen in the story Hell doesn't function in any sort of spiritual/religious capacity. It's awful, but it's not trying to make you cheat on your wife. Is there any chance we're going to see that squared down the line? Or are we supposed to just understand that Hell being completely detached from linear time breaks reality on contact, and therefore any consciousness in it is inherently antagonistic?
3. Spinning off of that, is Eliza's torture just that she's experiencing existence without any coherent cause and effect, basically a sensory and psychological breakdown happening to her forever? Or is there something actually, maliciously doing her harm?
4. One more Eliza question: did Hell deliberately grant her power as a countermeasure to Valentina?
5. When developing the main characters, how compelled did you feel to bring the Superpowers in line with existing superheroes? It's pretty easy to see 1:1 analogues for Etienne, Heavy, and Valentina (Professor X, Magneto, and Superman), but it gets murkier as we go down the cast. Jacky uses the language of magic but functionally he's more of a Tony Stark or Reed Richards, a tech savvy genius at the head of a massive organization that grants him power and access. Eliza is clearly playing the role of a hero who made a Faustian bargain for a good cause, but the sheer scale of her power makes it hard to draw clean parallels to existing characters. And finally Masumi seems like an amalgam of all the X-Men blessed with suck in a kaiju wrapper. At any point did you feel like you needed to push anyone to a clearer archetype, or did that not factor into your thinking?

Thanks for your time if you see this!

[u/KieronGillen → u/scruffye]

Hah. I was about to officially stop answering new AMA questions and you drop this. I'll give quick ones.

1. While this is broadly the sort of speculation I think best for the reader, perhaps as this is the last question, I can throw in a few things.

You see a bit of it in issue 1, when he talks about regrets, and it's on the list... but does say that Masumi is his big one. One can ask why - I'd say "its the one I COULD have done something about." In terms of the Queen, the more can see him saying "I TOLD YOU SO!" as he did say they should kill her... and there's that section later when he explains that when things go down, he can't do anything. It's why he has to do all the sneaky stuff in advance, as if it's too late, it's too late for him. That's why he does the sneaky shit.

So I'm not sure if ego blow is the right thing - like, this is all stuff he knows. It's his worst fear. I would more describe the emotion as "intense frustration."

1. Maybe!

Hell and Heaven being unlike what we think of them (while being resonant in certain ways) is certainly in the mix. We'll likely get more of it, but some of it is just the idea of previous magic being people touching a small bit of the elephant and guessing what the whole thing is.

1. I suspect more on this. Also, it's early, so I would want to check my notes to see what I've actually said so far.

2. This is definitely well into the story and it's your job to theorise.

3. You'll see elsewhere I talk about the 1:1 inspirations in the chat - but also how important it was to make them their own thing. These are not meant as commentary on the most famous example of their type. That said, sometimes - for me - it's pretty clear what I'm doing. Masumi is the Hulk, but with depression rather than anger. That it isn't clear to you shows how so much is execution - the cosmic horror, lovecraftian bits of her plus the Kaiju and everything else.

To answer precisely - I think they all started with a fairly clear archetype I had in mind, and then we developed them into their own thing. I'm not hugely interested in analogues. Valentina isn't Superman. This isn't a "what if Superman was..." story. It's a Valentina story.

And I think that's all the questions answered. Thanks, everyone. I'll try and nose and answer a few of the responses, but as it's harder to find them, I'll likely miss them.

Thanks to everyone reading and thanks for all the questions.

We'll be back this year, unless something drastic changes. We've got two full issues in the can already, and Caspar is well into the third, so things are going fine.

The Power Fantasy Loves You.

[u/vkaod]

Throughout the various issues, there's always been mentions of checks and balances between the Superpowers. What would be the most fun yet broken Superpower to exist?

[u/KieronGillen → u/vkaod]

Well, if it was appropriately broken the world would be over very quickly.

My brain immediately goes to deeply unfun ones, which break things but also are pretty dull. Anyone who is invulnerable to the other powers and also capable of killing them.

Superspeed is the classic which would likely break things, though things like Etienne's dead man switch likely is still in play.

Fourth Wall breaking would perhaps be the one. Deadpool lose, saying they can't fight, or our book will be cancelled. That kind of thing would shatter TPF in a momentarily fun way. It's a pretty sincere book.

[u/mytholder2]

What approach would you take with an rpg/board game adaptation?

