Agent M: How’d you break into the comic biz?
Andy Schmidt: I was an intern at Marvel in 1997, for the summer. I was an intern under Tom Brevoort and Bobbie Chase. After going to college at a place called Sewanee, going through Grad school at Webster University and becoming a college professor [there], I designed a couple of courses about comics. I started interviewing professionals and that got me back in touch with Tom and a job opened up. His assisstant at the time, Jeff Youngquist, had just moved to the collections office, so I applied, interviewed and eventually got it. That was early 2002.
AM: What books did you start out on?
Schmidt: As an Assistant Editor, I was just assisting on everything Tom was editing. That was all the same stuff Tom edits now. [Laughs] The classic Marvel heroes--Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Thunderbolts. It was all that good, rooted superhero jazz. We were doing Captain Marvel at the time, Spider-Girl and a handful of other ongoing series. Bill Jemas decreed that all Assistant Editors should all edit two books each as full editors to get their feet wet and get their sea legs under them. Captain Marvel and Spider-Girl got handed to me on the same day. Those were the first two comics I editied myself...with Tom's overseeing eye, of coure. I learned a heck of a lot on both those books.
AM: Cool. Give me a little insight into the recent editorial shuffle. What were you editing before and what are you handling now?
Schmidt: Before the editorial shuffle, I was editing all of the Annihilation project and books. That consisted of Ronan, Nova, Super-Skrull, Silver Surfer and Annihilation itself. I was editing X-Factor, Ms. Marvel and Union Jack was comingo out at the time. And I had several projects in development that I had put the pitches in for and had been approved. Some of those stayed with me, some I didn't feel so strongly about that they had to stay with me. They've since moved on.
When the editorial shuffle occurred, myself along with two Associate Editors got promoted to Editor, which was very lovely. We'd lost the Senior Editor in the X-Men line and they shuffled me over to X-Men along with fellow editor Nick Lowe. So the two of us are co-editing, along with Sean Ryan and Daniel Ketchum, the X-Men line. And with Axel Alonso approving things as we go.
So now, I'm editing X-Men--with no adjective. We operate that office a little differently. Nick, Sean and I read everything. We all read all scripts; we all give comments and notes. So while I'm working on some of those projects from the old office, I'm more and more integrating into the X-Men office. I'm reading all the scripts, so now I'm working on New X-Men, Excalibur, all that stuff. X-Factor stayed with me which made sense because I was going into the X-Men office.
Ms. Marvel is staying with Tom's group. The Annihilation stuff is with Bill Roseman after this final limited series ends and then I'm starting new X-Men projects as we go.
AM: Do you feel like the proud papa having put together an awesome event like Annihilation and now watching it grow in someone else’s hands?
Schmidt: Yeah, that was a very weird process. [Laughs] Obviously, on some level, I have a real love for Annihilation and I'm very proud of it. Career-wise, it did a lot of very nice things for me. I don't think I would have been promoted and given high profile gigs like X-Men without having proven that I could put this multi-faceted, interlocking story together more or less on my own. And again, Tom Brevoort helped the whole time. He made sure I wasn't going to get fired for messing something up.
Those are good characters, they just got stuck at some point in the late '70s and haven't really moved on. It was time for somebody to just come and give it a kick in the pants and start to progress things. When I got the promotion to move over to the X-Men, Dan [Buckley] and Joe [Quesada] said I could, if I wanted to, stay with Annihliation, but that they prefer I move to X-Men. Ultimately, they are my bosses--I'm supposed to make their lives easier, so I [went] to X-Men. When Bill Roseman came in, taking over Annihilation--I've known Bill a good, long time and while we don't have the same sensibilities, necessarily, he was a fan of Annihilation and liked a lot of the things that it was doing. I still read some of the Annihilation stuff just to make sure the hand-over process is smooth as far as working on the big overall structure of what comes next, but it's really becoming Bill's own thing. It's hard to let go, but at the same time it's fun. It's really interesting.
