Threat Or Menace: Slott on The Superior Spider-Man

So yeah – turns out they were talking about Spider-Man.

Yesterday was the retailer’s breakfast at New York Comic Con where The Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott announced what the hell “Superior” stood for, and apparently he then turned right around and told USA Today that, following the sooper seekrit events of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #700 – which will mark the end of that title, at least until someone at Marvel realizes there’s money to be made in releasing a book with the words “Spider-Man” and “800” on the cover – he will be writing a book titled The Superior Spider-Man about… some guy in a Spider-Man suit.

A guy who might, or might not, be Peter Parker.

“I’ve always been the omniscient hand that’s been protecting Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and not letting anything too bad happen to him,” [Slott said]. “And now I’ve become this cruel god. There’s something exciting about that, about going, ‘Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha, here is what’s going to happen to you, Spider-Man!’ And it’s drastic and it’s big and it’s exciting and it’s never been done before.”

So here’s what we know: Slott says that in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, Doctor Octopus has only one day to live, and he knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and he is going to do something unfriendly to Pete. And whatever that thing is, it is going to lead to a somewhat darker Spider-Man.

So what do you have in mind, Dan?

The one thing that does not go with this Spider-Man is the term “Friendly neighborhood.” No. That’s gone…

He’s not going to be doing things the old Spider-Man way. There will be a new way of doing things.

“The first story arc is called “Hero or menace?” I think that pretty much tells you where we’re going.

Part of the new direction for Spider-Man is going to include subtle tweaks to the costume, including changes to the eye-lenses, some pointy shit on the fingers and elbows, and boots with little toes in them; you know, the kind that when I see someone wearing them in the real world, they creep me out and make we want to smack the porkpie hat off the wearer’s stupid, hipster head.

Ryan Stegman will be doing the art on the first three issues, with Humberto Ramos and Giuseppe Camuncoli stepping in for subsequent issues, which will include a revamped Sinister Six (but not rebooted! Marvel doesn’t reboot! Despite literally giving Spider-Man a new pair of boots! Awful, awful footsie boots!).

Slott still isn’t saying what happens to Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man #700 – although he’s still maintaining that whatever it is, he plans to go into hiding once the deed is done –  and more importantly, he’s not saying who will be behind the new Spider-Man mask. Now, if I had to lay down a dollar on the easy prediction, I’d say that Doc Ock reveals to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, forcing Pete to either go into hiding or fake his own death. Then Kaine comes back from Houston, dumps the Scarlet Spider suit, and takes point for a while, before going too far against some poor dupe, causing Peter to come back, be seen in the same room with Spider-Man, thus dispersing all suspicion and allowing Pete to put the old costume with grown-up shoes back on.

Of course, there are some problems with that. The first being, Scarlet Spider is still being solicited up until December – the same month Amazing Spider-Man #700 drops – and there’s no indication that Scarlet Spider #12 will conclude the book… and with a Scarlet Spider #12.1 issue also solicited, it seems unlikely that Marvel would release a Point One “entry point” book for a title about to be shuttered. Of course, there isn’t a force on Earth that would force Kaine to stay in Houston as Scarlet Spider, so who knows?

Further, Slott’s claiming that whatever happens will be something that’s “never been done before.” And a clone taking over for Spider-Man has certainly been done to death… almost the death of the damn book itself. So the other easy drop-in is Venom – if Flash Thompson can make the suit look like battle fatigues, why not a Spider-Man suit? – but the solicitation for Venom #28 implies that that book is changing its setting to Philadelphia, so that one seems unlikely.

So my backup prediction? Doc Ock knows who Spider-Man is. Doc Ock also clearly knows who Aunt May is. And in The Amazing Spider-Man #694, Aunt May moves back to New York from Boston. So conservatively? Doc Ock kills Aunt May and Peter stays Spider-Man, only becoming more violent.

My out-there prediction? Ock kills Aunt May, and somehow finds out, and tells Peter, what Peter gave up to keep her alive, oh, One More Day? A sacrifice that suddenly means nothing? And Peter goes a little apeshit for a while.

Regardless, all this happens starting in December.

(via USA Today)