Amazing Spider-Man #698 caused quite a stir with fans when it was revealed that Doctor Octopus has taken over the body of Peter Parker, leaving Spidey trapped in Octavius' dying form. Whether or not this means he will be January's Superior Spider-Man remains to be seen, but readers are anxiously awaiting the release of issues #699 and #700 to find out more. Talking to Newsarama recently, series writer Dan Slott has discussed everything from that big twist to the story being spoiled online before release, and much more besides. Below are a selection of highlights, but be sure to click on the link below to read the interview in full.
On Building Up To The Big Twist In Amazing Spider-Man #698: I can now let you know: We have been playing the long game. Amazing Spider-Man #698 is the magic trick. #699 is when we flip over all the cards. What you are going to see is, boy have we played a very long game. It's not a stunt. It's not a gimmick. It's not something we threw together slapdash at the last minute for Marvel NOW!. This has been something long in the making. You will see that all of the puzzle pieces leading up to this story have started back as far as Amazing Spider-Man #600, and every time we've seen Doc Ock, we've gotten a little closer.
On The Initial Reaction From Fans: I have said over and over again that after #700 comes out, I'm going into the bunker. I'm doing a signing for Midtown Comics for #700, but they have promised me bodyguards and a Popemobile. I've taken perverse pleasure in retweeting some of the more insane stuff, but to be honest, most of the stuff that's been coming in on my Twitter has been really positive. But it's kind of fun to take the most crazy-town-banana-pants stuff and put it up there. #698 is the end of the prelude, and the hero's been left in a very terrible predicament, with insurmountable odds. You know, I've never seen that happened in a cliffhanger before! I like all these people going, "Brain swap? Boo!" And you're like, "OK. The next time I see a bank heist in a comic, I'll be sure you attack that with equal vigor." Never seen that before.
On The Significance Of Doctor Octopus Having Peter Parker's Memories: This guy can go right into Avengers Tower and punch in every single secret code. You always have that scene where someone's pretending to be something they're not, and then their friend goes, "That reminds me of our adventures in Budapest." The person goes, "Ah, yes, Budapest," and the other person turns around and goes — "We were never in Budapest!" Forget that. That's out the window. He has access to all of Peter Parker and Spider-Man's memories, so there will be none of that.
On Being Careful Not To Reveal The Secret Too Soon In Issue #698: We actually hemmed and hawed over lines — how much were we going to tip our hands? At what point do we give it away? The original line for that page was, "Peter, come visit your aunt in the hospital," and when he was putting on the tie, he was going to go, "When is that woman not in the hospital?" Then you looked at it, and you went, "Wow, that's too harsh." We thought about it again — we thought about that story where they were going to get married, and he has feelings for Aunt May, so why not "That dear sweet woman." That hit it right. It's just weird enough that you kind of go, "Man, they're not getting Peter's voice right this issue," but not weird enough that all the alarm bells go off. That was kind of tricky.
On The Story Being Spoiled Before Release On The Internet: It was frustrating. It's not about how much the book sells, because if anything, that's going to help move more copies. If you're looking at it from a greedy point of view, that's going to get the word out there faster on the Internet that, "Oh my god, this issue is important, you better go out and buy it." People complain, "Marvel's just going to put up a news story on the day." "Marvel's going to spoil it, so why can't we?" And we didn't! We worked so hard. I drove people at Marvel nuts, saying, "Let's really try to get this out there, and have people experience it on the page." And everybody at Marvel worked so hard at that. We did everything we could to have it be a surprise for the readers.
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