How important is it that a writer has a broader theme for a story?
Theme is one of the least-understood elements of storytelling, and one that typically hasn’t been taught all that well. I know for myself, despite many years of English study, I didn’t feel like I understood theme until I started actually working in the business and dissecting stories. Theme in a nutshell is what the story is actually about, what it’s trying to communicate about its characters, and by extension the greater human condition. And it tends to be what separates great stories from mediocre stories, ones that aren’t really about anything (or that are about nothing more than the continuity of the characters.) At Marvel, we strive to make our stories relatable and relevant to the lives of our readership, and theme is a big part of that. Bill Jemas used to constantly ask “What’s the metaphor?”, and while that can lead to stories that are too concretely about their themes as opposed to revealing their themes through the plot and the actions of the characters, it’s never a bad que
