[MUSIC PLAYING]
We've already heard so many great stories
throughout the show, and that was great,
but it's in the past.
So let's look to the future as we go Beyond Amazing.
As I mentioned, Spidey's 60th Anniversary Celebration
is happening throughout 2022, and these folks,
they know all of the secrets.
So as always, feel free to go drop your questions in the Q&A
tab as we welcome our guests.
First up, we have Marvel Comics Editor in Chief, CB Cebulski.
Hey, CB.
Hello, everyone.
Hello, Lorraine. Thanks for letting me join.
Hey!
Of course.
And VP and Spider-Man Executive Editor, Nick Lowe!
Hey, Nick.
Hey, Webb heads!
So good to see you.
Hey, Lorraine.
Hey, CB.
How are we doing?
Now, Nick, you're very formal this evening.
I'm loving it.
Is it-- was it not the dress code?
They told me it was formal.
Wait-- wait a second.
You guys are wearing-- you know, enough of this.
Enough of this.
I've got to get rid of this nonsense.
Luckily, I'm dressed for anything.
I've got my Spidey shirt on here.
I can stand up.
Oh yeah.
He wears it under every shirt.
Yep.
Every day, gotta wear my Spider undershirt.
There we go.
No, you've gotta be prepared.
There, there.
Now-- now I feel like we are ready to talk Spidey.
All right.
Now, there are a ton of great announcements
that have already come out about what
is in store for this year for Spider-Man,
but let's talk about some of these.
So first up, Amazing Spider-Man Number 1 coming this April.
What can you tell us about it?
CB CEBULSKI: Boy, oh boy.
There's so much to say and so much we don't want to reveal
to the fans, huh, Nick?
I mean--
NICK LOWE: Oh my gosh.
CB CEBULSKI: I mean, the last six months, a year and a half,
Spider-Man, everything's been just simply amazing,
to use the appropriate term.
But, you know, especially the last 19 issues,
what Zeb and Jed, Kelly and Saladin
have been doing with all their collaborative partners
in Spider-Man Beyond have been building to this.
And I know we want to stay secret and not
give away too, too much, but do you want to let the folks
in on a little bit of the fun?
Absolutely.
I'm the luckiest Spider editor in the world
because next month, for Amazing Spider-Man Number 1,
I have Zeb Wells and John Romita, Jr., who all you just
saw talking earlier.
He's still the greatest.
We have so many surprises up our sleeve, so much amazing stuff
going on in there.
Peter Parker pushed to the limit.
Big secrets laid down, giant reveals,
the best villains of all time.
It is gonna be a story that you're
gonna remember for the rest of your Spider-Man days.
Well, speaking of stories we're gonna remember
for our Spider-Man days, there's another
big milestone coming up, Amazing Spider-Man Number 900.
Uh, what's going on with 900?
CB CEBULSKI: Nick, 900?
Didn't we just do 700, 800?
Are we at 900 already?
LORRAINE CINK: The years pass fast.
NICK LOWE: We just did 50 like yesterday it feels like.
We're already at 9--
I better get going.
Wait a second.
No, no, I do remember.
We are pulling out all the stops this year
with Amazing Spider-Man 900.
It falls in Spidey's true 60th Anniversary month of June
because, I mean, I think we all know
that Amazing Fantasy Number 15 came out on June 5 in 1962.
But we've got Zeb Wells, of course,
our Amazing Spider-Man writer.
He is being joined by living legend Ed McGuinness.
They have an epic story.
You're basically-- when you pick up
the comic book of Amazing Spider-Man 900,
you're getting a Spidey graphic novel with some bonuses
by Zeb and Ed, and it is so good.
So many classic bits with some new bits too, like what
is the Sinister Adaptoid?
What does Doc Ock have to do with this?
What do all these villains have to do with this?
Is Spidey the seventh part of the Sinister group?
Is he the Sinister Seven?
What is happening?
CB, what is happening?
How are you letting us do this?
I don't know.
There can never be enough Spider-Man,
and there can never be enough craziness.
And you guys have all been doing such an amazing job of telling
the tales of Peter and company.
The more the merrier, right?
Oh my gosh.
You know I think that.
I have more questions than when we started
all because of Nick Lowe.
[LAUGHTER]
Now-- now, we're also gonna have a new title,
Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man Number 1.
What's in store with that?
Deadly Neighborhood is a series
that's coming out that's extremely
special to me in many ways.
