Oh c’mon! Everybody enjoys a good pun, and you know you felt a thrill of wordplay-based excitement race down your spine as you read that title. Frankly, I don’t know why we aren’t all punching the air right now in glee.
Dan Slott, who nowadays lives mainly in Spider-Editor Steve Wacker’s dungeon and is only allowed to see natural light once every three months, has been hinting for a while that issue #700 of Amazing Spider-Man will see a momentus moment happen, and so has now started to build up momentum for his momentus moment, as you’ll learn momentarily. After the current battle with lizard which connects over to the release of the Amazing Spider-Man movie, Marvel have revealed that Slott’s next arc on the title will be ‘Alpha’.
In this story, Peter Parker – who is nowadays a scientist, specialising in cycle helmets and inadvertent weaponry – will give a tour to a group of young high-schoolers, who are excited to see his lab. But oh no! Due to the ever-dangerous nature of science, something will go wrong and a young boy called Andy MacGuire will be zapped by SCIENCE RAYS. These rays will give him great power, much like science gave to Peter all those years ago. Were we ever so young?
…Knowing that with great power comes something or other, Peter will take the young Mac under his, uh, web-wings, and try to teach him how to become a responsible superhero in his own right. Titling himself Alpha, Andy will apparently become Spider-Man’s sidekick, for better or worse.
Drawn by Humberto Ramos, this arc will see everything go really smoothly. Or! Andy will prove a liability. One of the two. At any rate, things are certainly escalating as we head towards issue #700…
If they actually refer to him as a Spide-Kick…I’ll buy the issue.
My prediction is that in #700, Spider-Man and Alpha will get gay-married. It’s good for sales, right? ;)
I guess that since he’s so generic and forgettable he won’t need a mask.
Of course, becoming mentor to a teen hero in no way ages Peter Parker. Marriage ages you, but not the assumption of a paternal role.
It’s a bit ironic that Marvels teenage hero that was created because of the the popularity of DCs teenage sidekick (Robin), is now getting his own sidekick.
I’m really hoping that all these announcements are just a smoke screen for the actual event …
Please just announce the reboot already.
I’m assuming this goes badly for Peter and the kid, maybe not at first but I know this is just going to end really badly. I have faith is Dan Slott. (mostly)
Spider-Man was hardly made a teenager “because of Robin’s popularity”.
Prediction: in ten years, comic bloggers will be posting “Remember Alpha? ha ha” pieces.
Deciding to become a crime-fighter while young is related to trauma. Parents, uncles, siblings killed by a criminal; the survivor vows to seek vengeance, and a teenager is old enough, sort of, to seek it. One of the problems with writing superheroes for adults, unfortunately, is that becoming a masked crime-fighter isn’t rational. Becoming a drug dealer can be: if cold-blooded calculation shows that the rewards exceed the risks, there’s a lot of money to be made. The crime-fighter, though, doesn’t gain much except a sense of satisfaction.
SRS
The problems with establishing the hero’s origin and motivations are reasons why it might be better, if someone wants to write superhero stories, to do WFH stories at Marvel or DC instead of creating your own characters. There’s no need to detail the origins and motivations of the Avengers, Iron Man, or another hero. Just focus on the menace and the implications. If the menace, tactics, and strategy make sense, the troublesome aspects of the hero can be skipped or minimized.
SRS
hahaha! Whats next a Spider-God? Lets have a blue Spider-Man, a Red Spider-Man, a Green Spider-Man too while we are ad it. I quite Spider-Man (my 2nd favorite hero since I was 6, am now 36) for about 5 years after that terrible Clone saga in the late 90’s, early 2000’s. Dark Spidey times…Came back for Brand New Day which was cool at first, but very inconsistent….alot of good and bad stories. I am honestly hoping spider-man #700 is back to normal with Mary Jane and all….had enough of this current format thank you. Also lets bring back some of the classic villans/friends and stop turning them all into Ironman or gods. (Doc Oc, Electro, Scorpion, there are what 3 venoms now?, etc)…..still cant believe it, a spide-kick! Anyone else up for that?
Nonono- In a shocking display of inter-company meta-fiction, Peter Parker becomes the new “alpha” of Top Cow, stepping into their newly opened publisher’s position. Does he have publishing experience? Of course not, but his life experience as a comic book hero more than makes up for it.
In a related story, Marc Silvestri is announced as new director for Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark.