FIRST WATCH: A Look at Multiple Man #1 and Insight on the Upcoming Limited from Writer Matthew Rosenberg

This July Jamie Madrox will return to face a threat worse than him dying… wait what?

Writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Andy Macdonald will be bringing us a tale that will see Jamie Madrox face a threat worse than his own death. How will he save the world from this threat which stems from himself without making it worse and deal with the deadly foes who are after him?

Here is the interview to kick off the upcoming launch of Multiple Man #1 limited series with Marvel.com in which Matthew Rosenberg channeled his inner Jamie Madrox and of course gave the interview on the upcoming book as multiple Matt’s which one does when speaking about the multitudinous Jamie Madrox:

Marvel.com: Multiple Matts, thank you all for joining us. So, how’d this all start? What made you want to write a Multiple Man story?

Matthew Prime: Well I’ve always been a Multiple Man fan. From FALLEN ANGELS up through Peter David‘s brilliant X-FACTOR, he’s always been a character that speaks to me. He at once feels very alien, more like a sci-fi story than a superhero story, and yet he is so human and relatable.

Matthew 2: He’s cool. They killed him. That sucked. So we unkilled him.

Matthew 3: We were in the room at the Marvel writer’s retreat and it got quiet. I think Donny Cates had just walked everyone through nine years of Venom stories. So while everyone was drowsy we just yelled out “What if Madrox wasn’t dead?” and then that was basically it.

Matthew Prime: Well, no. There was more to it than that.

Matthew 2: Not really.

Marvel.com: What was the pitch behind the series? Where do we find Jamie at the beginning?

Matthew Prime: The initial pitch was basically a story about Jamie having to choose whether he saves the world or destroys it. And he doesn’t fully understand those choices. It has a lot to do with these Jungian principles of “the duality of man”. This idea that–

Matthew 2: He just googled that.

Matthew Prime: No, I didn’t.

Matthew 3: Yes, you did.

Matthew Prime: I was double checking the spelling. The point is, we really wanted to explore this idea that Jamie Madrox can be all things. He is a savior and killer, a hero, and a villain.

Matthew 2: You sound so obnoxious. You know you’re writing the comic book about the 84th most popular X-Man, right?

Matthew 3: Hey! I like Multiple Man.

Matthew 2: Yeah. He’s fine. It’s Matthew that sucks.

Marvel.com: How would you describe Jamie Madrox’s voice(s)?

Matthew 3: Sexy. Like not too deep, but also real soothing and–

Matthew Prime: I think he meant his character voice. Jamie is fun because we understand who he is at the core. He’s a hero and a good guy. But there are subtle shifts in that. A more egotistical version. A more devious. And following the way the subtle personas play out is some of the most fun. Seeing what he would do or say in any situation is a bit of a wild card because he contains so many subtle versions of himself. You never know what you’re getting. With his long run in X-FACTOR I think Jamie is one of the most fleshed out, well defined characters in the Marvel Universe. He has real pathos and fears. It’s–

Matthew 2: Snooze. Jamie’s dumb. He does dumb stuff. Some of it is funny. Most of it is just dumb. Next question.

Marvel.com: Describe the challenge of writing the Multiple Man and his duplicates. How does that element make this unlike any other story?

Matthew 3: I dunno?

Matthew Prime: It’s okay, 3. I’ll take this one. Jamie is a hard character to write in a lot of ways because there are so many subtle facets. It’s a team book where everyone is identical. We had a joke where we said it was a book about the five greatest superheroes of all time: Madrox, Madrox, Madrox, Madrox, and Madrox.

Matthew 2: You stole that joke.

Matthew Prime: No, I didn’t.

Matthew 2: It’s Chappelle’s Show. You did.

Matthew Prime: Fine. Whatever. That’s not the $#!@*&% point. I’m just saying we have this fun interplay and dynamic in the book that is really unique. And then we made it even more confusing because we added some light time travel so there are different versions of Jamie from time too. When we pitched this we had to show a whole bunch of charts and graphs to prove that the story actually made sense and worked, because it gets pretty complex. But it doesn’t rely on that.

Matthew 2: Yeah. Anyone can understand it. Idiots will love this book too. Even Matthew 3 gets it.

Matthew 3: I don’t actually.

Matthew Prime: Anyway…Our point was that the book is a crazy sci-fi story, a real weird superhero team-up, and a very funny story about a very unlikely hero. It has something for everyone.

Matthew 2: That wasn’t my point. I just want idiots to buy it.

Matthew Prime: Well, yeah. I hope they buy it too.

Marvel.com: What are your thoughts on Andy MacDonald’s work so far?

Matthew 3: I don’t know who that is?

Matthew Prime: Andy MacDonald. The guy who draws our book. Andy is amazing. He has the perfect balance of being able to handle truly crazy scenes full of non-stop insanity and getting the subtle character acting we need. Things go from funny to insane to heart-wrenching and he never misses a beat. And I don’t want to spoil too much, but we meet a new team of characters in the end of issue #1. And Andy’s designs are perfect. People are going to love them even if we wrote them poorly.

Matthew 2: You did.

Matthew Prime: Whatever, dude. Andy’s work is killer.

Matthew 2: He’s fine.

Matthew 3: I love Adam’s work. How does he draw all that stuff, ya know? I can’t even draw a cube.

Matthew 4: Hey guys! When’s that interview for Marvel.com starting?

Matthew Prime: Ooh, sorry 4. It got canceled.

Matthew 4: Oh. That’s too bad. I was really looking forward to it.