Writer Christos Gage Shares Secrets of Marvel's Spider-Geddon

Spider-Man's mantra of “With great power must come great responsibility” is a powerful idea, with universal appeal -- literally. That was illustrated in 2014 when Marvel's Spider-Verse event saw arachnid-themed heroes from all across the Marvel Multiverse band together to defeat the threat of the Inheritors, a monstrous family who hunted and devoured the essences of spider powered heroes. The event ended with the Inheritors safely locked away in a post-apocalyptic reality, but they still hunger for the essence of spiders. Now, after spending years locked away in their prison, they've also developed an insatiable appetite for vengeance upon the heroes who defeated them.

This October, they'll put their plan for revenge into action in Spider-Geddon, a five issueseries from Christos Gage and Jorge Molina. The mini-event brings together Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, and a host of spider men and women from across the Multiverse to stop the Inheritors apocalyptic plans. CBR spoke with Gage about the book, its prequels, tie-ins, and cast which includes the title character of Insomniac Games upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man video game.

CBR: The past several years have seen you tackling different characters in both comic books and television, but Spider-Man is someone whose world you keep coming back to. You collaborated with Dan Slott during his record breaking run, wrote several special issues and miniseries solo, and even worked as a writer on Marvel’s Spider-Manvideo game by Insomniac games. What is it about Spider-Man and his world that keeps you coming back? What do you love most about the character?

Christos Gage: It’s not one specific thing. He’s just a character that feels like home. One of the first I ever read – I still have a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #161 that I picked up when I was a wee tyke. And he’s Marvel’s everyman. He makes mistakes, he has tough times, so you feel like you can relate…but he never gives up, so he inspires you to do the same.

You were part of the original Spider-Verse event, and you're coming back in a much larger role for Spider-Geddon. What can you tell us about the origin of this project and your role in it? How much did you collaborate with Spider-verse writer, Dan Slott, on this project?

Dan and Nick [Lowe] and I all worked together on shaping the larger story, but with Dan writing both Iron Man and Fantastic Four, I’m doing the actual writing of the issues on my own. Of course, he’s always available to me for a brainstorming session, as I am to him. But yeah, I’m driving the bus -- this out-of-control bus, populated with spider-people from all over the multiverse!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='There%27s%20One%20Major%20Difference%20Between%20Spider-Geddon%20and%20Its%20Predecessor%2C%20Spider-Verse']

Much like Spider-Verse, the road to Spider-Geddon is being paved with a couple of prelude projects; an anthology miniseries, Edge of Spider-Geddon, and Spider-Verse #0 written by you. How important are these preludes to the larger story you're telling in Spider-Geddon?

Like many of these types of stories that Marvel does, the core series can be read and understood on its own. Those who pick up the preludes and tie-ins will get a larger story, a bigger picture, if you will. Readers should feel free to pick up what looks fun to them…they’ll get what they need!

That said, having written for Marvel’s Spider-Man video game for the past few years, I am super excited to bring the game’s Peter Parker into comics for the first time ever in Spider-Geddon #0. So don’t sleep on that one!

EXCLUSIVE: Art by Jorge Molina from Spider-Geddon #1

Spider-Geddon is a story with a huge cast of spider people, but will there be a sort of core cast or core character whose perspective we follow all the way through? Is this primarily a tale about the Marvel Universe's Peter Parker, or more of an ensemble book?

It’s an ensemble book, but a few characters will be at the forefront. Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen and, of course, Otto Octavius come to mind. I love writing Otto Octavius.

One of the enjoyable elements of having so many Spider-People has to be the chance to bounce them off of each other. Who are some of the Spider characters that are proving especially fun to write together?

Otto Octavius and Spider-Ham. Miles and Gwen. Spider-Punk and Otto. And others I can’t yet discuss!

Spider-Geddon is being billed as the "Revenge of the Spider-Verse," and the end of Spider-Verse left the Inheritors in a place from which they could come back, hungry for vengeance. They were imprisoned in a radioactive wasteland. So what can you tell us about their roles in this story? What's it like returning to those characters?

They’re terrific villains -- they literally eat spider-people! They’re like vampires who feed on their life forces. And now that they’re back, they have a score to settle. They’re trying to recapture their former power and glory, and God help anyone who gets in the way.

What can you tell us about the tone and action of Spider-Geddon? How does it compare to the tone and action of Spider-Verse? Are you dealing with a similar scope and scale?

Spider-Verse was primarily set in other parallel dimensions, whereas Spider-Geddon is set primarily on Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe. So there’s a similar apocalyptic scope to it... but “our” Marvel Earth is the one at the most risk! And there’s a debate about whether the spider-army needs to adjust its approach this time around…

You're collaborating with Jorge Molina, who recently worked on X-Men Blue. What's it like working with Jorge on this story? What do you enjoy most about his style?

Jorge has an exciting, kinetic style that suits this book perfectly. Having worked with him before on Avengers: The Initiative, I know he doesn’t mind drawing lots of characters, which is a great quality to have for Spider-Geddon! I’ve always been a fan of his, but he’s turned it up a notch, as you can see from the awesome cover images. He manages to make every character look iconic and like they’re the star of the book!

Finally, we talked earlier about preludes and a number of Spider-Geddon tie-in projects were announced at Comic Con International in San Diego. How integral will the tie-in books be to the overall story in Spider-Geddon? Can you just read the main story you're telling?

Yes, you can just read the core series. If you want a complete picture, you can pick up all the tie-ins. Or you can just get the ones featuring characters you like. We want the experience to be fun for the readers!

I’m having a blast writing this story… and I hope the readers do too! (And look for Marvel's Spider-Man coming exclusively to PlayStation 4 on September 7!)