Seth Green

This summer, Seth Green, Hugh Sterbakov and Leonard Kirk are combining super-heroes and college life and launching The Freshmen, a new series from Top Cow that’s been described by Sterbakov as American Pie meets X-Men.

Or as Seth Green describes it, The Freshmen is “Revenge of the Nerds meets X2.”

Yes, the Seth Green. Scott Evil (from the Austen Powers films). Daniel ’Oz’ Osbourne from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel television series. Co-creator, writer and director of Robot Chicken. Yes, that Seth Green.

“Hugh and I thought it would make a really cool movie, in the vein of X-Men or Superman - a ’grounded in reality, comedic college environment/kids get superpowers’ kind of story,” Green told Newsarama.

“We pitched it to all of the major studios, and they all told us to go establish it as a comic book property. So here we are,” Sterbakov added.

Green and Sterbakov have been friends since kindergarten. “We grew up together in Philadelphia,” Sterbakov recalled. “We’ve written two scripts before, and we’re working on some things I wrote by myself. Creatively, we work together very well, because we understand each other.”

With The Freshmen, the both of them plan to “take the comic world by storm, single handedly revitalizing the comic as an entertainment medium and totally ****ing up all the kids who read it... for life,” Green said.

From the way the co-creators described it (the Hollywood way, of course), The Freshmen is unlike any super-hero comic that anyone has read. “It’s very different, because it’s focused 100% on the characters,” Sterbakov explained. “The plot mechanisms in The Freshmen are like the plot mechanisms in a Cameron Crowe movie — they just serve as a method to get the characters into motion. The pathos you find in kids who’ve just been thrust out of their happy bedrooms in their parents’ homes and off onto their own, basically re-starting their social lives for the first time — trying to find truly figure out who they are, who they want to be — is far more interesting than big action scenes. In my opinion, anyway.

“I’ve been working on superhero comedy ideas for a long time. I developed a white trash super hero idea with Seth quite some time ago, and we pursued some other established properties for a bit. I love the college dorm setting — I lived in dorms for four years — and I’d sold a screenplay set in a dorm that never got made. One night, Seth, myself and two of our friends sat around and started tossing around silly super hero powers. Eventually we had enough that were feasible but funny, and it turned out we were inspired enough to still want to pursue it the next day.

From the premise, The Freshmen may sound like a typical super-hero story. But take the creators’ word for it. This ain’t your usual super-hero comics. “An energy shockwave goes off that gives our kids powers based on whatever they’re doing at that moment. Some powers are totally silly — one kid’s privates become unbelievably enlarged. One guy, who is looking at a Squirrel, starts to hoard acorns. Another kid, playing with Post-Its, becomes sticky on his entire body.

“The kids quickly realize that their lives have been changed forever, but now they have to learn to work and live together. The first arc is about a team coming together, about kids who are lonely and scared coming together and finding — and learning to understand — each other.

“Plot-wise, though, we’ve got a bad guy who is manipulating them until it may be too late. We’ve got several romances, none of which are the least bit healthy, and we’ve got a couple clever action sequences where our kids use their unorthodox powers as well as they can.”

Next, imagine Seth Green and High Sterbakov as comic book characters. “There are two leaders: Wannabe and Puppeteer. Wannabe is the guy who has grown up his entire life loving comic books. Let’s face it — he’s me. He’s got 50 white boxes, really strong opinions about The Watchmen, Sandman, Astro City... and don’t get him started on the creators. He goes into every super-hero movie with a scowl, waiting to be convinced. All his life, he’s secretly dreamed of being a super hero. And then he leaves the dorm to buy a pizza when the energy shockwave. So he’s totally left out. But he’s the only one who understands what it takes to be a super hero. The power and the responsibilty (you can’t argue with Stan Lee).

“Puppeteer is a cute young psychology student who gains the power to jump into people’s minds. It’s complicated, and she can’t always understand it, and in one of the issues she gets trapped and it plays out a bit like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Mila Kunis (Jackie from That 70’s Show) would play Puppeteer in the movie, and Seth would play Wannabe.

“We also have The Intoxicator, a great mathematician, who has to be drunk to use his powers. Once he’s intoxicated, he can burp at you and make you drunk too. It also works when he’s hung-over. Lots of fun to be had there — wait ’til you see him at a college football game.

“The Seductress is an overweight, not terribly attractive girl who is lovestruck. She’s the girl who spent all of high school drawing hearts with people’s names in them. She gains the power to make people fall in love with her. When we initially devised this power, I was afraid it might be cliché, but the character makes it fresh, because it’s just so tempting. And like everything else, we’re playing it realistically according to character. Does she abuse the power? Of course. In fact, wait ’til you see how far she abuses it.