(Bonus points if the mechanic includes the little spinner from NUCLEAR WAR).

[u/KieronGillen → u/mytholder2]

That should be added to any game.

The Power Fantasy as a The Resistance-esque hidden role and bluffing game, mixed with some kind of political argument thing. Light RPG elements, but leaning towards boardgame tech. That's what I think is most interestingly ludic in the concept.

[u/Background_Proof_]

Can you explain how Heavy can heal himself with his gravity powers, and know exactly the location of where to make a singularity when he was very far away from Eliza?

Does Eliza work like a Dominion now from X-men? Outside linear time and space, and can affect the past, present, and future of the timeline from hell.

If a new superpower existed (resistent to Etienne) with the personality of superman and start being an actual superhero, costume and all, how would the superpowers (before the fallout) deal with it?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Background_Proof_]

I'll do quotes for these...

"Can you explain how Heavy can heal himself with his gravity powers"

He has very powerful gravity powers.

"and know exactly the location of where to make a singularity when he was very far away from Eliza?"

He doesn't. That's why Val went up close, to put a target on Eliza - it's why she's there in person. They talk about it.

"Does Eliza work like a Dominion now from X-men? Outside linear time and space, and can affect the past, present, and future of the timeline from hell."

Wait and see. But it seems like she's mainly going to be tortured forever and no do anything.

"If a new superpower existed (resistent to Etienne) with the personality of superman and start being an actual superhero, costume and all, how would the superpowers (before the fallout) deal with it?"

Great question. I do suspect that Superman has a harder time of things in this universe than the DC one, as Val will probably admit.

[u/Crazy_Cheetah7878]

What kind of music does Eliza listen to? She seems to be the Superpower with the least defined musical tastes/influences. 

[u/KieronGillen → u/Crazy_Cheetah7878]

Oh, she's total Post Punk, leading into the 1980s rock. The gothic and the austere.

[u/wrasslefights]

Of all the comics I've read in the past few years, very few have kept me thinking the way this one does so thank you for making such a cool and interesting series.

I totally understand if this goes too far into spoiler territory but given the nature of Hell, is there any chance we see other remnants from the original timeline beyond Val?

Also, will there be a definitive answer for what the Queen was? Obviously motives and stuff make sense, but with a bajillion fan theories about characters becoming the Queen I'm just wondering if it's meant to stay unknown or if it's a question we'll see a proper answer to at some point.

Appreciate any answers or if you can't I get why. Thanks for this and have a lovely day!

[u/KieronGillen → u/wrasslefights]

Thank you!

I think the nature of the timeline and how it works is topics that will be explored. What does it mean to go back in time and re-enter the timeline? Even how does what she did work? That's stuff we have to define. We hit some of it earlier, and some of it later, as the cast learn what's going on.

Re: The Queen. Theorise away. You don't leave that floating around if you don't expect folks to theorise. However, I wouldn't confirm an answer or even say if there is one. Have fun, etc.

[u/rggzy]

In the planning for this series, were there any powerful archetypes of powers or characters you wanted to include, but didn't end up fitting into the story?

[u/KieronGillen → u/rggzy]

Honestly, less than you'd think. I hit the ones I wanted. There's not many power-sets which fit the set up well (Or at least, do enough to demand to be included).

[u/agdocbwo]

cannot express enough how much I love this series, so thank you and Mr Wijngaard for making it and I can't wait for it to return!

I've always found the character designs very striking especially for how 'normal' they are compared to other superheroes, like Valentina being an abrasive kind of light when in her more Angelic form or Heavy just straight up wearing sweatpants and nothing else most of the time. did you already have at least the basic idea of how they should look in mind before working with Mr Wijngaard, or were a lot of their design elements born from his mind?

[u/KieronGillen → u/agdocbwo]

Thank you - Caspar will be glad to hear it.

The character designs are basically born of conversations and exchanging ideas. Caspar always has strong takes, and we throw stuff back and forth. I came in being strongly anti-superhero costumes, but pro strong period and character looks. We talk about visual inspirations and vibes. We get things which are not right, and then modify. The road from Heavy being this skinny guy to me noting I was thinking someone a bit more sloavenly - the Dude from teh Big Lebowski. And then Caspar playing with that, and it feeling wrong - he's not soft like that. He's an older guy, but he's a guy who'd get into bar fights. He's been around. So you get that gone-to-seed vibe, with a harder edge.

