WW Philly '07: Spider-Man's Brand New Day

Interview: Marvel revamps the entire Spidey line, cancelling books and making one weekly

IGN Comics: So following the story of "One More Day" you guys have the concept or branding of "Brand New Day". What is that, what's the timing and how is it playing out?

Steve Wacker: Well I'll give you the entire plot so you don't have to buy the issues.

IGN Comics: Sweet!

Wacker: -laughs- So Joe and Joe's run is called "One More Day". It runs through around September and October or so - I'm not working on it so I don't know the exact timing. Then starting after that, the publishing initiative becomes publishing Amazing Spider-Man three times a month. Friendly and Sensational will go away, and the numbering just continues from Amazing #546, going forward three times a month. There's a new team of writers, new team of artists, all of which will be announced later. And it all becomes an ongoing story.

Amazing Spider-Man #544 Cover

One More Day Teaser Image

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 Cover

IGN Comics: Did Marvel pitch the concept to you when you were in discussions to come over to the company?

Wacker: Uh, no. I knew I was doing Spider-Man when I came over. It's funny Tom Brevoort and I were just discussing this the other day and I was trying to remember the timing. It certainly would have added another layer to the conversation had I known what they wanted to do. The idea for this apparently goes back a few years. I probably shouldn't be the source on this as I wasn't there, but as I understand it, it was a conversation between Joe Quesada and Mark Millar. I don't know who had the idea or who said it, but Joe walked away from it thinking it might be a good idea. Amazing is always the official book in peoples' heads. The other two are the first ones they drop when they have to, unless they're tying into some big thing like "The Other" or something.

So there was question of could you do it, what would the machine be, I think this was before 52 even happened. It kind of goes back to the way Mike Carlin used to run the Superman books. They had three or four separate titles, but they had that diamond numbering thing they did [Editor's Note: The numbering system for the Superman titles would indicate the reading order of the various titles for a reader to get a cohesive storyline while maintaining each title and its actual issue numbering].

So to answer your question, no I did not know they wanted to do this. Even when I started, it was still just an idea that was suggested. It wasn't really decided on until a good few weeks after I was here. They were talking about a bunch of different ways you could do it.

IGN Comics: So were you thinking, "Man. I just escaped a weekly book…"

Wacker: -laughs- Not really. That whole month was such a blur anyway. I was so anxious to be editing Spider-Man anyway. The bottom line was that I was going to be editing three Spider-Man titles. So the rest of it just became the mechanics of storytelling and the production. The way things are going to be, you can't have an issue be late. Now, if Friendly jumped a week, it wasn't the end of the world. It wasn't tying into the other books. But with this, you can't publish #548 before #547. So I have to stay a little bit on top of that.

So, and I don't know if I'm underselling this, but even working 52, there were days when it was crazy, but it was never a horrible, horrible grind. I should probably make it sound worse so it sounds like I was working harder… But I get to do Spider-Man stories. That's why you get into comics - to do Spider-Man stories.

Amazing Spider-Man #544 Interior Art

Amazing Spider-Man #544 Interior Art

IGN Comics: Why do this at all? What's the benefit to the Spider-Man property and the line of books in general?

Wacker: Well the benefit is, I guess, in terms of what the top floor muckity-mucks think, that Amazing sells the best, so let's have three of those a month. I think it's a shame in the past, especially when you think of books like Marvel Team-Up, Web of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, Spectacular… all of the books that they've had throughout history have had good stories. I think Peter [David] has been telling some great stories, same with Roberto in Sensational, but they don't get the attention because it's not Amazing. Amazing is the "official" one.

The plus now is that they are all "official". If your thing is that Amazing is where the story happens, you're talking about it all happening in that book. With the writers we've constructed three or four good spines to hang stuff on, things happening in the background. Within that people will be able to tell their own stories - new villains, classic villains, the supporting cast, all that stuff. So the plus is you get more eyeballs on the thing.

IGN Comics: Are you planning on telling larger, year-long stories or mostly smaller arcs?

Wacker: Yeah, there will be things happening in the background that will cycle from a "C Story" to an "A Story" and then it might go back a little bit. There will be these longer running threads, and then there will be these shorter two and three-part stories and a lot of one-part stories too. It's just about creating the setting, the environment, New York and a little bubble so it's the story of Peter Parker. That's what the best Spider-Man stories are about I think.

