Fri Jul 4, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Matt Wagner on Magic and 'Madame Xanadu'

Sex, magic and mysticism... oh my!

Maybe it's just the swanky fedora and cloak, but The Phantom Stranger has always been a favorite character of mine. I mention this only because it was one of the primary reasons I was excited about last week's release of Madame Xanadu #1, the first issue of new Vertigo miniseries that promises to look at the title character's relationship with the Stranger.

Over at Famous Monsters, ComicMix contributor Bob Greenberger chats with Madame Xanadu writer Matt Wagner about the character's complicated romantic history:

FM: Xanadu has been previously linked romantically with an incarnation of the Spectre, back when I edited the book. So, what does she see in the Phantom Stranger?

Matt: We actually add a new element to her eventual relationship with the Spectre near the end of the opening story arc. The whole deal with including the Phantom Stranger and weaving their continually troubled relationship through this first story line stemmed from a bit of the current continuity with which I was initially unfamiliar–the fact that she holds a certain distrust and even outright animosity for the Stranger. I thought that was a great opportunity to explore and define an emotional conflict that hadn’t yet been revealed; how did they come to stand at such opposite ends from each other. What led to that eventual rift?

Head over to Famous Monsters for the rest of the interview.

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