Though Wein’s name may not be on the lips of cinemas goers, it probably should be. Without him there would be no X-Men (at least the beloved version in which he introduced us to the likes of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and a diminutive little Canadian scrapper called Wolverine). Swamp Thing would have remained up the bog without a paddle and almost every comic book hero you can think of would have had a slightly less interesting history.
“I started reading comics when I was about seven years old. I was a very sickly kid and I was in hospital. My father, God rest him, bought me a big stack of comic books. That was the point I became a ‘fan’,” Len explains. “When I was in the Eighth Grade ( about the equivalent to the first years of UK Secondary Education) I was taking an art class and I drew a picture of a shark which my teacher said was really good and that I actually had artistic talent. That was the moment where I went ‘Wait! If I can draw, maybe I can be a comic-book artist!’ That was the literally the turning point of my life - where I decided I COULD be a comic book professional. I became an art major, studied art in high school and in college. I drew all these stories, took them up to DC Comics to show them how good an artist I’d become… and they liked what I had WRITTEN (laughs). Thus, a career took a left hand turn!”
History does not record the artistic gems we’ve lost to that decision but it does note the writing we got in its place. It’s an impressive list by any standards. Len’s first professional work was in December 1968 and a tale called ‘Eye of the Beholder’, featured in Issue 18 of DC’s Teen Titans. He was partnered with regular co-writer and equal legend in the making Marv Wolfman with whom he has continued to have a life-long friendship. This was quickly followed by work on the horror anthology The House of Secrets (also DC) and similar themed titles Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness for Marvel Comics. Realising he could tackle a whole host of genres he soon found himself on titles as diverse as Secret Hearts (romance), Hot Wheels (a toy tie-in) and westerns such as The Bravados and The Sundance Kid. He even penned comic book tie-ins to the Twilight Zone and Star Trek. And he was only just beginning to boldly go...
In 1972 Wein teamed up with legendary horror artist Bernie Wrightson to bring DC a contemporary version of the Swamp Thing concept. They’d worked on a short story about the character of the same name in House of Secrets #92, but DC wanted them to expand on the idea of a cursed scientist-turned-Bayou-being. An updated version saw a scientist, Alec Holland, ‘killed’ by his enemies but transformed into a creature at one with the swamps of Louisiana. He looked for vengeance against those who had attacked him and murdered his family and also for a way to become human again. Later, Alan Moore, another industry great, would take the concept and take the environmental elements even further. A pre Nightmare on Elm Street Wes Craven also turned it into a movie.
.jpg)
“I think you hope anything you write will be well received but I never sat down to write ‘ a success’. I was surprised that a short story, designed to be a one-shot story, found the audience it eventually found,” Len smiles. “ The ‘House of Secrets’ issue turned out to be their best-selling book that month, out-selling the superhero titles. Bernie and I had such an emotional attachment to the original short story and how it resonated with certain things in our own lives, that we didn’t want to muddy the waters as an ongoing series. DC’s publisher Carmine Infantino pushed us for the best part of a year and then I woke up one morning and had that light-bulb go on and realised that I didn’t have to write a sequel to the original story, I could simply start over with the same essential premise.”
Over his career Len has not only taken turns with Batman, Superman, Spider-man, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Justice League, Iron Man and Thor but also served as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics itself from 1974-1975. He acknowledges that while the position is an important one, every person who has held it faces somewhat impossible challenges.
“Yes, it’s a tremendous responsibility and I think it’s why there was such a frequent turnover at Marvel over the years. People get burned out trying to make everyone happy - and the bottom line is that you never can. Whatever decisions you make regarding the characters… some portion of the audience will think it’s the worse decision you’ve ever made. You can’t win,” he nods.
In 1975 the decision came to relaunch The X-Men with a new roster, Len and artist Dave Cockrum revived the idea first established by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It’s hard to believe now but up until that point The X-Men were characters and a title that had proved far from Uncanny. The original title had largely faded from view five years earlier, going into reprints. The ‘75 revamp, which mixed some of the original X-Men line-up with a range of new characters, though arguably as innovative as its predecessor, was not expected to do as phenomenally well as it did. With Len and David initially creating the stories and visuals and Chris Claremont adding some scripting touches to the dialogue, it began a surge of popularity that arguably has lasted through the decades since.
“We were being asked to revive the group as an international gang of superheroes. The theory at the time was that Marvel’s books were selling around the world in many other countries and the thought was that ‘maybe we can increase the sales in certain countries if we had a superhero from that country in the book,” Len explains. “Unfortunately no-one ever gave us a list of which countries we should be aiming for, so we kinda winged it on our own (laughs). Marvel was kinda gung-ho with the idea of reviving the group as a superhero version of a black-ops.”
One of the characters considered for the line-up was Wolverine, the Canadian secret agent / superhero whom Len had created for an issue of The Incredible Hulk.
“We just thought it would be good to have someone like that in the book. There was no limitation given to us about who we should or should not include. My idea of Wolverine - and this was before the X-Men book, obviously - that he ‘became’ a mutant on the assumption that whoever ended up taking The X-Men would have a Canadian mutant sitting around and available should they choose to use him. The fact that I turned out to be the person… well I was thrilled… I just made my life easier!”
The success that followed was legendary and while Spider-man may have remained the public face of Marvel success, the X-Men became the poster-children for a new generation of comic book readers and the symbol of any disenfranchised group facing prejudice in the ‘real’ world. It was the perfect metaphor for the very demographic Marvel needed to enthral.
“History decides if you succeeded or not - I don’t think you ever know for sure,” Len offers when asked if the success was down to the concept, the timing or - more likely - a combination of the two. “ I mean, I’ve created characters who have been flops as well. You try, every time, to create someone who has a resonance with the audience. If you’re lucky, you hit more often than you miss. I think, ultimately, you always come back to familiar themes with characters. The fact that The X-Men still resonate with an audience after forty years is a huge accomplishment. I think the characters have something that speaks to people of every generation.”
It’s tempting to think that comics must be suffering in a modern era where the influx of new fans is often redirected to the games-consoles, television and multimedia entertainment. And while its true that comics are currently having to fight for their audience, it’s clear that there’s something fundamentally attractive about a medium that has a breadth of possibilities and a need to be held in the hand, rather than merely viewed on a screen.
“I think part of the answer to that is they adapt to the times. There are now comics online - the fact that the internet is there HASN’T scuttled comics. In fact, it’s given other people that opportunity to present their comics to the public. The marketplace evolves as necessary. We are a niche market now. If we don’t grow our audience radically, there’ll be a problem. In the old days when there was a comic book movie, the sales of that comic title would increase tremendously because people would come in and go ‘oooo, I want that!’. Now people simply remember the comic of their youth and the comics continue to sell to comic fans. Part of our concern as creators, certainly my concern, is that my audience is ageing like I am… so where ARE the next generation of comic book readers coming from? Much of that is going to the Internet. We may find that in fifteen or twenty years that the majority of comics will not be on paper anymore, but simply on the Internet.”
Len offers the observation that some of the key names in comics are now moving into key positions in Hollywood. Neil Gaiman has Stardust and Beowulf and Coraline in multiplexes. Mark Millar has had Wanted and Kick-Ass on the big screen. Equally the executives signing the deals grew up on the comics to begin with...
“The geek has won! (laughs) The comic fan is what the movie-makers of today were yesterday. That’s why so many of these characters are finding their way to the big screen. Also, technology has finally caught up and what once could ONLY be done in comic books thirty years ago, can now be done in films as well. I hope I’ll be adding to that selection..."
Len Wein was originally interviewed for Impacts #196 and #197
The Wolverine opens in cinemas this Thursday...
