Today, Monkeybrain Comics announced a new comic from Joey Esposito and Ben Bailey. ‘Captain Ultimate‘ is an all-ages story that celebrates everything great about comics and super heroes. I was fortunate enough to get to talk with the team about their new project.

Ian Menard: I guess my first question is, “How would you describe ‘Captain Ultimate’ – the series? What was the pitch?

Ben Bailey: Our pitch was basically half the first issue. I think Joey’s subject line in the e-mail was “All-Ages Fun.”

Joey Esposito: And “all-ages” means “all-ages.” Like it says on the board games: Ages 8-80. We don’t believe in talking down to kids. I don’t think people give kids the credit they deserve.

IM: And was it pitched as a mini-series, or an ongoing, or what?

JE: Ongoing series.

BB: Yeah, I mean I brought up issue #300 the other day. And while that was half-joking, it half-wasn’t, you know?

Captain Ultimate

 IM: I could just be grasping at straws here, but Captain Ultimate – the character – looked kind of like a pro-wrestler, with his big mustache and big heavyweight belt. I know Joey’s a huge fan of wrestling, and often compares it to comics. So, is he based on a specific wrestler?

JE: It makes me really happy you picked up on that! No wrestler specifically, and stay tuned for Captain Ultimate’s “secret origin” in issue #3.

IM: What makes you say that comics and wrestling go hand-in-hand?

BB: Before movies could capture super heroes, wrestling really did. You know, there are these clear villains, and clear heroes. It’s stories about Good vs. Bad.

JE: Yeah, and even in the 90s, you saw these flawed heroes like Stone Cold Steve Austin, these kind of anti-heroes that maybe really should have been villains. This is more like 80s era wrestling or the Golden Age of comics: heroes are heroic, villains are villainous.

IM: That’s really interesting. I never actually thought of it like that. So, Joey’s a big wrestling fan, and Ben’s a big fan of Godzilla. Which made it really cool to see this C’thulu/Kaiju/Robot thing in the first issue. Is that kind of over-the-top, Zombie-Ninja-Pirate type thing pretty typical of what the series will be?

BB: Definitely. We’ve got four issues written so far. There are a lot of new crazy characters. Most of them are villains, but not always. We use my children – especially Milo, he’s five – to come up with things. He’s got a great imagination, so we’ll ask him, “What do you want to see?” The other day he brought up an “evil alphabet.”

JE: Oh, I have an idea about that actually! Let’s Skype later!

BB: Basically, everything we enjoy is coming into Captain Ultimate – giants, wrestling, Joey’s love of animals… it’s all in there.

Robot

 IM: So the main character is named after Ben’s son, Milo. Would you say having kids changed your thoughts on comics? Are there any Big 2 comics either of you would recommend to children, or the parents of children?

BB: Yes, I’d say having kids definitely changed my thoughts on comics. On entertainment across the board. I personally love gritty violence as much as the next guy. But these days I’m more likely to see the new Pixar movie opening weekend, because they have a message that kids gravitate towards. And that really highlights the direction comics have gone.

JE: Superman Family Adventures was great, though it just got canceled.

BB: There’s a lot of good stuff outside the Big 2. My kids are really into the Sonic books from Archie Comics, so I would recommend those. Or Fraggle Rock.

JE: I was always a big fan of ‘The Secret of Nym.’ It was dark, but it was still for children. There’s a sort of acceptable darkness children should be exposed to. 

IM: That was Fern Gully for me. You know, I was always really anti-censorship for kids when I was growing up. Now that I’m teaching, I freak out when I see eight year olds reading The Hunger Games. I mean it’s kids killing kids!

BB: Well there’s a difference between censorship and knowing what your kids can handle. If they can’t understand it, it’s just violence for the sake of violence, and that’s not ok.

IM: Definitely. So, is there any series or arc that specifically inspired Captain Ultimate?

JE: Superman is my favorite hero of all time. He is heroic because it’s the right thing to do. You know, being inherently good does not mean being boring. Superman inspires me and gives me hope. I want to see that reflected in the way Captain Ultimate inspires Milo and gives him hope. It celebrates Superman.

BB: I think more than anything, I was inspired by Mark Waid’s introduction to All-Star Superman. Not even All-Star Superman itself – though it’s fantastic – just that introduction, about what Superman means to him. Captain Ultimate is a love letter to superheroes who do what’s right. We grow up and get jaded and bitter, but when my kids read comics, Spider-Man is Spider-Man. They know his name immediately. They don’t know or care about the name of the bad guys. They’re just “bad-guys.” “Spider-Man beat up the bad guys.” I think one of my kids pooped in my office.

*At this point, we had to wrap things ups so Ben could leave and clean up poop.*

JE: Also, The Rocketeer. It’s so simple, and as long as you know the basics or fundamentals of the story, you’re fine. While the story grows incrementally, you can start off at issue #8 and you should be OK. We wanted Captain Ultimate to be like that.

IM: OK, so last thoughts?

JE: If you like fun, read Captain Ultimate! It’s $.99 per issue on Comixology. Subscribe a lot!

BB: I completely second that.

Joey is the Senior Editor for IGN Comics. He can be found on Twitter as @joeyesposito. Ben Bailey also reviews comics for IGN, and can be found on Twitter as @616Earth

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