DF Interview: Marc Guggenheim promises espionage intrigue in the ‘Too Dead To Die’ OGN

By Byron Brewer

In the 1980s, Simon Cross was America’s top super-spy. In Too Dead To Die, he faces down today’s very different world and a past that has come back to haunt him, forcing him out of retirement for one final adventure.

The writer/artist team of Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin (Blade, Wolverine) reunites for an original graphic novel in the forthcoming Too Dead To Die. This all-new story promises classic spy novel suspense and is set to hit shelves from Image Comics this December. Whose espionage-loving motor wouldn’t be revved by the mention of these two comics creators? I sat down with my friend Marc Guggenheim to discuss the OGN.


Byron Brewer: Marc, Coronavirus and the pandemic affected all of us in many ways. Tell readers how this was instrumental in your coming graphic novel, Too Dead To Die.



Marc Guggenheim: Well, I locked the sound mix on my first directing efforts (Legends of Tomorrow, Episode 514) and the next day was lockdown. The shutting down of all production meant that I was able to focus on writing things that I wouldn’t otherwise have had time to work on. Among those projects was a push back into creator-owned comics. I had had the idea for what became Too Dead To Die for several years, but never had the time to actually work on it. Suddenly, I did.



Byron: And before we get to the book proper (well, kinda), relate the very ironic/amusing story of how artist and frequent collaborator (Blade, Wolverine) Howard Chaykin got involved with the OGN.



Marc Guggenheim: Howard and I had worked together on four projects previously: Blade, Wolverine, a four-page story for an anti-bullying special, and an unpublished eight-page Spirit story. Like I said, what became Too Dead To Die was something I’d been kicking around in my head for a number of years. The pandemic gave me a chance to finally work on it. I just started writing the first issue. This was, obviously, before I knew it would take the form of a graphic novel. But halfway through writing those first twentysomething pages, I realized I was picturing Howard’s art in my head as I wrote. When I finished the script, I sent Howard an email -- we’ve kept in touch over the years -- and asked if he had any interest in reading it. He said he did and evidently he liked what he read, because we were suddenly off to the races.



Byron: Introduce us to Simon Cross. Who was he, who is he, what challenges does life hold for him today?



Marc Guggenheim: I like to describe Cross as a super-spy who is as close to James Bond as I could get without being sued. He’s basically America’s answer to James Bond: Like Bond, he likes women and the finer things in life, but being American, he’s more coarse. He’s less proper. He has a tendency to break the rules. I don’t think he takes orders as well as Bond does.

I’m using the present tense here, but the truth is that that’s all in the past for Cross. When we meet him, he’s in his seventies and long since retired from the field. He has a collection of medications that have been prescribed to manage all the conditions decades of hard living have left him with. His liver is a mess. His back is in shambles. He has STDs. He’s basically falling apart when we meet him.


Byron: Talk a little about Cross’ world in the 1980s. And did you or Howard do any research for the period?



Marc Guggenheim: Howard and I both lived through the Eighties, so I don’t think either of us felt an overwhelming need to do too much research on that score. In any case, the majority of the graphic novel unfolds in the 21st Century. Although there is a prose short story in the graphic novel that’s set in the Eighties which I had to do a fair amount of research for. All I can say is, thank God for Google. It’s truly amazing how many specific facts are right at your fingertips.



Byron: Can you let us know about any important characters aside from Cross in the book, maybe introduce a few of them here?



Marc Guggenheim: The most significant co-star is Cross’ daughter, Lily. As more than one character points out, it’s statistically impossible for Cross to have had sex with so many women without siring at least one child. That’s Lily. But the important thing to know about her is that she’s no damsel. She’s smart and formidable and has her own point of view on things. At the same time, I worked hard to avoid the expected cliché of her having resentment towards her father which Cross has to overcome. Their relationship is much more nuanced -- in fact, Lily’s surname is Nuance -- than that.

There’s also Olivia Goodlay, who was a former co-worker of Cross’ and, yes, a former lover. Today, however, she’s a Director at the CIA. I was interested in seeing how a two-dimensional “Bond girl” would grow and change over time. Her interactions with Cross are among my favorite in the graphic novel. She’s got his number and has no compunctions about giving him the business.


