BY JENNIFER M. CONTINORoger Stern is returning to familiar territory this December when he takes one of his favorite web-heads on a new adventure in
Amazing Spider-Man #580. Stern, who always viewed the marriage between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson as a "mistake" is happy to be working with a single Spider-Man again. The scribe is using a villain he came up with years ago, but never had the chance to introduce in those pages when he was a regular writer on the series. Stern told
THE PULSE, "I eventually wound up using this villain in a different series -- and it turned out that no one had used him since. The story all grew from that. And you know what? He makes a pretty good
Spider-Man villain, if I do say so myself."
THE PULSE: I know you've worked on Spider-Man before and written some very memorable stories. What made you want to return to the character now at this point in time?
ROGER STERN: Well, for one thing, I've been reading and enjoying AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ever since the beginning of the Brand New Day storyline. It's great to see Spider-Man really acting like Spider-Man again.
And when
Steve Wacker was gracious enough to ask me to write a new story...well, how could I turn that down?
THE PULSE: As someone who has worked on the character and had an affinity for Spider-Man, what did you think of the decision made to have his marriage to Mary Jane erased?
STERN: I think it was a good thing. I might have figured out a different way to do it, but I always thought Pete's marriage to Mary Jane was a mistake.
As a matter of fact,
Marvel's been trying to correct that particular mistake for years. I believe that the original thought behind what turned into the Clone Saga was to re-establish an unmarried Spider-Man…in a way that didn't involve divorce or death.
THE PULSE: What do you think having that marriage erased adds to the mythos of the character now?
STERN: Mythos is maybe too grandiose a term. But I think it's a positive move.
Mind you, I understand why some readers are upset over the end of Pete and Mary Jane's marriage. Some of them have been reading AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for twenty years, and for them he has always been married…just as, for some,
Jay Leno has always been the host of
The Tonight Show, and
Jon Stewart has always hosted
The Daily Show.
I sympathize with them, I really do. I myself had been reading Spider-Man for about twenty years -- and had written Spider-Man for four of those years -- when
Marvel decided that Pete and Mary Jane should marry. Right around that time,
Jim Salicrup -- who was then the editor of the Spider-Man titles -- offered me work on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. That was during a period when no one else at
Marvel would even return my phone calls, and I needed the work. But I regretfully had to turn Jim down. I saw the marriage as so wrong-headed that I didn't want to be a regular part of it.
But we're getting away from the point. I see Peter Parker -- and Spider-Man -- as forever young. He really works best that way. He doesn't have to be a teenager, but he certainly should be no older than, say, twenty-five. Do I think that Pete should never marry? Not necessarily. Did I think that Pete and Mary Jane were right for each other? Oh, lord, no!
I realize there are those who disagree. But…remember the TV show
Cheers? Remember the characters of Sam Malone and Diane Chambers? There were two people who shared an intense physical attraction, but who were otherwise like water and oil. And yet, there were viewers who thought they were right for each other, who wanted to see them as a married couple. But Sam and Diane as a couple would have been a huge mistake. And I look on Pete and MJ in the same way.
See, the marriage works only if you ignore who both Pete and Mary Jane were…and that's more or less what happened. MJ was never the "Girl Next Door." Mary Jane, as she'd been established prior to the wedding, was the Party Girl who would never settle down…or, at the very least, not before she turned thirty. Or forty! She was Pete's ex-girlfriend, someone who would breeze into his life long enough to turn it upside down and then breeze out again. Sure, there was great affection between the two of them -- MJ was often nicer to Pete than Gwen was -- but it wasn't the sort of relationship that would make for a good marriage.
I'm not saying that characters shouldn't evolve or progress through their stories. But I don't think that Pete and Mary Jane as a married couple was progress. I always saw it as a major deviation from who they were.
So I personally think the dissolution of the marriage restores something about Spider-Man that had been lost to us for far too long.
THE PULSE: When you had the chance to work on the series now, how did you decide the story to tell?
STERN: Oh, that part was easy. See, when I was originally writing AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, I had devised a new villain that I'd planned to introduce into the series. When I left the book, I eventually wound up using this villain in a different series -- and it turned out that no one had used him since. The story all grew from that. And you know what? He makes a pretty good Spider-Man villain, if I do say so myself.
THE PULSE: How did you want the story to be different from what has gone before?
STERN: I always look on stories as the next chapter in the hero's life. And I've always tried to avoid using the same villains that Spider-Man had fought a dozen times before... unless I can think of something new to do with them, in which case, full speed ahead!
The fact that this story involves a new adversary -- at least as far as Spider-Man's concerned -- sort of turns things up to eleven.
"Hi, Spider-Man! Here's someone you've never met before. And in his own way, he's as weird as you are! Good luck!" [Laughs] THE PULSE: When you revisit characters you haven't worked on in a while, how do you ensure you're not repeating yourself? How do you make sure it stays fresh and new?
