Welcome to the "Grand Opening" of Too Much Info, the premiere website dedicated to Prodigy of the New Mutants. First and foremost I would like to thank Prodigy's creators, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, for graciously agreeing to this interview.
Nunzio DeFilippis: No problem. We've enjoyed the site in its previous incarnations and look forward to seeing the new version.
What was your inspiration for creating a character like David?
ND: We play role-playing games, in particular a game called Champions, which is a superhero roleplaying game. One of the characters we created had a telepathic skill-leeching ability that as we went along, we realized made for all sorts of interesting stories and questions. But he was an adult, and used these abilities in a pretty straightforward and manipulative way. When we were asked to create new characters for the New Mutants relaunch, we thought it'd be interesting to take that power and put it in a teenager. Someone who would still be getting used to this. We decided that someone who could absorb knowledge without earning it could either be corrupted (getting the ends without ever worrying about the means) or could go the other way - he could be an overachiever, trying to compensate for the 'borrowed' smarts by becoming smart on his own.
In David's first appearance back in New Mutants #4 we saw him mimic the fighting abilities of a member of Purity. Later on we discovered that David's powers allowed him to predict the direction of most any attack. Was this ability something you had always intended for David to have, or an idea you came up with later?
Christina Weir: We always imagined the ability to "see an attack coming." It felt like a good extension of the power. If David knows what you know and you're a trained fighter, then David has the ability to know that a certain type of move will often follow a certain type of attack. It felt logical to us as well as giving David a combat application of his power. But as we played with the power, we decided to expand his ability to include "seeing" all attacks - it's like a subconscious form of telepathy. As your brain figures out how to attack, his brain "sees" that plan.
Obviously a huge part of the six-part "Ties That Bind" storyline from back in New Mutants dealt with David learning to cope with Josh's past as a Reaver. Did this storyline come out the way you had always intended, or did you feel rushed to settle it before last year's "Reload?" (When New Mutants became New X-Men: Academy X.)
ND: It certainly wasn't rushed by the transition to New X-Men. By the end of New Mutants Issue 12, David had made his peace with Josh. That was what we'd always planned. And in NM #13, he's back to being concerned about Josh and the whole team responds to the threat to Josh as his friends. That was the endpoint we saw for Josh's initial awkward stage, which centered in many ways on the David/Josh conflict. But although it wasn't rushed, it didn't play out as originally planned. The thaw in their frigid relationship started to set in when David stood up for Josh against Santo and Julian. But the reasons for that fight were originally very different in our initial plans. There was a suicide story that was pulled at the last minute and we had to construct replacement storylines, all the while salvaging as much of the original art as possible. So we took a fight from the suicide story and gave it a whole new cause (Josh's Reaver past coming to light). Originally, Josh decks Julian because of Julian's reaction to the suicide. It's a long story - ask us about it again after we've moved on to other books.
During Parents Week we saw David come to Josh's rescue when he was being bullied by Julian and Santo. We also saw that Santo appears to have a particular dislike for David. Will we evern learn why Santo hates David so much?
CW: There's not a whole lot to it. Santo's a bully. Fighting's what he knows best. And in the face of someone like David (a brains first kind of guy), Santo feels a certain superiority. And once you have David best him in a fight a couple of times, well, Santo's REALLY not going to like him.
When David first met Nori, she referred to him as "Mr. Judgmental." At the time, many people disliked David because they too thought David was too judgmental. Was this something you had anticipated, or were you surprised by the reaction to David?
CW: I think I was surprised by the intensity of the reaction, but not the reaction itself. In many ways, David is our Cyclops. He's the rock, the down to earth guy, the straight man. And Scott can rub people the wrong way. But David is judgmental. He needed to have a flaw. Just saying that he's the grounded/perfect character would make him boring. So Noriko is responding to something very real that she sees and something that David has to learn to keep in check.
David was the only member of the original cast (excluding Kevin, who only appeared in four issues) to never appear on a cover of your New Mutants run. When the book officially became New X-Men, he only appeared alongside his teammates. Did you ever feel that David was being overshadowed by the rest of his teammates?
ND: Well, the New X-Men #10 cover is a David cover. There are faculty members on that cover, but it really is all about David. But that cover took a long time to arrive - we had wanted a David cover from the start. On the broader question, David was definitely overlooked early on. He's the stable one, the leader and straight-laced kid. It's easy to dismiss him as "boring," stopping only to call him "uptight" or "judgemental." But David's potential has been on our minds from the start and it's cool that people have started to see him as one of our "breakout" characters - which we've started to see on some of the message boards.
By the time New X-Men: Academy X debuted, Nori's opinion of David being judgmental had changed. Had you intended for her feelings to change as soon as they did, or did you change their relationship so as not to confuse new readers to the book?
CW: It wasn't really sooner than we thought. There's a certain peace that comes at the end of the New Mutants run. You see Noriko and David talking about Josh at the end of New Mutants #12 and it's clear that Noriko and David have reached a certain place in their relationship. But as Noriko serves the gang their coffee, she's also still supposed to look like the outsider or the new kid. Then New X-Men started and Marvel wanted Issue 1 to feel like a new kid's perspective to the school. The closest thing we had was Noriko - she'd been at the school the least amount of time. So we tried to show that David was really the only one she'd had a chance to form a bond with. David checks on her after her orientation tour. And when David invites her to lunch with his friends, it's clear that Noriko is still trying to figure out if she fits in.
Whereas the other X-books tend to be about being super heroes, New X-Men is more a reflection of school life at Xavier's. Obviously we know how the majority of the Hellions feel, but what in your opinion is the general consensus of how the other students view David?
ND: David is the smartest kid at the school. As in many high schools, the smartest kid at Xavier's provokes mixed reactions. Many people would dismiss him out of hand as a geek. Add to this the fact that in a school full of mutants, David has a non-flashy, non-aggressive power, and I think a lot of the kids at Xavier's think he's pretty lame. Those who know more about him know that he's smarter than them, and virtually unhittable in a fight. This makes them either admire him (like his buddies) or really resent him (like Julian and Santo). People like that don't dismiss him out of hand. They may not like him, but they know exactly what he's capable of.
Although the events of "Too Much Information" were all in David's head, the issue showed how much potential David truly has. Did the two of you have to sell Marvel on the idea of David being capable of destroying the X-Men, or were you free to do whatever you wanted in that storyline?
CW: Mike Marts was pretty excited about the story when we pitched it to him. There may have been a certain safety to it given that it was in David's head. But Mike agreed it was a good exploration of David and what the logical extensions of his powers would be.
Before we go, do you have any last comments you would like to add to fans of Prodigy as well as New X-Men in general?
ND: David is one of my personal favorites. He's also one of the kids I worry the most about, after we're off the book. His powers are the type that might be too complex and too subtle for them to consider worthwhile. Of all our kids, he seems the one most likely to be shipped off to limbo or even killed off. So, keep on hyping him, so that Marvel sees he's a favorite and therefore untouchable!