AM: Was there anything in Annihilation that you or Keith Giffen wanted to do, a character you wanted to bring in or a moment that never got off the ground, you couldn't get it to fly?
Schmidt: Yeah, [Laughs] there were a couple of things. We really wanted to do a Gladiator limited-series. Or, I should say, I really wanted to do a Gladiator limited series. [Laughs]. I really wanted to get my hands on that character, but it turned out to be a good thing because that would have meant the Shi'ar would have been involved and I don't have room for the stuff that's in Annihilation, so bringing in a whole other species and galaxy wouldn't have been good. But I really wanted to do Gladiator.
And at the end, we set up some things, particularly in the Ronan limited series, that were more long-term. Most of the stuff that got set up in the four limited series came to fruition, at least to some, extent in Annihilation #1-#6. There was stuff, a bit in all of them, but specifically in Ronan that was supposed to be a really big thing after Annihilation if we were approved to do more. And we were approved to do more, but it's not my place to go in and say, "You have to go in and do this really awesome thing." I dunno if it's gonna happen or not and, like I said, it's not my job. There's some cool stuff that hopefully will happen.
AM: Well, you'll have your hands on the Shi'ar, to some extent, now that you're in the X-office, right?
Schmidt: I'm putting that pitch in now, my friend! [Laughs]
AM: Very good, very good. Now, going away from that, you're working on Casualties of War, the Captain America and Iron Man special. What’s the story with that book, both inside the book and behind the scenes?
Schmidt: I am working on that. To be perfectly honest, it exists because Civil War got delayed. [Laughs] So, as a publishing company, you're in a symbiotic relationship with our retailers, fans and all that stuff. When you're in business with retailers and the big books slide a little bit, it's sort of up to you to make sure the retailers don't start losing money. So we've replaced that with product, but the criteria for actually approving these projects is to make sure they had a reason to exist other than to tittilate people into buying them. So we approve these projects all with good stories that relate to Civil War and have a reason to exist and should be good. The Iron Man/Captain America one is the one that I was really hot to do because, for my part, working on the Civil War series, I felt like Iron Man wasn't given a fair shake. That I understood his side didn't necessarily mean I agree with him all the time. I think it makes logical sense, but I wasn't getting the sense that anyone was actually listening to his argument or even portraying the argument very well. It seemed very one-sided.
So with Iron Man/Captain America, it's the story of those two characters by themselves getting together to try and work out their differences and in the course of that, they get to express their points of view. and I think Iron man comes off not as a popmpous jerk, but a well-reasoned, articulate guy and he brings up points that Capatain America wouldn't consider because he's Captain America. It's really interesting. Chris Gage, the writer, did an amazing job incorporating parts of their personal histories and past together and apart to really show why these guys had to come to these two conclusions. They couldn't come to different conclusions because of who they are. It's one of the books I'm most proud of that I've worked on.
AM: I've read the script and the final page is a glossary of all the different reference points throughout continuity that show up in the issue. Whose idea was that?
Schmidt: That was my idea. I knew Chris knew the history very well, and to be honest I didn't even know all that stuff when I went in, but he started bringing it up. I would talk with Tom Brevoort and make sure it was on the up and up. I figured it was because Chris has a vast knowledge of comic book history. So, I went back to Chris and said this might be really cool and a treat to put a bibliography in the back shwoing that you did your research. that was my idea and he thought it was really cool because he likes to show off what a geek he is.
AM: And that's the second project you've worked with him on?
Schmidt: It's actaully the third, technically. The first was an 11-page Spider-Man Unlimited story which Tom Brevoort had comissioned, but then I started editing the book somewhere in the middle and I wound up being handed his script. I had read Deadshot, which he had done before, and liked it and so I got handed the Spider-Man script and I hired Mike McKone to do the artwork on that. I called him up and introduced myself. From there, we did Union Jack and Iron Man/Cap. And yet another project coming up.
AM: You're bringing him over to the X-office?
Schmidt: Yeah, he'll be doing an X-Men project.
