Marvel Comics' Spider-Man frequently wrestles with misfortune, and over the last decade he's certainly experienced the “Old Parker Luck” a number of times, but he's also had quite a bit of good fortune, as well.

Much of his recently tumultuous life has come courtesy of Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott. During Slott's tenure Spidey's saved New York City, the world, and even the Multiverse. He's landed a dream job as an inventor, had his body stolen by Doctor Octopus (who used it to replaced him as Spider-Man), become the head of globe spanning corporate conglomerate, and been forced to sacrifice his fortune to keep the technological breakthroughs of Parker Industries out of the hands of Doc Ock and Hydra.

That's a heck of a decade, by any standard.

This Spring, Slott prepares to bring his 10-year tenure to a close with one final arc, and then a final issue. CBR spoke with Slott about his final Spidey arc, “Go Down Swinging,” with artists Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger and Marte Gracia, where Peter Parker will be in the crosshairs of both the Carnage symbiote and its new host Norman Osborn. He also opened up about reuniting with artist Marcos Martin for his final issue, Amazing Spider-Man #801, which will serve as a coda to the writer's entire run.

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CBR: Dan, I've read that you've known for a while now that issue #801 would be your last Amazing Spider-Man issue. What made you want to say goodbye with that issue?

Dan Slott: I knew for a long time it would be #801, because #800 was going to be a big all or nothing, blow the roof off, slobber knocker. And I didn't want to go out on the fireworks and explosions. I wanted to go out on the curtain call. [Laughs] Something heartfelt. My best shot at a Stern-like “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man”; a nice, “This is everything Spider-Man means to me” kind of story as opposed to “THE GREATEST FIGHT OF SPIDER-MAN’S LIFE!”

So you have sort of the action packed epic, and then you have the epilogue?

Yeah. It's not really a coda on the “Go Down Swinging” arc, but it’s everything I love about Spider-Man.

Alex Ross' cover for Amazing Spider-Man #800

If I remember correctly, a couple retreats ago [Brian] Bendis was starting to tell me a story off to the side that he wanted to do with Miles [morales]. I was like, “Brian, please don't tell that story!” [Laughs] He asked why, and I told him that it was so close to my final Spider-Man story that I had planned out ages ago. I wrote it and then put it in the drawer. Brian asked what it was, and I told him what was planned for #801.

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Then, when we went back into the main room of the retreat, Brian stopped everybody and went, “Hey, you guys all have to listen to Dan's Spider-Man story.” He made me tell the whole thing and I got a nice little round of applause from the room. [Laughs]

I can't remember exactly when I asked Marcos Martin if he’d draw that story. It might have been during “Mysterioso,” our last arc together of Amazing Spider-Man. Or later, when he helped out on a few pages of Superior Spider-Man. He's one of my favorite people of all time to work with. So I asked him -- way back when -- if when it was time for my run to be over, whenever that was in the distant future, [Laughs], if he’d come back and draw my last Spidey. He heard it and agreed to come back and do that story. So that's #801.

I have all this stuff worked out for how many issues equals this benchmark and how many equals that one. Going to issue #801 brings the final tally of my core run to 180 issues. If you cheat and start using stuff like Free Comic Book Day issues, specials like Spider-Man: The List, “Learning to Crawl,” all the.1 issues, as well as side projects, minis, and annuals, you could slap on about an extra 36 issues to the count. So it's 180 of the core book. Ten years. And hitting #800. I liked the way everything rounded up.

Now, on the flip side, if you count every comic I've ever done in the 27 years I've been doing this, when you get to Amazing #797, the first issue of “Go Down Swinging,” that's my 500th comic. Guys like Peter David and Geoff Johns would laugh at that. It's like, “It took you 27 years to write that much?” They do that much in a week. And I say that out of pure envy. [Laughs]

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For this final arc, you're pitting Spider-Man against his arch-enemy, Norman Osborn. He's a foe you've written recently and has appeared other times during your run, but thinking back over your tenure on Amazing and how long it's been I can only recall a handful of stories where Norman Osborn has played a direct role; “New Ways to Die,” the end of Superior Spider-Man, “The Osborn Identity” and now this. Am I missing anything?

You're only missing one, the done-in-one Spider-Man: The List, with Adam Kubert, where Spidey fought Norman in the Iron Patriot suit.

It seemed like you had a pretty clear sense of where and when to use Osborn in the book. What can you tell us about that?

[Laughs] He appeared when we could use him. I remember reading an interview with JMS when he was wrapping up his run on Spidey. The interviewer asked him if there was anything he didn't get around to doing. And you could feel in the interview that it had just hit him at that moment and he sadly went, “I never wrote an Electro story.” Reading that, I was like, “Awwww . . .”

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That stuck with me, so I've been keenly aware of what characters I haven't written. I barely touched Kraven. Everyone has their head canon, and I was like, “I'm not going anywhere near that character after the classic J.M. DeMatteis “Last Hunt” story. To me that’s where his story ends.

Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia

The only times I've really used him have been in flashback, like in the Spidey/Torch miniseries that took place before “Last Hunt.” Whenever people would need a Spidey villain to use in a book, I'd always offer up Kraven, because I knew I wasn't using him. [Laughs] So, you'd see him show up all the time in books like Scarlet Spider and Venom.

