DF Interview: Erica Schultz delivers ‘The Deadliest Bouquet’



By Byron Brewer

Jasmine Hawthorn was a hard-edged Nazi hunter who trained her children well in the art of espionage. But in 1998, when her complicated past finally catches up with her, it's up to her three estranged daughters, Rose, Poppy and Violet, to solve their mom's murder – if they can avoid killing each other in the process.

From Image Comics comes The Deadliest Bouquet, written by Erica Schultz with art by Carola Borelli and Gab Contreras. I know a good story when I hear of one, so I set out to quiz my friend, scribe Erica Schultz, about this coming comics mini-series.


Byron Brewer: Erica, the basic story behind your espionage limited series The Deadliest Bouquet has danced around your brain for some time now. Tell readers the inspiration for this comic.



Erica Schultz: Honestly, and I know how this sounds…but I don’t know where the idea came from. I was on the phone with another comics creator, Liana Kangas, and I blurted out the idea of this family with three generations of assassins. It would span from before the Second World War to the mid- to late 1990s, and throughout those decades, the story would explore generational trauma, family dynamics, and how we all deal with the world around us.

When I write, I create a timeline of significant events like the birth and death of characters, as well as things that would push a character into a new trajectory. So I started with the grandparents of the three main characters. Who were their parents? What kind of life did they live? How did those lives intersect, and what was the outcome?
I had a lot of false starts on the story, and there are several scenes that are written that didn’t make it into the final printed version. Shout out to story editor James Emmett for helping find the most important parts that would streamline the story. And who knows? Maybe if there’s a streaming series made of it, it will explore all the other bits and bobs. (wink wink)


Byron: I immediately thought of Charlie’s Angels when I read the solicit for Bouquet. Can you introduce the three sisters here who are your chief protagonists – Rose, Poppy and Violet? Who are they?



Erica Schultz: Rose, Poppy and Violet are three young women with a very unusual upbringing. Jasmine, their mother, whose death is the impetus for the story, taught them about being assassins and protecting themselves.

Rose is the oldest, and she’s the one who has gone out of her way to be the most responsible. Taking on all that responsibility comes with a price, though. It’s a combination of resentment and an inflated self worth. Rose is resentful for not living a life she wants to live because she’s saddled with the family business (a flower shop), but she also makes sure her two younger sisters know that she’s the one in charge.
Poppy is the middle child. She left home after some credits at a community college because her boyfriend proposed. Poppy saw her marriage to Derek as a way out of the dysfunctional family dynamic. She raised her two kids without any knowledge of how she was trained or what happened to her as a child. Unfortunately, because of Jasmine’s death, Poppy is brought back into the fold, and she’s forced to confront the family and dysfunction that she tried so hard to keep in her rear view mirror.
Violet is the youngest. She’s the most erratic and petulant. She’s also the one who will fight to the death for her family. Violet left home not to pursue a family life but because she felt Jasmine was holding her back. The only one to continue the “art of assassination,” Violet travels the world modeling…and picking up hits along the way. Violet will never back down from a fight no matter who the antagonist is. And heaven help you if you threaten her family in any way.


Byron: I am very intrigued with the girls’ mother, Jasmine Hawthorn, a hard-edged Nazi hunter who trained her daughters in the art of espionage. Without spoilers, can you offer some hints as to her backstory as a Nazi hunter?



Erica Schultz: More is written in my notes for the story (which is why it NEEDS a streaming series), but Jasmine was born just after World War II. She had a twin brother named Chrys, and the two were raised with their parents among a motley crew of fighters and soldiers from all over the world who were tasked with finding Nazis who escaped prosecution in the final days of the war. Leif and Dahlia, Jasmine’s parents, raised her and Chrys to speak multiple languages, use all different types of firearms and weapons, and how to kill without being caught. Raised within a multicultural and multinational group, Jasmine learned everything she could. She had a very strong moral compass that pointed due North. But she was broken when her brother was killed on their first mission. Believing it was her fault, Jasmine ran away to the U.S. where she met Lionel Hawthorn.

Lionel was an only child who loved flowers and plants. He met Jasmine while she was admiring the greenery at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. She was using her skills as a thief to survive in New York, but she saw Lionel as a way to survive. She also saw his abuse of her as penance for her brother’s death.
Far too often, domestic abuse survivors blame themselves directly for the abuse or assume God or someone is punishing them for something they did. Jasmine felt so responsible for Chrys’ death that she endured Lionel’s abuse. Then one day…she didn’t take it anymore.


