Our friend Roger Stern recently gave an interview to Newsarama about his upcoming work in Amazing Spider-Man # 580. He talks about how the character is back to the model he likes and enjoys writing. The article also talks about his opinion on how Peter Parker married the wrong girl, and how it was tough to write him as a married man.
His upcoming issue will deal with a mysterious villain Spider-Man has never faced before and can’t lay a hand on. Amazing Spider-Man #580 goes on sale December 10th, so show your support. Roger is one of my all-time favorite writers and I’d love to see him back on the book.
Stern also gave an interview at the Pulse website. Click here for the link.
Stern is a regular poster on our message board, and if you’d like to talk about his upcoming issue, click on this thread.
Brad Douglas
View articlesBrad created the Crawlspace back in 1998 while attending college at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He’s the webmaster and writes front page news items, and also produces, hosts and edits the podcast. He’s been collecting Spider-Man comics since the age of three and is a life-long fan of the webhead. His website has been featured in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and on Marvel.com and inside the comics themselves. The Crawlspace is one of the first Spider-Man fan sites to ever hit the internet. Millions of people visit the site every year.
Brad has interviewed several “Spider-Celebrities” over the years including co-creator Stan Lee. He’s also interviewed actors who have portrayed Spider-Man like Paul Soles (Voice Actor from the 67 Spider-Man Cartoon), Dan Gilvezan (Spidey Voice Actor from Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends) ,Yuri Lownthal (Voice Actor from the Spider-Man PlayStation game) and Nicholas Hammond (Spider-Man 1977 Actor).
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- Evan Berry on Panel(s) of the Day #1610 (Mary Jane Monday!): “@Hornacek — I would make a horrible Spider-man. So many times, were I in his place, I would have confided…” Nov 5, 07:53
- Hornacek on Panel(s) of the Day #1610 (Mary Jane Monday!): “At least he said “I have to go take photos for the Bugle.” This is a valid excuse since this…” Nov 5, 04:26
- Paul Penna on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #60 (Legacy #954): “Hit The Road, Zeb” or “All [REDACTED] Things Must Come To An End”: “Yep, as I predicted, Paul is here to stay. Marvel want Peter and MJ apart, and Paul is the story…” Nov 4, 17:43
- Evan Berry on Panel(s) of the Day #1610 (Mary Jane Monday!): “Wow, Peter actually said, “I done blame her.”” Nov 4, 13:28
- Evan Berry on Panel of the Day #1609 (Splash Page Sunday!): “Who knew Peter had a skirt in his closet made out of webbing?” Nov 4, 07:43
- Evan Berry on Panel(s) of the Day #1608 (Ditko!): “That brick wall doesn’t stand a chance.” Nov 4, 07:41
- Hornacek on Panel(s) of the Day #1608 (Ditko!): “Peter is so upset that he forgot his own hyphen. Twice! And he also referred to himself as “The” Spiderman.” Nov 4, 04:28
- Hornacek on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #60 (Legacy #954): “Hit The Road, Zeb” or “All [REDACTED] Things Must Come To An End”: “@Joshua Nelson: At this point I don’t expect Marvel to have Peter tell Aunt May that he’s Spider-Man. If they…” Nov 3, 00:40
- Hornacek on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #60 (Legacy #954): “Hit The Road, Zeb” or “All [REDACTED] Things Must Come To An End”: “@Kenneth: I wasn’t even thinking about her health but you’re right. But just from the years of May making wheatcakes…” Nov 3, 00:36
- Hornacek on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #60 (Legacy #954): “Hit The Road, Zeb” or “All [REDACTED] Things Must Come To An End”: “@Dark Mark: Yeah, this issue really felt like an epilogue and not the final issue of a story. One issue…” Nov 3, 00:35
RS: Could? Possibly. Should? Not so much. The thing is, Spider-Man is a mystery to his general public — he could be anyone under that mask. No one would know about his marital status — or even give it much thought, unless they were enemies looking to strike at him through loved ones. In those pre-“Brand-New-Day” stories, it wasn’t really Spider-Man who was married, it was Peter Parker.
And Peter for the most part works best as a young, single guy. I would never say he should never marry. But he certainly should not be married to Mary Jane Watson. That’s just crazy.
