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Whether you're a comic book newbie or a grizzled auld reader who has been protecting longboxes from the jaws of silverfish and other pests for decades now, you can probably agree that there is immense value in a standalone story with a classic character like Batman, Spider-Man, or Superman. These are the stories where continuity isn't a hurdle, or even a factor at all. They offer bold new creative interpretations of the characters we all know and love. But paradoxically, for Ultimate Spider-Man writer Jonathan Hickman, the creative singularity of these stories is so distinct that they sometimes creep into the mainline status quo. 

Speaking to Popverse about his time writing Ultimate Spider-Man, Hickman was asked if this series was intended to be a statement about how the mainline Spider-Man has remained unchanged for so many years. 

"Well, it’s just a story. And Marvel will tell thousands and thousands of stories, and obviously the preference is that we maintain our IP in a certain position that is the most accessible and the most profitable, that's the reality of our business, right? That's our responsibility to the company," Hickman says.

Case in point, Hickman's Wolverine: Revenge mini-series, penciled by Greg Capullo. After the lofty ideas of Hickman's Krakoan era, which, while great, didn't exactly offer the opportunity to tell straightforward, slice-and-dice Wolverine stories, Wolverine: Revenge precisely embodies what Hickman is talking about here. You can't really get more of an "accessible" Wolverine story than Wolverine: Revenge. 

"Where the guys across the street [DC Comics] have done a fantastic job over the decades is taking those institutions and every once in a while looking at it through a very different prism," the writer continues. "And you get what is a standalone evergreen book like Superman: Red Son or something like that, right, where you're not shitting on the character, you're not destroying the character, you're just saying, you know, it's a glorified ‘What If…?’ story. But it's done in such a way, and it's done as a complete thought."

There is plenty of evidence that supports Hickman's claim here. The popularity of books like DCeased, Arkham Asylum, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Kingdom Come, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, The New Frontier, and more all offer a complete, concise vision for familiar characters. Full disclosure, I'm more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan, so I'll admit that I'm a bit biased when I say that DC's Elseworlds stories have given me the impression over the years that the company is more comfortable with their fans understanding when something is canon and a story is a no-holds-barred creator-driven exploration than Marvel is. And I would like for this impression to change. 

Continuing, Hickman said, "And it is almost like a feedback loop into the other thing where - Dark Knight Returns suddenly is such a powerful vision of the character that it seeps into the main continuity of the character."

We can see this in instances such as Barbara Gordon, who got shot in the spine in Batman: The Killing Joke. It was such a shocking moment that her spinal injury and subsequent paralysis were integrated into DC canon afterwards. 

"So I don't know. Don't know what Spider-Man is gonna be like 20 years from now. I don't have any idea," says Hickman. "I don't have any control. But I think it's okay to play with the IP so that it can organically evolve as a response to societal change. And all of those kind of things, which is what the guys across the street have done very, very well over the past 20-30 or so years, and I'm excited that Marvel is starting to do a little bit more of that, and I'm 100% on board for it, even if it means that the books have to end earlier than sometimes people would want." Hopefully, that will lead to more stories like Avengers: Twilight being told. 

So there you have it. Even if Marvel Comics has to maintain a specific brand for its characters in its mainline universe, there is always the opportunity for a standalone story to shake things up - even if it's only within the minds of fans. 

Popverse members can read the entire Q&A with Jonathan Hickman here. 

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Just watch out for that radioactive blood.