Avengers: No Surrender was extensively planned out in person at a writing summit at the Marvel offices back in February. Mark, Al, and I, along with editors Tom Brevoort and Alanna Smith, nailed down the core story, conflicts, character developments and payoffs. From there we broke it down into 4 monthly segments and then 4 issues within each month. Every character was tracked across the story and we determined the order of each event so it all fit together, including major action scenes and cliffhanger endings.

From there, we broke down the page count for each issue and structured it into scenes, including page turn reveals and two-page spreads. If the majority of characters in a scene were from a particular book (Avengers, U.S.Avengers, or Uncanny Avengers) then the writer of that series would tend to get it assigned to them, but not always. Each writer contributed scripted scenes to every issue and then, after all those first drafts were completed, we’d review the whole and make notes - adjusting dialogue, fixing transitions between scenes, double checking continuity and making sure characters weren’t getting lost in the shuffle. Tom and Alanna were crucial at this stage as well, bringing a fresh eye to the whole thing and gathering any reference needed for the art team.

Early on I got the feeling we were worried about stepping on each other’s toes, but it didn’t take long for us to get into the groove, making fixes to those early issues and making recommendations across the board. We had 4-5 issues fully scripted before Pepe Larraz started drawing part 1, which also gave us the chance to make sure everything was working before art commenced.

Mark is the veteran of superhero writing and has previous experience writing a weekly comic. His story and character instincts are well honed and he has a wealth of knowledge about Marvel history to draw upon.

Al is one of the best ‘big idea’ people I’ve ever interacted with. He goes for broke with wild stuff and manages to ground it in character work that resonates with rich emotion.

I’m a structure junkie who loves writing character interactions and bombastic action. I was the one who paced the early issues to make sure it all fit in the page count we had, setting up the story threads we’d carry through all 16 issues.

All of us have the same end goal - to make a great Avengers story. Egos were put aside and we all worked really hard to incorporate each other’s ideas into the mix.When Al or Mark wrote top notch scenes I wanted to make sure I kept quality high on my sections as well.

Mark and Al have been extremely generous during work on No Surrender. I’ve learned a ton from them about character, action, drama, and pacing. We’re all trying to bring our strengths into this. In the end I’ll know which pages I scripted but the reader shouldn’t because it’s one seamless adventure, incorporating bits of plot, dialogue, and action from all three of us.

Did we succeed? I think so, but you get to be the judge when AVENGERS #675 arrives in stores January 10th, 2018.