Nick Spencer Interview on LAST REMAINS!

[Vortex85]

https://www.cbr.com/nick-spencer-ama...ampaign=CBR-TW

Fantastic interview form Nick Spencer on his run. Especially on the misconception of any filler arcs. Note he says every story so far is setting up something further down the road that will pay off.

Some key highlights for me:


"I’ve said before, but Amazing Spider-Man is the only comic I’ve read throughout basically my entire life without pause. So it’s the one where I have the best aerial view, and what really struck me is how, for a book that is driven so much by a moral lesson about responsibility, there are so many things that have been sort of swept under the rug, never to be mentioned again."

"There was a moment after the Absolute Carnage issues, where I really think we led the horse to water, when I contemplated a misdirect, something that would seem to eliminate Harry from suspicion. But ultimately, that felt like stunt work. I wanted to play fair here."

"The reason I could do that is I knew the reveal was the beginning of the mystery, not the end. And that’s what I’ve been pleased to see in the response, people realizing that. .... How did he become this? When did the turn happen? What is he after? “Last Remains” is where all that starts to unravel and there are plenty of twists and turns to this part of the story that I feel confident no one will see coming."

"More than that, this feeling Pete has, that something is not quite right or recognizable about his life, that it’s somehow all a dream and he’s being swept along, trapped in a kind of hopeless cycle, that’s what’s truly terrifying."

"I wanted the camera on Spider-Man and Kindred squarely in the numbered issues-- so the .LR’s contain a lot of crucial plot points regarding other characters-- some you know now, some you don’t-- that will dovetail at the end of “Last Remains” in a big way. So I highly, highly recommend not skipping them, I would say they’re essential to the story."

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Great interview. Soft-spoken and humble.

"I haven’t done a lot of interviews or talked publicly about the run these last couple years. That’s been by design. I wanted to really try to let the work do the talk and leave it in the hands of the audience. And so far, I’m pretty pleased with the results of that experiment."

Really wish more Spider-Man writers, and Marvel writers in general followed this precept.

[WebSlingWonder]

Yeah, after reading that, I really like Nick Spencer on this title. I think he captures the classic feel of Spider-Man without delving into nostalgia too much and is able to play around the larger world-building elements that other writers haven't touched. Plus: he remembers these continuity moments that even make me feel like a novice (for instance, remembering Gog from Spider-Man: Lifeline or even Frederick Fosswell Jr. in "Lifetime Achievement". That's important to me, because it shows that he's not necessarily trying to tear down the world and bring his own flair - he's building on what came before and doing new things with it. I love that in a writer.

He keeps this up, and sticks the landing, he may be in my top 3-5 Spider-Man writers.

[Kingkalamari]

based on his comments here it seems like there wont be any clones/OMD duplicates explaining Harry-Kindred but rather Kindred is just something that Harry became over time, especially that preview image showing Harry and Liz(presumably in modern era) with Harry in anguish.

[Spidey_62]

This was a great interview, love to see that kind of composure in the face of doing the dream book- it gives me faith in continuing to sit on the ride for sure. I also appreciate what he said about the smaller arcs that can seem more like fill-ins, how they all are important in building the greater picture of what he's trying to tell. That's the kind of thinking I like to see with comics, not an issue or a story should be frivolous these days imo.

Right outta the gate, though, he says what I've been feeling about the stories - how he's trying to shed a light on things that have been pushed under the rug or seemingly glazed over. Take of that what you will!

based on his comments here it seems like there wont be any clones/OMD duplicates explaining Harry-Kindred but rather Kindred is just something that Harry became over time, especially that preview image showing Harry and Liz(presumably in modern era) with Harry in anguish.

That page is from next week's LR issue and it's Norman talking to Dr. Kafka- not Harry and Liz.

[Hugo Strange]

ASM2018053003-colv2.jpg

Normie?

[Snoop Dogg]

do it coward

bring back kristy

[Jman27]

so the 2099 arc will matter. Same with the stuff regarding boomerang and the villian gambling event nice to hear guess i should go back and reread them so i dont miss anything

[Frontier]

I kind of assumed Spencer was playing with slow burn subplots and stories. Almost like Kirkman on Invincible.

[NC_Yankee]

Great interview. Soft-spoken and humble.

"I haven’t done a lot of interviews or talked publicly about the run these last couple years. That’s been by design. I wanted to really try to let the work do the talk and leave it in the hands of the audience. And so far, I’m pretty pleased with the results of that experiment."

Really wish more Spider-Man writers, and Marvel writers in general followed this precept.

