Even New York Comic Con isn’t strong enough to fight off the dreaded ‘Clone Saga’ as Marvel Comics held its Spider-Man: ‘The Clone Conspiracy’ panel Saturday morning.
About the panel:
Join us for this revealing panel on all present and future Spider-Man titles! Learn more about the mega-event DEAD NO MORE: THE CLONE CONSPIRACY, which finds Spider-Man amidst a gauntlet of his greatest foes, and marks the arrival of a mysterious new villain plus the return of loved ones lost! PLUS – Get the lowdown on the rest of the Spider-family and other street-level characters! Join Executive Editor Nick Lowe and Associate Editor Devin Lewis along with writers Dennis Hopeless (Spider-Woman) and Dan Slott (Amazing Spider-Man) – this is THE Spider-panel you do not want to miss!
The panel begins.
Dan opens with a joke: “Harry Osborn says to Peter Parker, ‘How would you describe your relationship with Gwen?’ Peter replies, ‘Abridged.’”
Spider-Verse came from his work on the Shattered Dimensions video game, because they wanted to do that but bigger.
Also talks about how voice actor Dan Gilvezan was crushed by him killing off Spider-Man’s Amazing Friends in Spider-Verse, and there’s a video of him online just staring into the camera and going, “Why? Why would anyone do this?”
Nick Lowe asks if any clones are in the house, and two twins stand up.
Ramon Perez, co-writer, and artist on Nova, is also going to join the panel soon.
They give out some preview comics that aren’t out yet.
One person in Spider-Woman cosplay got an upcoming issue of Spider-Woman.
An OG Scarlet Spider gets a Clone Conspiracy #1.
Dan jokes, “That could be anyone under that mask. That could be Scott Snyder.”
One of the clone twins gets Amazing Spider-Man #20, a Clone Conspiracy tie-in.
They show pages from the upcoming issues. And covers.
Devin Lewis talks about Silk tie-ins to Clone Conspiracy
Cindy Moon has been working for J. Jonah Jameson at the Fact Channel, and JJJ is intrinsically tied into the Clone Conspiracy story because of his dad potentially being saved by the Jackal’s Nu U.
Cindy has to get creative about how she can be Silk while traveling with JJJ.
New costume coming for Silk so she can preserve her identity on the West Coast
Spider-Woman is coming back from the dead and will square off with Silk, who will be going by Silkworm on the West Coast.The Prowler series will follow Hobie Brown working for Nu U because they resurrected him after killing him in Amazing #17.
Madame Web will be back in the Prowler as a member of the supporting cast.
You have to read the Prowler series to know where Hobie’s true loyalties lie.
They break from Clone Conspiracy to talk about Richard Rider’s return in the new Nova series.
Ramon Perez talks about it.
Richard Rider and the new Nova, Sam, will also be in there.
Both characters will be learning from each other in the series.
Perez says it’ll probably be really anime and manga influenced.
Lewis says there were painstaking discussions in the office to make sure bringing Rich Rider back felt right.
They wanted to make sure they honored his legacy, because he’s the guy who tore Annihilus’ heart out.
Up next, they talk about Spider-Woman #13 kicking off a new story arc, “Scare Tactics,” which looks to have Hobgoblin in it.
Hopeless says he wanted to do a Hobgoblin arc for a long time.
They switch to new Venom series by Mike Costa and Gerardo Sandoval.
Lewis says Venom is back on Earth and they’ve been quietly building a corner devoted to Symbiotes.
Says it’s old-school, long slobbering tongue Venom.
“This is one of the best iterations of Venom I’ve ever seen.”
He guarantees that Brock is in the book, but doesn’t say if Brock is Venom again.
Now Spider-Man/Deadpool
The current “Itsy-Bitsy” arc is discussed, with concept art for the title character shown.
She’s a big part of issues 9 and 10.
There are some break issues coming up, #11 written by Penn Jillette and drawn by Scott Koblish. #12 is written by Paul Scheer and Nick Giovannetti, drawn by Todd Nauck with a cover by Dave Johnson. It’s a Christmas issue.
Now they discuss Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows by Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman.
They’ll reveal in the series what Mary Jane and Annie’s hero codenames are.
The Mole Man has a big part in the first arc
This is a super hero family book.
You have to read to find out how MJ gets powers.
Now Q&A session
Fan named James asks how Miles Morales and Kaine Parker will be affected by the Clone Conspiracy.