AM: He's good.
Schmidt: He's great. And a heck of a guy, too
AM: And speaking of Civil War, whose side are you on?
Schmidt: [Laughs] It's weird. I actually got into an argument with Nick and Sean the other day about Civil War because they were saying that if the Marvel Universe were the real world, Civil War would be a global news item--everybody would be paying attention. My feeling was, no they wouldn't. It's a bunch of superheroes running around, beating each other up. It's really not any different from how it was before. Your average citizen probably wouldn't know the difference between Ms. Marvel beating up the Battle or Ms. Marvel beating up Spider-Woman.
Logically, I come down on Iron Man's side, but the way the events aare unfolding, he crosses a line to me. Ultimately, I wouldn't really agree with either one of them.
AM: Ah, you're one of those guys.
Schmidt: Yeah, I'm on my side.
AM: Okay, let’s steer away from Civil War. You’ve been the editor on X-Factor since the relaunch, but only recently got fully integrated into the X-office. Do you think that’ll affect the title at all?
Schmidt: It definitely will. For one thing, the X-Men office never read the X-Factor scripts unless they had a particular reason to, like when Astonishing X-Men showed up in one issue. What would normally happen would be that I'd go over to Nick and Sean and say, "Here's some things we want to do in X-Factor," and they would say, "No" and I'd come back and say, "Here are some different things we want to do" and they would say, "No." [Laughs] But that'd be our last idea, so we would just do that one anyway. So they always knew what was going on in the book, but they didn't have any reason to reflect that stuff. I know in New X-Men, they're using Madrox and Wolfsbane, so they would come and run the script past me to make sure they sounded right and that sort of stuff.
But now, with Nick and Sean commenting on the scripts, we'll sit around and we'll talk about everything. So, obviously, it's going to have an impact. They're two other voices. Everything gets filtered through me, so I ignore everything that Nick says and take Sean's notes and proclaim them as my own. [Laughs] But since I am more involved in the other X-Men books, if they do something to integrate or what have you, then X-Factor will likely be a bigger part of that than it would it been had I remained in the Marvel Heroes office.
AM: How did that affect the creative team?
Schmidt: I think they're happy. Actually, [Laughs] when I called Peter [David] to tell him I was moving into the X-Men office, I sort of set him up. I said, "I've got some good news and I've got some bad news." I told him the bad news was that I was moving out of Tom's office and Peter immediately began to fret that I was leaving X-Factor. I said, "The good news is that I'm moving into the X-Men office and keeping X-Factor. You're about the only writer I'm [able] to keep working with." I think he was pleased because that also means I'm more involved and have a little more say as to what goes on in the X-Universe. I can keep a closer eye on making sure X-Factor remains distinct and has a distinct voice from the other books. I love that book.
AM: All four of the X-books are completely different and have a different tone, which is awesome.
Schmidt: Yeah, it is. I think New X-Men and X-Factor...I would love if they both sold more becasue I think they're excellent books. And New X-Men is very different from all the others, as well and in a completely different direction from X-Factor. New X-Men is just action; it's go, go, go and non-stop. It's a lot of fun.
AM: X-Factor #13, the Re-X-Aminations issue, just hit. What kind of change in direction does it mark for the book and the team?
Schmidt: The first 12 issues sort of had an overall arc to them, so they wrapped up in issue #12--to a certain extent. There are character arcs and such that are going to continue on. "Re-X-Aminations" is really a one-shot issue. It's not a bold new direction for the book. There is a new direction, but that really comes into play in #14. #13 is probably Peter's best script since #1 on the book. It's amazing. You're really getting inside these character's heads in a way that you just don't get a chance to do in the middle of an action scene.
What it does, it sort of reestablishes where these characters are emontoinally, now, as opposed to X-Factor #1. And they're all in different places and in conflict with each other. It does sort of push the book in a new direction. X-Factor is torn apart by the end of issue #12. They don't trust each other, people are sleeping with other people on the team, there's cheating. It's the perfect soap opera. It's fantastic. The team is really splintering, so going forward from #13 on, Madrox realizes this whole thing is falilng apart and how important the team is to the future, he has to start pulling them back together again. It is the start of a new direction. Pablo is doing the best work he's done yet, even better than Books of Doom, which was amazing. These characters just pup right off the page and come to life.
