'Spider-Woman' Team Karla Pacheco & Pere Perez on Spider-Rex, New York City, & More

The spectacular Spider-Month continues apace on Marvel’s Pull List! This week, hosts Ryan Penagos and Jasmine Estrada celebrated Spider-Man’s 60th anniversary by chatting with EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE (2022) creators Karla Pacheco and Pere Perez about their SPIDER-WOMAN (2020) run, the creation of Spider-Rex, Robert Kirkman and Scott Kolins’ MARVEL TEAM-UP (2004) series, and so much more!

On the subject of their SPIDER-WOMAN (2020) run, Pacheco unpacked the minute details that went into the story’s setting and discussed why New York City was such a critical component. “I was really proud of how we incorporated New York into the series, with the fight scenes and everything,” she shared. “I know, for [issue] #13, I literally sent [Perez] a map to show like, ‘Okay, this is where Spider-Woman's apartment is. This is the train that she is going to be on when they're having the subway fight. They run through these blocks to get to the ferry from there, then they're on the ferry over to Jersey. This is the route to Newark from there that the monster truck will take, and then they crash the monster truck into the airport.’”

“It was awesome, because [Perez] did such a great job of finding all of the reference shots. To me, it's like, I love when we can kind of pinpoint that type of stuff, even though I did make you draw a horse being thrown at someone in that issue,” she added with a laugh.

“I feel like all of the stories that are set, especially in New York and especially with the Spider-Man stories, that does tie all in together and really build the rich tapestry that is the Marvel Universe,” she explained. “It's fun, because we've got all these little toys in the toy box that we can pop up at any time.”

Pacheco and Perez also dug into their latest creation, Spider-Rex, who debuted in EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE (2022) #1. Specifically, Pacheco revealed her original – and much darker – plan for Pter Ptarker’s origin (and confirmed how, exactly, to pronounce the character’s name while she was at it). “My original script was for Pter to have woken up having accidentally eaten Uncle Bten in his sleep,” she said. “He had a dream about eating jelly donuts. Don't ask why there were jelly donuts in the Mesozoic period; I would have made at work.”

However, “That was kiboshed quite vehemently by my poor, long-suffering [editor] Nick Lowe. He was like, ‘This is going to be for kids!’ I go, ‘The kids I know love dinosaurs eating people and other dinosaurs! The only way we could make this more popular is if Spider-Rex ate someone and then pooped them out.’ They would find that comedy gold,” she recalled.

“Just for the record, my son prefers the Nick version,” Perez pointed out, to which Pacheco responded, “Okay, that's fine. That's fine. I'm really happy with what we got to do. I think we got a lot of fun and a lot of history into five pages, and I'm pretty delighted with it.”

As to Kirkman and Kolins’ MARVEL TEAM-UP (2004) run, Pacheco and Perez know exactly what makes it work so well for them. “What I like about it is this series, like this run specifically, is the type of thing that I love reading in comics and I love writing in comics, and that is leaving the little trail of breadcrumbs throughout the entire story that's going to lead up to something bigger,” Pacheco shared. “To me, that's one of the greatest strengths of comics. You can kind of do that in TV shows. You can't do it really too much in movies. You can sort of do it in books. But I think it works best in comics, where each issue will just have the one page with Titannus. So everything just starts building up to a greater story, and it does it so well in this. I think that's one of my favorite parts about it.”

“Also, you pick any issue you want and you like it, if you haven't read the previous ones,” Perez agreed. “Everything is sort of self-contained. But at the same time, he's leaving all those breadcrumbs that show up so late in the series that you don't realize you missed the first volume when you were reading.”

“That's the stuff that makes you want to go back and reread it,” Pacheco said. “I was trying to do that with our SPIDER-WOMAN, of leaving those little breadcrumbs so people who go back are like, ‘Ooooh! Now I get it. Now I get it.’ It makes you want to go back and reread it, because it only took you 3 minutes the first time.”

“For me, that's the difference between a good writer and an excellent writer. A good writer shows you how smart he is, and an excellent writer makes you believe that you're the smart one. Kirkman does that perfectly because he gives a lot of information without being too specific. You feel the passing of time without him saying anything. So it may go unnoticed for some readers, but it’s the toughest thing to get,” Perez added.

To meet Pacheco and Perez’s stunning Spider-Rex, check out EGDE OF SPIDER-VERSE (2022) #1, on sale now! And don’t miss their guest appearance on Marvel’s Pull List, available now.

Marvel is celebrating Spider-Man's 60th anniversary all month long! Stay tuned for more Spider-fun right here on Marvel.com.

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