Creator Spotlight: Talks taking creative risks and turning down Marvel and DC

For our milestone 400th episode, Rick Remender joins the AIPT Comics Podcast for a candid conversation about his creator-owned comics, why he turned down opportunities to write Batman and the X-Men, and what drives his most ambitious work yet. From Escape and The Seasons to The Sacrificers and Hammerfist, Remender opens up about storytelling, artistic freedom, and the future of his career. Plus, we break down the biggest comics news of the week in our full weekly recap! Visit our Patreon page to see the various tiers you can sign up for today to get in on the ground floor of AIPT Patreon. We hope to see you chatting with us on our Discord soon! 400 episodes: big moment picks: Dave: 2019: Doomsday Clock finally concludes Chris: The “resistance” against AI. Alex: House of X/Powers of X and more! NEWS NYCC: What we missed Barbie gets a comic series Dinobots return! IDW announces ‘Godzilla vs Everything’ crossover event for March 2027 Daniel Warren Johnson's 'Chainkata' #1 scores a whopping 116 retailer exclusive covers ICV2 Numbers are in DC continues to CRUSH each quarter Somehow Batman still beats ASM 1000! Our Top Books of the Week: Dave: Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (Joshua Williamson, Hayden Sherman) The Nice House by the Sea #12 (James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno) Chris:​​ The Karman Blade #2 (DVP, Ian Bertram) Hammer Head #1 (Ed Brisson, Damian Couceiro) Standout KAPOW moment of the week: Chris: Regicide #3 (Patrick Kindlon, Ludovic Lalliat) Dave: Wolverine: Paradise #1 (Dan Panosian) TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEK Chris: The Twilight Zone #11 (Mark Russell, Victor Alpi) Dave: Avengers: Armageddon #5 (Chip Zdarsky, Delio Diaz) JUDGING BY THE COVER JR. Dave: Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy #4 (Dylan Burnett Polybagged With Collectible Card) (and Tyler Boss’ is good too) Chris: Amazing Spider-Man: Halloween Special #1 (Paco Medina Variant Cover) Interview: Rick Remender Creator Spotlight The Seasons #12 out October 14 (and artist Paul Azaceta) Hammerfirst #3 is out October 28th (and artist Steve Epting) Escape #10 is out November 3 (and artist Daniel Acuna) Rick, this is our 400th episode, so I wanted to start a little bigger than usual. You’ve been making comics for decades now, from Marvel and DC to building Giant Generator and this huge library of creator-owned work. When you look at the comics you’re making right now, do you feel like you’re in a distinctly different creative era than you were five or ten years ago? With Hammerfist, you spend a surprising amount of time convincing us we’re reading this grounded crime noir before you really let the superhero and supernatural elements loose. Was holding that back always essential to the concept, and how much did having Steve Epting drawing the book give you the confidence to wait? Steve Epting is so associated with grounded espionage and superhero storytelling, and Hammerfist gives him room to do both. When you finally got the opportunity to build a creator-owned book together, what did you specifically want to write that would take advantage of what Steve does better than almost anyone? Mike Denton is a killer, an addict and a pretty terrible father, but Hammerfist keeps dangling the possibility that he could become something better. Now you’re heading into “Black Noon,” and the solicitation is asking whether this “dirtbag killer” can take one final swing at redemption. Is Hammerfist ultimately a redemption story, or are you more interested in asking whether some people actually deserve one? One thing that fascinates me about Escape is how differently Milton and Flynn process the same war. Milton has gradually learned to recognize humanity in the people he was taught were monsters, while Flynn seems to be moving in the opposite direction. How much of the series was built around seeing what war does to two people who begin from roughly the same side but emotionally end up somewhere very different? The solicitation for Escape #10 puts Milton in this brutal position where survival, loyalty and protecting civilians may all require different choices. You've written plenty of characters who survive terrible things but don't necessarily come through them intact. With Escape, is getting home actually the victory, or has the question become what part of yourself you can still bring home with you? Then you have The Seasons, which is operating in a completely different visual and emotional language. Issue #12 reunites the sisters in a world where people are consumed by these self-reflecting mirrors showing them only the world they want to see. That feels like an incredibly pointed idea for 2026. How much are you using this fantastical world to talk about the way people increasingly construct their own versions of reality? Between Hammerfist, Escape, The Seasons and everything you're building through Giant Generator, you have a lot of very different books happening simultaneously. For our 400th episode, I want to end the main interview looking forward: What do you still want from comics? Is there a type of story, collaboration, or creative swing that you feel like you haven't taken yet?