Christos Gage didn’t need much convincing to take the reins on Battleworld.
“It feels great,” he told me over Zoom last week. “I was super excited when [editor] Will Moss contacted me and was like, ‘Do you want to do a Battleworld miniseries and you can use Hank Pym?’ And that was pretty much all I needed.”
From there, the pitch snowballed into a sandbox brimming with toys: artist Marcus To on pencils, freedom to raid “characters from other timelines,” and even the keys to long-dormant corners of Marvel lore.
“They kept giving me gifts… you can use the New Universe…and…CrossGen,” Gage said. “It was just one gift after another.”
A New Map For Battleworld: Timelines, Not Territories
Gage’s twist on the classic Secret Wars concept is simple and instantly story-rich: Instead of patchwork realms ripped from planets, every “section” of Battleworld is drawn from a different timeline. That conceit lets him mix icons at distinct ages and inflection points — all without tripping over other books.
And the lineup itself reflects that freedom: There’s Storm from “Days of Future Past,” King Thor at the end of time, a Bucky “literally plucked from World War II,” and an ultra-early Spider-Man that’s “from right after he became Spider-Man” and who’s “really kind of freaking out the entire time.” And those pairings, according to Gage, present heaps of opportunities: “It’s kind of fun to pair [Spider-Man] up with Bucky who is, like, 17, but he’s a grizzled war veteran.”
And at the center of all the action? The aforementioned Hank Pym, Marvel’s original size-shifting futurist, serving as the story’s emotional constant and something else equally as interesting.
“Yeah, he’s the central character,” Gage said. “He’s the only character in it that is really from the 616 timeline.”
Courtesy of Marvel.
Deep Cuts, Clear On-Ramps
Gage knows he’s pulling threads fans haven’t seen in years (Star Brand among them), and he’s mindful of readers discovering these elements for the first time. His solution lives in the backmatter itself.
“Instead of the little editorial captions… I’m doing a tech page at the end, which has all the editorial notes in them,” Gage said. “I just really go through and explain where everything came from.”
The aim is to keep the narrative clean in the moment while rewarding curiosity after the fact. And yes, some nostalgia is personal.
“At the time I was like, ‘I’d like to see Star Brand fight Thor,'” Gage said. “Of course it never happened. And now…it can happen.”
Korvac, Builder of Worlds
A Battleworld needs a maker, but not one we’ve seen steering before.
“You do need someone who had basically cosmic power to create a battle world,” Gage said.
Enter Korvac — an Avengers-class existential threat Gage has history with and that gives Battleworld exactly what the story needed.
“Korvac works for a variety of reasons,” Gage said. “One being that he’s cosmic powered, [and] another being that he has history with the Avengers…I love the Korvac Saga.”
Marcus To, Maximum Cast
If you’re going to juggle timelines, you need an artist who can stage a crowd without losing clarity. As such, Gage knew exactly what he’d get from Marcus To.
“He has a quality that I associate with George Pérez of being able to put a lot of different characters on a page, but they don’t blur together,” Gage said. “Each character is doing their own thing and has their own body language.”
However, it was on specific page in issue #2 sealed it for Gage.
“Hank Pym is… on a piece of Monster Island at giant size, taking notes in his science journal, leaning up against a sleeping monster like you might if you had a big dog,” Gage said. “Marcus] drew it so perfectly… that’s when I knew… this is going to work out great.”
A New Venom, Classic Echo
Yes, there’s a Venom hook, and it’s designed to poke the Secret Wars nerve in the best way.
“It’s actually an entirely new Venom from a different dimension,” Gage said. “The new-look Venom is going to appear in issue #3,, and it’s sort of an homage to Secret Wars #8… the original Battleworld and the black costume’s debut.”
Courtesy of Marvel.
A Truly Self-Contained Story?
Gage calls the series a stand-alone ride with strategic tethers. Beyond Pym’s post-Moon Knight headspace and those lovingly resurrected corners like New Universe, Gage said “it’s not tying into other stuff that’s going on.”
In other words, Battleworld is engineered to let veterans and newcomers meet on the same battlefield: a place where a terrified rookie Spider-Man can share panels with a world-weary Bucky; where Star Brand can finally throw hands with gods; and where Hank Pym — scientist, Avenger, and survivor — writes in his journal while leaning against a sleeping kaiju.
Or, as Gage puts it, “It’s just been a blast…one gift after another.”
And if that weren’t enough, Gage also has a new project outside of comics: he and his wife co-wrote a family film called Grow, about a young girl trying to raise the world’s largest pumpkin. Starring Nick Frost and opening October 3, it’s another example of Gage’s storytelling versatility — though he admits Battleworld has been a particular joy to play in.
(Editor’s Note: If you want even more from this Battleworld conversation, don’t miss the full interview appearing on the AIPT Comics podcast in the coming weeks. We dive into the craft of writing across gaming, comics, TV, and film, among other topics!)
Battleworld #1 arrives in comic shops on September 24.
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