“Quaker is an overweight Amish kid who can create earthquakes with his belly. This is a very religious, very reserved kid who has barely ever been around electric machines, and he’s thrust into the world of Sidekicks and frat guys.

“We also have a guy who can talk to plants. And let me tell ya — think about how plants are treated in modern society. They have a lot to say, and they’re not at all happy. His ficus tree has a Fatal Attraction-like love for him, so he can’t get any sleep. And he’s a Vegan — he won’t eat meat, and now most vegetables can talk to him. Poor guy is going to starve.

“And then there are the Drama Twins. Imagine the Wonder Twins, but these are ex-lovers who hate each other. This is the most destructive relationship you can imagine, and now they’re stuck together. They have tandem telekinesis — when they’re touching, they can move things, but she can pull and he can push. Very hard power to use with any accuracy.”

Now are you convinced that this is not your super-hero dream team? Good.

While Green is a known actor and is now a writer and director of his and Matthew Senreich’s creation, Robot Chicken, his pal Sterbakov is a screenwriter. Although the both of them are huge comics fans, what made them bring The Freshmen to Top Cow?

“Top Cow’s books are polished,” Sterbakov said. “Pure and simple, every book they put out looks like a work of art. Seth and I don’t make comics, so we wanted a team we could trust to take our idea and make it work as a comic. Can’t think of a better home to hang our hat.

“I’ve been a comic lover since I can remember. I got serious about collecting when I was 8 — it was Spider-Man’s “Hobgoblin story” arc that drew me in. I’m the kid who walked through a blizzard to get Secret Wars #3, who waited almost 12 hours in the comic store when Web of Spider-Man #1 was delayed, who begged, borrowed and stole to get the Dark Knight limited edition hardback. As I grew up, I got serious about getting in the storytelling game.

“I have an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA. I’ve won a couple of those silly screenwriting contests, and I’ve sold features and TV pilots. Been hired to write films. I’ve been in development in some stage with some of the best producers in the game, and I’ve come this close more times than I could count. But nothing has been produced. Which, let me tell ya, gets really old really quick. So I wanted some satisfaction, an audience beyond Hollywood’s development community. I’m thrilled about this opportunity. This is my first comic book work, and I can’t wait to see it realized for myself and then share it with everyone.”

While Sterbakov’s a fan of Stan Lee and John Romita’s Amazing Spider-Man, Kurt Busiek’s Astro City, Chris Claremont’s X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, Matt Wagner’s Grendel, he is also good friends with Geoff Johns and “he blows me away on Teen Titans every month — and what a great Avengers run he had. [Frank] Miller’s run on Daredevil. And then there are the standards - Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, yadda yadda. But there are some hidden gems I loved along the way too. I liked DC’s original Vigilante. Really enjoyed an indie series called Boris the Bear, but it was overshadowed by the ingenious Tick. I liked Power Pack, for God’s sakes. Alien Legion was great. And anything Neil Adams drew couldn’t be bad, right? But I’m a Spider-Man guy at heart, I own a first printing of every comic he’s ever appeared in.

Seth Green, on the other hand, was a huge fan of Mage. “He used to wear that lightning bolt shirt every day in junior high.

“What I like? A hero in crisis. Check out Bill Mantlo’s run in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, numbers in the late 70’s, early 80’s. Spider-Man is about to fight a new, improved Doc Ock, and thinks he’s going to die. So he says goodbye to everyone he loves.

“What I hate? Gimmicks and retcons. The Spider-Man clone story through the return of Norman Osborn - dead means dead, people - and that awful, confused reboot. Literally made me nauseous. I won’t hinge it — I think a writer is creatively bankrupt when he/she brings a character back from the dead. Now cut this out and mail it to me when I start resurrecting characters in the fifth series of The Freshmen.”

As mentioned, joining them on The Freshmen is artist Leonard (Supergirl) Kirk. “Leonard Kirk was one of a couple guys that Top Cow picked to read my treatment,” Sterbakov said. “He responded immediately and enthusiastically with phenomenal character designs, even developing the characters’ personalities a bit with little notes on their looks. We chose him, frankly, over more famous artists, because he won the job. You have to respect creative enthusiasm. I’m thrilled to have him aboard. And the Rodolfo Migliari cover for #1 was the first real artwork we had, so you can imagine it’s very special to me. These guys have brought these characters to life in a spectacular way. This is a completely character-driven series, it’s all about personalities, so we needed strong artists who can convey emotions. I think we got them.”

The Freshmen will be previewed in the 99¢ Top Cow Triple Play one-shot in June, together with V.I.C.E. and Necromancer.