Not only do I love the creative team
of Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas and B. Earl,
who have done some amazing stories with us so far.
Marvel, this is them taking everything to the next level,
really busting out, and doing a super big Spidey story.
It's also going to star--
and I think we've revealed it a little bit,
Nick, and forgive me if I'm--
NICK LOWE: No, go for it.
CB CEBULSKI: --revealing any secrets,
but it's with the Demon Bear from The New Mutants
from X-Men continuity.
I grew up loving The New Mutants, Dani Moonstar.
Especially what Chris Claremont and Bill
Sienkiewicz do in that run.
And here we're able to combine--
it's like peanut butter and chocolate.
It's Spider-Man and The New Mutants.
It's gonna be a fantastic story.
I think it's gonna knock people's socks off.
Nick, I don't want to add too, too much more, I know, but--
Yep.
The book is shaping up so nicely.
Like CB said, we got Taboo and B. Earl writing,
and we got Juan Ferreyra on art.
Juan, who just finished-- as you Marvel Unlimited readers know--
the Spine-Tingling Spider-Man, which is, again,
one of the creepiest most amazing
Spider-Man stories ever exclusively
on Marvel Unlimited.
You guys have to follow Juan Ferreyra over to Deadly
Neighborhood Spider-Man.
It is a freaky book.
It is a scary book.
It takes-- I mean, one of the scariest things
is it takes Spidey out to LA.
Think of the traffic.
What are we gonna do?
[LAUGHTER]
How is he gonna swing on those short buildings?
Exactly.
Right?
I mean-- but we've got some ideas for how to do that.
We've got Raza on the covers as well.
This book is gonna be maybe the coolest Spider-Man book
of all time.
I'm so excited for people to get to experience
that in this 60th year of Spider-Man.
Heck yeah.
And Nick, I know you brought up Spine-Tingling Spider-Man,
but the behind-the-scenes Easter egg there is that theme song.
Yeah, by Nick Lowe on vocals there.
Yep.
Oh my gosh, when Saladin turned in that first script
and it had the song, I knew I had to do something with it.
So I put together a tune to his amazing, creepy lyrics,
and I freaked my own kids out with it.
Like, my daughter, she was like, please
don't sing that song again.
Please.
[LAUGHTER]
Amazing.
That just meant you're doing it right.
You're doing it right.
I'm either-- I'm working on comics right, but I'm probably
parenting wrong.
Nope.
Just right.
If your kids are a little terrified, just right.
All right, we've got some great fan questions coming in.
This one from Gillian B. "What is
a little known piece of Spider-Man trivia
that you particularly love?"
Uh-- I love the reaction from both of you.
What's yours, Nick?
So as an editor, I know that we make
so many mistakes in our comics.
And one of my favorite sets of mistakes--
I mean, I've made plenty in my time,
as probably all the fans out there know and are screaming
at their screen right now-- but some of my favorite
are the ones that Stan and Steve and company made
in the early days, when they called Peter Parker
"Peter Palmer" a few times.
And they even called--
in the lettering it even says the name of one
of the distinguished competition's characters,
in a balloon in Amazing Spider-man,
in the first issues.
Amazing.
I love it.
What about yours, CB?
And for me, it's all about, kind of,
you know, I wanted to work in comic books since I was a kid.
Grew up reading all of the stories.
And for me, it's the learning a little
of the behind-the-scenes stuff, you know,
that we, as editors, have heard about the editors
and the creators that went before,
and kind of the creators that we've worked with,
and all the little things that go into the books
behind the scenes.
You know, how characters were birthed.
Dan gave the example earlier about Spider-Punk, you know,
and nothing ever goes as planned.
I think that's the biggest secret
of a lot of what goes into comics,
not just Spider-Man comics.
And it is a collaboration.
It's such a great way for us to make comics
and for the creators to have sounding boards for us
to bump off of.
And no specific example comes to mind,
but it's just-- it's just, there is so much fun stuff
that goes on behind the scenes.
But I think that's the magic of comics
that people don't realize.
It's not coming from one brain.
It's not writers versus artists.
It's a group effort.
I think that's what really makes everything
so special as we build the tapestry
that is the Marvel Universe. - Yeah.
One I'll throw out, kind of along those lines,
CB, which you just reminded me of,
is that Prowler, the original Hobie Brown, who
was a prowler, John Romita, Sr was drawing Spider-Man
at the time, and his son, John Romita, Jr., another Spider
legend, did the first design sketch for Prowler
that his dad then refined and turned into the Prowler
that we know and love.
