On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, writer/artist Matt Wagner joins us for an interesting discussion that begins with a
question. Will the 20th century
superheroes be as easy to retcon and
update in the decades to come? How well do modern versions of heroes
like The Lone Ranger or Zorro work, without their 19th century settings
and tools? Don't they need the horses and pistols? What about the
Heroes created in the 20th century?

Matt
asks this question not only about heroes he's currently working on like
Zorro & his upcoming 2010 take on the Golden Age Green Hornet for
Dynamite, who Matt thinks still works best in his golden age era .

We also talk about what he has planed for
Zorro in the current arc Tales Of The Fox. Wagner says "General Moncado
slowly starts to gather information about this rogue highwayman...and
it's like Rashomon getting all these different points of view
individual stories of who and what Zorro is. At this point he's still
more of an Urban Myth."On his Green Hornet plans with artist Aaron Campbell "I'm going to
tell
you why he does it...why does Britt Reid who has a way to fight 1930's
social
injustices through his newspaper still need to adopt this alternate
identity? ...We also explore Kato's motivations He's Japaneese in my
version, and I found a way to weave his origin into a very historical


event.. We learn why this very skilled martial artist would support and fight beside Britt."



We also discuss his Vertigo series Madam Xanadu which continues to
interact with other Vertigo characters that have strong DC roots . Her
main adversary through centuries on conflict is The Phantom
Stranger.but there are other "easter egg"  character apperances that
blur the line between the DCU and Vertigo.


Matt says, "Everyone asks me how I'm able to do it, and my response is,
I'm just doing it. I don't ask (laughs). I do tend to keep those
references as ones t