Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dynamite, entertainment, HRL, pete woods, Project Superpowers: Hero Killers, ryan browne

Creator Commentary: Pete Woods Talks 'Project Superpowers: Hero Killers #5'

Dynamite has sent over a new creator commentary from artist Pete Woods. He talks about the fifth issue of Project Superpowers: Hero Killers #5 from a script by Ryan Browne. Browne also provided the second cover.

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All right! Here we go on the final issue of Hero Killers! This was a very fun ride!

Cover:
So Matt Idelson had an idea he wanted to run with inspired by the Kerry Gammill covers for the Avengers Annual #14 and Fantastic Four Annual #19 waaay back in 1985. Basically the covers were two different perspectives on the same moment. Mine is from the Dimension 42 side of things while Ryan's variant is drawn from the Earth side of things. I was really happy with how this turned out.

Page 1:
Poor Tim. An angry Black Terror on one side and an angry Mayor and assembled army of heroes on the other. It looks like it's all over for him.

Page 2:
Finally Tim gets his moment of clarity. Sometimes that's all you need in life. If things seem out of control for you, like maybe you've (supposedly) murdered several people, lost an appendage or two, and have a rainbow scar on your face you're covering with an oven mitt, it might be time to take a deep breath and look in the mirror. Really assess where your life has taken you and re-focus on your priorities.

Page 3:
You know what? I understand where he's coming from, but Black Terror really is kind of a dick. Fortunately Sparky was there to ensure no one got hurt…

Page 4:
…well, almost no one. This page did teach me that sentient meat-hammers make the best sound effects.

Page 5:
Plot twist! Bad meat-hammer! Who could this mystery hand be?? Find out next time on Page 6!

Page 6:
Here come the baddies! Celeste went nuts coloring this page and I think it looks great. I do think throwing in the Black Terror action figure in the rubble may have been a bad decision on my part. I may have confused readers about who that is and why he's so small or the creatures are so big. I should have given it more thought. Sorry, folks!

Page 7:
Yelling! Squishing! Monologuing! Goodbye Blue Bolt whose bolt is actually yellow. Did no one ever mention that to him?

Pages 8 and 9:
Mayhem! Trivia time: In the script, Xalgond was named Zaxxon. Old people will know why we couldn't get away with that.

Pages 10 and 11:
Tim's trying to do the right thing but the Mayor is a bit cranky thanks to losing his wife, his house, an alien invasion, and Tim beating up his lover. Thank goodness for orange dog-monsters. They always seem to show up right when you need 'em.

Page 12:
Okay. I'll take the hit. Black Terror's face in Panel 6 looks pretty bad. What was I thinking?

Page 13:
Take note, people. Dimensional portal guns aren't very useful if the dimension you're porting to is 30 feet away. I'll also bet having your junk turned inside out doesn't feel good.

Page 14:
Drawing random monsters is a lot of fun. I just thought I'd mention it. So is abusing big jerks with a portal gun.

Page 15:
Who knew that Page 16 from issue 1 would end up being important. I sure didn't and I draw this comic! I kinda suspect Ryan didn't know it would come back either. Sometimes we fly by the seat of our pants in this crazy business. I could be wrong about that, though.

Page 16:
Monsters running amok, but our heroes have arrived to save the day! Things were really tight schedule-wise here so for the backgrounds I ended up using a 3D model I had assembled for my creator-owned book Cryptocracy. I was planning on hand-drawing the backgrounds using the model as reference, but ended up having to drop the rendered backgrounds in and do some digital fiddling to speed things along.

Page 17 and 18:
Hooray for Sparky! What a lovable scamp. And now you know how crystals work. We aim to educate as well as entertain.

Page 19:
Well, damn. Looks like Tim's redemption is at hand. He sacrificed his life to save the town from inter-dimensional monsters. I knew he had it in him. I love the weird green effect Celeste came up with for the explosion.

Page 20:
It's okay to cry. We probably killed at least one character you really liked. That's okay, though. These characters are public domain so they can never really die. Except Von Physics and the Mayor. Dynamite owns them so keep your mitts off.

Page 21:
Yay! Everything's wrapped up nice and neat. Plus, Sparky and Captain Battle Jr. get to be real heroes!

Page 22:
No one could have seen this ending coming! I mean the vomit part, not the Tim surviving part. You probably saw that coming a mile away. Trivia time: Around the house we called these little pink guys Butthole Monsters. Can you guess why?

This was a fun series. A real rollercoaster. Thanks for sticking with it. Ryan and I both hope you enjoyed it. If you dug Ryan's writing, please check out God Hates Astronauts. Now, I'm off to the Justice League! Thanks for reading!

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