Marvel Comics' Spider-Man is a character who's quest to balance a personal life with one of superpowered heroics has lead him to encounter an eclectic cast of supporting characters, battle an iconic array of foes, and become embroiled in a diverse tapestry of tales. That means Spidey is a character with a rich wealth of story potential and over the course of his 56 years in existence a number of creators have demonstrated that with storied runs.

This July a new creative team, writer Nick Spencer and artist Ryan Ottley, will look to maximize the Web-Slinger's potential for fun, compelling, and creative stories when they launch a new volume of Amazing Spider-Man as part of Marvel's Fresh Start initiative.

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We Spoke with Spencer about what readers should expect from his and Ottley's Spidey stories, the new and familiar supporting characters that will be part of those tales, and how he's looking to install a sense of weight and dread to some of the web-slinger's classic foes.

CBR: You and Ryan did the Spider-Man story that was part of this year's Free Comic Book Day offerings from Marvel. Your tale felt like vintage Spider-Man in that it had humor, action, a bit of the 'Ol Parker Luck, and a moment with some villains where you saw the physical and mental ways Peter pushes himself to save people. Was that were you were aiming for with the issue?

Nick Spencer: Yeah, with Free Comic Book Day issues you always have to be really conscious of the fact that A) you're reaching an audience that you might not normally get. You're getting all these new people into the shops. That includes a younger audience and folks who might be lapsed as readers. So you're always trying to deliver something that has that classic, accessible feel to it. You want to give everybody the Spider-Man that they know and love. And B) you're also under the gun because you only have 10 pages. So you have to capture that feeling in a really, short, quick burst.

It's always a challenge to do one of those. I believe I've had the honor of doing Free Comic Book Day issues for Marvel three years in a row now, and I really do enjoy doing them. I'm a big believer in what Free Comic Book Day is all about, and it's always fun to go out and see the shops full of people getting their books.

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Is the tone and feel of the Free Comic Book Day issue comparable to your initial issues of Amazing Spider-Man?

I think so. I think if you enjoyed our Free Comic Book Day story, you're really going to enjoy issue #1. The big difference is I had 40 pages with this one. It's a full double-sized issue, so I have a much larger canvas to play with. But the DNA of the stories are pretty similar. There's that same mix of humor, drama and relatabilty.

One of the big moments in the Free Comic Book Day issue came at the end where Peter met the roommate Randy Robertson had arranged for them, Fred Myers, aka Boomerang, who was the central character of your fan favorite series Superior Foes of Spider-Man. What's it like returning to Fred? What can you tell us about his role in Amazing Spider-Man?

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When I got the assignment, I immediately started to think about how I could get Fred into the mix. I'm so proud of the work Steve Lieber and I got to do on Superior Foes. I know that book still has a lot of fans and they were very excited when I got announced on Spider-Man and the fact that they might see some of those characters again.

In some ways, it feels like I never left Fred. I found opportunities to use him here and there. He was in my Captain America run with a fun cameo in Secret Empire, but to bring him into Peter's orbit was the real thrill for me. Because when we did Superior Foes obviously Otto was Spider-Man and we had that ambiguous ending where it may or may not have been Peter Parker in the bar with Fred. Spider-Man was kind of the one element I didn't really have in Superior Foes of Spider-Man.

Now, he's an integral part of Peter's life. I get to bounce those two off of each other and have them get in each other's way. He's a perfect foil and a perfect roommate for Peter.

This isn't the first time Pete has lived with a villainous roommate. He had all that drama when he was living with Harry Osborn, right before Harry became the second Green Goblin.

Yes. This is a little lighter, though. It's more about the relatable roommate dynamics we've all had at some point. That's something I think we can all kind of connect to. Fred is the world's worst person and I think at some point in our lives we've all felt that way about a person we've lived with. That's always the trick with Spidey comics, finding that thing that we can all see ourselves in and blowing it up to 11.

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One new element of Spider-Man's world that you inherited, which seems like it would be a lot of fun to explore is Peter's relationship with J Jonah Jameson, who now is fully aware that Pete is Spider-Man and supports his alter ego. What's your sense of how Jonah views Peter?

I'm going to stay a little mum on Jonah for now. I will say I am an enormous fan of what Chip Zdarsky has done with the character over in Spectacular and when I came on board the book, I made it clear I wanted to stay out of his way. I really think he's telling a seminal Jonah story there.

So, his role in our early books will be pretty limited. He is one of the best, if not the best, supporting characters in all of comics though. So when he arrives on the stage it will be in a pretty big way. The long term story we have for Jonah is something I'm very excited about.

Another new element of Peter's life that you inherited is his new job as The Daily Bugle's science editor. How will that aspect of Pete's life figure into your initial stories?

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When we open our run, Pete is kind of riding high. He's defeated Norman Osborn. Obviously there was an enormous cost to it, but he's come out the other side of that and he's working his dream job. It's a job that he's perfectly suited for and that in many ways is the fulfillment of his potential.

So that gives you a really interesting foundation to build on. And any time you get to spend within the confines of The Daily Bugle, you're in a very good place. You get to draw from a great cast that includes Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant, Ben Urich and a lot of other cool characters. Writing all of them has just been a thrill for me.

What else can you tell us about the initial supporting cast of your Amazing Spider-Man run? Are you introducing any new characters?

