By Ryan Penagos
Orson Scott Card: a man with a clear vision. Undeterring, Unyielding, vigilant, he knows what he wants to see: an Ender's Game movie. But before the award-winning novelist's hallmark work can get to the big screen, he's making damn sure the look, feel, design, atmosphere—Ender's Game's entire visual spectrum—is perfect. How does he plan to do that? By bringing the beloved property to Marvel Comics.
Tentatively kicking off later this year, the ENDER'S GAME comic—overseen by Card with Jake Black as creative consultant, edited by Nick Lowe, written by Chris Yost (X-FORCE) and drawn by Pasqual Ferry (ULTIMATE IRON MAN II)—isn't the first of the seminal writer's works to get the comic treatment, but it's definitely the biggest.
"[WYRMS and ALVIN MAKER] were sort of the warm ups," says Card. "Marvel picked [them] up and brought [them] to a wider audience. I'm proud of what they did with [them]. Those are also highly visual stories, but I'm thrilled to have ENDER'S GAME finally hitting the 'small screen.'
"I'm thrilled because this is actually the first move of ENDER'S GAME into a visual medium," notes the author, who began the series with a short story in 1977 and published the first "Ender's Game" novel in 1985. "We've been waiting for the movie for a long, long time, but Hollywood just doesn't see it. They read the book and then they realize that the book all takes place inside the main character's head. I'm hoping Marvel will show [Hollywood] how it's done, because you guys know how to put the story down in a visual way so that it comes to life."
ENDER'S GAME tells the story of an unassuming young boy named Ender Wiggin who, along with the world's most gifted children, attend Battle School to prepare them for the fight of their lives—and to save humanity from its greatest threat. Wiggin will rise up to be the greatest warrior and leader that the human race has ever known. The epic saga follows Ender and his friends as they grow to become the last hope and line of defense for all of mankind.
In addition to ENDER'S GAME, Marvel will concurrently publish the companion series, ENDER'S SHADOW.
"ENDER'S SHADOW was sort of an accidental book," says Card. "I was just going to take a character called Bean, who [is] an important but not that huge character in ENDER'S GAME, who was going to have a few chapters showing his early life, his time in battle school and then move right on to the rest of his story. But I fell in love with the stuff I was finding about his life before he gets to Battle School. By the time he gets there he's a really fascinating character to me. He's really smart and in a way he's giving Ender a run for his money with being the hero of the story."
Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more on ENDER'S GAME and ENDER'S SHADOW and look for our video interview with the legendary writer on Tuesday!
For all the Marvel news and updates spinning out of New York Comic Con2008, visit our news hub. And for a great way to kill time in between announcements, check out Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
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