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seriousficI know what you’re thinking. How could any man hope to improve on an instant classic like OMD? Well, what can I say, I’m egotistical.
So let’s start off where OMD began. Peter and MJ are on the run, Aunt May has been hospitalized from being shot. There’s a medical procedure that can save her, but it’s very expensive and very risky. Peter can’t have it done on the run. Swallowing his pride, Peter goes to Tony and (after the mandatory fight) cuts a deal. He goes to work for SHIELD if Tony sees to the operation. Tony gives his word and we’re off.
Naturally, there’s a press conference for Peter to sign his name into the SHRA. Peter is about to do it when who should show up but… Spider-Man? He calls Peter an impostor and webs him up, generally makes an (endearing) ass of himself on the pro-regs’ time, then makes his escape. The bureaucrats are incensed, but whoops, Tony’s already seen to it that Aunt May is getting the operation.
So Peter being Spider-Man is foggy (it doesn’t help that wherever Peter goes, there are reports of Spider-Man busting up crime). Naturally, Peter is suspicious of this new, if benevolent, Spider-Man and after pulling the ol’ “dress up as Daredevil” trick (for some fun Shakespeare comedy, we could mix all these switcheroos up and have some thugs looking for Daredevil while others are looking for Spider-Man), confronts him. After an endearingly awkward fight -- the new Spider-Man isn’t that good with his webshooters, and is a little starstruck -- Peter figures out the new Spidey’s identity. It’s just a kid. We’ll call him Nick, although there’s no reason he can’t be Miguel or Abdul or whatever.
So we get the new Spider-Man’s (we’ll call him Spider-Boy from here on out, for lack of a better name) backstory. Basically, it’s Peter’s backstory. He got bitten by a radioactive spider, but for some reason it really went to work on him. He’s stronger and faster than Peter, who can just barely keep up with his post-Other powers, and possibly his webshooters are organic, if anyone even cares anymore. But his spider-sense is wonky (just so we can head off any complaints about the spider-sense whenever the story requires that Spider-Boy gets jumped) and he lacks Peter’s experience.
As for Nick’s characterization, I’d want to avoid the clichés of him being edgy and broody or snotty. Less Jason Todd, more Jaime Reyes. He’s about 17, and Peter is chagrined to find out he’s not unpopular, more of a class clown. From here we can add on parent(s), siblings, girlfriend, boyfriend(?), and so on as necessary.
Oh, and if someone feels the need to throw in some spider-totem stuff about Nick being Anansi’s new cabana boy, why not? That stuff might as well have a point.
So basically Peter is cleared of being Spider-Man and plays it off as a giant hoax (his long years of experience fighting Mysterio makes this easy. “What about the time we saw you jump thirty feet?” “Oh, that was just hidden wires.”). And of course, he has a keen interest in this new Spider-Boy, who he winds up as a sort of reluctant mentor to. That’s worth a few years’ of stories at least (since we wouldn’t want to rush the overall plot), especially when Peter becomes a teacher at Nick’s school to keep a closer eye on him. Fairly early on, Nick should figure out Peter’s secret ID or get a warm welcome, so we can get to the scenes of Nick eating pizza with Peter and MJ that tend to make us fall in love with a character. Whatever we do, we shouldn't play this as too big a mystery. Get Nick's secret out and clear the air as soon as possible, so we can stop worrying he's some villainous plot or supervillain in training.
Now the endgame here is for Nick to replace Peter, in the same way that Wally West replaced Barry Allen, or Kyle Raynor replaced Hal Jordan (uhh…). I know that the Clone Saga did the same thing with Ben Reilly, but I think it’ll work better here because—
A. This isn’t the Clone Saga.
B. We’re not saying that Nick is the “real” Spider-Man and the Spider-Man we’ve been following for the last couple decades is just a clone.
To illustrate, imagine that when the Matt Smith showed up on Doctor Who, he said he was really the NINTH Doctor. Eccleston and Tennant were just a deluded Time Lord claiming to be the Doctor. Contrast that with the reaction he’s getting since we know that Smith will be the Eleventh Doctor. Same deal.
