Word Balloon Comics Podcast Christos Gage on Marvel Battleworld, DC Dark Legion and the Streaming Wars
Dec 2, 2025
01:06:24
In this wide-ranging conversation, writer Christos Gage digs into the creative madness behind his Marvel Battleworld mini-series. A multiversal romp where time-displaced heroes and villains collide. Gage breaks down how he approached juggling characters pulled from wildly different eras and realities: WWII-era Bucky, the tyrannical Maestro-Hulk, the cosmic outsider Star Brand from the New Universe, and a whole rogue’s gallery of misfits thrown together under impossible circumstances. He walks through the rules of this warped patchwork planet, how to keep continuity straight when nothing is straight, and why Battleworld let him stretch muscles standard Marvel titles never quite allow.
From there, Gage shifts over to his latest DC project, Dark Legion, explaining the worldbuilding behind its sinister factions, its morally gray tone, and the freedom the project gives him to push DC characters into darker corners without losing the emotional core.
We also talk screenwriting: Gage opens up about co-writing a new British film with his wife, Ruth Fletcher Gage — how the project came together, what makes writing for UK production culture different, and how collaborating at home sharpens the work rather than softens it. Naturally, we revisit his foundational TV work on Marvel’s Daredevil Season 1 for Netflix. Gage gives frank insight into the writers' room, the tonal blueprint they were building, and what it was like helping define the first successful street-level corner of the MCU. He reflects on how that gritty realism shaped the entire wave of Marvel Netflix shows that followed — and how the industry has changed since then.
From there, Gage shifts over to his latest DC project, Dark Legion, explaining the worldbuilding behind its sinister factions, its morally gray tone, and the freedom the project gives him to push DC characters into darker corners without losing the emotional core.
We also talk screenwriting: Gage opens up about co-writing a new British film with his wife, Ruth Fletcher Gage — how the project came together, what makes writing for UK production culture different, and how collaborating at home sharpens the work rather than softens it. Naturally, we revisit his foundational TV work on Marvel’s Daredevil Season 1 for Netflix. Gage gives frank insight into the writers' room, the tonal blueprint they were building, and what it was like helping define the first successful street-level corner of the MCU. He reflects on how that gritty realism shaped the entire wave of Marvel Netflix shows that followed — and how the industry has changed since then.