This past weekend at the Baltimore Comic-Con, I got the chance to sit down with Marvel All-star Jason Aaron, currently working on Ghost Rider, and Wolverine: Weapon X for the publisher, with his first issue of PunisherMAX, with artist Steve Dillon (Preacher), coming next month.

In addition to his recent slew of Marvel work, Aaron is also currently in the midst of his highly acclaimed Vertigo series, Scalped. We got to speak about his upcoming Punisher work, the freedom of working within Marvel’s MAX universe, and his upcoming creator-owned projects.



CraveOnline: So you’ve got Punisher coming out soon, working with Steve Dillon. How is it working with Steve, who I’m sure you’ve been very influenced by?

Jason Aaron: It’s been very surreal. I’m a huge Preacher fan, you know. A huge fan of his Punisher stuff. For me to write something and get Steve Dillon pages back is one of the most surreal experiences of my comic book career. But it’s been a blast! With Steve, it’s like I know if I write a scene with a guy getting his eyeballs popped out of his head, a 98-year old woman running around naked with a shotgun, I know that Steve Dillon’s gonna pull that off.

CraveOnline: Do you find yourself writing the Punisher differently just because you know what Steve’s capable of?

Jason Aaron: I don’t think  so, because this is what I knew I was going to do with the Punisher before I knew he was going to draw it. I think with Steve it’s just more of a comfort level where you know how good this guy is and you don’t have to worry about if it’s going to look good or not, you can just kind of go balls to the wall and not worry about it.

CraveOnline: Is there any particular cast of characters that you’re excited about that you maybe haven’t touched on before?

JA:  Well, I’m doing the MAX version of Wilson Fisk in the first arc, and the first arc is called “Kingpin”, so it’s kind of about Fisk rising up through the mafia ranks trying to become the Kingpin of New York. The second arc we bring in a MAX version of Bullseye. So all together it will be like a four arc story, and you’ll probably see the Punisher facing the biggest foe he’s ever faced in the MAX universe, and he kind of gets knocked down to as low a point as we’ve ever seen him. He’s has to climb his way up and figure out how does he bring down the most powerful villain he’s ever faced, when he has nothing whatsoever to work with?

CraveOnline: How would you say the MAX versions of Bullseye or Kingpin differ from the versions we’re used to seeing in the main Marvel U?

JA: I think that WIlson Fisk is not that different, really, from the Marvel Universe version. He’s a bit grittier and darker, and I play a little bit with this family and his backstory, but basically that character works as is in a setting like the MAX universe. Bullseye is gonna be a bit different. We can’t have a guy running around and killing people with toothpicks and playing cards. So it’ll be a bit of a different take on him. When he sets his sights on the Punisher to bring him down, he really is able to strike at him in a way that nobody ever has before.