STERN: Well, just being away from a series for a while helped give me a fresh outlook on things. And working on the story with Lee Weeks gave me an opportunity to view Spider-Man's world through another new series of eyes. We've both worked on Spider-Man stories before, but this was our first opportunity to work together. And I have to say, it's big fun! Lee is so damn talented, and a great visual storyteller.
THE PULSE: Your story in issue #580 is called "Fill In The Blank." What blank are you filling in here? What's Spider-Man up against?
STERN: "Fill in the Blank" is a play on words. There are multiple meanings to the phrase, and -- as with the game show
Jeopardy -- there's a hidden clue. (Ain't I a stinker?) Spider-Man is facing a man with no face…a bulletproof bank robber who can slip right through Our Hero's fingers. Spider-Man is not happy about this.
THE PULSE: When you were younger and writing Spider-Man what was it about him that you could relate to the most?
STERN: You mean aside from the fact that I shared a slight physical resemblance to his alter ego while in high school? [
Laughs] I mostly related to Spider-Man through Peter Parker. I had been a science wiz in high school, though I was never in the same league as Pete. And, of course, I was never bitten by a radioactive spider. Just the occasional mosquito.
But we both drifted away from science into media. And while I never had to face the life-or-death challenges Pete did, he tended to face a lot of the same kind of mundane stuff I did: paying bills, finding time to do laundry, dealing with everyday, down-to-earth annoyances. At one point, we were both single guys in our twenties, living in New York City. Pete's release from the mundane was swinging around town as Spider-Man. And my release was writing about him swinging around town as Spider-Man.
THE PULSE: Now, with a few more years under your belt (so to speak), what are some of the elements that you find relatable the most?
STERN: Well, our lives have gone off in different directions…I'm married now. (I found a much better bride than Pete did!) I don't live in the city anymore, and I have some white in my beard. But I'm otherwise still me. And Parker still reminds me of the way I felt at twenty-five. I haven’t forgotten that feeling. I'm still the same…it's just that someone keeps going around replacing mirrors with pictures of this older guy. [
Laughs]
THE PULSE: A lot of people look to Spider-Man and Peter Parker as the everyman of heroes.
STERN: That really depends upon how you're defining "everyman." Sure, given Spider-Man's full head mask and body suit, it could be anyone in that costume…anyone of appropriate build. And given the lousy things that happen to him -- usually at the worst possible moments in his life -- well, that's something everyone can relate to. Plus, there's the fact that he got his powers by accident. Don't we all sometimes feel as though we are stumbling through life, from one accident to another?
And within the super-hero community, Spider-Man is something of an everyman; his strength is pretty average when stacked up against Thor or the Hulk or the Thing. And when you consider speed and agility, Spider-Man certainly has his rivals. There've even been other heroes who could stick to walls for that matter.
But in the sense that an everyman is a typical, ordinary, average person -- then, no, Peter Parker was never an "everyman." Really, he was exceptional, even before he became Spider-Man. Don't forget, Peter was the smart guy in his class. How many of us could have invented web-shooters at age 15? Anyone? I didn't think so.
See, an underlying theme of the Spider-Man series is that intelligence by itself is not enough to insure success in life. A lot depends upon luck and good timing. I see Spider-Man as more of an offbeat hero than an everyman. He's the guy with the weird powers who skitters around on the ceiling, who makes fun of his enemies to their faces --
and gets away with it! That's one of the greatest power fantasies of all.
THE PULSE: That aside, why do you think this character has lasted since inception, while others have had a rougher go of it?
STERN: It's because Spider-Man is unique among super-heroes. It's like
Stan Lee wrote back in issue #1, "There's never been a hero like Spider-Man!" No other character combines all those offbeat powers with the humor and the angst that you find in Spider-Man. He is fun and appealing and tragic all at the same time…and we can empathize with him, even identify with him, if just a little…
THE PULSE: Did you ever have a woman in your life like Aunt May? I think she's one of the every "old" woman's of comics....
STERN: Not exactly. I have the World's Best Mom -- and had a wonderful grandmother and many great teachers. I suppose they've all had some effect on how I see Aunt May.
May Parker is such a wonderful character. In many ways, she's the heart and soul of the series. After all, she's the only mother Pete really knew.
THE PULSE: You've worked on a lot of different comic characters in your career so far, who haven't you had a chance to write yet, but would like to?
STERN: Oh, dozens at least. But I'll just use up all your bandwidth if I start to name them all.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?
STERN: Over the past couple of years (yes, I said years) I collaborated with
Kurt Busiek on the issues of MARVELS: EYE OF THE CAMERA that will start appearing in January.
And
Lee Weeks and I will be producing some more SPIDER-MAN stories in the New Year. We hope you'll all come along for the ride.
Amazing Spider-Man # 580 is due in stores this December from
Marvel Comics. PULSE readers can learn more about it here:
http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=10448
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