"Secret Invasion: Spider-Man - Brand New Day" #1 on sale in August

The Brand New Day initiative in Marvel's "Amazing Spider-Man" has seen a lot of new as well as familiar faces becoming a bigger part of Spidey's world. These supporting players have usually been able to rely on Spider-Man to keep their lives from getting too crazy or dangerous, but that will change in August's three-issue miniseries, "Secret Invasion: Spider-Man - Brand New Day." Created by writer Brian Reed and artist Marco Santucci, the book will show readers how Spider-Man's supporting cast deals with the Skrull invasion of New York while the web slinger and his fellow New Avengers battle the shapeshifters in other parts of the world.

"Secret Invasion: Spider-Man - Brand New Day" was born when Reed and "Amazing Spider-Man" editor Stephen Wacker were discussing the best way to tie the book into the Secret Invasion event. "Steve wanted to do a Spider-Man tie-in but he didn't want it to be just a cashing-in sort of thing," Brian Reed told CBR News. "So we talked about it and what it came down to was the question of, 'What are all these other characters, who've been introduced in 'Brand New Day,' doing?' It also gave us an opportunity to tie all the events going on in 'Amazing Spider-Man' into the rest of the Marvel Universe. So far there's been little chance to do that. I think the closest we've gotten is Jonah's heart attack was mentioned in 'Ms. Marvel.'"

Page from "Secret Invasion: Spider-Man - Brand New Day" #1

"Secret Invasion: Spider-Man" begins shortly before the Skrulls' initial onslaught against Earth. "I had to start out before the Invasion so I could reintroduce all these new characters like Jackpot and police officers Vin and O'Neil," Reed explained. "This is a chance for people who haven't been reading 'Amazing Spider-Man' or people who don't necessarily know all these secondary characters to get to know them. So I took a little time to introduce them and then I drop the Skrulls out of the sky and the action and adventure begins."I think I got everybody but Aunt May in the first issue," Reed said. "We've got Lilly Hollister, Carlie Cooper, Harry Osborn, Vin O'Neil, and the Coffee Bean cast. Dexter Bennett, Joe Robertson and Betty Brant are in there as well. I put in as much of the supporting cast as I could squeeze in.""Secret Invasion: Spider-Man" is not, said Reed, a superhero story, although it is being told like one. Explained the writer, "This is the exact opposite of 'Secret Invasion: Frontline,' which is very grim and dire. In 'Frontline' when a Skrull is chasing you, you're a dead man, but in this series if a Skrull shows up you've got a chance to outrun it. 'Secret Invasion: Spider-Man' is more about the action, adventure and fun of a Spider-Man book."

Pages from "Secret Invasion: Spider-Man - Brand New Day" #1

Though tonally different, "Secret Invasion: Spider-Man" is structured similarly to Reed's "Frontline" series, with various characters' stories intersecting as they respond to the events of the Invasion. "In 'Frontline' each group of characters has a subplot and we explore who those characters are as people. Whereas in this series, all these characters just happen to be at the DB [the news source formerly known as The Daily Bugle]," Reed laughed. "We've got a fun sub plot where Harry Osborn and his girlfriend are out in the city separate from the rest of the cast. So we get to see these two pampered, rich people who've never done any real work dealing with the Skrulls and trying to survive."Spider-Man man may be busy with the Avengers in "Secret Invasion," but as his name is in the title of this miniseries, Reed made sure to touch on some of "Amazing Spider-Man's" ongoing plot threads in the Secret Invasion tie-in. "The mayoral election shows up in there and a lot of little other stuff," Reed confirmed. "In fact, my last pass on the script was to make sure we we're hooking up to everything that we could hook up to."Finally, Reed teased, "Spider-Man is in this series and I can tell you that in the first issue there is a revelation about his possible Skrullyness." Now discuss this story in CBR's Spider-Man forum.