Byron: Can you give readers an elevator pitch for the book (without spoilers, of course). And what sort of difficulties does a former 1980s Cold War superspy have operating in the 21st century?



Marc Guggenheim: The elevator pitch is that Simon Cross was America’s preeminent super-spy in the 1980s. But it’s now 2022 and the world has passed him by. All his heroism and sacrifices have been forgotten. He never settled down. He lives a rather sad and lonely existence. But all that changes the day he learns that one of his many assignations produced a daughter. The fact that she’s in danger draws him out of retirement for one final adventure.



Byron: Discuss your collaboration(s) with Howard in depth. Your story about how he got with this graphic novel says a lot about you guys as a creative team.



Marc Guggenheim: When I write a comic, I’m always seeing the art in my head as I go. With Too Dead To Die, I was seeing Howard’s art in my mind’s eye, as I mentioned. What’s interesting, however, is that I often don’t see Howard’s layouts -- how the art is arranged on the page -- and that’s actually an aspect of Howard’s art that he doesn’t get enough credit for, in my opinion. The way he’ll arrange close ups or tight shots of characters’ faces in panels that are confined to the left or right side of the page -- leaving the middle of the page for wide or action shots -- is really rather ingenious. And wholly original. It’s the most quintessentially “Chaykin” thing about Howard’s art, but nobody notices because his style -- his voice as an artist -- is so wonderfully specific. When you look at a piece of Howard’s art, you have no doubt who drew it.

Also, just by the design of the cover of the OGN, I get the feeling this may NOT be the last time we see or hear of Simon Cross OR the team of Guggenheim/Chaykin. Do we have more Simon coming to our lives in the future?
Well, to quote the title of Sean Connery’s last turn as James Bond, Never Say Never Again, I’d say “never say never.” I love working with Howard and I believe the feeling is mutual. And, yes, the story is built such that there can be sequels and prequels. It all depends on the success of the OGN, to be honest. In success, all things are possible. At the moment, I’m working on the screenplay for a feature film adaptation of Too Dead To Die -- Howard and I sold the rights recently to a major Hollywood studio. In my perfect world, we’d publish a follow-up OGN -- which, I promise, will not be called 2 Dead 2 Die -- contemporaneously with the release of the movie. But you never know what fate has in store…


Byron: Marc, I know you are active in all types of media, everything from comics to the screens big and small. What projects to you have coming, inside or outside comics, that you can tell readers about?



Marc Guggenheim: “That [I] can tell readers about” is the key phrase in that question. For the past few months, I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter -- LegalDispatch -- on Substack (marcguggenheim.substack.com) and I feel like many editions are just a laundry list of project codenames because I haven’t gotten the greenlight to talk publicly about them.

In terms of television, I’m just in the development phase on several projects. These days, a show can take four years between conception and streaming, so I’ve buckled in for what I know will be a long process on all of these. It’s not like the old days where you would pitch in June, shoot the pilot in March, and be on the air in October, unfortunately.
Right now, most of my public-facing (i.e., announced) work is in the comic book space. The trade paperback edition of Last Flight Out, the pre-apocalypse father/daughter story I published through Dark Horse, hit comic book stores on November 16. The week after saw publication of the first trade collection of Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca on November 23. That same day, we dropped Star Wars: Revelations -- a really ambitious 40-page one-shot which previews events that are happening across the Star Wars line in 2023. Speaking of 2023, on January 25, we’ll release another OGN through Dark Horse called Fragmentation, which I describe as “what if Christopher Nolan directed a family drama?”
Like I said, LegalDispatch is the place to go for teases of all my heretofore unannounced projects, including Project Artery which will be animated. I also talk a lot about the state of the entertainment industry and how it’s been contracting of late -- which probably seems strange given how busy I am, but it’s a strange time…

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Marc Guggenheim for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. The Too Dead To Die OGN from Image Comics is slated to be on sale on December 14th!



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A secret hero that fans have speculated about in Marvel’s Thunderbolts* may have been finally confirmed.

Thunderbolts*, which made its way to theaters last week, stars a ragtag team of heroes from across the MCU, but fans believe the movie features another hero that Marvel has kept hidden — Geraldine Viswanathan’s Mel, an assistant to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

In the comics, Mel is the Thunderbolt named Songbird. While Viswanathan never displays powers in Thunderbolts*, one of the movie’s executive producers teases that it could happen at some point in the MCU future.

