It’s a tale as old as time: Arachnid-themed superhero gets transported to a faraway alien planet where he must do battle against a legion of supervillains, his suit gets ripped to pieces and he accidentally replaces it with a parasitic symbiote lifeform that wants to permanently bond with him. I mean we’ve all been there.
In the comic books, Spider-Man’s relationship with the Symbiote suit ended when he exposed it to the most metal music of all: Giant freakin’ church bells slamming him to pieces with sonic wave attacks. The Symbiote would eventually slither off and bond with Eddie Brock to form Venom, but what if it hadn’t? That’s a question which writer Chip Zdarsky plans to answer in Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow with artists Pasqual Ferry and Matt Hollingsworth.
“I’d been talking to Marvel for a while about doing What If? style projects and my big sticking point was that I wanted them to have several issues, not just the classic one-shots,” Zdarksy said to Newsarama.
Being able to dig in on a story instead of having it be half exposition-dump, y’know?
So, once they agreed to that, I realized that this would be the perfect story to tell out of the gate. It was a previous What If? concept that I could really dig into and flesh out, and it hit a tonal place that Spidey comics don’t normally go into – something darker, tinged with horror. Having recently worked on Silver Coin for Image and Stillwater for Skybound, I’ve been finding myself more drawn to those kinds of stories.
The end result is a spookier take on Spider-Man, but one that Zdarsky says that “no matter the situation, no matter the timeline, he’s forever Spider-Man”. It’ll be out later this year. Now, on to the comic book covers of the week!
Comic book covers of the week credits
- Black Cat #4 by Pepe Larraz
- Captain America #28 by Alex Ross
- Silk #1 by Jen Bartel
- Symbiote Spider-Man: King In Black #5 by Dave Rapoza
- X-Men Legends #2 by John Tyler Christopher
- Vampirella Vs. Purgatori #1 by Joseph Michael Linsner
- Decorum #7 by Mike Huddleston
- Redneck #30 by Lisandro Estherren and Dee Cunniffe
- Spawn #316 by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo
- The Department Of Truth #7 by Martin Simmonds
- BRZRKR #1 by Jonboy Meyers
- Firefly #27 by Ethan Young
- Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir To Darkness #1 by Dan Mora, Cover B by Vincenzo Riccardi
- Black Of Heart #5 by David Hollenbach
- Cult Of Dracula #1 by Gyula Nemeth
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #2 by Issac Escorza, Esau Escorza, and Kevin Eastman
- The Transformers #28 by Casey Coller
- Un/Sacred #5 by Mirka Andolfo
- Hatchet: Vengeance #3 by Ken Haeser and Buz Hasson
- Future State: Superman Vs. Imperious Lex #3 by David Nakayama
- John Constantine: Hellblazer Vol. 2: The Best Version Of You by John Paul Leon
- Justice League: Odyssey Vol. 4: Last Stand by Skan
- Strange Adventures #9 by Mitch Gerads
- The Batman’s Grave Complete Collection by Bryan Hitch
- The Other History Of The DC Universe #3 by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Marco Mastrazzo Cover
- Miranda In The Maelstrom Vol. 1 by Koi Carreon and Dailen Ogden
- Dragon Age: Dark Fortress #1 by Sachin Teng
- The Art Of The Mass Effect Trilogy by BioWare
- The Witcher: Fading Memories #4 by Jeremy Wilson
- Giga #3 by Adam Gorham
- Witchblood #1 by Yoshi Yoshitani
- 2000 AD Feb. 2021 Prog Pack by Pat Mills
- Sam And His Talking Gun #2 by Lee Ferguson
- Kingdom Kong by Zed
Last Updated: March 23, 2021
