Geroge R.R. Martin has been very forthcoming with the places that he drew inspiration from. The author has often talked about how his writing has taken a page from comics, and it turns out that he owes a lot to how Stan Lee was writing his characters over at Marvel Comics.
The author revealed that he owed a lot to Marvel Comics, given that the company was producing a lot more dynamic stories when it came to superheroes. While DC was producing a team of heroes that got along with minimal conflict, Marvel was busy showing superheroes in a more realistic light, which can be seen echoed in Martin’s work, even in A Song of Ice and Fire.
George R.R. Martin was very taken by the introduction of Wonder Man in Avengers #9
Avengers #9 introduced Wonder Man, which was an issue that George R.R. Martin said in a letter he preferred over Fantastic Four # 32. Martin. Speaking with John Hodgman, revealed that his fascination with the issue began because Wonder Man died in the issue he was introduced to.
This, according to Martin, was the dynamic approach that put Marvel on the map and gave it the edge that DC lacked with its work. While the members of the Justice League usually ended up in circular narratives, Marvel’s dynamic changes to the state of their world is what attracted Martin. He said:
The Marvel characters were constantly changing. Important things were happening. The lineup for the Avengers was constantly changing. People would quit, then they would have fights and all of that. As opposed to DC where everybody got along and it was all very nice and all the heroes liked each other.
None of this was happening, so really, Stan Lee introduced a whole concept of characterization to comic books and conflict; maybe even a touch of gray in some of the characters. Looking back on it now, I can see that probably was a bigger influence on my own work than I would have dreamed.
George R.R. Martin was writing to Stan Lee when he was sixteen, and the latter had a huge effect on Martin’s work. Seeing that the author has no issues with changing the status quo of his world again and again, which manifests in the form of killing characters that fans are greatly invested in.
Geroge R.R. Martin really wants to get done with Winds of Winter
Recently, George R.R. Martin talked about how he wanted to get done with Winds of Winter as soon as possible, but the story just demands the time that Martin has put into it and then some. He revealed:
Believe it or not, I am not taking all that time to write Winds of Winter just because I think I’m Gene Wolfe now. I would’ve loved to have it finished years ago, but yeah, that’s the big thing I think I would change.
It will probably be a while before Geroge R.R. Martin gets around to finish The Winds of Winter, and it would perhaps even take longer to get through a Dream of Spring. While the former is probably going to set up the final act of his mammoth series, the last book will have the burden of bringing the arcs of all surviving characters to a satisfying conclusion.
