I had been shopping the series around to various companies, and a number of them were interested. Since I was working with Carl Potts on Dr. Strange, I showed it to him. Carl surprised me by saying he wanted to do it. He’s the one who suggested Brent Anderson draw it, which delighted me still more. Both Brent and I had to feverishly insist that this was NOT a New Universe book, no no no, please don’t associate us with it, because most of the people said New Universe the way people say ‘boy band’ or ‘reality show” these days.

It was a bitter truth that Jim Shooter had cancelled a whole slew of books to ‘free up the creative teams’ to do the New Universe, but that none of those people were offered slots in that project. He had killed two of my series, Defenders and Micronauts, and I was feverishly looking for work to make up for it. Plus, for Morituri to be a New Universe book, it would have to have been a Shooter idea, as they all were, and I get just a little bit indignant at THAT suggestion.

Carl Potts was trying to develop his own distinctive approach to comics, and Morituri was part of that, much in the same way that Larry Hama put out The ‘Nam. They deserve credit for their daring.