Byron: What other characters we will encounter through this 5-issue series can you spotlight here for readers?



Erica Schultz: There are glimpses of Dahlia, Jasmine’s mother, as well as Jasmine in the past. Lionel makes an appearance, too. The story spans decades, so there are a lot of flashbacks. Think of it like the show This Is Us where you see the same people in different times in their lives.

We’ll also be introduced to two cops: Detective Bayani and Officer Gutierrez. They’re investigating Jasmine’s murder. Rose, Poppy and Violet have to make sure they don’t go digging too deep… especially in the backyard.


Byron: A spy story MUST have a behind-the-scenes manipulator or similar, even as a MacGuffin. Hoping to sidestep a “Read the book” response, can you give readers any indication or clues at all that a character indeed plays this role here? And if yes, I am assuming The Fourth Reich may have something to do with it also?



Erica Schultz: Not to disappoint you or the rest of the readers, but the story has more to do with the sisters, their relationships with their mother, and their relationships with each other than it does with any Reich. The environment we’re forged in tends to influence whom we become. Jasmine’s upbringing was definitely influenced by going after Nazis who fled Germany and other occupied areas. Rose, Poppy and Violet were trained not to hunt Nazis, but to protect themselves, albeit to the nth degree. It’s more family drama and murder mystery with a dash of international espionage than my previous book, M3.

If there are any MacGuffins to be had, it’s in the exploration of Jasmine’s past and present to try and discern who murdered her.


Byron: Solicit materials from Image Comics put this story happening, at least in part, in the late 1990s and term it “nostalgia”. (I am at the age when I think of the 90s as ten years or so ago, LOL!) Tell us a little about what artist Carola Borelli and you may have done to research the period for this unique series.



Erica Schultz: The “present-day” part of the story dealing with Rose, Poppy Violet, and Jasmine’s murder takes place in February 1998. I was a junior in college then, so research for me was just opening up a shoe box of photos.

I pulled a good deal of reference for Carola for fashion and some of the technology that was used then. In 1998, there was a grunge meets pop meets enthusiasm for the new millennium vibe in the air. People didn’t know what to expect from Y2K. Some people had cell phones. If you weren’t super rich, you’d have to wait until 9 p.m. to call someone, because then it wouldn’t use up your minutes.
All those very 90s influences are reflected in the aesthetic of the story.
I pitch it as Clueless meets Singles meets Law & Order.


Byron: Talk about the art of Carola Borelli and why it is the right fit for The Deadliest Bouquet. We might want to mention colorist Gab Contreras as well.



Erica Schultz: There were several false starts with this project, and it was a back and forth to find an artist. Carola was a great fit because she keyed in on not only the acting of the characters emoting, but also the style of clothes, and the attitude of each of these sisters. Rose, Poppy and Violet all have very strong personalities, and they come out in different ways. Carola is able to really convey the emotion of a scene and bring what the character is thinking to the forefront.

If you’ve ever heard me on a podcast talking about how comics are made, I usually say that every step should make the comic better. You have great line art; it’s going to be made better by great colors. Gab brings the palette of the mid to late 90s to enhance Carola’s linework.


Byron: Erica, what coming projects in which you are involved can you tell readers about here?



Erica Schultz: While I can’t talk about everything I’m currently working on, I have some projects that are coming out in the next few months.

Moon Knight Black, White and Blood #3 is out in July from Marvel and features a story written by me and drawn by the incredible David Lopez. I’m a huge fan of Moon Knight, and getting the opportunity to write him is a bucket list item I’m glad I get to check off.
The trade paperback of Bylines In Blood is out in August from AfterShock. This story was so much fun to work on with Van Jensen and Aneke. They’re incredible collaborators. This was also my first time working with AfterShock, and those peeps are all right. (wink wink)
The Deadliest Bouquet #1 is also in stores in August, and there are three fantastic covers you can order. Adriana Melo, Natasha Alterici and Liana Kangas lent their talents, and I couldn’t be happier. They’re all fantastic creators, so definitely check out their other works.


Dynamic Forces would like to thank Erica Schultz for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions. The Deadliest Bouquet #1 from Image Comics is slated to be on sale Aug 10th!



For more news and up-to-date announcements, join us here at Dynamic Forces, www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/, “LIKE” us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dynamicforcesinc, and follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/dynamicforces.

