Interview: Ed Brisson Talks Dynamite’s ‘Silverhawks’

Welcome to the table,

I vividly remember rummaging through my childhood dresser for a pair of tattered knee-high socks with orange stripes along the top rim, as the early morning glow peeked through the blinds. I was around five, and finding those socks felt like the most important mission in the world to me.

It was not for warmth or to protect my bruised and scarred legs, chewed up by a short lifetimes of leg braces and surgeries. No, it was to slip them over my tiny hands and roll them up to my elbows so I could transform into one of the bionic space heroes who would soon appear on my TV screen. Those rough-knit socks from the K-Mart bargain bin may not have matched the sleek metallic suits of the SilverHawks, but their orange bands brought Copper Kidd’s look to life in my mind and that was enough to fill a tiny heart with glee.

SilverHawks, much like ThunderCats and my beloved TigerSharks, were part of that Rankin/Bass line of weird-fiction-sword-and-sorcery cartoons that painted large chunks of my childhood. The plot of SilverHawks unfolded in 2839, where Commander Stargazer gathered a cosmic team of humans from Earth (and a kid from the planet of the mimes), transformed them into metal warriors, and set them off to battle the crime boss Mon*Star and his alien minions.

The show had everything a growing mind could want. There was breathable outer space, weather-altering tuning forks, a bluegrass-picking space pilot, a magician with a cosmic headband, a space squid that got turned into a space squid car, an artificial sun that was run by a wacky professor, a hollow sun that had cosmic powers, a lady with a keytar blaster, a weird dude named Hardware voiced by none other than Bob McFadden (the voice of ThunderCats‘ Snarf) and his six barrel space gun that to this day still reminds me of the goblins from the 1977 Hobbit animated movie, and so much more.

With only one season and a handful of comics, the SilverHawks didn’t seem to have the staying power of some other shows of its time like ThunderCats or He-Man & The Masters of the Universe. It’s still an irreplaceable part of my animated memories and one of the tentpoles of that era of storytelling that I had given up on ever seeing again.

That is… until now!

The fine folks over at Dynamite Entertainment and Warner Bros. have announced SilverHawks series is lifting off in comic form in January of 2025 . The talented Ed Brisson and George Kambadais are at the helm. This series joins the ThunderCats comic, which has had a phenomenal run so far under Dynamite, and expands the company’s lineup of titles, hopefully, connecting these iconic characters in fun new ways.

I got a chance to sit down with Ed Brisson and talk about the new series, you can find that conversation below!

Anton: Hello sir! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I’m kind of a huge fan of this family of properties. I have been saying since the ThunderCats title was announced that I would love to see a SilverHawks revival. Thank you for making little kid me super happy with more stories set in the weird and wonderful galaxy of limbo. Before we soar to high, let’s get introductions out of the way. Tell our readers a little bit about yourselves. 

Ed: Thanks! For those that don’t know me, I’ve been writing comics for about a decade now, though had been self-publishing my own work since the 1990s. I first found success with Image on books like Comeback, Sheltered, and The Violent, before getting hired by Marvel, where I’ve worked on everything from Uncanny X-Men to Old Man Logan to Iron Fist and Ghost Rider. I’ve worked with DC on Batman Incorporated and Deathstroke and have probably worked with a half dozen other publishers over the years.

Anton: SilverHawks often gets grouped with ThunderCats (and TigerSharks, if you are me), but fans know each has unique lore and settings. As part of the creative team for this series, which elements of the SilverHawks universe are you most excited to dive into and explore?

Ed: Apologies to any who’ve already heard me say it, but we’ve been approaching this book as though it’s “The Untouchables in Space,” which isn’t so much a reinvention of the series as it is a highlighting of what the cartoon was at its core: The SilverHawks are a special task force trying to take down Mon*Star, the biggest, baddest mobster in the galaxy. That was the hook for me as a kid and is doubly so now that I’m behind the keyboard on this one.

With that in mind, I’ve most been enjoying diving into the backstories of each of the characters – we didn’t get much of it in the cartoon and so I wanted to make sure that we take our time here in building the team so that we can really develop the characters and give readers a deeper understanding of who they are, how Mon*Star has impacted their lives, and why they’ve agreed to sign up with the SilverHawks. Those personal, grounded moments with the characters have been an absolute joy to develop.

Anton: I heard that when ThunderCats launched you started talking to Declan Shavey about doing a SilverHawks book, what about this series grabbed you so much?

Ed: Haha. It’s true. I was bugging Declan to let me know when Dynamite was going to do SilverHawks. Then, when I talked to [editor Nate Crosby] about doing ThunderCats: Apex, I did same to him.

The thing that grabbed me as a kid and kept me intrigued through the past 30+ years is that mash-up of police procedural and crazy sci-fi world building. There were so many fun ideas at play, but also plenty of room to go in and expand upon the lore and world. I guess it was that marriage of incredible ideas and worldbuilding coupled with the potential for expansion that really made me want to work on it.