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There are a lot of supporting cast members that I'm really excited about, both new and old. I think I've said in previous interviews that it won't take long for Felicia Hardy to become a key player in the book. So you can expect the Black Cat to show up sooner rather than later. And that will have a major impact on Peter's life.

I'm very excited to get to spend some more time with Randy Robertson. I think he has a really special place now among Peter's friends. That's because he really hasn't been touched too much by the superhuman and supernatural aspects of the Marvel Universe. I think it's very important for Peter to be able to get away from that stuff and have a friend that he can hang around with who's just a regular human being.

In terms of new faces, I have to play coy for now, but yes, there are some major ones coming. Also, there are some characters who haven't been on the board for quite awhile that we're going to bring back on the stage.

One thing that I noticed as I was going back through and doing my rereading of all the Spidey stuff is that when a lot of writers come in they introduce new supporting casts. Then, when they leave the book somebody else comes on and they introduce their cast. So there are a lot of characters out there with a lot of potential who we haven't checked in with for a long time, who have sort of fallen by the wayside. So, finding the ones that I thought had potential was a treat for me.

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Your Free Comic Book Day issues suggested that one major supporting player in your Spidey run will be the City of New York itself.

For sure! When you're doing a Spider-Man book New York is obviously not just a character, but one of the key characters. His interactions with the city both on the street level and up above it are equally important. We're going to have fun with those interactions and see how the city impacts him; how it complicates his life both as Peter and Spider-Man.

It sounds like there may be some connective tissue between your book and Charles Soule's Daredevil run where New York is also a major supporting character.

Yes. Wilson Fisk is the mayor of New York right now. So when you have the Kingpin in Gracie Mansion it's going to have a huge impact on a Spider-Man's life. That's definitely a bigger threat that's going to unfold.

One of the great things about Spider-Man is he's a character who can and has played roles in almost any kind of genre or story tone. What can you tell us about the types of stories and feels you're initially interested in exploring with Spider-Man?

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That's a great question because I think about it all the time. One of the best things about this character is exactly what you said-- he's been a part of so many different kinds of stories. He's one of those characters that's so big and so iconic you can really put him into any Marvel Universe story and any genre and he's probably going to make it better.

When you look at the totality of Spidey comics, you see a wide variety of tones, genres and styles. So when I was approaching this I wanted to build my run so it could be elastic in that sense. For instance, there will be some stories in the first half of the year where people will say, “I get it. This book leans a little heavier towards the comedy. This book has a lighter touch than some previous Spider-Man runs.” Then at the half year mark, we're going to turn it around and it will become something very different.

EXCLUSIVE: New art from Spencer and Ottley's Amazing Spider-Man

I really want you to pick up each arc of the book and not know what direction we're going to go. Some of these stories are going to make you laugh a lot. Some are going to scare you. Some are going to make you cry. That's the goal. You really won't know what you're going to get month to month. This is a book that will have a different type of feel and different voice depending on what the story needs. I didn't want to lock myself in too much there. For me, the thrill is getting to play with all these different kinds of stories, but with Spidey at the center of all of them.

Bringing to life your stories is an artist who tackled a diverse bunch of tales during his run on Invincible, where he also proved he's capable of delivering the kinetic action Spider-Man stories demand, Ryan Ottley.

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It's such and honor and joy to get to work with Ryan on this book. I really do believe he was born to draw Spider-Man. He has all the makings of one of the greatest Spidey artists of all time. If that's something he wants to be and wants to put the time into I have no doubt in my mind that's how we'll view him in the future. He draws a perfect Spidey. There's so much energy and enthusiasm. I was looking over the pages of the first issue before we send it off to the printer, and I was just blown away.

Amazing Spider-Man has always been an artist book. It's always been defined by fantastic artistic runs, and I'm really glad I've got someone like Ryan in my corner.

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Finally, another enjoyable aspect of writing Spider-Man that we haven't touched on is the fact that you get to play with one of the best rogues galleries in comics. What can you tell us about your plans for Spidey's villains? Do you have any favorite Spider-Man villains?

He really does have the best rogues gallery in all of comics, and I really had a lot of fun writing them in Superior Foes and other books that I've done. In a lot of ways, I had more familiarity with those guys than writing Peter. So we're going to see a lot of the book from their eyes. Their relationship to Spidey is something that I'm going to explore.

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Picking favorites is really hard. What I can say is, I want to try hard to limit the inconsequential appearances of great Spidey rogues. I want to pull deeper when we need that scene at the start of an issue where Spidey is fighting someone less important. I want to make sure readers understand that characters like Scorpion, Electro, and Vulture are really serious and scary threats with real motivations and stories of their own. So when they show up it's a big deal. They're not just there to get punched by Spider-Man and knocked out in the first couple pages.

I want to instill a sense of weight and dread when those characters show up on the page. The way that we do that over the course of the first year is something I can't wait for people to see.

I will also say you won’t have to wait long to see us introduce a terrifying new villain who will upend Peter’s life and challenge him in ways we’ve never seen before. I can’t get too specific-- but trust me, he’s going to leave a lasting scar. There’s a long term plan in place on this book, maybe the most detailed one I’ve ever put forward-- and we’re building to what I truly believe will be one of the biggest Spidey stories of all time. Amazing Spider-Man #1 is the ground floor for that.