Long before Lin Manuel Miranda took the Founding Fathers to Broadway with the Tony Award Winning Hamilton, the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin sang about the birth of the United States of America and the musical led to an amazing musical called 1776. With this being the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, now would be a good time to watch this classic film that’s available on streaming services like Hulu and Tubi. The film adapts the celebrated musical by Peter Stone with an all-star cast that includes William Daniels (Boy Meets World), Ken Howard (The White Shadow), Howard de Silva (The Great Gatsby) and Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents). The film focuses on the days leading up to the Continental Congress debating and eventually declaring independence and gives us look at the chaos that existed leading up to the birth of the nation. While dealing with a serious topic, the film is laced with humorous moments and unforgettable songs while showing just how difficult it really was to get the thirteen colonies to agree and how different parts of the country had different priorities. Not too unlike the way the country is now. 1776 is entertaining and sneakily educational and I watch if every July 4th… which I’m doing as I type this article. 

With Supergirl underperforming at the box office there is a rush to point fingers… as often happens when it comes to big studios like DC, Marvel and Star Wars. Will there be similar handwringing with the latest Minions film coming in about $17 million below it’s expected opening… probably not. But The Hollywood Reporter has exclusive details about what happened with the Milly Alcock project that seems to pit director Craig Gillespie against James Gunn and the studio. The criticism of the film varies with complaints about the editing, the musical choices, the depth of character for the villain to the changes from the source material. The new report focuses on a few of those and talks about the test screenings happening back in March of this year. Gillespie was given free reign on his film until test audiences had their say and the best the film was able to do was score in the 60s. This led to the studio getting involved and creating their own cut of the film. Gunn brought in Guardians of the Galaxy editor Fred Raskin to re-edit and Jeremy Slater of Godzilla X Kong to work with screenwriter Anna Nogueira on a few new scenes. Then Gillespie’s original cut, edited by Tatiana S. Riegel from Cruella, and the new cut were both shown to audiences to see which would faire better. Neither film stood out too much with the studio version scoring about two points more than Gillespie’s. While the director’s cut came in about 11 minutes longer and scored higher on the villain and the music, two things complained about in reviews, the overall score favored the studio cut and it was chosen to be the theatrical release. Though reports don’t say what the specific scores were, it does say the highest score reached among all the testing was only 70 out of 100. While this may sound like a behind-the-scenes struggle and signs of studio interference, things like this happen all the time in Hollywood with the goal of putting out the best film possible and had the film had a higher opening, this probably wouldn’t be news at all. An on-line movement is now building to have the “director’s cut” released even though a handful of people claim to have been in the audience for the Gillespie cut and claims that the film isn’t that different than what was released to theaters. Perhaps the deleted scenes will be included on the Blu-ray release. 

DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation used this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival to signal a broader push into animation, unveiling three new series built around some of DC’s most recognizable characters. The slate includes Absolute Batman, Joker: Laugh Riot, and Krypto, each aimed at a different corner of the superhero audience. The boldest announcement may be Joker: Laugh Riot, described as DC Studios’ first anime series. Produced with Sola Entertainment and directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, the show imagines a Gotham where Batman has been murdered and the Joker hunts for the killer who robbed him of his greatest obsession. That premise turns the usual Batman-Joker dynamic inside out, pushing the Clown Prince of Crime into uneasy detective territory. Absolute Batman adapts the recent comic by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta, reimagining Bruce Wayne as a working-class hero rather than a billionaire crimefighter. Snyder is expected to serve as executive producer and showrunner, while Dragotta will produce. The series’ “no manor, no money” approach positions Batman as a more grounded figure facing wealth, power, and corruption from the outside. Rounding out the lineup is Krypto, a children’s animated series centered on Superman’s loyal super-dog. Developed by C.H. Greenblatt, the project gives DC a lighter, family-friendly entry alongside the darker Batman and Joker titles. Together, the announcements show DC Studios treating animation not as a side lane but as a flexible creative engine. From anime to kid-focused comedy to a radical Batman reinvention, the Annecy slate suggests DC is betting that familiar icons can still feel new when placed in unexpected formats and tones. 

