CRAVE ONLINE: Yes, I remember when we talked on The Book Report, you said you were done playing with the third-stringers.
DAN SLOTT: Yeah, I wanted to do Mighty Avengers, the Avengers of my youth, but I couldn’t play with anybody except Hank. That’s why it was Hank Pym and His Amazing Friends. Let’s just roll up the sleeves and have fun with Hank Pym.
And they just announced Avengers A.I.
Yes, and that’s going to be awesome.
I love that idea, and that ties into my question about it – it seems they’ve given up on trying to keep Age of Ultron stuff a secret, with the Angela reveal and all –
You’ll have to wait. I’m not going to spill any beans. But I have heard all the plans for A.I. at the last retreat, and that’s a book I’m going to read the hell out of.
It does sound great, but I wanted to just clarify whether or not Bendis was writing Peter Parker without knowing that he was going to be Doc Ock for Age of Ultron.
I think when Bryan Hitch was drawing it, obviously – you saw the Free Comic Book Day. I’m not going to snow you. Bryan Hitch was drawing Amazing Spider-Man and not Superior, because Superior didn’t exist yet, but when it’s time for Bendis to script it, I’m pretty sure Brian is scripting it as Doc Ock pretending to be Peter.
And Chris Gage just gave of the Age of Ultron issue that clarified that.
Chris talked to me and we walked through stuff, so that was really a chance for the spider-team to go ‘see, it’s Superior!’
Speaking of the spider-team, how close are you working with Chris Yost on Avenging Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider?
Chris Yost and I talk about stuff all the time, I get to read stuff. Chris Gage and I are co-writing three issues. If you look at my whole run, I’ll get close to 12 issues and then I’ll need someone to help me over the finish line, because it’s such a time-demanding book. Chris is helping me with a three-parter called “No Escape,” and I love it. It’s really one of these ‘all your chickens come home to roost’ stories, where everybody he’s beaten the crap out of coming together as a team.
Wow, like a brand new Sinister Six?
Well, you’ll have to see how it happens.
Are Screwball and Jester going to become hardasses?
You’re going to have to wait. You’re also going to get to see how certain seeds we’ve been sowing as far back as “Big Time” pay off. There are some things that have been hanging in the air that you’ll get the payoff for, and the fallout and how it all plays in the world of Superior Spider-Man is pretty awesome. Humberto Ramos is drawing issue #14 now. Issue #14 is, I think out of the entire run, my favorite guilty pleasure book. You could not wipe the grin off my face the whole time I was writing #14. I was chortling. Lots of things ‘splode! Things are just blowing up, and there’s death and destruction and mayhem. I was fiendishly having fun and laughing. Oh, it’s going to kill me if they don’t make toys. There’s stuff in #14 where I want the toy. I want the toy!
Chances are it’s going to be in Heroclix. They put all the Mighty Avengers in Heroclix.
They just did the “Big Time” Heroclix set. I got my “Ends of the Earth” armor, and I’m like ‘yay!’ They showed me the early sculpt of that, the preview, and then they sent me a crate. Yay, I have all the Heroclix. But there’s stuff in #14 – 11, 12 and 13, the story that Chris and I are doing, is all payoff, and #14 is ‘holy – I can’t believe you’re doing that,’ and… we’re going to start announcing stuff soon. You’ll see what’s coming up the pipe.
One thing I do like about Superior is that you seem to be addressing the fact that Otto is a fat guy living in a trim guy’s body, and Peter might have to lose 40 pounds when he comes back. Camuncoli even seemed like he was drawing him thicker.
(laughs) We’ll see what happens. The last thing I want to do is those Ted Kord issues of Justice League. You’ll see. Spider-Man is Spider-Man.
Okay. The other thing I need to ask is, as one of the Spider-Man 2099 fans you messed with doing the fake Tweet joke –
Yes, I have promised that you are going to see Spider-Man 2099.
Is it just going to be in the background of a panel?
No, there’s a story. You will see, there is 2099 stuff.
Now, is it going to be the teenage guy, or the Peter David version?
It’s not going to be the Timestorm one. It’s going to be the one that everyone knows and loves.
Awesome, because I know and love that guy. Now, one thing that’s cool about Superior is that it’s Dr. Octopus finally rising to the status of A-lister. He’s always kind of felt like one, but he never really seemed to get enough attention –
I had him almost fry the planet, Andy. FRY THE PLANET. THE ENTIRE EARTH.
Before your run, I mean. I loved “Ends of the Earth” – and I also loved what you did with Mysterio, who was always my favorite guy. I like the new version of him, where he’s so slick and Hollywood, as opposed to the old ‘delusions of grandeur’ kind of guy.
When you think about Mysterio, there’s a lot of set-up involved. Where do you put the flashbombs and where do you put the holographic screen? I like the idea that he’s working it all like gags. In “Ends of the Earth,” he had the giant Aztec god, and it was like ‘you weren’t supposed to see this for another hour, but you showed up early, so I’ll just use this giant robot, you ruined my whole set-up.’
