I think it’s well-known that I am not a big fan of Dan Slott’s current rendition of Spider-Man, save for a few exceptions. And I think it’s safe to say a good number of people on the site aren’t either. To that end, I took matter into my own hands.
I, along with my co-writer Mohammed Jaafar and editor Mark Alford, am proud to announce “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.”
Volume 2, of course.
Now, I know what a lot of you guys are thinking. “Neil, what makes your run different from Slott’s run? Or Renew Your Vows, for that matter.” Well, there’s a few things.
- The setting
- Whereas Dan Slott has Peter running around the globe, this run is very back-to-basics in its approach. Peter’s back in New York- more accurately, he never left. There’s no Parker Industries, no globetrotting, just Peter back home where he belongs, with his marriage intact.
- What’s happened in place of One More Day
- Technically, this all starts with Stanford. The break-off point for this universe is the drafting of the SHRA three years prior to the beginning of the series, which in this universe has been edited so that only legally-recognized teams have to register, not every superhuman. Thus, the Avengers split peacefully into two different sects, with the same leaders on the same sides, but different players.
- Peter, disappointed by the fact that they could not come to a civilized agreement, left the team and took Aunt May and MJ with him. Barely three months later, Aunt May died from natural causes. (It’s biology, Quesada. I don’t have to explain it.) At the end of the year, Peter and MJ conceive a child, Annie. Over the course of the next two years, some things have happened with varying degrees of similarity to the 616 timeline. Norman never got control of HAMMER (nobody’s even heard from him in a while, and Harry’s running Oscorp), and thus Iron Man’s Mighty Avengers are still in operation later on in the series.
- Harry came back (he got better, it’ll be explained later) and helped Peter get a job at Horizon, which in this universe is a start-up by Max Modell, who is already well-established for creating clean-air generators in Detroit. This gives Peter and MJ (who runs a fashion blog and has a following in the fashion community) a steady income, and they own a nice apartment on 33rd West End Avenue in Manhattan. (As a Texan, I went ahead and did the real estate research for reasonably priced apartments in Manhattan, since Tribeca is a little too high-end for a relatable family.)
- Technically, this all starts with Stanford. The break-off point for this universe is the drafting of the SHRA three years prior to the beginning of the series, which in this universe has been edited so that only legally-recognized teams have to register, not every superhuman. Thus, the Avengers split peacefully into two different sects, with the same leaders on the same sides, but different players.
- Art
- Sadly, there’s not going to be any art for “Friendly Neighborhood” for the time being. Firstly, Marvel could come after me with a cease and desist since it could legally be declared a competing comic, and I’m not really in a financial position to hire anybody to do the art. Now, you’re thinking “Neil, you’re a penciller, you could do the art.” And I very well could. And, eventually, once I get to a certain point, I just might do that. Until then, we’re sticking to arc covers, and potentially even issue covers. But, no line art for now because of legal and time issues.
- Our goal for creating “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”
- I think there’s only one reason I decided to pitch this and make this whole project: I got tired of waiting for Marvel to fix the marriage (we had no idea Renew Your Vows was coming around the corner at the time) and, as I recall, was a personal dare. I told myself that I could write a better Spider-Man than Slott with characters that he was responsible for, and so the rest of the team said something along the lines of “Go for it.” I shot a pitch at the dark, and here we are. And so we come to our goal, probably my simplest to date: to make Spider-Man fun to read again. As the writer, I can only say this. I won’t ask you to laugh. I won’t ask you to cry. Because I know I can’t control that. But I hope with all my heart that you enjoy yourselves on this little journey we’ve cooked up.
-Neil, your friendly neighborhood reviewer
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First off, I’m really glad to see how excited you guys are for this series. (At least, from what I can tell. Only so much emotion one can put into a digital sentence.) For now, let’s answer some of the larger questions you guys have put up.
@Tnr105 and hornacek- All I can really say is that we intend to diverge heavily from Kevin’s vision. The only things that will have any type of similarity is the format, and the inclusion of certain characters that were already established, though their roles diverge heavily as well. I can promise you this much: this is something completely different.
@Bill- Personally, I just simply thought it was time for Aunt May to say good-bye. There’s only so many times one can write a story out of Aunt May dying. I honestly wouldn’t have minded if Aunt May died during the Clone Saga, and with the exception of JMS’ run, she’s been pretty dead weight in terms of storytelling. Plus, storytelling elements that come with Peter having to move on from her death. You’ll get more details into her death when issue #7 rolls out, but for now, let’s just say it was bullet-biting time for May Parker.
@AI- We’re shooting to roll out #1 on December 7th. Afterwards, we intend to maintain a bi-weekly release schedule.
I am most interested in this. Can we get any idea when we’ll be seeing this? Also will there be a thread for this on the MB?
I love the sentiment of returning Spider-Man / Peter Parker to his roots, but why do you want to kill off poor old Aunt May? She is not a hinderance to Peter or Spider-Man in any way. She is a good character that is vitally important to the mythos and adds a layer of depth to the storytelling. Seems like you just want to get rid of her because she’s old or something.
There are some other story elements you’re throwing in there that I’m not totally wild about either, but it would still be light years better than the dreck Slott and company are regurgitating forth on a monthly basis.
Me personally I would just use the story in Avengers Initiative #7 that casts doubt on TV that Peter is Spider-Man to hide his identity again. Mr. Negative would cure Aunt May. Then everything would continue from there with the marriage intact. No magic, no Mephisto, no erasing Civil War.
Looking forward to this project though!
If I were in your presence I’d stand and applaud you. I’ll be waiting to read the first issue and enjoy how familiar yet new your attempt will be thank you.
This really interests me. I’d love to read a different take on the events before Civil War.
@tnr105 – I also thought of Kevin’s Spider-Man Crawl Space series when I read this, but let’s face it, the last chapter of that series was posted in 2010 , so we probably won’t see any further chapters unless Kevin wins the lottery and gets to retire and do whatever he wants (including continuing this series).
Plus there are probably a lot of people that joined the site since then and don’t know what that series is. I say 6 years is long enough between the two for someone else to create a new series without us saying they’re just copying what’s been done before.
I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, nor would I accuse anyone of ripping anyone off… but this seems eerily similar to what Kevin set out to do with the Crawlspace webcomic, just with a few divergences.
I recognize that while the concept my be similar the executions will be different, written by different writers with different stories… and I’ll check it out, but…
Make mine Bogenrieder!
Hey! If you need art, I would be more than happy to contribute!
If you’d like to see some stuff I do, I’m more than happy to throw you some of my work
http://treehasweapons.tumblr.com/tagged/fanart
http://potentialahoy.daportfolio.com/
This I gotta see! Roll on, anti-Slott!!
In.
I am in!