The only way the writers were able to keep that marriage going on the printed page for as long as they did was by changing who Pete and MJ were, by turning them into different people. And a lot of talented writers worked on Spider-Man during that period, doing their best, but that marriage never quite worked for to me. It was like hearing about two old friends who’d run off and made this terrible mistake.
Enigma: … who… who is this man… and what the h*** is he smoking? And WHY is Spider-Man the ONLY person in the Marvel U that must NOT change, evolve, and grow?!?!?
Oh, I forgot… he exists in his own little bubble… his own little world… where nothing ever changes… everything remains constant… second verse, same as the first… and marrying the high school sweetheart that he fell in love with… that’s a no-no…. because he shold be a swinging single, who’ll never get lucky… the old “Parker luck” will see to that… now that I think about it, if they won’t let him stay married to Mary Jane, why the hell do they even bother keeping her around in the first place? And will there ever be a point where he “passes the torch” so to speak, or is that wishful thinking on my part?
Well, Spider-Girl was cancelled, so I guess that answers my question…
… and someone should tell CP that other than a few diamonds in the rough, current Spidey stories haven’t been hitting on s*** either. But I’m a supposed MJ fascist… so what do I know, right? If I had any real sense, I’d be a member of the BND Illuminati or something…
RS:
“As a matter of fact, Marvel’s been trying to correct that particular mistake for years. I believe that the original thought behind what turned into the Clone Saga was to re-establish an unmarried Spider-Man…in a way that didn’t involve divorce or death.”
And look how well that lasted. i expect BND to go the same way.
Thanks again, RS, feels good to hear someone finally say things like this! (ok, I’m leaving now, just wanted the new folks to know that there are Spidey fans other than MJ fascists on this board.)
RS:
“As a matter of fact, Marvel’s been trying to correct that particular mistake for years. I believe that the original thought behind what turned into the Clone Saga was to re-establish an unmarried Spider-Man…in a way that didn’t involve divorce or death.”
So true, Mr Stern! I kinda felt this way the six years before BND.
RS:
“…with prose you can have your characters engage in long, meaty discussions or even monologues that would be a series of boring-looking talking head shots in a comic book. ”
Oh, yeah, and StyleShift, the last 20 years of Spidey purchases happened because of Spidey, NOT because PP was married to MJ. The last 20 years is replete with horrible story lines, too btw.
You Go, Mr Stern!!!
RS:
“The only way the writers were able to keep that marriage going on the printed page for as long as they did was by changing who Pete and MJ were, by turning them into different people. And a lot of talented writers worked on Spider-Man during that period, doing their best, but that marriage never quite worked for to me. It was like hearing about two old friends who’d run off and made this terrible mistake.”
Love Stern but I have to admit he’s wrong about the marriage.
20 years of comics means it was successful. That’s nearly half of the time Spidey’s been around.
Anyone else notice that the only time we had bad stories was when Marvel was trying to eliminate it?
Of course, someone named Miles Warren couldn’t see why Gwen would be the girlfriend from hell! 😉 She was frosty to Peter and first and then when they started dating got very clingy with dramatic mood swings. That, or Stan Lee just over dramatized everything!
“Girlfriend from Hell”? Gwen?
C’mon. LOL I’m interested to know what Roger’s reasoning is behind these kind of comments.
Actually, I wondered the same thing, Webhead623 on another message board and Roger Stern himself responded and stated, “Just for the record, I never thought that Gwen was Pete’s “true love,” either. She was often the girl-friend-from-Hell.” So, in light of that, I re-read his comments, and basically Stern is saying that the Spider-Man, because he works better when he’s single, hasn’t found the right woman yet. And it’s not only limited to MJ, but presumably every woman he’s ever dated, including Gwen, Betty, Felicia, etc. And probably never will find the right girl as long as there’s a Spider-Man comic being published.
Yeah, that should read Gwen is the RIGHT girl. Sorry.
I wonder if he thinks Gwen is the wrong girl. I’m sorry, but I read Parallel Lives as a young teen and I TOTALLY feel she is the right girl. Agree to disagree.
Like him as a writer but he clearly wrong here with his views and not even he will bring me back to reading the book again.
I don’t get what he means about “marrying the wrong girl”. Who should he have married?