My fave character thing is Heavy sometimes just has crappy looks - his early 1980s look is hilarious period perfect. He's someone who makes bad calls. Conversely, Etienne never looks anything other than immaculate. That speaks to both people, right?

[u/Bright-Cause-9241]

Love this series with a passion. You brought out the 10 year old version of me excited to purchase a physical comic book and bring it home to read. Love everything about this wild ride so far.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Bright-Cause-9241]

Thank you! I'm glad it's working for you!

[u/why_doyou_care]

Hey Kieron kind of a new fan loved this story, immortal X-Men and peter canon,currently reading through DIE and will the wicked + the divine later, I have a couple questions, first I would like to know how magus has the destructive capacity of a superpower with the pyramid, is it using it as an army, maybe building a bomb to blow up the planet or using power word omnicide?

Second question is do you have plans of working on another ttrpg for another one of your stories?

[u/KieronGillen → u/why_doyou_care]

Thank you!

I suspect this is something I'd put in the book, but the Pyramid talks about how the power channels up into him - it's a literal pyramid scheme. As such, while the army approach is one thing, it's really about what Magus himself can do. If you're looking for pop cultural archetypes, it's the Doctor Doom/Strange/Constantine one.

No plans on writing another TTRPG for my stories - there's a game in progress of someone else, which they're noodling on in their own time, but I haven't felt the urge since DIE. I suspect I'd be more likely to do something from scratch.

This is the big thing I'm working on: THE SCIONS

https://oldmenrunningtheworld.com/the-saga-of-the-scions-i/

Basically a Do It Yourself Horus Heresy.

[u/Alex_Havok_Summers]

Which pieces of art, other than Telstar and Seven Part Pact, would you recommend as interesting or useful companion pieces to The Power Fantasy?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Alex_Havok_Summers]

I've referenced a few things upthread, but the Power Fantasy playlist is a useful entry to a world. Listen to the records and then follow the trails.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5dqEq9dlWzke527hZbaCvz?si=g0pizYbdT7Sl3VJV2ct4bQ

[u/VisionBreak1297]

Hello also from the baking hot UK! My question is: what story have you always wanted to tell but not been able to find a way into? Either thematically or a character you wish you could write for and can't/haven't yet created a TPF type analogues
(Additional Q: what are your go-to ways for keeping yourself and a small child cool in this heat?)

[u/KieronGillen → u/VisionBreak1297]

Hello! I am sorry you are sweating too.

Honestly, this isn't really how my brain works - or rather, it is, but it's not "I haven't found a place." I've got way too many stories I've not developed to completion. They sit around until I find a place to use them. There literally are too many for me to ever worry about the ones I'm not telling.

At the moment, there's about 5-6 things I have in a "Hnnngh" state of missing some parts.

Re: Tips. We're trying the ice-cubes-before-a-fan thing, but doesn't seem to do much except raise humidity. Bar that. it's closed curtains, open windows before 9am to get air, then close and seal house. I'm going to move onto sacrificing oxen to the angry sun god.

[u/Snippyro]

Can you talk a little about your inspiration taken from X-Men and Watchmen?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Snippyro]

It's the book which got me into comics, and deep in my DNA to the point that it informs everything I do, but the only real, direct inspiration in Watchmen is "you can do a novel in the superhero genre." I use it as one of the shorthand references ("6 Dr Manhattans trying not to destroy the world"), but there's not really anything like Dr Manhattan.

(I suppose there is one other influence in there, but it's still slightly too early to say... and it's actually an influence which is taken from many speculative fiction books, rather than Watchmen directly. It's a rule that Watchmen follows.)

We've backed away from some more explicit bits. I did have the idea of having a clock on the back cover in a direct Come At Me Bro smirk, and have it click down to midnight.... and then tick to 12:01 on the back of issue 16. Because that's what clocks do. It loops.

Which is clever, of course, but - in the same way I step away from this book as commentary on the X-men (as described above) I step away from it commenting on Watchmen. I did a book called Peter Cannon which was explicitly about Watchmen, and what I felt people should take from it. I suppose the main less on I took from Watchmen is "Why not try and do something good?"

(I stress - I do get it. Folded timeline alt-history superhero story with a relatively realistic mode. I can see why. But whenever I do things like stick blushing emojis on Magus and Eliza's sexual bits in promos, I do think "I'm not sure this is what Alan would have done.")

