Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott has announced his departure from the series with Amazing Spider-Man #801 – a decision he says has been in the contemplating for years. Slott has been a writer on Amazing Spider-Man since 2008’s “Brand New Day” arc, having taken over sole writing duties on the title in 2010.
“This was a decision that was made way long ago,” Slott told Vulture. “I gotta feel like a jerk, because whenever someone would interview me, or whenever it would come up on panels, I would look out at people and say with a stern look that I was never leaving. Very much in the same way I was saying, ‘Peter Parker is never coming back. I killed him’ [during The Superior Spider-Man]. I lied. I lied horribly. [Laughs.] But that’s what us storytellers do, we spin lies.”
With Slott’s timeline, he’s not lying about the length of time he’s been holding onto this secret – since around 2014’s Spider-Verse event.
“It was also around the time that we were doing Spider-Verse, and it was such a big undertaking…And in the middle of all of that, I was like, ‘Aaaaaah.’ That was it. I was very much aware of, like, Okay, I think something inside me broke. But I am going to make this, man. If Spider-Man can lift that heavy thing off his back, I can do this.”
Slott already has a new Marvel Comics assignment in mind – and he didn’t mix words his next project: Invincible Iron Man.
“I am going from the flagship character of the Marvel Comics of my youth to the gem of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The linchpin. I am going to Iron Man.”
“Tony Stark: He makes you feel; he’s a cool exec with a heart of steel,” joked Slott, quoting the 60s Iron Man cartoon theme song. “I’m all excited. They’d asked me to do Iron Man a while back, but by then I was at [Silver Surfer] and I had Spidey and I was already overcommitted, so it kept gnawing at me. Like, Oh, man. I really do want to do Iron Man. This would be fun. And when that came around again, it was like, Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want Iron Man… This is Tony Stark, Iron Man. This gonna be about technology in the Marvel universe in a very specific way and it’s gonna lead to very big things.”
“There was only one benchmark left that I could hit and it felt forever away, and that was more issues of any Spider-Man comic than anyone. That was the one benchmark that was very much dangling out of reach like Tantalus. The reason why was Brian Michael Bendis. He kept writing, so it was a moving benchmark, and I just assumed he was never leaving. If I had known, if I had only known that Brian was gonna jump to DC I would’ve stayed on. [Laughs.] I bet you I would have stayed on.”
“But, you know, there’s … for this master plan to work, it doesn’t have to be Amazing Spider-Man,” he continued. “Who knows? Like, two, three years from now, I could go back and go, ‘Hey, let me do Web of Spider-Man. Let me do a new version of Untold Tales of Spider-Man.’ I just gotta hit that for 18 or 20 issues and we’re good.”
Slott’s final issue of Amazing Spider-Man will be #801, which has not yet been solicited. Assuming no gaps between the latest solicited issue, March 7’s #797, and the finale, #801 is expected in July.