Straczynski and Deodato Are Launching ‘The Resistance’ Comic For AWA

Straczynski and Deodato Launching The Resistance Comic For AWA

Next year, writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Mike Deodato Jr. will once again join forces for what could be their boldest project yet. Via The Hollywood Reporter, the creative team is gearing up to debut The Resistance, which kicks off a new comic book universe for Artists, Writers & Artists.

Artists, Writers & Artisans was launched earlier this year by former Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and former Marvel publisher Bill Jemas. The pair aren’t exactly strangers to JMS and Deodato. Nearly two decades ago, Alonso and Jemas worked with the pair during their Amazing Spider-Man run. However, this new venture isn’t going to be anything like the average superhero story.

The Resistance begins after a worldwide pandemic that slaughtered hundreds of millions, but also endowed some survivors with extraordinary abilities. These newly enhanced individuals will be shown struggling with their powers while those in positions of authority develop their own agendas. According to Straczynski, the book’s globe-spanning backdrop is completely new to the comic medium.

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Straczynski also explained what sets AWA’s universe apart from the pantheons of superheroes made famous by other publishing companies.

“DC and Marvel are products of the times that produced them,” said Straczynski. “DC, which came to prominence in the ’40s and ’50s, a very conservative time, was peopled largely by authority figures: Batman is a cop, Superman’s a cop, Green Lantern is an interstellar cop, Hawkman is another interstellar cop, Flash is a cop-scientist, and so on. Marvel hit its stride during the anti-authoritarian ’60s, and that’s reflected by its heroes: the Hulk and Thor answer to no one, Spider-Man is a kid, the X-Men are on the run from the government… you get the idea. Those were the paradigms then.”

He went on to describe the backdrop of The Resistance‘s story.

“Governments can track down who survived and who didn’t for their own purposes,” noted Straczynski. “Corporations want them, some are frightened by them or upset that they survived while other family members did not. It’s a story told against a huge, planetary backdrop that explores what would happen in the real world if 15-20 million people with powers suddenly emerged out of the population.”

You can check out the cover art for The Resistance’s first issue along with six pages of sample artwork below.

Are you excited to learn what JMS and Deodato are cooking up for AWA’s comic universe? Give us your impressions in the comment section!

Recommended Reading – Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski Omnibus Vol. 1