Alex Paknadel Talks Revisiting the Original Ultimate Universe in Marvel's What If...? Secret Wars #1

Alex Paknadel is the British comic writer behind Marvel’s current Cyclops series, Red Goblin, Sentinels, All Against All, and several other titles over the past few years. Most recently, Paknadel penned What If…? Secret Wars #1, a new one-shot (out now) with Cafu and David Curiel, which is showing what happens if the original Ultimate Universe survived the events of Secret Wars.

Paknadel was kind enough to join Comic Frontier to answer a few questions about the book! Spoilers ahead!

What is your experience with the Secret Wars storyline and the Ultimate Universe? Did you worry about continuity at all or the status of the Ultimate Universe, as it appears to have been said to have actually survived in the pages of Venom? Does it even matter in a What If story?

Well, it's a tricky question. First of all, I absolutely have experience of both the 1610 Ultimate Universe and Secret Wars. Like a lot of readers of my cohort, Ultimate brought me back to comics after a brief hiatus. The storytelling innovations it brought to the table are still with us today, and very much an active part of the creative toolkit. In terms of continuity, I actually worried about it to a neurotic degree. I probably (re)read 50-60 Ultimate books to make sure I nailed everyone's status and whereabouts prior to the big 616 - 1610 incursion in Secret Wars. I wanted it to pick up right where the 1610 left off, which meant a lot of homework. That said, you're absolutely right about the 1610 appearing to survive Secret Wars. Nothing we've done in our book negates that because we're not dealing with an alternate Earth so much as an alternate multiverse. Readers of Secret Wars will remember that the story concluded with 616 Reed effectively rebuilding the multiverse from scratch, which presumably would have included the 1610 we've seen in Venom, Spider-Men II, etc. In our story, that doesn't happen. Accordingly, I think we can safely assume that this is an entirely different 8th cosmos. It exists completely separately from the 1610 that survived Secret Wars. 

When making this story, did you feel any pressure, or was it daunting to rebuild the Ultimate Universe? - The scope of this story is massive.

The only pressure I felt was over who to include and who to exclude, if that makes sense. I had 25 pages to tell an emotionally satisfying story, so I couldn't showcase every single fan favorite; nor could I address every single dangling story thread, much as I would have liked to. I had to curate and make some painful choices. Of course that doesn't mean I wouldn't have loved to revisit all of these characters - far from it. Using 616 Peter as our POV character also made sense to me because the book also had to deliver for folks who'd never picked up an original Ultimate book. Hopefully they will after this, but that's out of my hands.

What was it like to work with Cafu and David Curiel?

It was a dream, honestly. We were put together by our extraordinary editor, Michelle Marchese, but we all clicked immediately. Funnily enough, as soon as I mentioned Scarlet Spider, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Cafu's eyes lit up, and we were off to the races. He and David bring such humanity to these characters, and they really scale and the spectacle I wanted to replicate from the original Ultimate universe. I've been a fan of both for a minute, so this was a dream collaboration. I really hope it isn't our last.

When Peter Parker joins up with Nick Fury, he takes up the mantle of the Scarlet Spider: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Did you make that parallel to show Spider-Man respects Miles (and the fallen Peter) too much to keep the same code name while honoring Ben as a fish out of water of sorts?

That was exactly my thinking, yes. Miles is Spider-Man here, and slinging webs in his normal costume when everyone knows Peter Parker wore that suit would have blown up his secret identity immediately. Better to turn the page and borrow the identity of someone who strove valiantly to differentiate himself while living up to the same ideals.

Is Spider-Man the unluckiest hero in every reality? Because connecting with the Maker and Molecule Man and learning that his own universe can’t be rebuilt is quite something.

I know this is a lighter question, but I genuinely believe there's something Job-like about Peter. I've been pretty rough on him on a couple of occasions now because what makes him so easy to inhabit and identify with is his enormous capacity for empathy in spite of his own suffering. He's always trying to help his villains before the first punch is thrown. Have you ever noticed that? It's because he understands pain. He understands what it's like to lose. That's why he's the greatest of them all.

Were there any moments or characters you knew right away you wanted to revisit?

Honestly, revisiting the incredibly sweet dynamic between Peter, Kitty, Bobby and Johnny was the best part for me. That bond is much looser in the 616, but in the 1610 it always reminded me of the relationship between Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon from my childhood.

The story ends with Spider-Man recruiting his own group of Ultimates. What can you say about that team, and if you could, would you like to tell more stories about the team on this Earth?

Well, I was clearly inspired by Earth 6160, and Camp and Figeri's Ultimates in particular. Deniz and I go way back, so I asked him if he was cool with me borrowing that slogan and that dynamic for our final page, and he was super into it. There's a pleasing symmetry to it, I think. In essence, the idea is that the new Ultimates will be composed primarily of well-intentioned civilians, and as many superhumans who feel like joining. The theme running throughout the book is that the 1610 had too much power concentrated in the hands of too few individuals, leading to a catastrophic - potentially apocalyptic - power imbalance. This prospective Ultimates network would be all about redressing that imbalance.  

What If… Secret Wars? #1 is in comic book stores now!