- Yep. - Isn't that an amazing thing?
The other little known fact that I think people tend
to forget too is that when the black costume was originally
created that eventually became the costume that
was in Secret Wars 8 and then went on to become Venom,
the original logo was actually red.
So it was a black costume with the red logo.
There's some good trivia.
Um, you know, Nick, it really reminded me,
when you talk about how it takes so many people to make comics,
and it's such a group, there are so many theater people
in comics, and I think it really speaks to what
a collaborative art form it is.
We also have a question here from Jacob R.
"How has Spider-Man inspired you all in your everyday lives,
and what is your favorite quality of the character?"
You know, I think it all boils down to just,
"with great power, there must also
come great responsibility."
You know?
And that the lesson there is also that you don't need
to have superpowers to do that.
The lesson was always that, underneath that mask,
even though they're superhuman, there is the human.
And you know, it's been said to death so many times,
but everyone, through acts of kindness, through little things
that they can do in their town or their community,
is able to be a hero every day.
And it's a list that I always took to heart from Spider-Man.
And you try to extend on it to not just
the fans but members of my family.
And just do little acts of kindness
every time I'm at a convention or at a comic book store.
Do something for people because they're never gonna forget.
That's a great one.
And for me, it's another one that has
been mentioned here earlier.
Nobody's perfect.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Peter Parker made mistakes.
His mistake was the biggest thing
that changed his life, for the worse for him
and for the best for the world, was he became Spider-Man
and remembered that lesson that Uncle Ben taught him.
But that's one of the things that I
try to remember and remind my creators,
because we have the best creators in the world,
but even they need reminders sometimes that the characters
have to make mistakes because they
have to remind us that we do.
And it's not the mistake that's important.
It's what you do after the mistake that
is the most important thing.
How do you fix it?
How do you take that next step?
Yep.
Well said.
Absolutely.
Words to live by all around.
Um-- next up we have a question from Jared
in Virginia for Nick.
"I've noticed recent runs of Amazing Spider-Man
have been relatively light-hearted overall.
Obviously, had Kindred and a different Sin-Eater,
but we also had a lot of Boomerang
and now the Beyond arc fun.
Are there any plans to bring a heavier or darker tone
to Spider-Man, either in the current creative team
or with a new writer?"
Well, I appreciate the question.
I-- I-- I was shocked to hear it though because I feel
like we've gone super-dark sometimes
in the past couple of years.
But, I mean, for me, it's always the balance.
Like, that's the thing that I love the most about Spider-Man
is that you've got really fun stories.
They were talking about it before with JM DeMatteis
with the fact that he writes these hilarious stories
with Frogman and yet then goes to Kraven's Last Hunt.
And I know, that is our goal.
I mean, if you've been reading Beyond,
you know there are some real goofy, really fun ones.
But then I think we've got a bunch of moments
where you get hit in the gut with an emotional beat
that you don't see coming, and that's gonna continue.
With this new volume, it's definitely funny, but it pushes
Peter to some limits that he--
I don't know if he's ever been pushed to.
But my goal is always to find that balance,
to find that balance of fun and harrowing.
Because, again, it's all the DNA in Amazing Fantasy 15,
the book that kicked off-- that 60 years ago
put us into these seats.
You get both of these.
You've got the mistakes made, you get the tragedy,
and you get the transformation of that tragedy
and what he does with it.
Spider-Man is all of it.
That's part of the reason why he is
the greatest fictional character ever created, bar none.
Uh.
And Nick, what you just said about JM
can really also apply to Zeb because, at times, Zeb
is viewed as the funny, you know, goofy writer for things
that he's done in New Warriors and other books.
But you forget, he did that Doc Ock series,
and Zeb has a real dark streak in him when
he wants to tell those stories.
And, you know, if I can plug a little,
I just finished Amazing Spider-Man 93
yesterday, the final part, the finished
book of the Beyond storyline.
And if people want a dark story and they
want to see how far Zeb and you and the whole creative team
are going to take things and Amazing
Spider-Man going forward, do not miss that issue.
Yep.
It's got a shocker.
Ooh, a spicy little tease.
Mm-hmm.
Um, all right.
This question from Alex in Colorado for CB.
"Is Spidey ever gonna be an Avenger again?"
Uh, I don't know.
You know, Nick here, and Tom Brevoort, the Avengers editor,
are mortal enemies.