So Nick, while ideally in possession of a personality, is a good kid. He fanboys superheroes a little like other kids fanboy sports heroes, he makes mistakes that require Peter to bail his fat out of the fire (mistakes attributable to him being a 17-year-old kid, natch). Plainly speaking, with the talent that DID work on BND, making a new character likable should be easy as pie for them.
After two years or so, Nick graduates from high school and Peter’s feud with Norman Osborn comes to a head. Norman reaps some just desserts and Peter recovers baby May, now about five-years-old… at that cute Lian Harper/Sin age. While all this has going on (as if we need any more stories to tell with all this mentoring and Dark Side feuding going on), Mary-Jane’s gotten a role in a Broadway play that’s really taken off. She’s asked to take the lead on the road, which would basically solidify her career. One of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Peter is somewhat aghast. They just got their family back together and now she’s going on a road trip?
Eventually, they work out a solution. Nick will take over as Spider-Man while Peter and Baby May go on tour with MJ. Think of this as an experiment. If it does work and readers take to Nick as Spider-Man, then Peter and MJ find a nice town to settle down in and decide to stay there. If it doesn’t work, Peter comes back and reclaims his mantle, no harm no foul, and we’ve added avaluable character to the mythos victim to the next companywide crossover.
We can, of course, have a story every once in a while about Peter and MJ in a new town, doing the Ralph and Sue Dibny thing. “Sue, my nose is twitching MJ, my spider-sense is tingling!”
Now let’s pause a moment and think about what we’d lose by replacing Peter.
Aunt May – This is easy enough to remedy by having her stay in New York (with Jarvis, in case that needs any justification). Nick can basically act as a surrogate son to her, so we can keep that dynamic in place while still having Nick conceal his identity from his parent(s). So we can keep the great character JMS turned her into, but will use his biological parents for the "eek, it's that wretched Spider-Man!" stuff if necessary.
The Daily Bugle – Since the goal of BND was to make Peter younger and more relatable, why not chalk the photographer angle once and for all? Print is dead, after all. We can give Nick a new job as, say, a blogger who recounts superhero fights. Of course, it helps that he’s usually part of those superhero fights. He can have a column on the Bugle’s website, much like Julie Powell had a blog on Salon.com. If that was worth an entire movie, surely this is relatable enough.
Black Cat – Never get rid of something you can’t replace with something better, or at least novel. The Peter/Felicia flirtation has run its course, storywise, since we know it’s never going to happen. Let’s reimagine her as an “older sister” to Nick (neither of them live down the time Nick calls her a MILF upon their first meeting) who has lots of casual sex with cute boys and girls but isn’t looking for a relationship. Sex-positive!
Johnny Storm, Daredevil, and the rest – Yes, it hurts to lose these friendships, but we can still have Peter back in town to get a beer with them. However, we can replace these by having Nick be a contemporary with the Young Avengers, the Runaways, and the New X-Men, all characters that have big fandoms among the younger readers, something Peter Parker could never do. And, of course, imagine the laughs of Nick looking to Johnny Storm as part of the old guard!
Captain America and Iron Man – I fail to see how a 17-year-old kid would interact any differently with Steve and Tony, as shown in the New Avengers stories, than Peter Parker did. Zing!
The Rogues – Let’s face it, wiping the slate clean could only help their standing as threats. Most of the villains have become little more than jokes to Spider-Man, to the point where his aunt and wife can take them out. Having a newbie whose clock they could clean would help out immensely. Except for…
Norman Osborn – As I said, I’d kill him off before his continued existence becomes as ridiculous as the Joker's in any given Batman story. If we ever need a megalomaniacal mastermind Goblin, there is a certain character known as Roderick Kingsley just waiting to be turned loose.
Otherwise, since BND introduced a new supporting cast and new villains anyway, why not have us associate them with the new Spider-Man, and thus not beg a comparison with the old cast?
So voila, we have a new Spider-Man who’s young, single, and more relatable, but we can still bring back the old Spider-Man without much fuss whenever, for a quick cameo or something more permanent. In the meantime, there are hundreds of new stories we can tell. And if Nick does have to step aside, we can always give him his own title and make still more money.
No magic required.
