Saladin Ahmed and Garry Brown's 1980s Alien Costume flashback in next Annual

[URL="https://www.newsarama.com/40317-1980s-flashback-in-amazing-spider-man-annual-1.html"]Promising announcement about the next [I]Amazing Spider-Man[/I] annual.[/URL]

[QUOTE]Press Release

What goes bump in the night? The answer might surprise you…

When Spider-Man made his return from an alien world some years ago, he didn’t just come back with new adventures under his belt – he also returned with a special new costume! But Peter soon learned that the costume was more than just a suit…it was a living alien symbiote, and one who had set its sights on bonding to him permanently. Despite rejecting the suit that would eventually become Venom, Peter had no idea that late at night, the symbiote had its own ideas…

This September, prepare for an all-new nightmare fairytale as Hugo nominee Saladin Ahmed, fresh off his Eisner nominated book Black Bolt, takes his acclaimed storytelling to the Spider-verse. Along with superstar artist Garry Brown (Iron Patriot), the two creators weave a tale of mystery, tension and drama as they answer the question everyone wants to know: just what was the symbiote doing with Peter during those secretive nighttime excursions?

“AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL is an untold street-level story of the brief bond that existed between Pete and the alien symbiote that would eventually become Venom,” said Ahmed. “This is my tribute to the Spider-Man I grew up reading in the early 1980s — the messed up and confused Peter Parker who came back from an alien world with a new costume and new problems as Gang Wars tore through the streets of Manhattan. That era of Marvel storytelling had a profound influence on me, and it’s an absolute thrill to come back to it by writing Marvel’s most iconic hero. Walking this line between nostalgia and a modern story requires a really skilled artist, and Garry has knocked it out of the park on that front. His work has all the pulpy excitement of the Bronze Age without wallowing in the past. Spider-fans are going to love this book!”

A collaborator on Marvel’s upcoming Immortal Hulk #3, Brown’s “Saladin and Garry are absolutely tapping into the heart of the fan-favorite alien costume storyline while bringing something new to bear,” added editor Mark Basso. “Like a lot of people, I read and re-read those original stories and those bits of Peter completely drained, sleeping through whole days after the symbiote took him through mysterious unconscious adventures, always felt like a story waiting to be told. So it’s really a dream project for the team, even if it’s a nightmare for Peter Parker.”[/QUOTE]

Cool to see Salidin Ahmed writing Spider-Man (and Peter instead of Miles, no less) :).

Not really sure what he can add to the Black Costume Saga, assuming he doesn't pull a retcon to make it more like it's usually depicted in most media adaptions), though it seems like he's going to lean more into the psychological horror aspect of what was going on between Peter and the suit.

Anything with the black suit is okay with me

I’m sorry, but I just can’t bring myself to support anything this guy writes considering the hateful stuff he regularly posts on social media.

Cool.
That Spider-Man Annual will be a must buy to me,i think that period of time after Spider-Man got the Symbiotic costume after Secret Wars and that had the Gang Wars storyline in the Spidey stories is a great era to make Untold Spider-Man stories.

Weird that it's not written by Spencer, but being set in the past it's unlikely to directly tie to current events anyway.

[QUOTE=Digifiend;3721324]Weird that it's not written by Spencer.[/QUOTE]

Not too out of the ordinary, there were several annuals that weren't written by Slott during his run

That original Black Suit era was such a fantastic period of storytelling for the Spidey books; any return to that look/feel is great news to me!

[QUOTE=Digifiend;3721324]Weird that it's not written by Spencer, but being set in the past it's unlikely to directly tie to current events anyway.[/QUOTE]

I see no problem with Marvel giving it to a rising star who recently got an Eisner nomination, and who wrote an Inhumans book that made some end of the year "Best Of" lists.

Interesting point in the solicitations...

[url]https://www.cbr.com/amazing-spider-man-annual-solves-symbiote-mystery/[/url]

We never did see in the comics where the symbiote was going when Peter was asleep.

[QUOTE=Mister Mets;3737095]Interesting point in the solicitations...

[url]https://www.cbr.com/amazing-spider-man-annual-solves-symbiote-mystery/[/url]

We never did see in the comics where the symbiote was going when Peter was asleep.[/QUOTE]

Quite interesting indeed.
Funny how such a "plot hole" was never explained after all these years and pretty much forgoten.I totally forgoten about how the stories never explained that.

[QUOTE=Mister Mets;3737095]Interesting point in the solicitations...

[url]https://www.cbr.com/amazing-spider-man-annual-solves-symbiote-mystery/[/url]

We never did see in the comics where the symbiote was going when Peter was asleep.[/QUOTE]
I remember in the [I]Spectacular[/I] cartoon the Symbiote taking Peter's body out to kick the tar out of the Sinister Six.

This will probably a bit less empowering and a bit more creepy by comparison.

Closest I can remember to a Spider-Man story that's dealt with that was in The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon when the symbiote defeated the Sinister Six while Peter was asleep. With this premise, Ahmed is probably the perfect fit, he's very good at writing characters comprising primarily of inner monologue.

Also now that I think about it, this is even more special, because outside of Learning To Crawl, I can't think of any strictly flashback Spider-Man stories there have been in the past few years.

the suit would have access to Peters subconscious, including his moral boundaries. I wouldn't be too worried.