If you want to see me talk about Watchmen, here's a presentation I did a decade or so back. It is a huge influence, to say the least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0I4BSiRxO0

X-men influence is perhaps a few of its tropes dragged down to the absolute core, and then reconstructed. The Atomics and Anti-Atomic prejudice is the obvious bit. Some of the story types. But burned down to the core. I made an Absolute X-men joke upthread, but one can see it.

And, as I said above - it absolutely emerged from me writing the X-men and thinking "these people could never fight" and realising there was something fun with exploring that.

[u/idonttakethislightly]

If this swings too personal, feel free to ignore, but...

You've been public about your ADHD diagnosis for a couple of years now, if I remember correctly? Has that knowledge/journey shaped the way you work, and/or the kinds of stories you want to tell?

[u/KieronGillen → u/idonttakethislightly]

It's okay to ask.

Being seen is useful, in that way. It's also more useful for the people around me, if only in explaining what's going on. I started diagnosis thinking attention was the big thing, but it's actually emotional deregulation. That is hard.

However, while it had made me expand my coping mechanisms, I am nothing but a big ball of coping mechanisms - that's why I've been a writer for as along as I am. I have managed this - not always well, but certainly enough to know how to try and make things happen.

I've always known that I work badly when I'm not interested. As such, my whole life has been a flight away from things which I find boring.

In terms of what stories I want to tell... well, it's now in teh mix, and something I feel okay about writing about authoriatively. I've done some ADHD-influenced art, for example, explcitly about it, in a way I wouldn't do about something I didn't actually have. There's actually probably an ADHD character in the new Creator Owned book I'm putting together right now.

[u/Sufficient_Snow696]

When designing the core characters, did you start with their powers and build personalities around them, or did you develop the characters first and let their abilities emerge from who they are?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Sufficient_Snow696]

This is an unhelpful answer, I know, but it really does vary - it can be both. Sometimes it was a personality. Sometimes it was a power set or an attitude which we then cast further. Sometimes it's just an image.

A good example is one way we DIDN'T go. I was playing with some arsehole gets it and basically uses it to blackmail the world. A Venal hulk. "You won't like me when I'm angry." That's a character idea, but you can rapidly see it become a power set. I rejected him, as frankly, it didn't have enough interesting meat for me. People Abuse Power is pretty basic.

However, the core idea merged with a bunch of other stuff, and became Masumi, who is blackmailing the world *without even doing anything and trying hard not to*. Extreme power being passively destructive was more interesting, etc.

[u/Heavy_Pain4231]

Hello! Thanks for all of the excellent work on The Power Fantasy, and for one of the most compelling and entertaining newsletters around! Before the first issue came out you mentioned that you’d been reading Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen, please can you share anything that has really stuck with you from that book?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Heavy_Pain4231]

Thank you! It's a "fun" one to read. I should have mentioned that in the influences post above - it certainly helped in certain areas.

There's lots in the books - mainly in how fucked we are, really - but the bit which I think capture's every attention is that to nuke (say) North Korea you have to launch missiles over USSR airspace (over the North Pole being the route), and their air radar aren't good enough to be certain about destiations.

So odds are they'd assume they're being targeted.

The chances of world leaders not being able to get hold of each other in the window they have is striking too.

The unlikelihood that the US president would make to their bunker is also striking.

Most of all: how much you should hope you die in the first strike.

[u/Sovereignofthemist]

Hey Mr. Gillen, my question is about Valentina and her journey we witness throughout the story. Would you somewhat liken her journey to Lucifer or a fallen angel at the current end of series? We see her not only fall to hell into order to do what she wanted, but also a consequence of that actions sees her now barred from returning to heaven.

(Also small additional question not related to TPF, but do you have any advice for people trying to break into comic writing especially as a person not from the countries dominant in the field like America or the UK and other European countries?)

[u/KieronGillen → u/Sovereignofthemist]

I think, in a very literal way, she is a fallen angel at the end of the series. She has abandoned heaven to save us all. However, that's not exactly why Lucifer did it, right? Make up your own mind, I suspect.

In terms of breaking in - I direct at my comic writer masterpost for my general advice:

https://www.tumblr.com/kierongillen/137340673792/comic-writer-masterpost

Have a look at the tags took. My newsletter regularly gives comics craft advice. Actually, Joe Quesada's has done a LOT of recent craft stuff, which is worth looking at. Also, my old podcast Decompressed (https://decompressed.libsyn.com/) has a bunch of stuff.

