Spider-Man legend Gerry Conway (writer of “Amazing Spider-Man” #111-49) will be scripting Spidey again in the mini-series “Spiral.”
The “Spiral” story arc will be told in five issues starting with “Amazing Spider-Man” #16.1 and is a team-up story featuring the recently returned-from-Spider-Verse Spider-Man and Police Captain Yuri Watanabe — aka the vigilante The Wraith.
Conway recently wrote a piece of the Spider-Verse in “Spider-Verse Team-Up” #2. It’s no surprise that “Spiral” will also be a team-up story.
“I’m incredibly enthused,” Conway told Tim O’Shea of Marvel.com. “Ironically, the Spider-Man team-up story is my second Spider-Man project. The limited series began first. We were working on that first when [editor] Nick Lowe asked me to do the 10-pager. Even though “Spider-Verse Team-Up” came out first, it was something that I started while I was already working on the “Amazing Spider-Man” issues.”
Teaming-up with Conway is artist Carlo Barberi (“Amazing X-Men,” “Thunderbolts”).
“The first issue I wrote without really knowing who the artist was going to be on it, although I had my hopes, obviously,” said Conway. “But now that I know it’s Carlo, I’m going to try to play to his strengths.”
Conway began writing ASM as the successor to Stan Lee. Starting at just 19 years-old, he is responsible for some of the most iconic issues published under title, including #121 — the death of Gwen Stacy and #129 — the first appearance of The Punisher. His stories have played heavily on the various crime factions of the Marvel Universe’s New York City, which makes him the perfect scribe for “Spiral.”
“The notion here is that the various Marvel crime gangs like the ones led by Hammerhead, Tombstone, the Circus of Crime, Black Cat, and Mr. Negative — they’re all at each other’s throats because there’s no single overlord of crime currently running things in New York,” said Conway. “Things only escalated, especially after The Goblin King fell out of the scene and Doc Ock is no longer operating as the Superior Spider-Man, keeping a lid on everything. It’s an opportunity for all of these power players to see which one of them can come out on top. While the larger gang war is taking place over the whole city, we’re focusing in on how it’s affecting the precinct of Captain Yuri Watanabe, who we also know as The Wraith, and that’s where the focus of our story is going to be.”
“Spiral” begins in “Amazing Spider-Man” #16.1 and will be on the rack in your local comic shop on 3/18/2015. See pages and covers by Arthur Adams and Simone Bianchi on Death Ray Comics Blog.
Trent Hunsaker is a podcaster and popculturalist. Podcasting for Kevin Smith’s SModcast Internet Radio and the A Part of Him Podcast Network, he also operates Death Ray Comics, sweats, and reads comics – but mostly just sweats.