Jonathan Ross finally reveals some of his conversation with Steve Ditko

It starts at about 30 minutes into this rather excellent podcast. Here's a little excerpt where Ross starts talking about Steve Ditko's interpretation of a Spider-Man that thrives as a teenage boy, and diverging into his own opinion about a certain controversial topic:

Jonathan Ross: "If you look at what Marvel's doing with Spider-Man now of course, in the long run, he was proved right, because as soon as he became an adult - kids, and that's primarily who those books were aimed at, couldn't associate with him in any way. Y'know, I don't think any teenagers wanted to pick up Spider-Man and read about the problems he was having with his wife Mary Jane! Why do you want to read about a married superhero? Why did they let him get married, it was about the dumbest thing they ever did! Y'know, obviously I'm saying that with the benefit of hindsight, but it was stupid. I remember seeing the cover, Spider-Man gets married, I thought - oh please, for god's sake what's wrong with you."

He also says Ditko told him Spider-Man was meant to be purple and orange, instead of red and blue! I wonder if the character would still have taken off the way it did.

How Roger Stern took five panels and 26 years to tell a story

The above panels are from Amazing Spider-Man #238, dated March 1983, written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Romita Jr, introducing an aspect of Aunt May's backstory that was quite literally NEVER AGAIN referred to...

...until last month's Amazing Spider-Man Family #7, written by Roger Stern and drawn by Val Semeiks:



Which not only explains that 26-year-old throwaway line, but also Aunt May's heart condition and her dedication to fostering the young Peter Parker!

The Spectacular Spider-Man season two

Dunno when this starts but information for the episodes has been released. Unfortunately it's absolutely riddled with spoilers (really awful ones like the development of Peter's love life in lengthy detail) - so I'm reproducing them here with the really bad spoilers cut out. Word of warning though, it still includes spoilers for the end of season one, so if you haven't seen that yet, stop reading now!

If you really want to see the full descriptions (I recommend against this) they are here.

14 – Blueprints
It’s early December, and the first snow is falling. PETER PARKER has a long “To Do” list – leading off with talking to GWEN STACY about their surprise first kiss. But before he gets the chance, SPIDER-MAN has a run in with the sorcerer MYSTERIO.

15 - Destructive Testing
SPOILER CUT! Meanwhile, KRAVEN THE HUNTER has come to New York to make SPIDER-MAN his prey!

16 - Reinforcement
As Christmas approaches, the SINISTER SIX reconstitutes with SANDMAN, RHINO, VULTURE, ELECTRO and new members MYSTERIO and KRAVEN. All they want for Christmas is SPIDER-MAN – dead. SPOILER CUT!

17 - Shear Strength
It’s New Year’s Eve, and all is not right with world. The MASTER PLANNER and his henchmen are literally planning to take over the world! A highly motivated SPIDER-MAN takes the fight to the Planner’s secret lair. But once he gets there, can he survive?

18 - First Steps
School’s back in session, and things have changed. SPOILER CUT! Meanwhile, SPIDER-MAN has to party with SANDMAN, who’s once again looking to make his Big Score. And is that VENOM disappearing into the night?

19 - Growing Pains
VENOM is back and framing SPIDER-MAN. Meanwhile, alien spores infect JOHN JAMESON, increasing his size, strength and mass. J. JONAH JAMESON convinces his son to become a super-hero to capture Spidey…

20 - Identity Crisis
SPOILER CUT! VENOM, SPOILER CUT!

21 - Accomplices
A gang war looms as SILVER SABLE, HAMMERHEAD and DOCTOR OCTOPUS vie for a prize that could change the balance of power in the New York Underworld…

22 - Probable Cause
Some days, PETER PARKER just can’t win… especially when he winds up on a MIDTOWN HIGH police car ride-along with SALLY AVRIL. As SPIDER-MAN, his luck isn’t any better, facing off against SHOCKER, RICOCHET and OX, i.e. the NEW ENFORCERS.

23 - Gangland
SPOILER CUT! TOMBSTONE , DOCTOR OCTOPUS and SILVERMANE call a Valentine’s Day Summit . But SPOILER CUT! the summit erupts into a gang war – one only SPIDER-MAN can stop!

24 - Subtext
SPOILER CUT! MARK ALLAN. But when GREEN GOBLIN blackmails Mark into doing his bidding, neither LIZ ALLAN, MARY JANE WATSON nor SPIDER-MAN may be able to save him!

25 - Opening Night
To test security at the VAULT, SPIDER-MAN volunteers to try to escape. But the GREEN GOBLIN has other ideas, trapping Spidey inside RYKER’S amid a sea of felons he put away.

26 - Final Curtain
SPOILER CUT! GREEN GOBLIN SPOILER CUT!

Spider-Girl is cancelled again! But not really...

I'm getting nostalgic. We haven't had one of these for a while! From Tom DeFalco...

All good things come to an end and that includes AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL.

I was informed earlier this week that our last issue will be AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #30.

On the good news front, there is talk that Spider-Girl will become a regular 16-paged feature in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY. (I've been told conflicting things about MR & MRS so I don't know if that feature will continue.)

To those who predicted that SPIDER-GIRL would never last, you were right. (You were off by a little over 11 years, but you were right.)

I'll give you guys more news as I hear it.

Meanwhile, on Tom Brevoort's blog:

I’m not sure whether we’re going to be offering a subscription to FAMILY just yet, but we’ve been talking about the possibility of having the book come out monthly, and if that were to happen, the odds for it getting a subscription push would improve.

So I presume the idea here is to get the readers who were paying $2.99 a month for Spider-Girl to move over to Amazing Spider-Man Family and pay $4.99 a month for a slightly shorter version of the same thing (plus other Spider-Man material).

Overall it's a smart way of resolving the "Spider-Girl dilemma": a choice between publishing this unprofitable book every month or risking a small internet community going into a massive sulk. (Mind you, having gone through last year's reaction to ONE MORE DAY, that probably isn't high on their list of concerns any more.)

(NB. Spider-Girl was relaunched as "Amazing Spider-Girl" after #100, so the title has actually run a whopping 130 issues. It's never been a big hit, has always languished at the bottom of the charts, and been announced as cancelled at least three times before - but revived every time, usually in light of a heated internet-based fan campaign.)

Doctor Octopus had a little accident in his soup bowl