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Tuesday Q&A: Mark Waid

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Tuesday Q&A: Mark Waid

The acclaimed writer dives deeper into the world of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Posted Dec 23, 2008 12:00 am
Updated Dec 30, 2008 11:10 am
By Kiel Phegley The Brand New Day of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN provides the perfect playground for writer Mark Waid. And why wouldn't it? After years of bringing modern storytelling mastery to the most iconic Marvel books like CAPTAIN AMERICA and FANTASTIC FOUR, Waid feels right at home with a sarcastic, swinging, single Peter Parker. And after a slow opening that included several shorter Spidey tales, the writer swung into the pages of AMAZING in a big way with a two-parter earlier this month featuring classic foe the Shocker, and in January 14's stand-alone "Date Night" issue, Waid and longtime collaborator, artist Barry Kitson, explore the romantic side of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. We caught up with Waid for the word on his history with the Brand New Day braintrust, his growing role in Spider-Man's world and what exactly Dark Reign means for the future of AMAZING.
 

Marvel.com: Mark, I know I've heard a part of how you came to be a part of the Spider-Man braintrust before, but could you tell me exactly how things went down? Mark Waid: It's actually more that [editor Steve] Wacker had been pushing me in that direction since he got to Marvel, which had been very flattering since we'd had such a good working relationship [in the past]. And really what happened is that they were nice enough to bring me in to one of their big Spider-conferences, and I seemed to hit it off okay with everybody, and I had a good time. Marvel.com: It appears that guys like Dan Slott and Marc Guggenheim are working on the really big, sweeping story arcs for the whole series while you get to come in and deliver the old school thrills in terms of an issue here or two issues there… Mark Waid: A little bit. At first, that was the plan, but it's grown a bit—especially since being at the Spider-conference where everybody was very forthcoming with wanting to throw ideas around and I felt like I got a chance to really pitch things out along those lines. Whether I had planned on it or not, I got to be a bigger player in all of this than I had originally planned on, and it's fine. I'm glad to be here. Marvel.com: What was the genesis of your last two-part story arc? Mark Waid: It really kind of started with J. Jonah Jameson, Sr. I knew going in that that was a character I really wanted to work into the story somehow. I was trying to figure out how to finesse that, and I came up with the idea of the Shocker as well and then came up with the nugget of J. Jonah Jameson, Sr. being on a jury duty, a kind of targeted jury duty. From there, I did research on how juries are moved around in Manhattan and what if they have to go to a remote crime scene. That led to the subway, and once I had the subway, I

thought, "That's perfect." It's the least advantageous place for Spider-Man to be because if you have Peter Parker crammed on a subway car during rush hour, you can have his Spider-sense going off until his head explodes, and there's not much he can do about it. He can't move. And conversely, once you're Spider-Man you're down in those dank, dark tunnels and there's no way to see and no place to move around in. It makes for a much fairer fight because Spider-Man's great advantage in street fighting is his agility and his ability to bounce around. Marvel.com: Dan Slott had said to me before that it was easy for him to let Marcos Martin have free reign because he was so good at playing with the spatial elements in a situation and designing a page like that. Similar case for you? Mark Waid: Yeah. With that in mind, sometimes I work full script, and sometimes I work plot first with some rough dialogue. This was definitely a case of going plot first and having some suggested dialogue in there but really letting Marcos breath. Because, come on! He's really, really good. Marvel.com: You've got an issue with Barry Kitson coming up in January. At this point, do you even need to discuss a comic with him before he draws it or are you two of like mind all the way? Mark Waid: It's fun to discuss it, but we really read each other pretty well by now after so many times working together, so it's not an issue at all. It all comes together beautifully. I know his strengths going in. He has an idea of what I'm looking for. I think [I've worked with] Barry more than any other artist that I've worked with. So it's just easier because you know what you're going to get. You know what he likes to draw, which is especially good here because with Barry that's subtle facial stuff. He's very good at expressing a lot of emotions and expression in his characters. The idea was, "He's the perfect artist for the romance issue—the study of Spider-Man in civilian

AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN
#583 cover by
John Romita

clothes, character issue." Marvel.com: And at the same time you get a John Romita, Sr. cover. What was your response when you heard about that? Mark Waid: I was just beside myself. He's my favorite living artist, and I've said so over and over again. What an honor. I've never been able to work with him, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to work with him on an extended basis, although I'd love to. But when Steve Wacker called up and said, "Hey, I think I've got good news. What do you think about this?" I was over the moon. Marvel.com: He draws pretty girls too. Mark Waid: [Laughs] He draws pretty girls. His Peter Parker just looks like how Peter Parker should look to me. And the cover—I don't know if you've seen the final cover and how it's mocked up with copy or not, but it's the copy that makes it work. I'll let you see for yourself. Marvel.com: Moving forward, AMAZING is going to be your only steady gig in the Marvel Universe for a while, but with all the changes coming to the Initiative, are you hoping on using some of your stories to play in the larger sandbox a bit? Mark Waid: I think it was really smart for the first year to keep things [in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN] separate on their own track and help it get its own footing, but now that we're getting into the second year of the mostly-weekly Spider-Man, we're seeing places to play with Dark Reign. And obviously if you have Norman Osborn running the country on a clandestine level, then it becomes a Spider-Man story to a certain extent. It has to be. One of the stories I have coming up in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #592-594 is a three-parter called "24/7" which is in part about Spidey's reaction internally to what's going on. "I knew this guy when he was just Harry's dad, and now he's the king of the world, and I

Norman Osborn

didn't stop it." That's Peter's frame of mind on stuff, whether or not he could stop it or whether it was his responsibility to stop it, that doesn't matter. What matters is that Spider-Man always feels responsible. He thinks, "This is Kingpin all over again. Kingpin was a crime boss I didn't put down, and he ended up being 100 times the menace he was when I first met him. Now Norman Osborn is on the track to do he exact same thing." Mark Waid and Barry Kitson reunite for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 on January 14. You can see more of Mark's work on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. Check out the official Marvel Shop for everything Spider-Man!

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