An Evolving Idea of Empathy: Talking about ‘Syphon Vol. 2’ with Author, Mohsen Ashraf

Also, at this point, the Warrior interviews need a disclaimer that they were conducted before the strike and some sort of boilerplate about supporting WGA/SAG-AFTRA. BNP: So, let’s prime the readers who may have forgotten or need a refresher about what the book is. So where did the original premise of Syphon originate from? What were the inspirations and influences?  Mohsen: Sure, sure. Um… Dude, I came up with the idea years and years ago, back when I was living in New York City, actually. And I was living with a gentleman who I’m actually writing Volume 2 with, Arish [Akanda] – we were roommates. He’s kind of introduced me to comics. And, um, I had the inspiration spurt of a character – I mean, you know, New York’s such a vibrant place, there’s so much going on, there’s so many people on the streets: some people that are crying on the streets, some people homeless on the streets, some people just, you know, in all sorts of ways, and I thought about a character that really just, obviously, helped people on the streets, that had the power to, um, physically help people, even when they weren’t able to help themselves.  And it was initially thought of as kind of “Professor X meets Spider-Man” in a lot of ways, because this character had empathetic abilities like Professor X, but he still was very much trying to balance life, relationship, you know, kind of how Spider-Man does. And so the main character Sylas – he’s an EMT – he gets this ancient power; it’s granted t…