How well is Supergirl going to do in theaters? It’s really hard to say, especially if you are reading on-line takes. Since the tickets were made available for presale, the opening projections have moved all over the place with initial thoughts being between $40 - $50 million, then after a few really positive days it jumped to $60 - $75 and has bounced higher and lower to where now they’re saying $50 - $60. The film is set to open against a popular Toy Story 5 that will be on its second week and likely to stay at the top of the box office if it has an average second week drop. Bottom line the expert seem to be having a hard time locking in on this one. What about critics’ thoughts? The film was screened for reviewers and while originally embargoed until next week, the studio lifted the embargo for reactions a week early and now you can see what they thought. Not their full reviews, but their short initial reactions and if you look online most sites are claiming they’re “mixed”… unless you go into the comments and read them yourself. Even sites like Deadline are saying that yet of the reactions they list, the positives outnumber the negatives three or four to one. There is consistent praise for Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, the action and the heart of the film. The villain is often called bland and the pacing gets called out, but to call it mixed is a stretch. The problem is that like everything in life, film coverage has become political. Sites use negative headlines to get attention and with DC Studios particularly you have a split fan base between what is happening now and those that prefer the previous films… which means that narrative gets created to further their own cause. The truth is, Supergirl will struggle a bit with a film like Toy Story 5 going against it, the character is not popular on her own and is a derivative of a bigger character and in a lot of ways, the previous incarnations, while entertaining, did nothing to make the character stand on her own. Regardless of how it does, there will be a narrative claiming success and another claiming failure. The only way to judge the truth is to see the movie yourself and decide… but that’s really how we judge all movies isn’t it?   

We’re just weeks away from the release of the first Supergirl movie in over 40 years and with ticket presales well underway, experts are making their projects on opening weekend. After the initial sales started happening, most sites were predicting anywhere from $45 to $55 million domestically, but after a few days of higher-than-expected numbers, some sites have adjusted up to as high as $60 to $77 million. This would put the Milly Alcock lead film right in line with the last few Marvel Studios films (except Deadpool and Wolverine). While there has been some debate, Deadline claims the film’s budget is $175 million and the breakeven point would be around $315 million. Other sites claim it’s as high as $425 million globally to call it a success. Only DC Studios and its co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran know what would make this film a success for them, but with trying to rebuild a franchise that had been pretty much run into the ground with underperforming films like The Flash, Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2, having a film that makes most of its money back and is a critical and audience success could be more valuable. Coming off the success of last year’s Superman film, DC is hoping that Craig Gillespie’s vision will continue to excite fans and keep building the new DCU to higher and higher heights. The success of this film and this universe may be driven more on word-of-mouth than box office numbers and the studio appear to be confident enough in the film that they have already had media screenings over two weeks before the film’s release. Yes, there is still an embargo so they can have those reviews come out closer to when the film is in theaters, but you can probably tell the way the project is being covered whether or not it was well received.   

A new rumor is shaking up what fans are expecting from The Batman Part 2. On the same day that writer/director Matt Reeves posted that filming had begun, insider Jeff Schnieder posted about how everything we knew about Sebastian Stan’s role in the project was wrong. Sites had been reporting that Stan would be playing Harvey Dent/Two-Face and while that had never been confirmed by Reeves or DC Studios, people took comments from Stan as confirmation such as how he would be playing, “multiple roles” as a hint at him playing the split-personality of the Batman villain. But the new report claims that Stan is not Dent but rather the serial killer Victor Zsasz and actor Bryan Tyree Henry would be playing Dent. Other insiders have some out since and claim to have collaborating information. Zsasz is an interesting character, a killer who notches a mark on his skin for every kill. He’s been portrayed in live action a couple of times including on Gotham and in the Birds of Prey movie but has never been the main focus of a story. This would match up to Reeves saying that the film would be exploring a story never done in film before. It doesn’t really match up to Stan’s comment about “multiple roles” or reports that he was already working with make-up to figure out the look. Reeves is not confined by what is in the comics so he could make major changes to characters, even to the point of making Zsasz a divergent personality of Harvey Dent that manifested prior to the acid attack causing Two-Face to emerge. It’s also possible that Schneider’s information is slightly off and instead of playing the serial killer, Stan could be playing Charles Victor Szasz who is also known as Victor Sage or The Question. How’s that for a twist? The bottom line here is that Schnieder is hearing this from an insider, and it has not been confirmed by any official source and I wouldn’t put it past film studios to start leaking false information to protect a movie that is just starting to film. I think this one stays in the, “take with a grain of salt” category and we wait to find out more. 