With Norman, it was the opposite. I would have used him morning, noon and night in the book, but he was usually locked up. At fist he was in Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts. Then he was in Brian [Bendis]' Dark Avengers, and we couldn't get him in the book! When we did “New Ways to Die,” we were told, “You are borrowing him from Thunderbolts. And you will put him back.” [Laughs] That lasted until Superior. The second Brian was done with him, I was like, “MINE!”

So people were like, “Wow! You worked really hard to make Doc Ock Spider-Man's greatest villain.” I didn't have Norman, though! He was locked off in a box, and I couldn't use him. The same thing kind of happened to me with Carnage.

When I started my solo run on Amazing, I had long term Carnage and Venom plans. but they were scuttled in favor of Venom ongoings and Carnage minis. And that’s cool. That’s all part of working in licensed comics and writing for a shared universe. If you can’t roll with stuff like that and adapt, working for Marvel or DC is probably not in your wheelhouse.

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So it was partly due to weird timing that in 10 years on the book, I never got to use Carnage, but when I was getting to the end, I knew what my big story for issue #800 was going to be. I was going to take the two biggest toys that I didn't get to play with the most, and I was gonna smush ‘em together.

Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia

It was like, “This is going to be great! First we'll knock Norman down a few pegs and have him wandering the world trying to get his crazy back. Then he'll find it in Carnage, and that will be the big thing. That will be my final blowout; Norman Osborn with the Carnage symbiote; the Red Goblin!

It sounds like you've been having a lot of fun bouncing those two characters off of each other.

Yeah, I couldn't wait to get to this! One of the things I did after the last Carnage miniseries wrapped was go to the Spider-Office and ask for a moratorium on Carnage stories, so we could ramp this up.

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The interludes with Norman and Carnage in these last few issues suggest that Peter is in dire peril. What can you tell us about the action and tone of “Go Down Swinging?”

Without giving too much away, this is his greatest threat; his two worst enemies together as one gestalt being. When left to his own devices, Green Goblin will kill your greatest love! When left to its own devices, Carnage will kill every innocent bystander in New York. [Laughs]

You put that peanut butter in that chocolate, it's not a good mix, man! THAT'S BAD! IT IS SOOO BAD!

Speaking of the Green Goblin's propensity to kill people Spider-Man loves, it's interesting that Mary Jane Watson is back in Peter Parker's world, and some of the old feelings between them appear to have returned.

I have no comment on that! [Laughs]

Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia

[Laughs] Let's move to another supporting character I want to touch on, then; J. Jonah Jameson, who because of the events of Chip Zdarsky's Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, now knows Peter is Spidey. You seemed to have a lot of fun with that in Amazing #796. What's it like writing Jonah, now?

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Peter and Jonah have such a weird relationship, now. He's still Jonah, but now you have to find a new footing. Chip really threw us a weird and wonderful twist by doing this over in Spectacular. [Laughs] We're playing with it and having fun with it. You can't ignore it, and it's just such a great take. Take a bow, Mr. Zdarsky!

You've worked with a lot of great artists over the years on Amazing Spider-Man. And for your final arc you're once again collaborating with the great Stuart Immonen. What's it like working with him on this particular story?

I started working with Stuart around issue #25 of the last run, and he's just been a dream to work with. Him, [inker] Wade [von Grawbadger], and [colorist] Marte [Gracia] have been the killer team in all of comics!

There's the way the book looks in your head when you're writing and then there's what you get in the art. With Stuart it's always better than I imagine. It's gorgeous to the point that it affects the next issues you're writing.

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Once he put Bobbi and Peter together, they had a chemistry they didn't have in my head. I was like, “Oh! They're a couple now.” It was really hard to break them up, too. I had to get there though for “Go Down Swinging.” It's not like Marvel is going to let me kill Mockingbird... come on!

[Laughs] You talked earlier about your final issue, #801, with Marcos Martin. Has work begun on the art for that issue?

Yeah. I'm looking at some art from it now. It's gorgeous!

So, have you said your sort of “Goodbye -- at least for now” to Spider-Man?

I write plot/script. I have plotted everything there is to plot, and issue #800 is quadruple sized. It's an 80-page lead story. Stuart is drawing the big climax, and a lot of guys I've loved working with from over the whole run are coming back and drawing chapters; Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli and some surprises.

Is issue #800 a sort of a jam issue?

Yes, but well over 25 pages of it will be Stuart. So you're going to get a lot of Stuart Immonen, and nice big swaths of Humberto and Giuseppe. It's 80 pages! We are not going small. Everything is big!

If you're in New York City, I'll be signing the first chapter of “Go Down Swinging,” Amazing Spider-Man #797, at Forbidden Planet on Wednesday, March 7. And if everyone wants the issue, please add it to your pull list. We're on a streak of selling this book out. Retailers are not ordering enough of Amazing. Everything from #792 on has been selling out and going into second printings, and #797 is no different. It's already sold out at the distributor level. That is six issues in a row! There is a trend here. If you want to make sure you get your copy of Amazing Spider-Man on new comic day please reserve a copy at your comic store. And thank you, EVERYBODY, for supporting this book!