I agree 100%. I used to hate that about Slott. I got the opinion he was teasing readers ( at best) or giving the finger ( at worst):

[Huntsman Spider]

https://www.cbr.com/nick-spencer-ama...ampaign=CBR-TW

Fantastic interview form Nick Spencer on his run. Especially on the misconception of any filler arcs. Note he says every story so far is setting up something further down the road that will pay off.

Some key highlights for me:


"I’ve said before, but Amazing Spider-Man is the only comic I’ve read throughout basically my entire life without pause. So it’s the one where I have the best aerial view, and what really struck me is how, for a book that is driven so much by a moral lesson about responsibility, there are so many things that have been sort of swept under the rug, never to be mentioned again."

"There was a moment after the Absolute Carnage issues, where I really think we led the horse to water, when I contemplated a misdirect, something that would seem to eliminate Harry from suspicion. But ultimately, that felt like stunt work. I wanted to play fair here."

"The reason I could do that is I knew the reveal was the beginning of the mystery, not the end. And that’s what I’ve been pleased to see in the response, people realizing that. .... How did he become this? When did the turn happen? What is he after? “Last Remains” is where all that starts to unravel and there are plenty of twists and turns to this part of the story that I feel confident no one will see coming."

"More than that, this feeling Pete has, that something is not quite right or recognizable about his life, that it’s somehow all a dream and he’s being swept along, trapped in a kind of hopeless cycle, that’s what’s truly terrifying."

"I wanted the camera on Spider-Man and Kindred squarely in the numbered issues-- so the .LR’s contain a lot of crucial plot points regarding other characters-- some you know now, some you don’t-- that will dovetail at the end of “Last Remains” in a big way. So I highly, highly recommend not skipping them, I would say they’re essential to the story."

The bolded parts are my favorites of the things Nick Spencer said in this interview. The first, as indicated in the podcast interview with Jonah back in ASM #38-39, shows that for all that talk about "great power, great responsibility," Spider-Man hasn't always lived up to that basic yet profound principle, and his failures in that regard have largely been swept under the rug, both so the character can remain sympathetic and worth rooting for in the eyes of the readership, and so the character can, in-story, maintain his self-image. The second, I'm tempted to infer will ultimately be a reckoning with One More Day and the radiating impact that has had on Spider-Man's story and character and the world around him. In both cases, I think we will be seeing Peter forced to radically reexamine and reassess himself, his actions and decisions, his justifications for those actions and decisions, and what that all ultimately says about him and who he really is at the end of the day. Come to think of it, from how it's sounding, the real horror story in Last Remains will be more personal, with Peter confronting the gulf between who he thinks he is and who he may actually be.

[Pav]

ASM2018053003-colv2.jpg

Normie?

This looks great -- like if a Goblin and an Octopus had a very scary baby.

-Pav, who can't wait to find out what's in store for YouKnowWho...

[NC_Yankee]

Yeah, after reading that, I really like Nick Spencer on this title. I think he captures the classic feel of Spider-Man without delving into nostalgia too much and is able to play around the larger world-building elements that other writers haven't touched. Plus: he remembers these continuity moments that even make me feel like a novice (for instance, remembering Gog from Spider-Man: Lifeline or even Frederick Fosswell Jr. in "Lifetime Achievement". That's important to me, because it shows that he's not necessarily trying to tear down the world and bring his own flair - he's building on what came before and doing new things with it. I love that in a writer.

He keeps this up, and sticks the landing, he may be in my top 3-5 Spider-Man writers.

I certainly agree. While everything in canon is not great, going 180 degrees polar opposite like we saw with Slott ( especially the Charlie Brown references) is even worse. I am expecting a beginning, middle and an end which is thought out and does not mar the ending ( like Clone Saga did with Conway’s run).

[JTHM]

Poor Normie. His Granddad is a crazy psycho, transforms him with an alien goop. Gets freed of the alien goop. Makes friends with a crazy possessed half-alien goop that scares him the **** out. And now his dad becomes creepy centipede guy. Give the kid a break.

[Lukmendes]

Poor Normie. His Granddad is a crazy psycho, transforms him with an alien goop. Gets freed of the alien goop. Makes friends with a crazy possessed half-alien goop that scares him the **** out. And now his dad becomes creepy centipede guy. Give the kid a break.

Liz doesn't help, since she was being an amoral CEO for a while, didn't she help Norman escape back in Superior's end too?

It'll be very ironic if the kid turns out to be a saint .

"More than that, this feeling Pete has, that something is not quite right or recognizable about his life, that it’s somehow all a dream and he’s being swept along, trapped in a kind of hopeless cycle, that’s what’s truly terrifying."

Comic books in a nutshell