Post by @Neil4LOST, content attributed to IGN.com
Greg Rucka: I don't think Frank can let himself enjoy anything. That's the danger of having Cole around is that anybody that enters the bubble potentially runs the risk of compromising Frank's focus and his mission. That's a lot of what's coming next. They don't like each other, but they're both part of the same fight. I think, honestly, does Frank like Spider-Man? Eh. I think Frank respects Spider-Man a great deal; I think there is a piece of Frank that looks at Spider-Man and thinks it would be great to be that naive and altruistic and move through the world and maintain that philosophy. I don't think he actively dislikes Spider-Man; I don't think he dislikes Matt Murdock. I think he thinks Matt Murdock is wrong [laughs], but not an enemy. He has tremendous respect for them.
It's not so much that Cole has anything to prove at this point, other than that she can stay on mission. So I guess what you're seeing in that moment is him acknowledging "we are fighting the same battle together. Our agendas are the same. Our agenda is not Spider-Man's agenda and not Daredevil's agenda." I don't think it's condescending, but I do think he looks at it as a completely different battle. "It's all well and good to leave these people alive, but you and I both acknowledge that there are people who are going to have to die for what they have done." So in that, he gives her the flag to fly, for lack of a better phrase.
In the same way that if you are going out as a unit, you want to be able to recognize other members of your unit. Not only because you want to know who you should be shooting and who you shouldn't, but also to let your opponent know: if you see that skull coming at you, you know how bad things are liable to get. In that sense, I think it is a big evolution in their relationship.
IGN: Was finding the balance between telling the Omega Effect story while keeping the regular ongoing threads alive challenging at all?
Rucka: Yeah, it's always a challenge when you introduce, for lack of a better phrase, exterior variables into the story that you've been crafting. That said, this wasn't a surprise. Mark and I knew as of last summer that we would be doing something. Some of the initial conversations that I had… well, I was still talking with [Steve] Wacker about what we were going to do with the Punisher run when he and Mark and I had dinner in San Diego. As Mark was talking about what he was doing and where he was going, I started telling him what I was planning, and we immediately saw where we were going to dovetail.
So honestly, the biggest challenge for me is making sure I represent the characters I am not as familiar with properly. The benefit is that I have a great editors in Steve Wacker and Ellie Pyle, and I've got Mark Waid, who when I write the script, I send to him and he's going to line correct and offer notes to anything that he feels Matt wouldn't do or wouldn't say. And it works the exact same way in Daredevil #11 except the opposite; I'm reading his script. It's weird for me to see this issue say, "written by Greg Rucka" and then "special thanks to Mark Waid," because I don't like the implication that his input was less, somehow. That's an unfair judgment. If Punisher #10 works, it works as much because of what I did as what Mark Waid did.
Rucka: That was something that Mark brought to me. One of the wonderful things that he's doing in the Daredevil run is that Matt is not ignoring the incredible run of tragedy that he's had in his life, but he has decided for the time being that, "I'm not looking at that. That's not there." Of course, Mark is too good a writer to let that drop. You know that the day is going to come where Daredevil is going to have to pay the piper on that. I think there's a hint of that when Matt looks at Frank and he sees a failure. It's a guy he couldn't turn away. And it's true, [Frank] is never going to change. He's never going to wake up one day and be like, "Well, I've killed enough people! It's time to open a grocery store!" [laughs]
IGN: [laughs]
Rucka: He's not going to do that! Ever! His last breath will be expelled killing somebody who he feels has to die for the crimes they've committed. So when Matt couldn't lead Frank, he sort of turns to Rachel and goes, "Here's a chance. Maybe I can reachher." It creates an interesting triangulation because you have, on one hand, Frank saying, "Here are the colors; here's the flag. You may wear it. We're in this together. I want to help you achieve your ends. I know what you want because it is what I want." And on the other side, you have Daredevil going, "There is another way. Please come the other way." That is the character engine of Omega Effect, these two guys and how they are trying to deal with this woman's presence and what's going to happen to her next.
IGN: Mark actually mentioned that last week when we talked to him about Avenging #6. He mentioned that Daredevil is "a sucker for a capable woman" and that Rachel fits that bill perfectly, but as we see in this issue, she's not really receptive to what Matt's offering. Do you think she's using this situation to her advantage?
Rucka: Have you read #10? Then you know the answer to that! [laughs] She's smart enough to know. I do think that if we're going to give Matt an obvious weakness, it's that he's a sucker for a pretty face. He always has been. That's not out of character for him. But I'm not sure that is any more acute than the fact that he is, despite everything, an optimist. Despite everything he presents, Frank is, maybe not a pessimist, but he would call himself a realist. But Daredevil, he's wearing a costume. I think that tells Cole everything she needs to know. There is a certain contempt for people in costumes, based not solely on the "Where were you when I needed you?" thing but also, "It's great that you guys do what you do, but there's a whole lot of stuff that isn't getting done while you do it."
IGN: That's a really interesting approach. And speaking of people in costumes, I really enjoyed the scenes between Frank and Spidey. As you mentioned before, the two really couldn't be more different, but their chemistry is unique, I think. Can you speak at all to what makes their dichotomy interesting?
Honestly, one of the great things you get with Spider-Man – and I've had great difficulty wrapping my head around the character for years and it really wasn't until working on this and working with Mark and Steve that I really think I started to get Spider-Man. I mean, I always understood the character and the mission. But that level of humor that Spider-Man can bring to anything as a defense mechanism or coping mechanism, in this issue in particular, is a much needed dose of levity. Frank's world is not a world where people are making pratfalls or cracking wise. Frank's never going to be the Roger Moore Bond, "Have a nice trip!" He's never going to do that. But Spider-Man demands the humor and as a result, Frank can bide his time. And like everything else, the one thing he says is like the one bullet spent. It's the right bullet at the right time for the right target. From a writing point of view, that's more fun than you can imagine.
IGN: Awesome. That's all I had for you in regard to this issue, but is there anything you wanted to add?
Rucka: I'm just going to sound like a blind cheerleader because I'm going to say, this is the middle chapter and Daredevil #11 is a fantastic issue and I think Marco has done an outstanding job on all three of these. I love the art. One of the delights in this is that it justifies taking Frank into a different world than I've had him moving in in the previous nine issues. The superpowers/super villain contingent, he stays away from that, and with good reason. This allowed quite easily for him to move into that world, both by necessity and by the fact that he's working with people who can deal with it in a more experienced manner. That has ramifications. The Omega Effect radiates out into the rest of the Punisher run.
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http://comics.ign.com/articles/122/1223465p1.html
