10 questions. A true marvel

• Author: Jenny B. Davis
• Pages: 12-13

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEVIN WADA (MARVEL) AND COURTESY OF CHARLES SOULE

A YOUNG CORPORATE LAWYER

sits at his computer, putting the

fi nishi ng touches on an email.

clickkkkk!

He hits send.

swooooosh!

His fi rst comic book m anuscript

is o to the publisher.

Can our hero create a succes sful

career in comics? Wil l he be able

to balance his par allel professions?

Can he ever achieve his sec ret dream

of becoming a novelist?

Flash-forward al most 15 years—

whoooooshh!—and Charles Soule

is now a best-selling comic book

writer whose char acter credits

include Daredevil, Dar th Vader,

Superman, Wonder Woman and

Wolverine. Soule left BigLaw in

2004 to open a solo immigration

practice in Brookly n, and a few

years ago he stepped away from f ull-

time practice. Now he spends most

of his time telling stor ies. His debut

novel, a thriller cal led The Oracle

Year , was published this spring by

HarperColli ns, and it already has

been optioned for t elevision. And

there’s plenty more action to come.

You’ve been a comic book fan

since you were a kid, but how

did you know how to jump from

reader to wr iter?

It was in the early to mid-2000s,

back when posting on message

boards was big. A number of promi-

nent comic writers mai ntained these

boards, and while there wer e a lot

of threads about gre at comic books,

you could also fi nd a lot of profes-

sional advice about how the industr y

worked and how to break in.

And you did! You regularly

make appearanc es at comic book

conventions arou nd the world

where people often dre ss up like

their favorite char acters. Have

you ever seen someone dressed

up like a charac ter you created?

Oh yes, many times! It’s always a

massive thril l that someone would

connect w ith the person you’ve

written in such a sp ecifi c way.

Do you have a favorite series

you’ve writt en?

I am very proud of my work

on Marvel’s She-Hu lk title. She’s

a complex character

—a lawyer named

Jennifer Walters who

is also an 8-feet-ta ll,

green, superstrong

lady who has to

balance her working

life as an attor ney

with her work as

a superhero. It

sounds over-t he-

top, but I saw it

as a chance to

talk about issues

of work-life

balance, solo

practice and whatever lega l issues

I thought would be interesting.

Superhero stories are great for

that—looking at mu ndane concepts

through an exotic lens.

Did you ever pull inspir ation for

She-Hulk from your own pr actice?

Yes, with She-Hulk, the storyl ine I

pursued was related pri marily to her

hanging out her shingle in Brookly n.

Her o ce wa s actually in the exact

neighborhood where I had my o ce,

and we had little stor y beats about

things like gett ing her rent raised on

her unexpectedly, which happened

to me. She also dealt wit h fi nding

a good assistant , making sure her

team was happy and bri nging in

new clients—all the things th at

new practitioners deal w ith. In this

case, though, the clients were p eople

like Dr. Doom’s son or Spider-Man.

In one case, she goes up again st

Daredevil to defend C aptain

America in a wr ong-

ful death suit. It was

a lot of fun.

I’m glad you men-

tioned Darede vil.

He’s a lawyer, too,

but his story is t otally

di erent i n tone and

theme. Was your law

background still

helpful?

The challenge there was

to try to wr ite in a way that

12 || ABA JOURNAL AUGUST 2018

Opening Statements

THIS BROOKLYN L AW YER IS A FORCE ACROSS A GALAXY OF COMIC BOOK GENRES

“WITH SHE-H ULK, THE STORYLINE

I PURSUED WAS RELATED PRIMARILY

TO HER HANGING OUT HER SHINGLE

IN BROOKLYN.”

—CHARLES SOULE

“THE SEED FOR THE BOOK

CAME WHEN I WAS JUST

STARTING MY LAW CAREER.”

—CHARLES SOULE

10 QUESTIONS