We can't even get them in the same room on the same Zoom
let alone agree on anything.
But, you know, if I can act as a referee between it,
I will do my best to see if we can get Spidey on the Avengers
again.
It's gonna be a hard-fought battle.
We'll have to talk to Jason Aaron as well, but who knows.
NICK LOWE: Never.
Never gonna happen.
Last time it happened, Tom M. revealed his identity
to everyone on the whole team.
Get out of here, Brevoort.
[BLOWS RASPBERRY]
All right.
I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.
From Mike in Wisconsin.
"Are we gonna see more diversity in Spider-Man?
I love Miles Morales and Gwen lines,
and I would love to continue to see more diversity,
including LGBTQIA+ characters.
Any ideas?
Any plans?"
Sure.
I mean, one of the things I love most
about the (SINGING) Spider-Verse--
which is the correct pronunciation.
I heard a bunch of writers talking
about it and not pronouncing (singing)
Spider-Verse correctly--
but one of the coolest things about Spider-Man
and these multiversal stories is it has
given us so many opportunities.
Like you said, you mentioned Miles, you mentioned Gwen.
With Pavitr Prabhakar, who's Spider-Man India, Spider-Punk,
Hobie Brown, Silk, we have all these characters with all
these different backgrounds.
Spider-Zero was recently created.
We got all these different characters from all
these different walks of life.
I'm so proud of that.
And it still leaves us with plenty of room for growth,
and so we're always looking to find new Spider characters who
can represent all kinds of walks of life
and be that world outside your window.
Yeah.
That's well said, Nick.
The Marvel Universe is the world outside your window.
And, you know, from the start, with what Stan was doing
and everything that we've built on since,
we're just gonna continue to grow and make sure
that no matter where you're from or what your background is,
that you'll see yourself reflected in a character,
multiple characters across not just the Spider-Man Universe
but across all the Marvel Universe in every book
that we publish.
I love that.
And, I mean, Spider-Man is our ultimate every man.
I think that's why so many of us fell in love
with him as a character.
Now, we could not end our chat without an announcement.
Uh, so-- what news is burning a hole in your pocket
that you can share with us?
Well, I think we have a very special
announcement, especially for the people
who are on the event today.
You're all subscribers to, you know, The Marvel Universe,
The Marvel Unlimited here, and we have been doing a lot
recently with vertical comics with the Infinity Comics,
as we call them.
You've seen everything from Jeff the Land Shark,
to all the stuff that Nick was just talking about,
Spine-Tingling Spider-Man, to the Hulkling and Wiccan book
that we've been putting out.
These are stories that are set in continuity, very
important to the continuing myth and the tapestry
that we continue to build at Marvel.
But, Nick, you want to give them the news?
Abso-- I would love to.
I would love to because I think I'm one of the only people who
could pronounce it.
We have a brand new Infinity Comic coming up.
It is called (SINGING) Spider-Verse (DEEP VOICE)
Unlimited.
It is a new weekly Spider-Man feature on Marvel Unlimited.
It kicks off with one story written by Anthony Piper, who
recently did the Devil's Reign Spider-Man book if you've read
it, with art by Bruno Oliveira.
This time we do talk about Bruno.
And colors by Pete Metaxas, and letters by Joe Sabino.
It's a fantastic primer for what this Spider-Man-- the (SINGING)
Spider-Verse Unlimited comic is.
We see a Peter Parker story, but we also
see shades of that multiverse.
Coming up right after that is a very mild centric story
by a writer named J. Holtham, who currently writes for The
Handmaid's Tale-- which is maybe the saddest show on TV,
but it's still good--
and with art by Nate Stockman.
It's got Peter-- or it's got Miles especially,
but it also has Peter and Gwen in it,
and one of my favorite villains, the Beetle.
And after that, we've got all kinds
of stuff coming down the road.
Would you maybe want to see a little more Silk?
Would you want to see a little bit of Peni Parker
and her giant robot Spider?
Would you want to see--
I think anything's on the table.
You don't know what's gonna happen because it
is the (SINGING) Spider-Verse.
You never know what's gonna happen.
Uh.
So of course, everyone should keep your eyes on marvel.com
and Marvel social channels for more Spidey
news throughout the year.
And of course, thank you, Nick.
Thank you, CB, so much for hanging out with us
and talking about Spider-Man's future.
Thank you, Lorraine.
Thanks to all the Webb heads out there.
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