ETA: Another nifty thing is that this Spider-Boy could serve as a gateway into the Marvel universe, asking questions about this villain or that hero and getting the 411 from Spidey (and who better to narrate 616 history?) Easy, easy, EASY audience identification character.
So let’s start off where OMD began. Peter and MJ are on the run, Aunt May has been hospitalized from being shot. There’s a medical procedure that can save her, but it’s very expensive and very risky. Peter can’t have it done on the run. Swallowing his pride, Peter goes to Tony and (after the mandatory fight) cuts a deal. He goes to work for SHIELD if Tony sees to the operation. Tony gives his word and we’re off.
Naturally, there’s a press conference for Peter to sign his name into the SHRA. Peter is about to do it when who should show up but… Spider-Man? He calls Peter an impostor and webs him up, generally makes an (endearing) ass of himself on the pro-regs’ time, then makes his escape. The bureaucrats are incensed, but whoops, Tony’s already seen to it that Aunt May is getting the operation.
So Peter being Spider-Man is foggy (it doesn’t help that wherever Peter goes, there are reports of Spider-Man busting up crime). Naturally, Peter is suspicious of this new, if benevolent, Spider-Man and after pulling the ol’ “dress up as Daredevil” trick (for some fun Shakespeare comedy, we could mix all these switcheroos up and have some thugs looking for Daredevil while others are looking for Spider-Man), confronts him. After an endearingly awkward fight -- the new Spider-Man isn’t that good with his webshooters, and is a little starstruck -- Peter figures out the new Spidey’s identity. It’s just a kid. We’ll call him Nick, although there’s no reason he can’t be Miguel or Abdul or whatever.
So we get the new Spider-Man’s (we’ll call him Spider-Boy from here on out, for lack of a better name) backstory. Basically, it’s Peter’s backstory. He got bitten by a radioactive spider, but for some reason it really went to work on him. He’s stronger and faster than Peter, who can just barely keep up with his post-Other powers, and possibly his webshooters are organic, if anyone even cares anymore. But his spider-sense is wonky (just so we can head off any complaints about the spider-sense whenever the story requires that Spider-Boy gets jumped) and he lacks Peter’s experience.
As for Nick’s characterization, I’d want to avoid the clichés of him being edgy and broody or snotty. Less Jason Todd, more Jaime Reyes. He’s about 17, and Peter is chagrined to find out he’s not unpopular, more of a class clown. From here we can add on parent(s), siblings, girlfriend, boyfriend(?), and so on as necessary.
Oh, and if someone feels the need to throw in some spider-totem stuff about Nick being Anansi’s new cabana boy, why not? That stuff might as well have a point.
So basically Peter is cleared of being Spider-Man and plays it off as a giant hoax (his long years of experience fighting Mysterio makes this easy. “What about the time we saw you jump thirty feet?” “Oh, that was just hidden wires.”). And of course, he has a keen interest in this new Spider-Boy, who he winds up as a sort of reluctant mentor to. That’s worth a few years’ of stories at least (since we wouldn’t want to rush the overall plot), especially when Peter becomes a teacher at Nick’s school to keep a closer eye on him. Fairly early on, Nick should figure out Peter’s secret ID or get a warm welcome, so we can get to the scenes of Nick eating pizza with Peter and MJ that tend to make us fall in love with a character. Whatever we do, we shouldn't play this as too big a mystery. Get Nick's secret out and clear the air as soon as possible, so we can stop worrying he's some villainous plot or supervillain in training.
Now the endgame here is for Nick to replace Peter, in the same way that Wally West replaced Barry Allen, or Kyle Raynor replaced Hal Jordan (uhh…). I know that the Clone Saga did the same thing with Ben Reilly, but I think it’ll work better here because—
A. This isn’t the Clone Saga.
B. We’re not saying that Nick is the “real” Spider-Man and the Spider-Man we’ve been following for the last couple decades is just a clone.
To illustrate, imagine that when the Matt Smith showed up on Doctor Who, he said he was really the NINTH Doctor. Eccleston and Tennant were just a deluded Time Lord claiming to be the Doctor. Contrast that with the reaction he’s getting since we know that Smith will be the Eleventh Doctor. Same deal.