DC Studios and their co-head James Gunn have talked about a lot of potential series and films with some of them being mentioned and then sort of forgotten about. One of those seemed to be Paradise Lost, a Wonder Woman prequel series showing life on Themyscira before the birth of Diana. Though after its initial mention, the project hadn’t been talked about in a while and someone asked Gunn its fate. Gunn insisted the project was still in the works and now we are seeing some possible confirmation. Back in 2024, two names were attached as writers on the series Kira Snyder and Janet Lin and now, according to the WGA website, both are set to work on Paradise Lost for 2027-2028. Snyder is known for writing and producing on The Handmaid’s Tale and The 100 while Lin has credits on Bridgerton, Cursed, and Bones. There has been talks recently about trying to fast track a new Wonder Woman film and while there is no confirmation, rumors persist that the character may debut in Man of Tomorrow, so seeing Paradise Lost finally moving forward would make a lot of sense. 

Sony’s new Spider-Noir series has out done the MCU when it comes to fans. According to Forbes, the new Nicholas Cage lead series with him playing a 1930s variant of Spider-Man has garnered the highest audience score of all Marvel related television projects on Rotten Tomatoes. In the new series, Cage plays detective Ben Reilly who used to be the web-swinging hero called The Spider but hung up his mask after the death of his fiancée. Audience have really taken to the series that is available in both color and B&W, giving it a 93% (a point higher than when Forbes did their article) and even scored well with the critics at 92%. While the critic score is impressive, other Marvel projects have done better such as X-Men ’97 with a 99% score and Ms. Marvel with a 98% among critics. But on the audience side, 93% is tops beating out shows like Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil (Netflix) and WandaVision. While there has been no word on a second season, it would be hard for Amazon and Sony to ignore results like this. 

James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios and writer/director of the upcoming Man of Tomorrow film, was back on social media this week answering questions and one in particular stood out. A Threads user named “boyturizmo” asked, “Will we ever see General Zod, Doomsday, Dr. Fate, Black Adam, Ultraman (with his Crime Syndicate) or Darkseid?” Gunn replied, “Two of them in not too long…” This of course led to a ton of speculation on which two and where? Now the obvious one is Darkseid, and while Gunn has said his DCU isn’t building toward a big Thanos like battle with Darkseid, the character is going to be appearing in the upcoming animated series Mr. Miracle. The series is in production with comic writer Tom King onboard as the showrunner and he recently showed off a clip to interviewer Brandon Davis, who did not share what he saw. Mr. Miracle is an escape artist raised on Darkseid’s planet Apokolips who falls in love with a warrior woman named Big Barda and they escape to Earth. Though no casting has been announced for the series, Gunn has stated that the animated series are cannon to the DCU and actors cast in the animated shows, like Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., would carry over into live action like Grillo did in both Peacemaker and Superman.   As for the second character we will see soon, it is possible that Gunn could bring back more characters from the DCEU and have Dwayne Johnson return as Black Adam or Pierce Brosnan don the helmet of Dr Fate once more. And Ultraman could return from the black hole he was sucked into… but I think the most likely possibility will be in flashbacks to Krypton, possibly in Supergirl, where we could see General Zod cameo in a scene with Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Zor-El (David Krumholtz) discussing the fate of the planet and how to handle it. This would be a great scene for world-building… though part of me really wants Brosnan back as Fate. 

With The Batman Part 2 going into early production, fans are eager for news, information and confirmations and we may just have one thanks to one of the newcomers to the franchise, Sebastian Stan. It’s been rumored for months that the actor who has played everything from Bucky Barnes to Donald Trump to Tommy Lee was moving to Gotham in the role of District Attorney Harvey Dent aka coin-flipping villain Two-Face, and while his casting was confirmed by director Matt Reeves a few days back, we have not had an official announcement on the part he will be playing. While speaking to Deadline about his film Fjord, Stan spoke a bit about his summer plans which include a trip to London to work with Reeves where he says he will be playing “many roles in this one”. The article states that he’s talking about the role of Dent and how the character transforms from D.A. to villain when acid is thrown in his face by mobster Salvadore Maroni. Stan goes on to say, ”I’m excited, I’m nervous and trying to keep surprising myself.” He also he has been working with hair and make-up already trying to figure out how his disfigurement will look. Stan doesn’t come out and say in the quotes that he’s playing Two-Face, but Deadline strongly implies it and are one of the sites that had been reporting that he had been cast in the role early on. The Batman Epic Crime Saga, as Reeves calls it, does have one hitch to overcome. During The Penguin series on HBO Max, Maroni was played by Clancy Brown and does not make it through the series. So, either the attack on Dent takes place prior to the events we’ve already seen portrayed or Reeves is going to change up who throws the acid. Not a huge problem but it will be interesting to see how the moment will be handled if we end up seeing it at all. The Batman Part 2 is beginning to film and is on track for an October 2027 release.