Marvel writer Al Ewing is known for his thrilling work on many different titles – including Thor and X-Men – throughout his career, during which he has gained a reputation for being eager to engage with metaphysical and metafictional concepts in ways that only superhero storytelling can. For Ewing, this is a matter of carrying on a longstanding tradition at the “House of Ideas.”

In an interview with ComicsXF, Ewing spoke at length about his work with Marvel’s cosmic characters, and his contribution to its sprawling legacy of space-and-time-bending storylines. He cited the classic cosmic stories of the 1960s and ’70s, and invoked the names of comics’ greatest creators, in order to explain what makes Marvel’s storytelling truly transcendent.

For Ewing as an author, he is one in a long lineage of ambitious cosmic storytelling at the publisher; many of the ideas he now plays with were seeded decades ago by Marvel’s most prolific creators.

Writer Al Ewing Explains The Ambition Behind Marvel’s Greatest Stories

A Glorious Purpose

Especially in the last few years, Marvel has entrusted Al Ewing with the keys to its cosmos. From his work in Defenders, to Immortal Hulk and its successor Immortal Thor, to his pivotal role in X-Men’s Krakoan Age and its epic climax, Ewing has not shied away from dealing with characters and concepts that make even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes seem limited in scope and power. According to the author, this isn’t a matter of doing something novel with familiar characters; rather, Ewing acknowledges that he is using the Marvel Universe’s vast potential exactly as intended by its earliest creators.

Ewing proposed that underlying the superhero genre, there has always been a deeply existential vein, with the genre offering a way of addressing spiritual and philosophical uncertainties that realism – and real-life – doesn’t afford readers, or writers. As he explained to ComicsFX:

It starts off as people attempting to get at some inner or outer cosmic truth — you can’t tell me that Jim Starlin wasn’t trying to get at something major in his mind or in his life. And when Kirby made Galactus, that was him and Stan Lee attempting to find the face of God.

For Ewing, his own work for Marvel Comics is an extension of this ambitious project, started by his forebearers at the publisher, all the way back to icons Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With the cosmic scope of his work, he seeks to tackle life’s greatest mysteries, while still delivering a fun, action-packed comic book issue every month.

Marvel’s Cosmic Characters Are An Attempt To Uncover Universal Truths

The Publisher’s History Of Big Ideas

In large part, Al Ewing’s distinctive approach to Marvel lore has been essential to making him one of the company’s top scribes. While he may often recontextualize, and even retcon elements of past stories, he remains faithfully committed to the scope and grandeur of Marvel storytelling at its best. He described it this way:

When you look at the Starlin stuff, or Steve Englehart, or Steve Gerber — Marvel in the ‘70s — there’s this tradition of trying to get to the bottom of something through the tool of superheroes. And I like that. I think that’s worthwhile. And if you end up having any kind of enlightenment, that’s a bonus. But it makes for really good comics.

Time and again, Al Ewing has proved that he excels at working in Marvel’s cosmic tradition of using superheroes as a means of accessing something more resonant about the nature of the human experience.

It is worth noting that, as Ewing describes it, the key to Marvel’s most exciting stories is not achieving some profound insight into the cosmos – it is the attempt to. He calls “enlightenment” a potential “bonus,” but suggests that even a failed attempt to deal with a deep philosophical question in a superhero story results in a better story. In this sense, the tradition of cosmic storytelling at Marvel is a legacy of taking big swings, even if those swings don’t always connect.

Al Ewing’s Work On Thor & X-Men Is In The Tradition Of Classic Marvel

Ewing’s Credits Include: Defenders; Immortal Hulk; Immortal Thor; X-Men

Al Ewing’s repeated engagement with the most powerful, and most primordial, forces that could possibly manifest in the Marvel Universe makes him among the foremost heirs to the legacy of the 1960s and 1970s. It was during this highly formative era that the true scope Marvel’s fictional world was tested for the first time – its boundaries pushed far beyond what the superhero genre, and the comic book medium had done up to that point. In contemporary Marvel stories, Ewing has led the charge in doing the same.

From creating the One-Above-All – considered by many fans to be the most powerful entity in the Marvel Universe – to recontexualizing Asgard’s role in the cosmos by introducing the Utgard-Gods, Al Ewing has left an indelible mark on the company’s lore. He has established himself alongside Marvel greats like Jim Starlin and Steve Englehardt in the pantheon of the publisher’s most prolific generators of fresh, engaging ideas. Though his stories are irrevocably modern, they embody the greatest attributes of their classic antecedents.

Marvel Stories Are Still At Their Best When Wrestling With Huge Themes

Al Ewing’s Work Exemplifies That

As the work of Al Ewing – along with other premiere Marvel creative talents, such as X-Men collaborators Jonathan Hickman, and Kieron Gillen – has exhibited, there is an incredible appetite among Marvel fans for stories that reach toward something greater. Ideas, characters, or even plots don’t have to be new, but if they can be approached from an unexpected, or unprecedented angle, readers are much more willing to engage. For any artist, but especially for comic book authors, engagement is essential; every story beat in every issue has to keep the audience along for the ride.

Al Ewing has a remarkable success rate when it comes to keeping readers engaged and invested. Part of that has been his boundary-pushing additions to Marvel’s cosmic lore – but underlying those innovations has been the familiar ethos of the company’s most influential 20th-century artists. As Ewing explained in his interview with ComicsFX, his approach to Marvel storytelling is a patented formula, one that has long worked for the publisher, which is why they have let him do such sterling work with properties such as X-Men and Thor.

Source: ComicsXF (Al Ewing Interview)