Henry Brown's new GN, "Threat Quotient", which combines past inspirations with modern metaphors

A graphic novelist named Henry Brown's written on Hollywood in Toto about his new comic titled "Threat Quotient", and what his inspirations were for developing it. In the following paragraphs, he says:

In the midst of the Covidiocy lockdowns, that old comic book flame reignited. I still remembered most of the characters I conceived, and an idea for a sprawling superhero epic that I never began.

Over the years, when driving long distances or performing monotonous tasks, the old ideas bubbled up to the surface of my mind. In my daydreams I had revised scenes, plot elements and character concepts.

Not because I always believed I’d be able to use them, but because there’s a creative algorithm in the firmware of my brain I’ve never been able to turn off.

I got a fire lit under me in 2021 and first attempted to create a space opera comic. That’s a story unto itself I won’t unpack here. But despite how disgusted I was with the Big Two comic book companies and the disappointing cinematic adaptations of late, I still wanted to revisit the stories that had evolved through the years in my imagination.

Well if what he's saying is that he wanted to draw inspiration from them from a time when Marvel/DC still mattered, that's a great idea. And of course, it's a terrible shame it came to the situation where they went downhill into PC by the early 2000s, and what I think is particularly grating in hindsight is that people like Bill Jemas had to be the ones to save Marvel from bankruptcy. Some Marvel fans might agree it would've been far better if they'd folded than have to endure the humiliation Jemas and Joe Quesada put them through a quarter century ago, and similar points can be made about DC under Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns.

Anyway, what inspired Mr. Brown to develop this GN was the Korvac Saga:

As a boy, my intention was mostly just to concoct a tremendous super-slugfest. I had the last issue of the Korvac Saga in my collection and was impressed by the heroism of Earth’s (Marvel’s) mightiest heroes standing together against world-destroying power with a forlorn hope of survival…but fighting anyway because they saw it as the right thing to do. [...]

My experience and observations of the world around me filled in those blanks. What could inspire actual heroes to fight such a battle? That’s easy: freedom.

It rhymes with the scenario we are facing in Current Year America. There are people near the reins of power who think good governance is:

• Sending agents to murder a pet squirrel or investigate a garage pull-down cord
• Arresting citizens for sharing memes or for praying near an abortion clinic
• Chargd for holding church service or walking their dog outdoors during a universal lockdown for a flu bug with a 99 percent survival rate

The enemy is too cowardly to overtly fight to deprive us of our individual rights—they would take our freedoms through deception, subterfuge, psychological manipulation, lawfare and fraud. They’ll try to avoid an actual fight until we’re helpless to resist.

Patrick Henry’s axiom, “Give me liberty or give me death,” is more relevant than ever.

What if there was a subculture that agreed with Henry, but could not be made helpless? Who would force their would-be masters to fight it out? That is a hill good men would be willing to die on.

I transposed the old story idea from my childhood world into the reality of 2021-ish, then tweaked that to accommodate the existence of superheroes and clear plenty of wiggle-room for creative license. The plot involves an international conspiracy to establish Orwellian control over the citizens of every country; a super-powered (“ultrahuman”) team to enforce compliance; and a resistance movement with a team of ultrahuman dissidents that comes together to oppose them.

Yes, that sounds interesting. Like a metaphor for modern issues with Islamism/Communism. We definitely need more stories like that now, and who knows if a tale like the Korvac Saga would be published today if the editors and publishers thought it even remotely resembled issues they now consider anathema for observation? That's why it's now up to independent creators to prove they have the courage to confront serious topics, in contrast to the modern mainstream publishers who've ruined everything. Good luck to Mr. Brown with his new GN project.