'Hacktivist Volume 2:' Alyssa Milano's Comic Book & Second Issue! EXCLUSIVE

From actress, producer, designer Alyssa Milano (Charmed), comes the latest thrilling comic book from BOOM! Studios/Archaia Entertaiment. In an exclusive interview with MStars News, the creative team, co-writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing dish on the pulse-pounding next chapter, Hacktivist Volume 2 #2.

As we previously mentioned, at the start of the second volume, time has passed to six month later. After watching his best friend, Ed Hiccox die, Nate Graft's life has pulled his life back together. Now in charge of VIGIL, the front line of America's ongoing cyber operations, Nate thought he finally had some peace of mind. Unfortunately, there is a new breed of hacker, calling themselves sve_urs3lf, using Nate and Ed's former handle.

Kelly and Lanzing discuss the thought-provoking theme of security vs freedom within the pages, Milano's input into the second volume, and what readers should expect from the second issue. 

MStars News: What inspired the creative team to return for Volume 2?

Jackson Lanzing: Hacktivist is an interesting beast as far as inspiration is concerned - because all around you, every day, new exploits are being discovered. Not a month goes by where new info-sec challenges are not impacting our lives as private citizens. All we need to do to be inspired is look at the real world and ask, "What's the next seemingly-impossible thing that's going to turn the world upside down?"

MS: Because Alyssa Milano has worked on genre such as Charmed and serialized drama, such as Mistresses, do you feel Volume 2 became bigger with the concept?

Colin Kelly: I think her natural inclination, just like ours, is to increase the scope of a story as it progresses. With Volume 2, we wanted to tell a story that was looking at the danger and drama in our own backyard. But at the same time, we didn't want the drama to get lost in the action. For all of us over here at Team Hacktivist, the most important thing is always going to be the emotional journey of Ed and Nate, which we absolutely take to a bigger place. 

MS: Tell me about Nate and Ed's mindset in the first issue of Volume 2. 

JL: Imagine growing up with someone who was the only one who understood you - the one who stood up for you, who helped shape the person you grew up to be. Then imagine that person betrays you - leaves you in the dust and seemingly begins operating on their own in a way that is completely counter to what you stood for together. 

That is both Ed and Nate's mindset at the beginning of Hacktivist Vol 2. They each have lost trust for and faith in their best friend in the world. Though their lives couldn't be more different, they are united by their loneliness. That loneliness has driven Nate to become the very thing he was fighting to destroy in Volume 1, while it has driven Ed into the orbit of a dangerous group of extremist revolutionaries - who might have more in common with him than Nate ever did.

MS: Tell me about the theme of "security vs freedom" in the narrative.

CK: It's not just in the narrative, it's in life all around you. Giving up elements of your privacy in order to ensure your personal security is what the government, what Facebook, what Google asks us to do every day. Every click you make on the internet is being logged somewhere, your personal metrics sold as a commodity to companies that are hungry to exploit you. 

This isn't fear mongering, it's fact. Often this is completely harmless - who doesn't like it when a banner ad is offering you a great deal exactly on that thing you were looking for - but sometimes it's not. Sometimes the government, or malicious users, are exploiting your data for their own ends. When it comes to cyber-security, there is no black and white, no heroes and villains, and that is why we're so very excited to tell this story. 

MS: The pages turn bright red, as if to foreshadow impending danger. Was this visual motif in the script or did it come from the artist?

JL: As with most elements of Hacktivist, it was a collaboration. We specifically asked for the red to take over the scene as things went wrong - but Ian Herring and Becka Kenzie brought it to an entirely new level with their execution. Color is an incredibly important storytelling device for us in this book - not simply because of the many locations that must be seamlessly balanced, but because the mindset of the characters is so fragile. Color becomes our way of understanding stability - and the end of Issue 1, with the red takeover, is anything but stable.

MS: Because of the hacking of adultery website, Ashley Madison, and the social media outcry towards Cecil the Lion, do you feel these real-time events will strike a chord with readers?

JK: That's our sincere hope. Volume Two isn't just about cyber security, it's about the power of social media, and the ability for people rally around a cause. While everything we write is fictional, as was the case with Volume One, there will be elements that seem ripped from the headlines - we hope our audience uses these similarities as a way to recontextualize their American experience, and not as a condemnation or critique. 

MS: A new character, a hacker similar to Sirine, takes center stage in the second issue. Could you elaborate?

JL: Her name is Grace Decker and you got a glimpse of her in the final pages of Issue #1. Like Sirine in Volume 1, Grace carries a lot of the moral weight of the story on her shoulders - but unlike Sirine, she is also to some degree an antagonist for Nate and Ed. She's the most morally complicated character in the Hacktivist universe so far and we can't wait to see how fans react to her.

MS: What can you tease about the second issue?

CK: Not much. But what we can say is that the .sve_urs3lf attack in Issue One wasn't perpetrated by madmen or terrorists - it was done by people, American citizens, who saw it as the only way for their voices to be heard. In Issue Two we meet these people; our absolute goal is for you to forget that they have the blood of almost 100 people on their hands, and instead fall in love. There are no villains, and no heroes. Just people, trying to make the world a better place.

MS: What other projects are you working on now?

JL: On top of our normal film/TV work, we're deep in scripts for our first superhero book, Batman & Robin: Eternal - which has been an incredible journey so far. We're getting to collaborate with a whole team of writers we respect and admire - like James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Steve Orlando, Genevieve Valentine, and Ed Brisson (not to mention the incredible Scott Snyder). That's been absolutely unreal. We've also got an unannounced book from another publisher that we're cracking into now - and trust us when we say it's going to be the most ambitious thing we've ever written.

CK: Plus, coming up in the new year we have Joyride, our first creator-owned book from BOOM/Archaia. The ongoing adventures of three teenagers from a terrible future Earth who steal a spaceship and f@cking bail, Joyride will see us reunited with Hacktivist artist Marcus To for a story that we like to describe as "punk rock teenage Star Trek." We're also developing a very special project called EXCLAMATION!BOLD, an anthology series that we've put together with a number of amazingly talented artists, which we'll be releasing at cons and online. 

Hacktivist Volume 2 #2 is out in stores now. 

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