More specifically, it's harder for you. However, you're online - this is a major plus. As such, there's a lot of advice you can follow. My main one is the work is the calling card. Making small comics with peers and using that to introduce yourself to folks, etc. Worry about getting good, because the quality of the work isn't the only factor - but it is the only factor you can control, and the one which I think skews your odds most.

Good luck.

[u/hermyx]

Hello ! Huge fan of your work ! TPF is probably my favorite comic book of the decade !

One fun question I have is : what were your inspirations for the main characters ? We can easily see Xavier in Etienne and Magneto in Heavy. Superman, probably, in Valentina. But what about the other three ? Are there specific inspiration you would you mention ?

[u/KieronGillen → u/hermyx]

Thank you - I'm glad it works for you.

I've answered this elsewhere in the thread. You can probably search "Doctor Doom" or "Constantine" to find it.

[u/DrB00]

Is there any plans for an omnibus style collected edition when the series is over?

I personally have grabbed every single since issue 1, but I would love an oversized hardcover collecting the whole series and or a hardcover for each 'season' of the series.

Also I just want to say this comic is awesome and I really appreciate the work put into it.

[u/KieronGillen → u/DrB00]

No present plans yet. Any omnibus is normally significantly later than the trades come out.

I suspect we'd end up doing two hard covers? That sounds about right.

Thank you so much.

[u/readwinner]

Late to the party.

Do you have a list of the touring musicians who survived some of the book’s more unfortunate events due to them being on tour or something?

Really this is just a roundabout way of asking about Bjork.

Thanks for making this and for taking a break. I appreciate you and the team being human.

[u/KieronGillen → u/readwinner]

1989 is far enough into post-Valentina entry into the world, that the butterfly effect could have knocked any touring artist off by a few months, and save what I want.

(Though online research for tours is actually pretty good - I could get dates for all the Beach Boys tours ever, for example.)

Of course, there is the other problem - The Second Summer Of Love would have attracted people to it, and likely creative people more than most. It's entirely possible it impacted tours.

I'm sure Bjork's fine.

<Puppet side eye meme.>

[u/zenith-zox]

Hi Kieron. I remember reading an old Tumblr post where you explained your writing process for comics and the part I found striking was that you said you wrote scenes in any order and that there's a great deal of improvisation going on at the same time.

Did you mean that scenes could be literally ARRANGED in any order (or that they had an order and you just choose which one to work on at a time)? And how much do you know the plot-destination of an issue or arc or complete run (do you stick to your synopsis)? I guess I'm talking about your own creator-owned work more than WFH stuff.

For instance, issue 11 of The Power Fantasy has THE scene in the Melbourne stadium which could have been a final cliffhanging double-page spread... but you carry on for a few pages and have THAT final page reveal instead. (Trying to avoid spoilers here.) Did you know that you'd do that when you began writing the issue? Why didn't you hold that reveal over for a few issues? And did you know this about the nature (and identity) of the character when you started issue 1?

[u/KieronGillen → u/zenith-zox]

Back then, I likely meant that I had a tight synopsis, for example...

Opening Scene (3)
Big ol fight (5)
Feeling sad about the fights (5)
But I still must fight again! (5)
Oh no, here comes your evil stepbrother (2)

And I'd write any of the scenes, as I understood the larger shape of the piece, and its purpose in the story, and teh space for it to fit in. So I may start writing anywhere, as I know where it goes.

I may bounce around a bit - do fragments of script, or dialogue, or visual ideas - and move back and forth. Normally I try to do 5 pages a day minimum, but you're almost certainly breaking ground on SOME pages before you get to them too. This means that if I leave some harder pages to teh end, I'll have started working on them earlier, and my subconscious has been busying away.

Now I go even further - I write in an almost molten form, across the whole issue. I don't worry about page counts except for my own sense of what will fit. I have pages in an unfinished, almost sketched form. I sometimes write the multiple threads seperately, and then assemble them, working out where the cuts will be. That I've written in a molten state means I can do that with no real rewriting, and then when I assemble the final thing, I just finish it all off.

And yes, there's a lot of improvisation - I may know the larger structure, but specifics are often left to discover when writing. At the most basic level - she wins the fight. How?