AM: You mentioned next issue, and that's where Jamie’s S.H.I.E.L.D. dupe comes back, right? How many stray dupes will the team be going after? Is that part of the impetus going forward?
Schmidt: Yeah. Part of Jaimie's "gotta bring the team back together" [thing], is he realizes has to pull himself together. And for a multilpe man that means, literally, going out and getting different versions of himself and reintegrating them into his psyche. There's a story arc that's about him going out and reabsorbing his dupes. When he reabsorbs a duplicate version of himself, he gets their memories and emotions. They represent different aspects of his personality and when they come out, that aspect is diminished in Madrox prime. He's going out to try and collect himself and become a whole person for the first time. One of the things Peter's been great about writing Madrox, is that he can't make a decision. He's a terrible leader. [Laughs] He's always conflicted. As Multiple Man, if he's faced with choice A and choice B, he can do both. He can just create a dupe that can do A and he can do B.
There were two issues that tied into Civil War and they were about "whose side are you on?" And that was the first time Jaime actually ahd to make a decision. That's becoming more and more a part of his character. That's going forward, and it'll last for four issues.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. dupe is the only one that's appeared before. We've already had one dupe reappear. A dupe that was in issue #1 reappeared in #12. I think the S.H.I.E.L.D. dupe is the only one that's been established, but some of Peter's ideas are gonna pull on the heart-strings.
AM: There’ve been some great moments with Jamie’s dupes in the run so far, but has Peter David written any “too-crazy-for-comics” scenes with Jamie’s dupes?
Schmidt: I really only had to change one line of dialogue. There's one line that just went a little too sexy. There've been a couple of issues of X-Factor where I've been sort of sweating and waiting for [something] to come back as flagged. In fact, there's another moment in issue #14 that's being read out today that I'm waiting to see if that gets flagged or not.
But it is one of our senior titles, so it is allowed to be a little more adult and a little more out there.
AM: So, past X-Factor and some of the other X-books that you mentioned, are you working on any X-titles on the horizon?
Schmidt: Yeah. No artwork has been generated yet, but it looks like we'll be doing an X-Men World War Hulk three-issue limited series with Chris Gage.
AM: Hah! Secrets revealed! But, seriously, that's awesome. What else?
I'm wrapping up Phoenix Warsong right now and there are a few things coming. My main goal is to get up to speed with everything. I'm up to speed on Uncanny and Astonishing. I'm pretty much up to speed on all the books now. It's just integrating myself further. When they lost somone in the office, Nick and Sean had to take on twice as much work. What the office really needs is someobody to come in and lighten the load a little bit. My workload doubled when I moved in to the office, but hopefully it'll be evening out now.
I know I'm missing something, another project.
AM: Well, there's something big that I've come across in some of my other interivews. Mike Carey hinted at it, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle mentioned it. Do you have any fuel to add to that fire?
Schmidt: I'm not sure what they said.
AM: Sinister was brought up.
Schmidt: I can tell you that you will want to read X-Men Annual if you're interested in all things X-Men. [Laughs] And X-Men #200 is absolutely not to be missed. That will be the start of something that will change the X-Men line.
AM: Ok, I have three more projects on my list. Can you talk about [points to paper], Omega Flight or Marvel Comics Presents?
Schmidt: I can't talk about that one thing. I can talk Omega Flight and Marvel Comics Presents a little bit. What do you want to know?
AM: When does Marvel Comics Presents start, tentatively.?