Thunderbolts* executive producer Brian Chapek spoke to IMDb, where he elaborated on a character, possibly Mel, and how a necklace she wears foreshadows her becoming Songbird. “There is a character that fans are trying to figure out whether — is she or is she not — I would say, what emblem does she wear that may or may not hint at this character’s larger identity moving forward? Potentially. That’s what I would say,” Chapek said. (via ComicBook.com)

Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.

Akira is coming back for more John Wick ass-kicking.Rina Sawayama, who became a fan-favorite as the fearless daughter of Hiroyuki Sanada’s Shimazu Koji in “John Wick: Chapter 4,” will reprise her role opposite Donnie Yen in the franchise’s upcoming spinoff “Caine” for Lionsgate.

First officially unveiled at CinemaCon, “Caine” is also being directed by Yen, and produced by franchise producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (“John Wick” chapters 1 through 4, “Ballerina,” “Monkey Man”) through their Thunder Road shingle and by Chad Stahelski (“John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum,” “Day Shift,” “John Wick: Chapter 4”), who produces through his 87Eleven Entertainment production banner. Yen will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

Lionsgate is set to launch sales on the project — which goes into production later this year — in Cannes. While the logline is being kept under wraps, the new film will continue the story arcs following the events of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table. (via Variety)

Spike Lee has released the first trailer for his A24 and Apple-backed crime thriller “Highest 2 Lowest” starring Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky and more. The movie will be released in theaters August 22 and stream on Apple TV+ starting Sept. 5 after world premiering later this month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written by William Alan Fox, “Highest 2 Lowest” is loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” which follows a businessman deciding whether or not to use his wealth to further his career or save a child’s life. Both “Highest 2 Lowest” and “High and Low” are reinterpretations of Ed McBain’s mystery novel “The King’s Ransom.”

The film marks the fifth collaboration between Lee and Washington. “I’m just glad we got five in,” Lee said of working with Washington. “Highest 2 Lowest” also stars Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson and rapper Ice Spice. (via Variety)

Trailer: https://youtu.be/MZ2V8znYMSk

This article has spoilers for the Thunderbolts* movie, so be warned… When the original cast of the Thunderbolts were announced, fans were surprised to see the main characters were Bucky Barnes, US Agent, Yelena Belova, Ghost, Red Guardian and Taskmaster. Most of these characters we in supporting roles in other people’s movies and now they were getting the spotlight. The one that stood out to a lot of people was Taskmaster played by Olga Kurylenko, who had been introduced in the Black Widow movie and was the payoff to something Loki had said all the way back to the first Avengers film. Fans had a mixed reaction to the gender-swapped villain, taking it very far away from the popular comic version. When teasers and trailers started coming out for the film, people noticed that Taskmaster didn’t seem to appear that much in the footage, giving the idea that maybe she was long for the film. Then Marvel spoiled the twist when they announced the cast of Avengers: Doomsday and it included every member of the Thunderbolts except for Kurylenko. And while director Jack Schreier has said the idea of killing off a character early on was to make the audience believe anything might happen… the majority of them went in waiting for it to happen and knowing the rest of the cast will survive. This doesn’t seem to have hurt ticket sales or fan reaction to the film, and now Marvel could take the technology that created the first Taskmaster and use it to create a new one that is closer to what the fans of the comics wanted.