So Nick, while ideally in possession of a personality, is a good kid. He fanboys superheroes a little like other kids fanboy sports heroes, he makes mistakes that require Peter to bail his fat out of the fire (mistakes attributable to him being a 17-year-old kid, natch). Plainly speaking, with the talent that DID work on BND, making a new character likable should be easy as pie for them.
After two years or so, Nick graduates from high school and Peter’s feud with Norman Osborn comes to a head. Norman reaps some just desserts and Peter recovers baby May, now about five-years-old… at that cute Lian Harper/Sin age. While all this has going on (as if we need any more stories to tell with all this mentoring and Dark Side feuding going on), Mary-Jane’s gotten a role in a Broadway play that’s really taken off. She’s asked to take the lead on the road, which would basically solidify her career. One of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Peter is somewhat aghast. They just got their family back together and now she’s going on a road trip?
Eventually, they work out a solution. Nick will take over as Spider-Man while Peter and Baby May go on tour with MJ. Think of this as an experiment. If it does work and readers take to Nick as Spider-Man, then Peter and MJ find a nice town to settle down in and decide to stay there. If it doesn’t work, Peter comes back and reclaims his mantle, no harm no foul, and we’ve added a
We can, of course, have a story every once in a while about Peter and MJ in a new town, doing the Ralph and Sue Dibny thing. “
Now let’s pause a moment and think about what we’d lose by replacing Peter.
Aunt May – This is easy enough to remedy by having her stay in New York (with Jarvis, in case that needs any justification). Nick can basically act as a surrogate son to her, so we can keep that dynamic in place while still having Nick conceal his identity from his parent(s). So we can keep the great character JMS turned her into, but will use his biological parents for the "eek, it's that wretched Spider-Man!" stuff if necessary.
The Daily Bugle – Since the goal of BND was to make Peter younger and more relatable, why not chalk the photographer angle once and for all? Print is dead, after all. We can give Nick a new job as, say, a blogger who recounts superhero fights. Of course, it helps that he’s usually part of those superhero fights. He can have a column on the Bugle’s website, much like Julie Powell had a blog on Salon.com. If that was worth an entire movie, surely this is relatable enough.
Black Cat – Never get rid of something you can’t replace with something better, or at least novel. The Peter/Felicia flirtation has run its course, storywise, since we know it’s never going to happen. Let’s reimagine her as an “older sister” to Nick (neither of them live down the time Nick calls her a MILF upon their first meeting) who has lots of casual sex with cute boys and girls but isn’t looking for a relationship. Sex-positive!
Johnny Storm, Daredevil, and the rest – Yes, it hurts to lose these friendships, but we can still have Peter back in town to get a beer with them. However, we can replace these by having Nick be a contemporary with the Young Avengers, the Runaways, and the New X-Men, all characters that have big fandoms among the younger readers, something Peter Parker could never do. And, of course, imagine the laughs of Nick looking to Johnny Storm as part of the old guard!
Captain America and Iron Man – I fail to see how a 17-year-old kid would interact any differently with Steve and Tony, as shown in the New Avengers stories, than Peter Parker did. Zing!
The Rogues – Let’s face it, wiping the slate clean could only help their standing as threats. Most of the villains have become little more than jokes to Spider-Man, to the point where his aunt and wife can take them out. Having a newbie whose clock they could clean would help out immensely. Except for…
Norman Osborn – As I said, I’d kill him off before his continued existence becomes as ridiculous as the Joker's in any given Batman story. If we ever need a megalomaniacal mastermind Goblin, there is a certain character known as Roderick Kingsley just waiting to be turned loose.
Otherwise, since BND introduced a new supporting cast and new villains anyway, why not have us associate them with the new Spider-Man, and thus not beg a comparison with the old cast?
So voila, we have a new Spider-Man who’s young, single, and more relatable, but we can still bring back the old Spider-Man without much fuss whenever, for a quick cameo or something more permanent. In the meantime, there are hundreds of new stories we can tell. And if Nick does have to step aside, we can always give him his own title and make still more money.
No magic required.
ETA: Another nifty thing is that this Spider-Boy could serve as a gateway into the Marvel universe, asking questions about this villain or that hero and getting the 411 from Spidey (and who better to narrate 616 history?) Easy, easy, EASY audience identification character.
