Currently in Marvel’s comics, Peter Parker isn’t really the down-on-his-luck photographer that many people know him as. In fact, he’s pretty much Tony Stark, a billionaire at the head of a vast international R&D company. So when you want to capitalise on, say, the character’s big movie this year, you need a book that reflects what people are familiar with.
Cover art by Adam Kubert
Announced through Entertainment Weekly today, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man will be a new ongoing sister title to Pete’s adventures in The Amazing Spider-Man. Unlike Marvel’s other recent “back to basics” Spidey books, this one isn’t set in an alternate continuity. It still follows Peter Parker as he is right now in the current comics — but instead of the business high life and globetrotting adventures and events of Amazing, Spectacular will be a more grounded, personal tale firmly situated in Pete’s roots back in New York City.
Spectacular Spider-Man will be written by Chip Zdarsky, with art by Adam Kubert, and according to Zdarsky, will also refocus itself on the core cast of supporting characters Peter has that have had their roles diminished in his recent adventures in Amazing Spider-Man:
The main book, Amazing Spider-Man, has kept things fresh by stretching the character and his situation. It’s still classic Spider-Man at its core, but transposed into new settings. With this book, we’re using the same Spider-Man in-continuity but shifting the spotlight back to his NYC environment and supporting cast. But even though we’re pushing to make it a more personal book, we’re still going to have big adventures with ramifications that will be felt in his other books. If I had, like, a true mission statement for the title though, it would be: “Have fun, have heart, have stakes.” My personal mission statement going into the book is “With great power comes something something I don’t know I’ve never had power before.”
It’s not quite a strict realignment into the Peter Parker the wider audience is familiar with — he’s still in a fundamentally different scenario than that. But all the talk surrounding Spectacular feels like it’s to cater to that goal of bringing you the Spider-Man you’ve always known and loved, in situations and settings you remember. A lot might feel different, but deep down, it’s familiar Spidey storytelling.
Between this, the alternate tales of a married Pete and Mary Jane in Renew Your Vows, and the recently-ended teen-Pete Spidey! series, it seems like we’re getting an awful lot of “back to basics” Spider-Man going around these days.
Comments
6 responses to “Peter Parker Is Getting Another ‘Back To Basics’ Spider-Man Comic”
I would be interested to see how the Stark version of Spider does, I really couldn’t get in to it. He comes off as arrogant to me, despite some heavy attention to his demons.
I was raised on old school spidey, so I tend to be pretty bias toward the standard University student/ struggling photographer version of Parker.
I’ve liked seeing the kid enjoying some success for once (knowing that it always going to be shortlived) and yet, still failing (mostly at clumsily trying to be Tony Stark).
I’m in the camp of wanting to advance Peter Parker in his life. This current version and the one in Renew Your Vows are the ones I want to see more of. Characters grow, evolve, and their life situation changes. Every time Marvel wants to revert Parker “back to basics” it annoys me. But thankfully I don’t need to buy this book, unlike all the other times they reboot the series for a movie
I don’t mind evolution, I just don’t like overnight-billionaire Spider-Man. It just comes across as being another Bruce Wayne clone, and we already have Costa, Stark, Rand.
Kill him off.