On The Warpath

Kieron Gillen is giving it both barrels as he brings Warhammer 40,000 to Marvel Comics – and takes charge of the Eternals

AFTER SPENDING THE PAST TWO years on creator-owned work, Kieron Gillen has been lured back to Marvel by two new projects, as he not only helms the House of Ideas’ first Warhammer 40,000 mini-series Marneus Calgar but also becomes the writer of the latest iteration of the Eternals.

“I’m always looking for something I haven’t done before,” says Gillen, who started out in comics in the late ’90s by contributing to Warhammer Monthly. “In the case of Warhammer, it was setting the tone and direction for Marvel’s new line of books and working out how we can tap into Marvel’s unparalleled resources to make Warhammer comics unlike any that have existed before. It’s a big challenge, and I love it.”

Providing an entry point into the future war-ravaged universe from Games Workshop’s tabletop games, the Jacen Burrows-drawn five-parter focuses on ferocious Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. “If you want to explain Warhammer 40,000, you have to explain the Imperium, and if you have to explain the Imperium, you have to explain their icon – the not so humble Space Marine,” reasons Gillen. “If you want to tell people what Space Marines are, you use the closest we have to a paragon of what it means to be a Space Marine in the grim future where there’s only war – and that’s Marneus.”