"I Want the Book to Feel Dangerous." Spencer Ackerman on No One Escapes the Dialectic
We chat with Spencer Ackerman about No One Escapes the Dialectic and trading hope for discipline.
If you’re responding positively to the political electricity in DC’s Absolute line (as this recent Rolling Stone article suggests), then you must read No One Escapes the Dialectic. The first issue, by Spencer Ackerman, Antonio Fuso, Brad Simpson, and Jodie Troutman, landed in comic book shops today, and it’s a scorcher.
The comic reflects a nation in revolt, where a masked vigilante kills a Special Naturalization Operations (SNO) agent, sending the government force, already at war with itself, into a panic. While they scramble to uncover and detain the killer, the communities they invade daily attempt to organize opposition. Is the vigilante, The Dialectic, a force to embrace or resist?
We’re eager to share today’s episode with writer Spencer Ackerman. He’s a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award-winning reporter who has spent the last two decades entrenched in national security. He’s also a massive comic book geek, having done time on Iron Man and co-scripted the DC series, Waller vs. Wildstorm. No One Escapes the Dialectic, however, is Spencer Ackerman unleashed and truly plunging into the world outside your window.
Spencer Ackerman explains why he writes comics and how they enrich him in ways his day job does not. We discuss what readers want from their superheroes, whether Batman would benefit a revolution, and why he wants No One Escapes the Dialectic to feel dangerous.
The first issue is out now from Boom Studios, with the second expected to arrive on December 16th. Final Order Cutoff is November 9th. Follow Spencer Ackerman on BlueSky and Instagram, and subscribe to his Forever Wars.
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