Anton: What tone are you hoping to land on for the series? Do you guys plan to keep that nostalgic ’80s feel? Lean into something more gritty and grim? Or go somewhere else entirely with the series? What can audiences expect?

Ed: Grim and gritty is such a polarizing idea, I think. It seems like so many things from our childhood get the grim and gritty treatment and it almost never works. There’s certainly some grit to our take, but it’s not grim. I’d say that the world and storytelling has matured with our readers, but not in a way that feels forced or unnecessary. It’s an organic growth. We’re spending time to make the characters feel real and the situations grounded, despite the fantastical futuristic setting.

We’re not shying away from the big action set pieces from the original cartoon, but these battles and their outcomes will have more weight to them. Things that happen in each issue will have a lasting impact.

Anton: How are you handling world-building for the series? Is this self-contained or is there a larger connected vision at play?

Ed: The cartoon, more-or-less, reset the status quo after each episode, whereas we’re going to be telling a larger story that spills across several issues – while still trying to keep each issue feeling like a complete story in its own regard. So, in most cases, we have one story that resolves each issue, while the main spine of our tale continues.

Anton: As you crafted the story you want to tell, were you able to develop new unique takes on existing characters that we know from the classic series or did you have to adhere to established lore?

Ed: It’s a little of column A and a little of column B. The show gave us hints about who everyone was before they joined the team, but it never spent the time to explore those pasts deeply. It put us in a position where we have our starting point (ie. What’s already established by the show) that we can then further develop and explore.

We know that Quicksilver used to be part of Interplanetary Force 8, but we don’t really know much about what he did there or what Interplanetary Force 8 was. In the book, we’ll explore that. From the cartoon, we know that Stargazer and Mon*Star have tangled in the past and that it was Stargazer who put Mon*Star in prison, but we don’t get a sense of what Mon*Star did or how Stargazer took him down. In the book, we’ll get into that. I could list similar for each character, but will spare your readers!

We do diverge slightly on the timeline – in the cartoon, the SilverHawks are thrown together in the first episode. In our book, it takes time for the team to come together. There are some character relationships that will also be explored in the comic that might not adhere closely to the cartoon, but I don’t think they diverge too deeply either. Some of our heroes may or may not have a shared past with some of our villains.

Anton: What are your biggest inspirations and influences in the creative process on this series outside of the original cartoon?

Ed: As mentioned above, The Untouchables is sort of a touchstone (pun intended) for us. We’ve drawn inspiration from unlikely sources like Homicide: Life on the Streets, while also looking at other comics such as the original Ultimates, which did an incredible job of refreshing an existing team. I think that Declan and Drew have done a great job at reviving ThunderCats and finding that balance between familiar and new, which definitely serves as an inspiration for us.

Anton: Will we see familiar villains like Mon*Star and Poker-Face making an appearance in the series?

Ed: Absolutely. The series, like the cartoon, kicks off with Mon*Star breaking out of prison. He’s going to be our main antagonist, a holy terror across the galaxy that needs to be stopped. He’s the whole reason for the SilverHawks coming together in the first place.

Hardware and Mo-Lec-U-Lar are in the first issue. Poker-Face pops up in the second issue (entitled “Bluegrass and Hotwing Night At The Starship Casino”). Others will be popping up throughout the series. There are only a couple that I haven’t accounted for in the earlier issues, but they’ll show their faces with time – we just want to make sure we pace everything out and not hit readers with every single character right out of the gate.

Hell, I’ve even got plans for Seymour the taxi driver. So, rest assured, if you have a favourite, you’ll get to see them at some point.

Anton: What are you most excited about fans discovering in your series?

Ed: Really, I’m just hoping that fans will feel the love, attention, and care that we’re giving the series. It’s been a lot of fun to write, working with George has been great, and, in an ideal world, we get to introduce a whole new generation to a team that we love – this is the first SilverHawks book in nearly 40 years!

Anton: Before we wrap up, I wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and talk to me about what sounds like an absolutely delightful series. Where can our readers keep up with you on the social platforms? 

Ed: You can find me on Twitter as @edbrisson and on BlueSky as @edbrisson.bsky.social. If you’re on Instagram, I’m there too under @ed_brisson, though I must warn folks that Instagram is mostly photos of my cat, records I’m listening to, and food I’m cooking. I tend to keep comic stuff to the other two platforms.

A: One last question before we go … Do you guys need someone to write the TigerSharks series? I can put together a deck! (Hey it worked when you asked Declan, HAHA!)

Ed: Oh. Looks like I’m getting a phone call. It’s been fun. Gotta go. Byeeeeeee.

Anton: Thanks again I’m so excited for this series and know it will be great! 

Ed: Thanks for having me!