First look: Kurt Sutter gets demonic for 'Lucas Stand'
If hell's going to have a hitman, it's probably best that Kurt Sutter created him.
The producer behind Sons of Anarchy goes fromHamlet on bikes to otherworldly supernatural fantasy with the new Boom! Studios comic bookLucas Stand, debuting June 1 and written by Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge (Coffin Hill) with art by Jesús Hervás.
Sutter was a writer and producer on FX’s cop showThe Shield and juggled colorful motorcycle gangs on Sons before dreaming up the brutal (and short-lived) The Bastard Executioner, so when he admits that the central figure of Lucas Stand is “the darkest antihero or hero I’ve ever created,” that’s saying something.
Lucas is a former special-ops soldier who's seen and done heinous things. Returning home, he’s cut himself off from society and family. Carrying that burden becomes too much for him, so he tries to put a bullet in his head.
Instead of dying, though, he’s spared by the dark angel Gadriel, who tells him the balance of heaven and hell is out of whack because too many demons have escaped.
“Over the course of mankind, mortals who were technically not evil people and weren’t supposed to land in hell have been corrupted so much by the way we’ve learned to live,” Sutter explains, “and the temptations and the greed and the opulence of our lifestyles have turned the people who were supposed to be on a more altruistic path to the dark side.”
So Gadriel makes Lucas a deal: For every demon he kills, thereby saving a soul, he gets one of his own sins taken away so he can be redeemed and move on.
The complete seven-season story line of Sons was told — and Sutter is currently developing The Mayans, an FX spinoff focusing on the Mexican bikers of SOA — but with Executionercut short after a single, low-rated season, Lucas gives Sutter a chance to tell a complete saga without boundaries, a CGI budget or the looming threat of cancellation.
“There’s all these crazy demons and amazing implements of death, and (I’m) able to run with it without worrying about ‘How the (expletive) are we going to do this?’ ” Sutter says with a laugh. “So that’s been very liberating.”
If hell's going to have a hitman, it's probably best that Kurt Sutter created him.
The producer behind Sons of Anarchy goes fromHamlet on bikes to otherworldly supernatural fantasy with the new Boom! Studios comic bookLucas Stand, debuting June 1 and written by Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge (Coffin Hill) with art by Jesús Hervás.
Sutter was a writer and producer on FX’s cop showThe Shield and juggled colorful motorcycle gangs on Sons before dreaming up the brutal (and short-lived) The Bastard Executioner, so when he admits that the central figure of Lucas Stand is “the darkest antihero or hero I’ve ever created,” that’s saying something.
Lucas is a former special-ops soldier who's seen and done heinous things. Returning home, he’s cut himself off from society and family. Carrying that burden becomes too much for him, so he tries to put a bullet in his head.
Instead of dying, though, he’s spared by the dark angel Gadriel, who tells him the balance of heaven and hell is out of whack because too many demons have escaped.
“Over the course of mankind, mortals who were technically not evil people and weren’t supposed to land in hell have been corrupted so much by the way we’ve learned to live,” Sutter explains, “and the temptations and the greed and the opulence of our lifestyles have turned the people who were supposed to be on a more altruistic path to the dark side.”
So Gadriel makes Lucas a deal: For every demon he kills, thereby saving a soul, he gets one of his own sins taken away so he can be redeemed and move on.
The complete seven-season story line of Sons was told — and Sutter is currently developing The Mayans, an FX spinoff focusing on the Mexican bikers of SOA — but with Executionercut short after a single, low-rated season, Lucas gives Sutter a chance to tell a complete saga without boundaries, a CGI budget or the looming threat of cancellation.
“There’s all these crazy demons and amazing implements of death, and (I’m) able to run with it without worrying about ‘How the (expletive) are we going to do this?’ ” Sutter says with a laugh. “So that’s been very liberating.”
