Another post from my old Marvel blog, this one another in a series in which I answered questions from the readers about the Thrice Monthly AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and related topics.
October 17, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General
It may never end! More answers to your questions about Spider-Man. We’re getting into some relatively esoteric areas by this point.
>Would you ever consider if not adding Spider-Girl to the 616 universe or a crossover with Spider-Man, maybe a girl from the Feast center who gets adopted by May and becomes like a sister to Peter? >
I don’t think it makes sense to add Spider-Girl to the mainstream Marvel Universe—I think you would lose everything that makes that strip appealing to the audience that loves it—its supporting cast, its roster of villains, its relationships with other heroes—while at the same time being a constant and unavoidable reminder of the Peter-MJ marriage that we just took great pains to eliminate. Doing a story in which Mayday visits the past and interacts with the mainstream Marvel U would be fine, and in fact Tom DeFalco did such a story in one of the relatively-early issues of the series, somewhere in the 20s I believe. Finally, your last idea sounds very much like the short-lived Spider-Woman character that John Byrne created while he was working on AMAZING and who briefly had her own series, but that character never really caught on or gained much traction. It’s not impossible that we might try something like this again in the future, but there aren’t any plans for it right this second.
>Will we ever see Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale back on Spider-Man? How about Bendis on Amazing?
Posted by poeticlife on 2008-10-08 19:16:48>
I can’t predict everything in life, but at the moment Jeph and Tim are working on CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE, and I’m not sure what they’re planning on doing after that. If it does involve Spider-Man, it’ll almost certainly be a special project set apart from the main book. On Brian, I don’t know that there’s any great impulse on his part toward working on AMAZING at this point, since he’s got the best of all possible worlds working on ULTIMATE SPIDEY—especially since, with the thrice-monthly schedule of AMAZING at the moment, even speed-demon Bendis would be forced to work arm-in-arm with other writers, and compromise his vision of the character and the stories he could do somewhat. Again, I’d never say never, but I don’t see this happening any time soon.
>How come everyone claims the only thing changed by Mephisto was the undoing of the marriage; while Spider-Man’s bio on Marvel’s own web page clearly states that the wiping of people’s memories and the return of Harry was caused by Mephisto. >
Because nobody involved with that bio bothered to check with the folks actually working on the comic; the guys who wrote it drew their own conclusions based on what had appeared in the books. Thanks for pointing that out, by the way—I’ve since spoken to the people in our online department and gotten that bio corrected and updated. It was an error.
>Does the current BND storyline really take place a year or so after OMD, because that really mucks up the whole Secret Invasion/New Avengers timeline.
Posted by Motumbo on 2008-10-08 21:08:27>
There’s a gap of time between the end of OMD and the beginning of BND, but we haven’t said how long that gap is—I don’t think it’s anywhere near as long as a year, though. And in any case, we’re dealing with “Marvel time” here anyway, where the passage of time across different titles is never quite consistent to begin with (which is why Kitty Pryde could age five years in the time it took Franklin Richards to age three.) Long story short, the stories in AMAZING are happening “now”, and it’s a now that’s concurrent with much of what’s going on in the other books—SECRET INVASION: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN clearly gives you a timeframe for where the events of AMAZING sit against the events of SECRET INVASION, for example.
>What was wrong with Pete in The Other? >
He was trapped in a weak story with too many cooks.
2>Is what anti-venom’s…thingy a symbiote that a certain web-slinger could catch *wink wink*
Posted by suziepunisher on 2008-10-08 22:53:52>
We haven’t said that Anti-Venom is a symbiote—it’s certainly related to the symbiotes, sharing some characteristics with them, but also appears to be something distinctive and new. It also seems to be a part of Eddie Brock, rather that something that could move from host to host. But only time will tell for certain.
>Is there a chance to see an ongoing starring…Black Cat ? >
There’s always a chance, but no plans for it at the moment. And if we were going to launch a Black Cat ongoing series, I think we’d want to bring her back in AMAZING in a big was first, and really prime the pump for her return and spin-off.