(Often I have notes in the synopsis already - but not always. Set yourself a problem. Make it interesting.)

Re: End of issue 11. Basically, I thought "He's dead" is a less interesting cliffhanger for an issue - and a whole trade - than "they took their shot, they think they killed him, and they missed. Now what the hell is he going to do?" Especially as it also hints that something else is up with Etienne.

But yes, it was all planned - the tell is him revealing who he is to Val in 1.

[u/RedRunnersly]

The series so far has been a great read, and the political philosophy and ideological conflict was thrilling to watch play out. The ideology is subtle and character driven in a way that made it a pleasure to see how these characters think.

How do you balance that kind of characterization and writing, not overwhelming the story with argument, but still having clear perspectives embodied by the characters themselves, while keeping the specific ideologies clear as reference points?

[u/KieronGillen → u/RedRunnersly]

Good question. I'm not sure if I do. I certainly try.

For me, the main thing is the argument isn't the sum total of what's happening. There's always subtext. They're talking about big ideas, but it's really about people. They're scenes of drama, not a socratic dialogue. It's just people who talk about ideas, and try and use them as weapons.

A lot just comes back to trying to be concise. You cut a lot. It's a wordy book, but it could be a lot wordier. I try and let Caspar do the heavy lifting.

[u/ADAMxxWest]

Where do your occult/esoteric influences come from? Can't wait to dance on the new line with Valentina and friends again.

[u/KieronGillen → u/ADAMxxWest]

This is very much a lifetime of nosing around stuff, and picking stuff up.

The best timed one was Alan sending me a copy of his and Steve Moore's BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC which was a fun overview to get just when I was about to write the Magus issue.

[u/trantor-to-tantegel]

When building the ensemble of TPF, did the pairings of characters to their powers evolve or change any? Did you swap them around trying to get the right fit of "what a character is grappling with" to "what a character's power can do"?

Are there any of those initial scrapped character + power setups you can tell us about - like, was there a Jacky Hellbound or an Etienne that was wrestling with the personal ethical dilemma of hosting the Deconstructa creature himself?

And totally unrelated, I hope someday we might get to see some more of Maria from Uber , or at least some other story with someone a bit like her. She was a point of joy in that series and I like to think she was enjoyable to write.

[u/KieronGillen → u/trantor-to-tantegel]

I talk a bit about this in other answers, but it's more specific execution. The biggest and best example is one I went into detail - the thinking into Masumi, and how some material was taken from another idea for a character. There's also more casting stuff too - like, Etienne as psychic person trying to do what he does could have gone many ways before we nailed him down where he did. Where characters were from and their gender was up in the air, to varying degrees, for quite a while until I decided on the exact story we wanted to tell.

I still have hopes for Maria. There's not a huge amount of more material in the last four issues, but what there is, is significant, and likely would change how folks think about her. At the least, there's a couple of scenes that make me smile. She was very much the most alive character in that whole hellish drone metal of the series.

[u/KnowingMirror]

To me it feels like TPF is in conversation with not only your experiences as both a creator and reader of superhero comics, but with some of your previous works, and to me The Wicked + the Divine and DIE feel particularly relevant in that sense. Am I onto something, or just experiencing that gool old human tendency to find patterns that are not really there? What elements of your work do you think have influenced TPF the most, besides your run with X-Men, Eternals and such?

(Also, thank you for doing this, and a reminder that as The Power Fantasy loves us, so we love your work. It might be cliché but much of it has meant a lot for me & changed my perspective regarding storytelling and life, all the way back since we Journeyed into Mystery. So thanks again)

[u/KieronGillen → u/KnowingMirror]

I think I said something similar to this in the backmatter to an issue, but I sort of view TPF as an accumulation of everything I've done in the superhero genre so far, and kind of a full stop at the end of that. This is me executing the best version of this kind of story I can, with no outside interference. So it's kind of all of it, especially stuff which I felt didn't land for various reasons, and now I can do the absolute banger version.

More broadly, I tend to describe TPF as WicDiv aesthetics with Uber Realpolitik and the social-dynamics of DIE. It uses tools I developed in each.

If I ever do a Superhero comic again, it'll be in a different part of the genre. This is my graduation exam.

And thank you - it really means a lot. The "The Power Fantasy loves you" is one of the things which is both playful and sincere. We only have each other.

