Rounding out the cast is your non Inhuman character, the extradimensional Kree and former Young Avenger known as Marvel Boy. What made you want to bring him into the book? What does he add to the overall dynamic?
We were interested in having a “non-Inhuman” on the crew, and when Wil Moss suggested Marvel Boy as a possibility, I was right on board. He’s got that connection to the Kree – the ruined world of Hala is one of the first places we’ll be going – but with his other-dimensional origins, he’s also got a different viewpoint to most characters in the Marvel Universe, which puts him in a prime spot to see things other people miss. The Kree on his world had knowledge the Kree on ours didn’t – is that just from standard deviation between universes, or has a great secret been buried… maybe literally?
I realize that’s about the third or fourth “secret” in this interview so far – all of which is in aid of keeping my secrets from the readers more than anything. Not to mention the secrets of “IvX,” still ongoing. I did say I was going to be cryptic…
[Laughs] Fair enough! What can you tell us about the vessel the cast of “Royals” will be traveling on? Will it have a support staff of reoccurring characters, “Star Trek”-style?
It’s called the Astarion – named for a hero of Inhuman legend who may or may not have been a distant ancestor of Gorgon, and the inspiration for the Minotaur. That story’s one for, “if we have time.” It’s probably closer to the Millennium Falcon – it’s big, big as a building, big enough to comfortably house seven, but it’s not the Enterprise. There’s most of everything you might need – a medbay, weapons systems, what-have-you – and there’s a bridge that we’ll probably end up spending some time on, but there isn’t a support staff. I felt the mythical nature of the journey was best served by having everyone on the ship be a central part of the cast.
