Peter Parker and Me
Spider-Man was my guy.
I remember the moment pretty clearly, considering I was six or seven when it happened. I was at an Xtra Supermarket in southwest Miami with my grandparents. It must’ve been the summer, because it was the middle of a weekday and I was with them. Like many kids, I found shopping boring - especially grocery shopping or visiting a hardware store. I must’ve had a book with me. At that point, I was already a comics reader, immersed in Archie comics and vaguely familiar with the major superheroes thanks to a stack of comics my dad brought home earlier that year. But I wasn’t reading them yet.
As we were checking out, something caught my eye. I’d later learn it was a digest reprint of The Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2, initially a deluxe black and white magazine Marvel printed in a larger company attempt to get into that market, this was a smaller, digest-sized (think of the Archie comics you still find on the newsstand) reprint that was racked haphazardly next to MAD Magazine, GQ, or whatever else was coming out that month. But I was instantly drawn in by the cover - which I later learned was a reworked version of the painted John Romita original. The Green Goblin hovered in the upper right of the cover, a maniacal grin on his face as the familiar, red-and-blue garbed Spider-Man tried desperately to dodge his attack. The story’s title was emblazoned on a banner at the bottom - raising a million questions and answering none: THE GOBLIN LIVES!
I had to have it.
If there was a better doorway comic into the world of Spider-Man, I can’t think of one. Sure, I guess Amazing Fantasy #15 could’ve worked, but I don’t think I was ready for that - for Ditko’s weird (wonderful!) lines, or the pathos Lee injected into Peter Parker. But this story felt like a leveling up. For a kid used to the smooth lines of artists like Dan DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, and Bob Montana (even if I didn’t know any of them, aside from DeCarlo, by name yet), Romita felt like a natural transition. Everyone he drew was beautiful. Heck, Gwen and MJ were basically Betty and Veronica to Peter’s Archie, if you think about it. I’d later learn that Romita had an extensive romance comic background before landing at Marvel, and it made perfect sense - everything felt operatic, emotional, and tragically beautiful.
I won’t recap the entire issue, because that’s not why I’m writing about this comic, but suffice to say, the way Romita drew an unraveling Norman Osborn is burned into my mind - tied for Sal Buscema for Best Artist to Draw an Angry Osborn. The story’s opening pages - as Norman’s subconscious realizes he IS the Goblin was chilling, and still, to this day, feels perfectly paced and mesmerizing.
Again, I was hooked.
But it wasn’t just the colorful costumes - I’d seen plenty of that. It was the characters. One in particular. Peter Parker was unlike any superhero I’d read up to that point. He wasn’t a billionaire, he wasn’t an alien from another planet (I say that as someone with lots of love for Superman and Batman), he seemed like a mostly normal, shy, nerdy guy. He lived with his elderly aunt. He had girl and money troubles. For a bookish and quiet kid who spent a lot of time with his aging grandparents, I felt seen even before the phrase existed.
Thus began a lifelong obsession that I also realize is not very unique - lots of people love Spider-Man. But he was still mine. I’d read Spider-Man even when I wasn’t reading comics regularly. I’d draw my own Spider-Man comics as a kid, copying Romita and Buscema poses, or later, Erik Larsen and Mark Bagley. I visited my local pharmacy religiously each week to grab the new issues of Amazing, Spectacular, or Web Of, and I pored over the Marvel Handbook or the Official Marvel Index to the Amazing Spider-Man until I could afford to spring for the ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN volumes that would unfurl the classic Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita runs for me chronologically.
I never thought of Peter Parker as an everyman. He wasn’t one. But he was struggling, like we all do. Still, he tried his best and overcame obstacles and managed to fight another day - all with a quick wit and boundless optimism (most of the time).
I never thought I’d get the chance to write him, though.
Even when I did, I didn’t think it was real. I was working on a draft of my Spider-Verse YA novel, Araña/Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow, which stars the two titular characters in a fun, time-hopping team-up, and features a ton of cameos. Peter wasn’t really in it. Except for one, brief flashback. It hadn’t been in the outline, but as I was writing the draft itself, I felt like I needed something - a nugget of wisdom relayed to Anya Corazon, Araña. So I wrote a short flashback to her meeting with Spider-Man. I remember sitting back in my chair and staring at my laptop in awe. Then I texted my friend Preeti with something along the lines of “I THINK I JUST WROTE PETER PARKER.”
That was nice. It was cool. I thought that would be it.
But it wasn’t, thankfully. Marvel’s emailed a few months back asking me if I was up for contributing a story to their upcoming MARVEL ZOMBIES: BLACK, WHITE, & BLOOD mini-series. I always really like working with Tom and Annalise Bissa, they both give great notes and truly elevate your story, so I immediately said yes. When Tom asked which character I wanted to write, I didn’t hesitate - because how often do you get the shot?
Spider-Man.
Now, the challenge with short stories in comics - like prose shorts - is that you’re really presenting a vignette, a peek into a larger story, while also creating the illusion of a narrative arc, and making sure the slice of the larger story you’re spotlighting is the most compelling moment. You have much less real estate to do the things all stories need to do - set-up, conflict, resolution, denouement, plus character development and subplots. This is where comics can be great, though, because you have a visual collaborator to do a lot of that heavy lifting, and say a lot through the visuals that would just feel like exposition with words. And Tom’s mandate was clear - write something that not only terrifies readers, but rips their hearts out and makes them cry.
I won’t spoil the story - which is beautifully illustrated by Javi Fernandez, an amazing artist, generous collaborator, and a person I’m lucky to call friend. But, suffice to say, our guiding light while working on this with editors Tom and Annalise was “The Worst Day of Peter Parker’s Life.” So, suffice to say, it’s a loving ode to the saga of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, while he does what I love about the character most - pushes himself to the brink to save not only the people he cares about, but the people that need saving. It’s probably one of the darkest things I’ve ever written, but I do think there’s a glimmer of hope in there. Hence the title. Huge thanks to Tom and Annalise for trusting me to write this story.
MARVEL ZOMBIES: BLACK, WHITE, & BLOOD #1 is out tomorrow - and our story stands alongside work by stalwarts like Garth Ennis, Rachael Stott, Ashley Allen, and Justin Mason, plus letters from friend and super-pro Clayton Cowles. I hope you enjoy it! Here are a few of Javi’s amazing pages:
This isn’t my first Spider-themed essay - I had a long-running column at Dan Greenfield’s site, 13th Dimension, if you want to check out my thoughts on rereading Amazing Spider-Man and beyond (it stalled out around Kraven’s Last Hunt, but I do have thoughts to share on further issues - once I find the time!).
Thanks in advance for picking up the issue - available at your local comic shop or digitally if that’s your jam - and I really hope you dig it!
A FEW QUICK THINGS
I’ll be at the Super Jersey Comics Expo in (you guessed it!) New Jersey this Saturday! Please swing by if you’re in the area. I’ll be selling and signing books. It’s a FREE event, so no excuses.
There’s a new chapter of Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin’s FRIDAY up on Panel Syndicate. I love this series.
My friend Corrina Lawson wrote a mystery novel! Check out Above the Fold if hardboiled series are your jam. She’s a great writer and person.
Talk soon,
Alex