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Brian Wood Thinks Saving The Environment Is A Massive Job

by Vince Brusio

Saving the world is not something that lets you live a life where you punch the clock, put in your eight hours, and go back to a home-cooked meal. It’s a job that never ends, and in this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview Brian Wood shows us that in The Massive: Ninth Wave #1 (OCT150021) when saving the world means taking on the environment and those who profit from its destruction the past needs just as much maintenance as the future.

The Massive: Ninth Wave #1 (OCT150021) is in comic shops December 9.

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Article Image 4480PREVIEWSworld: You’re coming fresh off Rebels with another story for The Massive. Did Rebels help give you a breather, or were you working on both books simultaneously?

Brian Wood: A little bit simultaneously.  There’s no breather for me in comics!  I’m always just a little bit overbooked.   I’ve also been writing Starve over at Image, and working on some television pilots.

PREVIEWSworld: The solicitation reminds fans that before the book’s characters were trying to repair the world, they were “the preeminent global environmental-rescue unit, taking on criminals, polluters, politicians, and rogue states.”  Will this story, then, show what pressure points have to be identified to make such societal changes?

Brian Wood: Each issue of Ninth Wave is a done in one story, and it’s pretty much a straight action book with some political intrigue mixed in.   The adversaries range from white-collar industrial polluters to war criminals to poachers and pirates, and even some rogue eco-activists. 

I think taken as a whole it shows this team making a difference on a ground-level, case-by-case basis.  The big sweeping societal stuff, that’s more about what The Massive is about.

Article Image 68c3PREVIEWSworld: What blanks are you looking to fill in with The Massive: Ninth Wave? Does this bridge take us somewhere that leads to another story arc?

I’ve known for some time that I wanted to do some Massive prequel stories, if only for me, since during The Massive I kept making references to what the characters were like in the past, what sort of lives they had before “The Crash,” the environmental crisis that kicked off that series.  We never got to actually SHOW that stuff, though, which I always felt bummed about.  So this is a chance to do that, to fill in that gap, but most importantly to show the Ninth Wave team pulling off some kick ass environmental rescue missions. 

Brian Wood: I don’t think this leads to more stories, but I might be wrong. The Massive ended pretty definitively, but there is one gleaming path forward if we ever wanted to do a proper sequel.  I guess we’ll see.

Article Image 1ba2PREVIEWSworld: How much time has elapsed since the last story was released? How can we view the timeline of events in Ninth Wave in relation to past events?

Brian Wood: It’s a prequel, so Ninth Wave predates The Massive on the fictional time line, and it does by maybe 10 years or so.  The Massive takes place more or less in the now, so that would put Ninth Wave in the late 90’s – early 00’s.

It’s designed to stand alone, but obviously it’s a richer experience if you already know the characters, if you know what they’ve become.

PREVIEWSworld: What helps to inspire you when you sit down to write The Massive? How is this book an extension of you?

Brian Wood: I think as a writer this is the type of material that defines me, going all the way back to the ‘90s and my first book Channel Zero.  Since then I’ve always worked on political books, books with a strong message of social justice and awareness, and this is just a continuation of that.

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I’m inspired by everything, from the news to living in my city and to the books I read, a combination of historical non-fiction and political thrillers.  I think if I had to name one inspiration it would have to be history.  It does, as the saying goes, repeat itself, and there’s endless ways to connect the past to the present, and to the future.  Great stuff for a writer to work with.

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