Kurt Busiek : "AVENGERS FOREVER exists because of Carlos Pacheco.
He was up for a contract renewal, and he told Bob Harras that he wanted two things: He wanted to do an Avengers project and he wanted me to write it.
At this point, we’d never worked together, and had barely met."
"Bob called me, and asked me if I was up for the project. I was hugely flattered, and told Bob that I had no time (this was very true), but for the chance to work with Carlos, I would make time.
Then we had to actually come up with a story !
We originally started with a different concept, and wound up shifting over to the Avengers Forever idea (which was originally set to be a subplot in the main Avengers book, and was retooled into its own story with the helpful advice of Mark Waid) at the last minute.
And it was while were were figuring out the cast, I think, that we started to realize that our sensibilities were in the same place, in terms of what worked and what didn’t, what comics we’d loved when we were kids, which we were inspired by as adults.
Our collaboration and friendship built on that."
« Carlos, in particular, pushed for Songbird to be in AF (because, as he said, « she’s just so adorable! ») and embraced the idea of Avengers who were in the midst of turmoil and change. »
« He suggested we use the disillusioned Cap from the Englehart era. He wanted Yellowjacket, though it was me who said we needed the crazy YJ from AVENGERS 59-60 (in my case, partly because his mask showed his eyes and made him more expressive). We both wanted Hawkeye – Carlos suggested taking him from just after he lost his Goliath powers, and I said lets do it while he still wore the Goliath costume (love that costume!). And so on. At each stage, we’d respond to each others’ ideas with, « Yeah! And…! » It felt very much like we were in the same groove. »
« Carlos also was mostly responsible for the Killraven-era Avengers cast. He wanted Killraven, in that outfit, to be essentially the new Cap, so we gave him the photon shield. He also wanted Jocasta, and wanted her to be pregnant. He wanted an older Black Panther, too. I think I suggested Thundra and maybe the Crimson Dynamo — I’ve always had a soft spot for both. »
"That was how it went. While we knew where the plot was going, it was loose enough that we got to make up big chunks of it as we went. I remember wanting to have the Supreme Intelligence there at the finale, but he’s not terribly mobile, so I just thought « What would Kirby do? » and threw out « And Rick Jones shows up driving a huge cosmic dune buggy, armed to the teeth, with the Supreme Intelligence in a tank on the back, and Kang riding shotgun, loaded for bear. »
Carlos busted out laughing and shouted « YES! Of course!! »
So much fun."
"We had similar sensibilities elsewhere, too, as you can tell from ARROWSMITH and our SUPERMAN run. We’d talk every now and then about doing a Legion project – we both love the Legion, and the same eras. And we didn’t talk about Batman that much, but I would have loved to do a BATMAN run with him. Again, our hearts were in the same place there, too.
It was always a great time working with Carlos. I’m so very sorry we won’t be doing more, but I’ll always have those years, those conversations, that energy.
Crazy fun times."