>Attention…I’m serious here, not a ‘Patsywalkerhellcatagentofinitiative’ crap … >
Dude, I don’t think there’s any call to insult HELLCAT here. As I said earlier, not every comic is for every reader. HELLCAT may not be your cup of tea, but there are other people who enjoy its quirky sensibility just fine, and it’s completely unlike anything else we’re publishing—I think it’s important for Marvel to try new things like this on a regular basis.
>2/ I’ll say something now , starting with Ann Nocenti and ending with Ted Mc Keever…
I hope to have finally an answer about this.
I mean, Ann Nocenti, the magnificent writer of one of the most significant story-arcs about a Marvel character who generate a whole comic-book line from the local concurrency, Ann Nocenti then.
Ted Mc Keever, one of the most important artist of the latest century that Marvel DARE to promote with publishing the blasting ( actually it is ) ‘Plastic Forks’ ( I’m thinking so to THIS Mc Keever, the one who use space and close-up like no-one ).
I mean, don’t be afraid to pall your readers, don’t menage us -let it all go, you’ll feel better after – I think that’s when you’re publishing ‘patsywalkerhellcatagentofinitiative’, that’s here you disrespect them/us and me especially because I’m paranoid.
Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-10-09 04:47:56>
Um…yeah, okay—not really sure what you’re asking here. I can gather from this that you like the work of Ann Nocenti and Ted McKeever, but I’m not sure what you’d like them to do. I realize this has a lot to do with the language barrier, so believe me, I’m not making fun of you—I simply don’t know what you’re asking. Neither Ann nor Ted has worked for Marvel in quite a while—I’m not sure that anybody here even has contact information for them any longer—so I wouldn’t expect to see them working on a Marvel project together any time soon.
>What would you say is BND’s greatest success? >
It’s kind of a stupid and obvious thing to point to, but the fact that, so far, almost a year in, AMAZING has shipped on time each and every issue while keeping the quality high. I know that sounds like it’s damning with faint praise, but this is incredibly difficult to do on even a monthly book (as you’ve seen by the number of titles that can’t quite get a book out the door ever thirty days) and it’s exponentially harder on a series that ships three times a month. I think Steve Wacker and his team deserve some real kudos for being able to pull this off like clockwork issue after issue after issue, while at the same time integrating side-Spidey projects like the EXTRAs, ASM FAMILY and SI: AMAZING. Very difficult, but they make it look simple, so much so that I don’t think they really get the credit they deserve for it.
>What would you say is BND’s greatest failure?
Posted by baxtos on 2008-10-09 11:00:15>
There was and is a learning curve to producing a series this way, with multiple writers and interweaving story threads, and we made a couple of missteps early on. There were a couple of plotlines that didn’t build smoothly from story to story, and a couple of beats that got repeated too often since they were fresh in everybody’s minds (the constant webbing malfunctions, for example.)
> Is Mephisto’s deal with Peter part of a larger Mephisto War waged against the Marvel Universe? If not, seems like someone already part of the Spidey mythology could have filled the role (a supernatural Post-Death Mysterio perhaps) without all of the “deal with the devil” implications. >
No, Mephisto’s deal isn’t part of some larger story—though that might make for a cool story if it were. The rest of your question is really about second-guessing the impulses of the creators involved, to which the only real answer I can give you is, sure, it maybe could have been somebody else, but it wasn’t. I suspect JMS and Joe chose to use Mephisto rather than a more esoteric character because of the simplicity of Mephisto’s concept, and the fact that a Faustian Pact is an idea that’s easily understood by a mainstream audience. There was every expectation that there’d be some mainstream reporting on the story, and as soon as you try to explain something like “a post-death Mysterio” to that audience, their eyes glaze over.
> I’m really enjoying NWTD but was thrown off by the fact that Spidey took so many bullets and was still standing and then that Bullseye was shot in the chest while the Tracer was clearly in his hand (wasted opportunity to blow off the marksman’s hand). Are there intentional, larger explanations for these happenings or should I not mind and chalk them up to No-Prize scenarios?
Posted by hamgravy on 2008-10-09 11:05:12>
Well, you know, Spidey’s a lot tougher and more durable since he got that power-up in “The Other”… (did’ja notice what I did there?) I think you just chalk some of this up to artistic license.
Still more yet to come.
Tom B
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