With the recent passing of Pope Francis, the Vatican will begin the election of a new pope starting on May 7th. This is process is a little more known now by the general public because of films like the Oscar-nominated film Conclave that starred Ralph Fiennes. The actual conclave is a process where 135 Cardinals from around the globe are all locked into Sistine Chapel to deliberate and vote on who will become the next head of the Catholic Church. Writer Robert Harris who penned the novel that the recent film was based on talked about the process that will take place behind doors, liking it to the popular TV series The Traitors. On the series hosted by Alan Cummings, a group is secretly split into ‘faithfuls’ and ‘traitors’ with the everyone voting during a round table to eliminate a player who they hope is a traitor. Harris explained to the BBC: “[It’s] the nearest analogy I can come to. Suddenly everyone swings to one person – you can’t see why, particularly, but it happens. And in a funny way, a similar dynamic does operate in a conclave, which is why often it produces a surprise.” The idea of conclave started after it took the College of Cardinals nearly three years (1268-1271) to elect Pope Gregory X. He decreed the “locked in” policy for choosing a new pope. Harris said of his research into the process, “To lock the door and say you’re not going to come out until you’ve come up with a result concentrates the mind – and if you look back, the popes have been pretty good. I didn’t come away from researching the novel thinking this is a terrible idea [and that] I must write a novel to expose how awful it is. In a way, the novel shows a conclave working.” 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, believes that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become too overwhelming for audiences. All of the interconnected movies and TV shows have made it difficult for casual viewers to keep up. He reportedly told colleagues that watching all the new content was starting to feel more like “homework” than entertainment. Part of this is from a previous push for more content to boost streaming subscriptions back when Bob Chapek was in charge of Disney. Feige is now leading an overhaul to simplify the MCU, focusing on fewer TV shows and more stand-alone stories that don’t require extensive knowledge of past films. Starting in 2026, Marvel plans to release only about three movies and two TV shows per year, scaling back its output to improve quality and accessibility. 

Warner Bros appears to be taking a very big risk on rebooting a beloved franchise that now has some other issues attached to it as well. The Harry Potter franchise was a major hit for the film studio with eleven major motion pictures and becoming one of the top earning I.P.s in the world. Fans watched as the Wizarding World expanded and stars like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint grew into iconic roles. Now the studio wants fans to come back for the same story, but this time told as a longer form television series with a new cast… and you never know how fans of a cherished series might respond. And then there is the other issue, the once hailed author of the series, J.K. Rowlings, has become extremely polarizing with her outspoken, anti-trans public statements. She has quickly alienated a large portion of her fanbase which could also affect the potential audience for the reboot. This was addressed by HBO CEO Casey Bloys while a guest on The Town with Matthew Belloi podcast. Bloys spoke about doing business with Rowlings, “The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We’ve been in business for 25 years. We already have a show on HBO from her called C.B. Strike that we do with the BBC. It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. If you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.” Bloys appears to be trying to distance the studio from the author’s political views while continuing to work with her as an executive producer on the new series. 

CBS has canceled The Equalizer after five seasons. The final episode of Season 5, airing on May 4, will now serve as the series finale. The decision comes as CBS reshuffles its programming lineup, canceling several shows, including FBI: International, FBI: Most Wanted, and S.W.A.T.. The Equalizer franchise is a long-running vigilante action thriller series that spans television and film. It all started with the original Equalizer TV show, which aired from 1985 to 1989 and starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former intelligence agent who helps people in danger. The franchise was later rebooted into a trilogy of films starring Denzel Washington, beginning with The Equalizer (2014), followed by The Equalizer 2 (2018), and The Equalizer 3 (2023). These movies reimagined McCall as a retired Marine and DIA officer who takes justice into his own hands. In 2021, CBS launched a new TV reboot starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative who aids people in need. Latifah responded to the news by thanking fans and teasing that she’ll be “back kicking ass in something new real soon”. 

While filming for Avengers: Doomsday has begun, the cast assembled recently in order to see another group of heroes make their debut… the Thunderbolts*. Robert Downey Jr. took to social media to post pictures of himself along with fellow Doomsday cast members Chris Hemsworth, Channing Tatum, Simu Liu, Paul Rudd, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Winston Duke and Anthony Mackie as they took break from filming to watch the latest MCU opus that hit theaters this weekend. There were no surprises in the photo as all of the actors had been announced for the upcoming Avengers film, but it is a pretty unique group that we haven’t seen share the screen together before. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in May 2026.   

Tanner Buchanan, Garrett Wareing and Quvenzhané Wallis have been tapped to star in a supernatural horror thriller “Hide and Don’t Speak,” with “The Beast Within” helmer Alexander J. Farrell directing.

Range Media, which produced “Longlegs” and “The Monkey,” is shepherding the feature with Mister Smith introducing to buyers in Cannes.

In “Hide and Don’t Speak,” six teenagers “play a terrifying viral Japanese game in which the players summon a vengeful spirit for a deadly round of hide-and-seek,” the synopsis reads.

Currently in pre-production with production planned for later this year, “Hide and Don’t Speak” has a script from Farrell and Greer Ellison, and is loosely based on the real-life viral internet game hitori kakurenbo. (via Variety)