Q: What is 'Marvel Knights Adventures'?

A: The basic idea of 'MKA' consisted of creating an online fan-comic featuring characters from the Marvel Universe. The goal of which was to share what I loved about the House of Ideas and to spread the message of "power and responsibility" that is ever present throughout all of Stan Lee's original stories, not just in Spider-man. Divided into monthly "episodes", the comic would be an easily accessible, stripped down version of the Marvel Universe. My own personal "Ultimate" universe, if you will.

I thought it would be cool to do the comic in a Batman: The Animated Series-like style, sort of a "What If Bruce Timm Started Making Marvel Cartoons?" situation. But then I really started to fall in love with the X-Men: Evolution character designs, so the end result became a hybrid style; a little bit of Bruce Timm's designs, a little bit of X-Men: Evo and a whole lotta Marc (that's me!) Thus, 'Marvel Knights Adventures' was born.

Drawing the stories in a cartoonish style would not mean the comic would be following any existing cartoon continuity, rather it would be starting from scratch, with design and story influences coming from the official comics, cartoons and live-action material. Everything that came before will be fodder for tribute and homage purposes, but that's it.

'MKA' is a project that's long been in gestation and there's a lot of ground I hope to cover. It would begin with Bruce Banner's story, combining elements of the comic and live-action TV show, and follow his search for a cure, seeking help from Reed Richards, getting involved with the likes of Daredevil, Dr. Strange and Spidey, all the while with Frank Castle tracking Banner cross-country. There's a lot of material there, easily a year's worth of stories on tap, but we'll wait and see how things go.

'MKA' is not a story really about superheroes, it's just a story about people who happen to have superpowers. The focus is definitely on the men (and women) behind the masks, but that's not to say there won't be action. The Hulk will smash, Spidey will sling some webs and the Thing will shout "It's Clobberin' Time!", but the stories for the most part will be more personal and less "fantastic".

At its core, 'MKA' is a very basic examination of human beings dealing with their emotional problems: Taking responsibility for your actions, accepting your mistakes and coming to terms with your place in the world; anger, fear, love and vengeance all play an integral part in the storyline of 'MKA'. I'm asking any readers I may have to be patient and have faith in me. That's a lot to ask of an audience, believe me, I know. But trust me when I tell you that I'm going somewhere with this story. If you can look past the flaws in the art and stick with me for just a few short issues, you'll begin to see the scope of what I have planned. It's not stupid or pointless.

I can picture you all rolling your eyes and snickering to yourselves: "Poor Marc, get a life! He takes these characters waaaayyyy to seriously!" Yeah, well, I do take this stuff seriously, and 'MKA' really is a story that I could have told using my own original characters. Hell, I could just as easily told this story using non-superpowered characters. If I had used my own characters I could have at least tried to make some money off of this! I chose Marvel, and to begin the story with Banner because a) I really love these characters, b) I've lost faith in current superhero comics, and c) I wanted to remind myself of how and why I fell in love with these characters. Getting into their heads was the only way to do that. Or at least it seemed to be the most logical way for me to do that...

At the end of the day, 'MKA' is only fan-fiction. I don't want any money for this project. That would be illegal. I do not own any of these characters. These are just some stories I have in my head and I'd like to share them. These stories are special to me, and as I hope to make you all see, these characters are special to me. I guess you could say that 'MKA' is my "thank you" to Lee, Kirby, Everett, Ditko and Co. for sparking my imagination and for providing me with a corner of their sandbox to play in. (Do kids nowadays still play in sandboxes?)

Anyway, I hope to produce these "issues" on a semi-regular basis (monthly...or close to it). 'MKA' is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to what's cooking in this crazy brain of mine (whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you decide).

Enjoy!