Dan Slott Unveils "Spider-Verse," Featuring "Every Spider-Man Ever"

This past Friday, Marvel teased "Every Single One" will join Spider-Man for an upcoming story, along with a mostly silhouetted teaser image by Gabriele Dell'Otto -- one that has now been revealed in full.

Marvel divulged the first details of what exactly that teaser was teasing with a "Next Big Thing" press call, headlined by "Amazing Spider-Man" writer Dan Slott and senior editor of the Spidey titles, Nick Lowe. The preview art released by Marvel to accompany the call provided some very strong hints about the upcoming event: The story will start November 2014, it will feature "Every Spider-Man Ever" (including Spider-Man 2099, Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham and the original Scarlet Spider, among others). It also involves Morlun, a villain created by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. during their 2001 "Amazing Spider-Man" run.

The call began with the initial "Spider-Verse" details: Starting in November, Slott and Olivier Coipel are bringing "every Spider-Man from every universe together for the first time." The story kicks off in "Amazing Spider-Man" #9, continuing in that book and other, yet-to-be-revealed titles. The story will be previewed with a five-page back-up story in Marvel's Free Comic Book Day offering this May.

"This is every Spider-Man ever teaming up, or fighting each other," Slott said, adding later that readers will definitely see some "spider-fights." "Some won't get along. It's a Spider-Man story on a scale we have never seen before. Epic in its scope."

"Olivier Coipel is chained to a table drawing as we speak," Lowe said. "You can tell we're serious about it, because he's already working on it. It is incredible. It's huge and mind-boggling."

"The thing is, every Spider-Man ever wasn't enough," Slott added. "We're bringing in even more. New ones that you've never seen before."

Asked about the villain of Spider-Verse, Slott said: "It's someone we haven't seen in spider-titles in a while, but whenever they show up, you're guaranteed a slobberknocker of epic proportions," Slott said, then naming the villain: Morlun, who's "part of an even bigger thing." Lowe called Morlun the "initial antagonist" of the story.

Lowe discusses his affection for Morlun, who he calls a "top 10" Spidey villain. "He always kicks the ? out of Spider-Man, and Spider-Man, I feel like, is never closer to defeat than when he's facing Morlun," Lowe said. "This is the biggest Morlun story you've ever seen."

Teasing the preview FCBD story, Slott said, "There has been a prophecy that every spider shall die." "There is a spider-character in there that will give you a taste of Spider-Verse," Lowe added.

Marvel publicity's Chris D'Lando asks Lowe about moving from the X-books, with their numerous characters, to a story like this with dozens of Spider-Men. "You would think it would worry me that there are more spider-characters in this than there were X-characters in 'Battle of the Atom,' but the thing that gave me no worries was reading things like 'Spider-Island' or 'Goblin Nation,'" Lowe said, praising Slott's skills for balancing large-scale stories with big casts.

Slott named some of the many Spidey characters on the Dell'Otto image: "I see Mangaverse Spider-Man. 'Bullet Points' Spider-Man. I even see a certain Miles from the Ultimate Universe. There are Spider-Men from 'What If?' stories. There's '1602.' There's Spider-Ham! Do I see the MC2 Spider-Girl?" "You're damn right," Lowe answered.

Lowe said there's another cover that's still under wraps, due to the impact the characters on that image will have on the story.

Slott and Lowe both stressed how much Spider-Man story they have planned this year. "Every arc, every story this year, is a bullet in the gun," Slott said. "2015 scares the hell out of me, because we have packed so much into 2014."





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