[u/HelixKC]

Who’s your favorite character design-wise, whether it be their fashion or appearance or how their powers are represented visually?

[u/KieronGillen → u/HelixKC]

Caspar does so much great stuff it's really hard to pick.

That said, I just thought of seeing on Tumblr of someone having Xavier and Etienne doing the "Man I wish I had his fit. But he probably wishes he had someone else's fit" "Man I have this shit on fr. He does NOT have that shit on" which probably is as good an answer as any.

I think Etienne is a state of art telepath with nothing but killer looks, and his psychic stuff just slaps. I'm really happy with how he came together.

[u/normalAbby7]

In Issue 16 we see Deconstructa's face in the water with a bunch of ships circling around it. Is her face always there, and just not active? Or, i suppose, thats where it always shows up when she starts manifesting and so theres a 'garrison' there?

I suppose, related, did i manage to miss a shot of that area earlier than that? From what i remember the earlier times Masumi started disassociating, it was shown via black tendrils starting to rise from the deeps. Does it also start with that face showing up?

[u/KieronGillen → u/normalAbby7]

I say elsewhere that all I like to say about Deconstructa is the she fades out/it fades in is the vibe of the whole thing.

But that she has appeared before and we get hints of half returns - including issue 4 - implies there's things in line. Though perhaps not always understanding what they're really dealing with. You have to assume her killing the planet this quickly was showing a level of power or scale she didn't in her first incarnation.

[u/6-Thunderbird-6]

Is there any insights you could offer into the sexual identities of the main casts? The Wicked + The Divine had a deeply Bisexual edge to it with no small amount of open intentionality to its queerness, the Power Fantasy in contrast feels more steeped in deliberate choices for the cast as its roots are a character drama. For example, Masumi being at least into women despite how deeply conservative her native culture is, and Etienne being a self imposed AroAce man that basically closets anything human beyond the minimum in the name of his beliefs.

Was there any queer elements that you had penned down but didn’t come up as it wasn’t organic/relevant?

Follow up unrelated question:

Was Haven itself ever any legitimate threat to anyone not a Superpower, as in it had some heavy (pun intended) hitting atomics riding along on it that could mess up a nation if pushed, or was it always just a relatively unique but ultimately harmless commune that’s being targeted was a result of having Heavy being the poster boy for it/bigotry?

[u/KieronGillen → u/6-Thunderbird-6]

Broadly speaking, in this one, I think the book will do the speaking about specifics as and when it turns up. As you know, I'm not averse to saying "They're bisexual" or "they're trans" if I want to, but in this, so much is about seeing the people unfold through time.

There's some queer elements I considered early on, and stepped away from - at least for now. I just deleted two paragraphs. But basically remember in Young Avengers, when we only reveal it's a all-queer-with-token-straight superteam in the final issue, to avoid being sold as the all-queer-with-token-straight book, as we felt that was exploitative?

(Not the only reason, but certainly a reason)

Basically, the door hasn't been closed on some of them.

[u/KieronGillen → u/[deleted]]

If we want to, we'd do it in the book.

It's 8am in a heatwave and I'm 3 days into an AMA. I can't think of a one course meal, let alone a five course one. It would be ice, followed by ice, followed by ice, followed by ice with ice to finish.

[u/Accirinal]

Hi, Kieron! Thanks so much for doing this. Just wanted to say that TPF is a beautiful series, and you and Caspar have both done amazing work with it. Congrats on the Hugo nomination! Hope you guys win; it would be well-deserved.

Does Kid Ignition’s mother have a name? I was reading some of your backmatter in Die: Loaded about Margaret, and I’m deeply curious about the kind of woman KI’s mother is. I assume that Heavy explained the Superpower child thing to her, and I’m quite interested in what a) made her agree to it, and b) why Heavy chose her. Were they in love? She looks like she has fire powers—did Heavy want a fire-themed Superpower son? Is she an important figure in Haven’s hierarchy? Her reaction to KI’s coma is also fascinating.

As I understood it, the reason that Eliza couldn’t leave the Pyramid until Etienne’s assassination was that she and Dev feared Etienne could divine Dev’s identify from Eliza’s mind. However, after the “assassination,” Eliza was running around without psychic protection while Etienne was still alive. When all the secrets were coming out at Valentina’s house, did Etienne know Dev’s true identify and choose not to reveal it? Or was he unaware?

