War Rocket Ajax #136: Cullen Bunn Talks ‘Fearless Defenders’

This week on the War Rocket Ajax podcast, writer Cullen Bunn joins us to talk about his just-announced project with Will Sliney, Fearless Defenders! We discuss why Valkyrie and Misty Knight are awesome and whether his work will be Roy Thomas-approved, and you can hear the whole show right here at ComicsAlliance!War Rocket Ajax #136: Green Jelly Soundtrack with Cullen Bunn

(WARNING: Contains NSFW language)

We are available on iTunes! Click here to find ComicsAlliance Presents War Rocket Ajax in iTunes, where you can subscribe and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!

You can also stream the show using the player above, or download it in MP3 format from WarRocketAjax.com.

In this week's episode, Matt has returned from a triumphant visit to his alma mater, while Chris is predictably fascinated with a DVD of MegaForce, Hal Needham's classic story of a phantom army of fighting men.

When Cullen joins us, he talks a little about the genesis of the book:

Nobody believes me when I say this. I did not sit down and say "Well I'm going to come up with a book with an all-female team, because I think that's what's going to sell a comic book." This book came together when I was working on Fear Itself: The Fearless, and this is an idea I had then. It was an idea that I thought could tell some great stories, and I could work with some characters that I really wanted to work with, and do something that was a little different. It just so happened that the concept would lend itself to an all-female cast, that being that this is Valkyrie assembling a new team of Shield Maidens. She's putting it together not with the women of Asgard, but with the women of Midgard.

Valkyrie's a tough character. She's always been this brute, she's the lady with the sword. There's obviously more to her, and I think it's just a matter of finding the right vehicle to tell her story.

When we started working on Fear Itself: The Fearless, of which Valkyrie was the protagonist, it was not going to be a Valkyrie book. She was not on the table as the main character, she just came out of left field as we were brainstorming what we were going to do. It was going to be Gambit at one point leading the story, it was going to be Domino leading the story. These are characters that weren't even in the same area as Valkyrie. I was always a fan of her from the old Defenders days, but when she came up, I realized I didn't know a thing about her. Then I realized that was actually the beauty of the character. I had the opportunity to really define the character in that series, and this is the natural progression of that.

Matt's Rec: Indie Game: The Movie

Chris's Rec: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Comics Reviewed:

Suicide Squad #14: "It's gotten to the point where I can't tell what's supposed to be funny and what's not in this book, so I'm just going to choose to believe that it's all not very good."

Batman #14: "The thing that I don't necessarily love about this particular issue is how much it feels like table setting compared to last issue. This one is essentially the Joker repeating that he's going to try to kill the Batman family yet again. It feels like an issue that draws out the event."

Saga #7: "If you haven't read it, just read it. It's great."