Schmidt: Tentatively, I think it's scheduled for April or May of next year. It's going to be monthly. The original MCP was bi-weekly, but I would have to blow my brains out if I was going to try and do an anthology bi-weekly by myself. It has three eight-page stories, instead of four like the old one had, per issue. The idea for me was to touch on a lot of characters that don't get touched elsewhere. Or if they're so wrapped up in a big storyline, to do a short story that has some of them. For example, the Hulk has been off in space for a year at this piont and Marvel Comics Presents is a place where I can do an eight page Hulk story that isn't in outer space, that's the Hulk on Earth. There's a lot of open boundaries because of the short story thing. You can slide a story in. Oh it takes palce here, it takes place there, what have you. There's probably going to be a Captain America story that takes place in World War II. There's gonna be 12 part Wolverine story that'll run through all 12 issues. There will be some that are two, three or four parts long and I want to do at least one story every issue that's a one-off thing. The good thing about an eight-page story is that I can go after a big name writer who doesn't have time to do a full issue, but maybe can squeak in an eight-pager and I can do the same wtih artists. I haven't called him or anything, but a Neal Adams might be able to do an eight-page story because it's only eight pages and we have a lot of lead time.
I don't want to get into the creative or the characters, but most of it's locked down at this point. The thing is called Marvel Comics Presents, so my feeling is: It better be frickin' good. [Laughs]
AM: And Omega Flight? This will still be yours, even though you're not in the Heroes office?
Schmidt: Yeah. Alpha Flight, historically, has been edited in the X-Men office becasue they were created in Uncanny X-Men. Omega Flight really isn't any different. That was actually a project that was approved before I switched to the X-Men office. Very little work had been done on it when I got there, so that seemed like a good project to hand over to me because I could put my own stamp on it and make it my own very quickly. Scott Kolins is drawing the first issue, he'll probably be done at the end of next week. [He's] the fastest comic artist alive. I'd actually like to have him and Mark Bagley race. [Laughs]
AM: How long does he take on an issue?
Schmidt: Scott can do an issue in three weeks, but he could probably do one in two if he needed to.
AM: And he has a lot of detail to his work.
Schmidt: Yeah, theres's a lot. He's a very stylized artist, but on the right thing, he's the right guy. I hired him to do the Annihilation Prologue and was blown away by the detail and character nuances. He's a fantastic storyteller. He's going to be colored by Brian Reber, who's taking over coloring X-Factor fro me and who is also coloring the project we can't talk about. It's gonna blow people away. He's amazing and he's just fantastic over Scott. They're working very well together and closely. Mike's scripts...it's not Alpha Flight. That's why it's Omega Flight. It's got more action and bigger thrills than Alpha Flight has probably ever had. It's no-holds-barred.
AM: There was a glimpse of this in Choosing Sides, but what's the deal with the formation of the team?
Schmidt: Yeah, there was an eight-page USAgent story, which threw people into a fit. [Laughs] The basic gist is that due to the Civil War and the extreme crackdown in the superhero community on unregistered heroes, but also on villains, nobody is being left untouched by Civil War. You gotta have some of thse supervillains go on and get outta here. Their choices are Mexico, where there's not a whole lot of stuff to loot, or Canada, which is a lot closer. So they start corssing the border. Alpha Flight no longer exists, as anyone who reads New Avengers knows, so Canada has to start daeling with superpowered villains crossing the border, tearing up the country.
So they form this new team to essentially just stop bad guys. The country's super-crime jumps up about 700% and it's time to go get 'em.
AM: Poor Mounties. Can you talk about the team?
Schmidt: Not really. I can talk about two of them. USAgent, who's essentially on-loan from the United States. Then we've got Beta Ray Bill. Nothin' says Canada like Beta Ray Bill.
What's funny, is that lined up unintentionally. At the end of the Stormbreaker limited series, starring Beta Ray Bill, he took on a human identity who lived in Canada. That wasn't, at the time, a set up for doing a Canadian superteam book, but it winds up pretty well and there's more to it than that. It's interesting. I think people will be entertained. If it were me, as a reader, I'd be going into this book like "how the heck does this make any sense if these guys are together." but when all is said and done, I think it will.