Miles is not in Clone Conspiracy because he’s heavily involved in Civil War 2
Dan hints you’ll see exactly what happened when the fist came out of the Other, which Kaine had turned into in Spider-Verse, during that series’ epilogue issue.
Fan named Mike brings up Spidey’s bad track record with clone arcs and asks what will be different this time.
Dan says “Me!”
And then says that was a horrible answer.
“One of the things I love doing in the book is taking characters where fans say, ‘THAT guy?’”
But there’s always a fan whose favorite character is “that guy.”
Says the story has less of a clone thing than reanimations.
“This story will hurt you.”
Fan named Joel says he loved Superior and is waiting for his possible return.
Dan says, “What can we say about Otto? His story’s going to take some pretty weird turns.”
Says everyone who are fans of Otto’s character, who he is inside, will like the story.
Lowe asks the panel what the first comic they fell in love with was.
Hopeless says it was Justice League International, during Maguire and Giffen run.
Perez says it was Hawkeye on Avengers and West Coast Avengers back in the day.
Dan says he was reading three runs of Spider-Man at the same time as a kid, but that Amazing Spider-Man #8 where Peter has the boxing match and gets to punch Flash was his favorite.
Lewis says first Amazing Spider-Man arc with Morlun.
Fan asks why Ben Reilly doesn’t come back.
Slott says the door is pretty much locked on that because Reilly melted into a puddle of goo.
Fan named Katie thanks Hopeless for writing Spider-Woman and says she’s asking for a fan in Spain about the next arc.
Hopeless says things go insane for Jessica Drew after #12 and that her life gets turned upside down.
Lowe says they just had an editorial summit this week, and that Jessica is part of Captain Marvel plans, as well.
Fan named Nolan asks if there would ever be consideration of a comic revival of the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.
Dan says there’s a Marvel animation panel later in the day.
Fan asks why characters in symbiotic costume can’t be Spider Totems.
Dan says the symbiotic characters can’t be spider totems because they’re alien in origin, and the ones with spider powers have them because they bonded with Peter or were spawned by symbiotes that bonded with Peter.
Fan asks about death not being final in comics and asks about how they handle the decisions to bring back characters.
Dan says, “I just flip a coin.”
Talks about how he killed off Montana early on in the Big Time run.
Wacker told him he couldn’t kill a Ditko character, but he explained it away saying Tinkerer would dig Montana’s body out of the rubble and make him half robot.
Hopeless says they write about human drama and the human condition, and making them fully fleshed out human characters requires death as a powerful dramatic device.
He says the characters are also really fun toys they have to leave for people after them, so they have to weigh that, too.
Dan says it’s sometimes a puzzle figuring out how to bring guys back.
Perez says he’s wanted to kill characters, but they won’t let him. He mentions that there was a point where death in comics was finite, but now there’re so many great characters that people want to write, you see a lot of them coming back from the dead all the time.
New Nova series will explore how Nova is back and why.
Fan named Noah asks how Peter got to Manhattan from Forest Hills in Queens.
Lowe says sticking to buses and cars, sometimes he took the subway.
Dan says he swung on the underside of the bridge, or in the ‘60s cartoon; he just stuck to the sky.
Clone No. 2 says he started reading comics because of Marvel Now and asks how the new Marvel Now will play into Clone Conspiracy
Lowe says new Prowler series is part of new Marvel Now, but says they’re just “trying to tell the best darn Spider-Man story they can.”
Young fan named Elijah asks if Uncle Ben will come back to life in Clone Conspiracy.
Slott says “That would be crazy! You people would kill me!”
Fan named Mike asks if Spidercide can be brought back again.
Dan says everyone has a favorite “except for F.A.C.A.D.E., F.A.C.A.D.E.* was terrible.”
*(Full Acclimation Combat And Defense Explo-skeleton)
Fan named Nick asks about Ock’s role in Clone Conspiracy.
Dan says he has a big, juicy role.
Fan asks Perez where Nova series will be grounded.
He says they’ll be pushing Nova back into the cosmic space, but will also be balancing with Earthbound part of the character.
Lewis says Ego the Living Planet is in the first issue.
Knowhere and the Guardians of the Galaxy also play a part in the book.
Fan asks if Alpha will return.
Lowe says he might return in upcoming Marvel Comics.
Dan says, “He was such a jerk” and that nobody was supposed to like Alpha.
Fan asks how Spider-Man ends.
Dan says the way it will end, one day, is the way Stan Lee always wanted it to end — with a “to be continued.”
End of panel.