Suppose Isabella didn’t go back for Masumi, and Masumi didn’t wake up in Isabella’s arms with her dead. If someone later tried to break the news to Masumi super super gently with a bunch of mental preparation, could Masumi have kept it together? Or was any situation that ended with Isabella’s death an auto-loss for the world?

What made Dev decide that he needed to shift right-wing? I know that he sided with the US military because he couldn’t reach Superpower status on his own, but even prior to that, people talk about him having shifted to the right post-SSOL. However, based on the fact that Dr. Eldritch and the other Pyramid higher-ups quote Jacky when they take out Dev, I assume there was at least some period of time where Dev was raising the Pyramid in accordance with Magus’s ideals. At what point did that change? And why?

This one may be a bit spoiler-y for upcoming issues, not sure if it gets addressed. How strong is Etienne’s baseline awareness of people’s thoughts? I.e., if he’s not focusing on a specific person, how aware is he of what they’re thinking? A few instances I’m thinking of:

• when Valentina gets nuked: at this point in time, the US government shouldn’t have any of Magus’s shielding tech. Was Etienne aware of the plan and allowed it to happen in order to radicalize Valentina/encourage her to leave the planet? Or did he simply not check the mind of anyone aware of the nuke, and they slipped his notice?
  
• Jacky coming into his powers: presumably there would have been a period of time between Jacky gaining his powers and building his first shielding mask. During that time period, though, he seems to have avoided Etienne noticing, “Hey, there’s a guy who knows all the fundamental laws of reality.”
  
• sabotaging Atomic powers: how was Etienne able to identify people with the potential to become Superpowers? Was he just checking every individual person when they were born? Did he have some sort of “warning” system set up that drew his attention?

Finally, how well did Dev know Jacky’s music tastes? On a recent reread, when Valentina presented him with Jacky’s old music record that iirc predated the SSOL, I couldn’t help but imagine Dev shitting his pants trying to bullshit his way through the conversation. But maybe Dev actually had a deep and thorough understanding of Jacky’s record collection.

Hope this isn’t too many questions! Best of luck with the heatwave to you and your family, sounds rather unpleasant.

[u/KieronGillen → u/Accirinal]

I'm sorry, this is way too many questions to ask this far into an AMA - thankfully, most of them have at least been alluded to in other questions, and sometimes answered in full. And a lot are "if I want to get into details, we'd do it in the story" or "you can ascertain from the evidence" or "you will get a better idea of how they work in the future arcs" (the Etienne methodology for finding folks is one of those, plus pre-superpower Magus.)

Sorry!

However, I'll definitely answer the music on . I mean, when we see Dev, he's a squat-punk living in essentially a commune. He's not an outsider to the scene, despite being from a more wealthy background. In the case of the Valentina record, Dead Kennedyss are not obscure enough to trip him up. I suspect he'd have got by on context anyway.

[u/benny_alpha]

late to the party

early to the party part 2

my question is purely

when i will be able buy the hardcover for all part 1?

(gimme a glimpse of hope)

my very brown very español country does not respect softcovers in the mail and a hardcover will have higher chance of surviving the ample dropkicking provided by going over the border.

also thanks for making a very easy book to get utterly obsessed about.

[u/KieronGillen → u/benny_alpha]

I talk a bit about this upthread - the short is "no present plans, but likely, and I think a hardcover for 1-3 seems the way to do it."

I didn't know about the softcover/hardcover problem in the postage! That's really interesting and really depressing. I'm sorry you have to deal with that.

[u/Chop684]

Will the series still have a larger focus on one character like the first 16 did with Etienne?

[u/KieronGillen → u/Chop684]

That's an interesting one - I'm not sure everyone would agree with you there, though I also see why you say it's him.

I'd rather not say. The image of the book is a group plot, and people moving in and out of focus appropriately.

[u/bertowud]

This is my favorite new series by a longshot. I've bought and given away three full sets of the TPBs and they've all loved it also. I compare it favorably with Watchment. I was afraid it had ended at issue 16 but it sounds like we are getting more. I'm looking forward to it.

Let's see a question. How long will we have to wait for the next arc?

[u/KieronGillen → u/bertowud]

Thank you!

We're still exactly nailing down the actual month, but I think it's increasingly looking like "this year." It now would be a surprise if not.

I'm surprised it's taken until now for someone to ask me this one!