Tim O'Shea from Robot 6 recently had the chance to speak with Christopher Yost, Story Editor for
The Avengers: Earths's Mightiest Heroes. Of course they discussed just what the job demands of Yost and also his involvement with
X-Men: Evolution.
What follows is the portion of the interview covering the shows characters...
In a recent Marvel.com piece, you said: “Clint Barton for me is the one guy that if he’s not there, it’s not really the Avengers.” Can you talk a little bit more about why you feel that way about Hawkeye–and how you have been able to convey that sentiment in your use of the character in the show?
Well, you generally need one of the big three as well, but honestly… In my mind, Hawkeye’s the fourth of the big three. To me, if the team is Black Knight, Sersi, Doctor Druid, Photon and Namor, I’m skeptical – and obviously I love those characters, I mean two of my top five are in there. But you could just as easily call them the Defenders or something. But throw Hawkeye in that mix, and it’s the Avengers again.
He’s the guy you or I could be, if we worked hard enough. Iron Man is similar, but his armor is one step past reality. Not Hawkeye. He’s got the attitude…. he’s a normal guy, standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods, and he’ll get right in their faces. He’s the Han Solo of the team.
Again, Marvel.com in that post, got you to rank your top five Avengers, call me greedy, but can you tell me who you would rank 6-10 (to make your top 10)?
Ms. Marvel. Hercules. Black Panther. Wonder Man/Beast (combo!). Vision.
I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly you introduced Captain Mar-Vell to the series. But it looks like this Captain is not going to be the blond-haired variety that long-time fans know. Can you talk abut the approach to the character for the series?
Honestly, Captain Marvel was kind of after my time. I never had any real great love for him, but I did like his red and blue costume. Plus, I’m a Mark Gruenwald Quasar guy. But I did love the Ultimate Secret version of the Captain Marvel character, that Warren Ellis and Steve McNiven did. Which we pretty wholly lifted for the show. He felt alien, he felt military, and he felt cool. Not a super hero, but an alien warrior/scientist, here to examine us more than anything… and then fell in love, something unheard of in the militaristic, science fascism of the Kree Empire.
Aliens that look exactly like humans are a bit boring/improbable, no offense to anyone. Plus, we’ve got a few blue-eyed blondes going as it is. So there were all kinds of factors going into ‘blue guy’ Mar-Vell.
Developing a new series, you get to use characters and situations in a far different way than Stan, Jack and the gang did. How enjoyable is it to get to use Nick Fury and the whole SHIELD dynamics in the Avengers?
It’s pretty great, to be honest. I’ve said many a day that I think of this as a Marvel Universe show, with the Avengers as our guides. So bringing in Nick and SHIELD was high on the list. Everyone in the production has such a great love of them, too… [supervising director] Ciro Nieli and his team really went back to the comics that made all this great and tried to bring it all to life.
The Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes airs Sunday mornings at 10:00 AM ET on Disney XD.
Hawksblueyes: To check out the rest of this interview click on the link below.