The following was originally posted on Newsarama.com:

NRAMA: Okay, World War Hulk, not much to ask about this, as it seems pretty clear what this is.

JQ: You think? What if I told you that the Hulk was coming back for tea and crumpets? [laughs]

NRAMA: Anything you want to add to the dialogue at this stage given what's now out there and you've seen some response to it?

JQ: There's very little, this one is pretty much as advertised. I know, I know, pretty rare for me to be at a loss for words or hyperbole [laughs]. I guess what I can add to this is that the next batch of Marvel books and stories on the horizon will be of a whole different tone from Civil War and the books that we've published around the event. While MCW was chock full of goodness, it was also heavy in a thought provoking manner. World War Hulk is like the lovely green sorbet after the big heavy meal that was Civil War.

NRAMA: Now with Frontline, X-Men, Gamma Corps, and Young Avengers, while not as expansive as Civil War, it's still pretty huge by any pre-House of M standard. We know X-Men is the next event and we're assuming they'll be a Frontline for that too, so is status quo for the foreseeable future? Some event of this kind at most times from here forward?

JQ: I don't know if there will be a Frontline for the X-Men event to be honest with you, we're still a bit away from that but as currently planned, this may be an even smaller event than World War Hulk with respect to title count.

But, speaking about World War Hulk, first, it's actually smaller than House of M and not counting the actual WWH issues and the actual Hulk title which would naturally tie in, we're currently looking at 25 individual issues that tie in over the course of a four month period. That's just about six issues a month that tie in, less than two a week. I don't know if that constitutes a large event in my mind. Also, like all of our events, we're not asking fans to pick up a bunch of Marvel comics that they don't usually pick up. If you just wannt the main story just pick up World War Hulk #1-5.

Now, with respect to the “event” thing, the way I see it, nothing has really changed in our publishing plan with the exception that fans are far more open and are enjoying huge events like Civil War at this current time. What I think they want that is of crucial importance is to know that the events count and matter and effect change that is directly proportionate to the size of the event.

We're also making sure that we spread these stories out so that they don't bump into each other and give our fans (and us) a breather. And (and this is important) World War Hulk has nothing to do with Civil War. You don't need to read Civil War to understand WWH; it's its own thing.

Sure, the events of Civil War will effect how the story is told, but that's by virtue of the fact that the new post Civil War-status quo is in effect and that's just a continuity thing. WWH will be affected by MCW in the very same way that every Marvel title published from this point will be. So, we're not selling nor forcing readers to read WWH from MCW nor telling them that they have to read MCW in order to understand and enjoy WWH.

Let me also add to that that the X-event is not a dangling plot line of WWH or MCW. They are all disconnected with the exception that they all occur in the Marvel Universe. So, it's not like MCW was the first act in what will be culminating in another story at this point. There will be a story that perhaps brings up some issues from MCW but that won't happen until at least 2008 at the very earliest. That's why when fans were predicting that the Annihilation wave was going to come to Earth and become the big event at the end of Civil War, nothing could have been further from the truth. Could we have done it, of course, but wow, would that have sucked for the folks who weren't reading Annihilation.

Also, how satisfying an ending would it have been to have the big conclusion come from a story that wasn't even introduced in the pages of MCW?

NRAMA: You talked about the metaphor, the relevancy of Civil War a lot in the marketing run-up, what's the essence of World War Hulk if you had to sum it up succinctly?

JQ: Revenge.

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