>Just wondering exactly how much creative control over ASM do u have? It just
>seemed the "Shade" was a forced super-villian. (How many drug dealers have
>supervillians?)

Of course you're assuming he actually works for them instead of it being some
other kind of arrangement, which will be explicated more in a bit....

As for the larger question...my deal with Marvel is basically I write what I
want, they don't change it. They've been terrific in honoring that
understanding, so basically the book is whatever I want to make of it.

I put the Shade into that issue as a way of talking about the tendency of
society to not give a crap about homeless kids and runaways on the street, that
someone can be preying on them and nothing can be done.

So he wasn't forced at all, just the way I felt best got me into the story.

The vilains I've introduced so far were not really meant by me to become part
of the overall Spidey pantheon, which is why I got them off the board fairly
quickly. They were there to let me explore certain parts of Peter without
overwhelming him. I wanted to clear the air, give him something to work with
but that wouldn't get in the way of focusing on who he is...rather than, say,
villains who have a huge backstory that would lumber up the books at a time
when I was trying to clear away the underbrush.

Having done that, I'm now looking to bring in both some more interesting new
villains and some of the classic ones; just turned in a script today with Doc
Ock in fact (putting me now at about 4-5 issues ahead of schedule).

Having grounded Peter's character, I'm now looking forward to expanding some of
the rogue's gallery of characters, finding corners of their personality thus
far unexplored. But I couldn't in good conscience do that until I'd refined
and brought Peter's/Spidey's character into the foreground.

Because at the end of the day, the book's called The Amazing Spider-Man, not
The Infamous Doc Ock.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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