Marvel have announced at The New York Times that director J.J. Abrams (Felicity) and his son Henry are writing a five-issue “Spider-Man” comic. The series, starting this September and illustrated by Sara Pichelli (“Ultimate Comics Spider-Man”) with colorist Dave Stewart (“Hellboy”), will introduce “a new villain, Cadaverous, who will cause problems for Spider-Man, his alter-ego, Peter Parker, and his beloved Mary Jane Watson.”
At the Times, Henry, 20, revealed Marvel editor Nick Lowe had reached out to his father about writing a comic a decade ago. He said, “More recently we began to develop an idea: a new and different and exciting take on Spider-Man.” J.J. added, “Nick had been pressing me to do a book with him. A year or so ago, I started talking about it with Henry and it sort of happened organically. And that has been the joy of this. Even though I’ve been talking to Nick for a long time, weirdly, this feels like it just sort of evolved from the conversations of Henry and I, having ideas that got us excited and Nick being open to the collaboration.”
The comic marks the writing debut of Henry, who has worked as a production assistant on films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Cloverfield Paradox, as well as the art department on Ready Player One. He acknowledged, “Obviously, there is an undeniable privilege here, and I’m not ignorant of that. I think part of creating is creating on your own. My hope and my goal is to do that after this. I can’t believe this opportunity was afforded to us. It’s been a great excuse, especially during the year when I’m in college, just to call and talk about the story.” J.J. himself previously co-wrote the first issue of the Fringe comic with Mike Johnson and co-creators Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner.
“Spider-Man” #1 will go on sale in September. For more from the Abramses, including what it was like working with Pichelli, head on over to the Times.