GN Comics: Why three times a month as opposed to four?

Wacker: Two reasons I would imagine. One is they aren't even sure they can do three. Again, to the top floor guys, there were already three Spider-Man books. I suspect if this works, and it's always a big if, I will be asked to add on another. But we already have plans to fill that week right now with some Spider-Man mini-series and one shots to explore the world even more with talent that's not attached right now to the regular book. So that gives us some room to do that.

IGN Comics: When assembling the writing and artistic teams, did you look to incorporate different writers with different skills so maybe you could tell different styles or genres of Spider-Man stories? Maybe one is more action-packed while another is more introspective or dramatic… that sort of thing?

Wacker: That's a great question. We didn't set out to do that, but a month or two ago it became obvious that that's what had happened. More specifically it was because we had four different writers who were reading Spidey in different eras. And that lends itself to particular things they loved and particular types of stories. So that's going to be interesting to see that play out. Watch a guy who never thought he'd use that villain because it was from 1992, and that's not when he liked the book, that's going to be interesting.

One More Day Interior Art

IGN Comics: Tell us as much as you can about your plans for villains? Are we looking at a heavy amount of classics?

Wacker: My problem with the classic guys is that - and I've gone back and read all the Spidey comics since '62, focusing on the last few years - it seems like every time they reappear, it's a reinvention of them. Some villains have had three reinventions in the last five years. Motivations change and they just become faceless chess pieces. So I think that's what's happening with characters. It's not that they're radioactive and you have to stay away from them. It's that you need to let them settle and get out of the public eye for a little bit so when they come back it's going to be important. I don't know that another issue of the Rhino getting beat up is important to anybody anymore. It doesn't feel special at all. "Oh! Look… it's the Rhino… again."

So for everyone, we made a decision that early on, for the first few months, that we're going to add some faces to this Rogues Gallery. We have a bunch of new villains coming. I really wanted to see some villains because it became obvious that's really lacking in Spider-Man's world. Of course the classics are going to come back. I don't feel like I'm ruining anything with that. But we don't have to worry about getting Sandman in there or anything now that the movie is gone, so we have a small window of opportunity here, with a spotlight on the book, and there's a chance some of them will be accepted because it's such a new day for the book.

IGN Comics: Speaking of new days, I know Peter David has been trying to bring back some of the old supporting characters. Are you guys planning on bringing a lot of that back in this new Amazing?

Wacker: Yup! The supporting cast is huge. There are some new faces there and we've put a lot of thought into who we can bring in. Plus there are some classic ones in there. Again, it's Peter Parker's soap opera, and the people coming in and out of his life are important.

- Artist Unknown!

Spider-Man's Brand New Day Teaser

IGN Comics: Will Mary Jane and Aunt May be there?

Wacker: -laughs- You'll have to keep reading on that one. You'll have to read "One More Day".

IGN Comics: Well, I had to ask otherwise my readers would start sending hate mail.

Wacker: -laughs- Well, I think there have been more than enough Aunt May and Mary Jane stories.

IGN Comics: Our last question then - referring to the teaser image you are showing off to promote these changes. Spidey is holding a gun! I'm sure you won't tell us exactly what it means, but can you give us a sense as to the implications of that image?

Wacker: Uhhhh… [pause] The implication of Spider-Man with a gun… uuhhh… Man, I wish I had more time to figure out something good for this… -laughs- I feel like I'm doing a book report… -laughs- All of his problems may not be solved after "One More Day".

IGN Comics: So he just picks up a gun and figures that a bullet will fix it? -laughs-

Wacker: Well, that would be the ****ty way doing it! -laughs- Or there might be some other pages in there that give some context to that. -laughs- He works with the Punisher a lot! -laughs- Maybe he learned a little something?

IGN Comics: Wait! Maybe it's Frank impersonating Spidey? He grew tired of masquerading as Cap, so he puts on a spider suit?

Wacker: Yeah, it's Frank impersonating Spider-Man. Aw ****, you got it! -laughs- Actually the Punisher would be smarter to do that probably… why run around in that other costume?

IGN Comics: One last question - who did the art for the teaser?

Wacker: Ah, I'm going to have to say "keep reading" on that one. There will be more stuff sprinkling out throughout the summer though.

IGN Comics: Sounds good! Thanks very much, Steve!

Wacker: No problem!