AM: What other projects, yours or throughout the office, are you excited about?
Schmdit: Well, I'm always excited about Astonishing X-Men. Those scripts come in and it's a pleasure reading them. X-Men with Mike Carey, Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo has been great, but I think it's only getting better. The ideas are fantastic, the characters are really cool and they're kicking off the X-Men Annual which has Northstar and Aurora, characters I really like. We're slowly putting them back together. And then X-Men #200 is a whole new ballgame. It's a totally different sport. [Laughs] I think fans of the X-Men from long ago, when I was reading every single month, are really going to enjoy it. I'm excited about Omega Flight.
That thing alluded to by others is gonna rock, just kick ass. My head has been so buried in that project, even though it's so far down the road. I'm excited about Marvel Comics Presents, honestly. I don't expect it to sell through the roof, but I think the people that are reading it--and I hope everyone seeing this interview will when it comes out--I think it's gonna be great. Cool characters and stories that are well-told. I'm hoping to actually move characters along and that's really challenging because eight pages isn't a lot to work with. Some are longer. It's been fun. I've been getting to work with a lot of really talented people.
On the writers end, going around the convention circuit last year, I picked up al ot of independent books and met a lot of people and just found some guys I think that are really gonna do some cool stuff if they're given the chance to play in the Marvel sandbox. They're all proven writers, already, in their own right. You may not know their names, but you should. They're really top notch guys and they'll get a little taste of the Marvel Universe there. It should be good times.
AM: And finally, I hear you’ve got a little Schmidt on the way. What’s more nerve-wracking: the prospect of being a father or working in the comic industry?
Schmidt: Are you kidding? In comics all you have to worry about is being laughed at, humiliated, hated and fired. With a kid, I’m screwing up someone’s life.
Seriously, I’m excited about the road ahead in comics and the road ahead at home. My wife, Alix, is an amazing woman and the fact that she’s going to help raise our baby puts my mind at ease. With all of this going on, it’s a good time to be Andy Schmidt.

Five from the Fans: Five questions pulled straight from the Marvel.com message boards.

What X-Men (current or former) are in the plans to appear in X-Factor in the near future? – twl7569
Schmidt: Amost all of them. [Laughs] Pretty much. X-Factor will be more integrated into the X-universe as a whole, but not at the detriment of the film noir feel of the book. The X-Men will be popping up down the road. Quite a lot of them. [Laughs]

Now that Tabitha Smith/Meltdown is free due to the end of Nextwave is it possible she might pay her old friends Siryn, Wolfsbane and Rictor a visit? – Ka-Zar
Schmidt: There's no plans for her to show up at the moment, but there are plans for her in the X-Men line.

I think I might like to see Boomer and/or a repowered Marrow in the series. Especially Marrow. Some of X-Factor's most memorable moments have involved Madrox's interactions (to put it G-rated in some cases) with the female members of the team. Marrow would be a PR nightmare from hell that could continue that trend, and she's an interesting character whose look would seem to fit right in with the art style(s), imo. Any chance Peter David and Andy Schmidt would be interested in trying out that possibility? - nowitatall
Schmidt: I'm not sure. I'm open to it if Peter's open to it. The thing about X-Factor, honestly, is that Peter and I both like the members of the team so much that we don't see a need to shake up the cast or bring in new people for more than a short time. Ther'es so much gold to mine in these guys, I like giving them the screentime they get. Bringing in more and more characters woud mean less and less of the characters I know I like. It's an interesting book and not every mutant would fit into it. Peter's a very clever guy, so I'm sure he could find a way to work both those characters in.

Please keep Bishop out of the book. Please verify that there will be no Bishop in the foreseeable X-Factor future. - nowitatall
Schmidt: [Laughs] Alright, Bishop's not in the book. I can do that.

Is Random going to make an appearance ever? - meanadam
Schmidt:.He will make an appearance...in the X-Men Annual. Not X-Factor.

Until my cover’s blown…
Agent M -Your Spy inside the House of Ideas