1 week Ago By Cameron Bonomolo
“With great power there must also come — great responsibility!” So goes the lesson that Peter Parker, timid teenager, learned in the final panel of 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15. Co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko would go on to launch Amazing Spider-Man, which has run for 965 issues since 1963. Marvel Comics has only relaunched the book a few times — first in 1999, and as recently as 2022 — but the mantra remains the same: Great power, great responsibility.
As Amazing Spider-Man nears 1,000 issues, it’s a responsibility that the book’s creative team doesn’t take lightly. Joe Kelly, who was part of the team that relaunched Spider-Man for the Brand New Day era in 2008, took over scripting duties from Zeb Wells with the 8 Deaths of Spider-Man storyline in November’s Amazing #61. Following March’s volume-ending Amazing #70, Marvel Comics relaunched the title once more with Wednesday’s Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Vol.
7).the amazing spider-man #1 (2025) cover by pepe larrazRELATED: Who the Heck Is Hellgate? Meet the New Spider-Man Villain Making Peter Parker’s Life Hell “The Amazing Spider-Man is the first comic book I remember reading, and Spider-Man has been my favorite super hero for as long as I can remember,” Kelly writes in a letter addressed to fans in “The Spider’s Web” section of the debut issue. “Spidey taught me how to read.
He was a constant companion in my imagination, dreams, and drawing pads. As I got older, Peter Parker taught me that everyone feels powerless, frustrated, guilty, and just plain sad sometimes, even when all signs should point toward happiness..
. and then he taught me how to get the hell up, even when the world has kicked me in the teeth or stolen the irreplaceable.” Kelly continues, “Writing the ongoing adventures of one of the most influential characters ever conceived is one of the greatest opportunities I’ve ever been blessed with, and I am delirious with gratitude.
” Adding that “this character means the world to me,” Kelly writes, “A promise from one Spider-Fan to another: For as long as they let me sit in this chair, I rpomise to do my absolute best to tell a story worthy of our hero and all the amazing creators who served us thrills and chills for the last 63 years.” With editor Nick Lowe, assistant editor Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, associate editor Tom Groneman, and series artists Pepe Larraz and John Romita Jr., and colorist Marte Gracia, Kelly writes, “It’s an embarrassment of riches, and I am grateful for everyone on the team for their talent and passion.
Let’s have fun together, all us Web-Heads with our costumes on and our hearts on our red-and-blue sleeves. Let’s have fun.” amazing spider-man #5 cover by pepe larraz and amazing spider-man #6 cover by john romita jr.
Larraz, praised by Kelly as a “genre-defying” artist known for his work on the X-Men’s Krakoan era and the status quo-shifting Blood Hunt event, recalled growing up in Spain and seeing pages from the adjectivless Spider-Man. The title, launched by writer-artist Todd McFarlane in 1990 and continued by writer-artist Erik Larsen, “blew my mind,” he writes, adding that “the making of American comic books was something so remote that it was almost mythical. It was impossible for me to draw American comic books.
” Larraz was inspired by McFarlane, then Larsen, and Amazing Spider-Man artist Rick Leonardi. Then came the late Carlos Pacheco (Fantastic Four), Salvador Larroca (X-Men), and Pasqual Ferry (Heroes for Hire), artists who “opened the gates of America to us, the kids across the Atlantic. Suddenly, a Spaniard could draw American comic books.
” amazing spider-man (vol. 7) #1 interior artwork by pepe larraz“But when I got hired and started knowing this industry from the inside, it was only climbing the hill to see the mountain,” Larraz continues. “I realized how far I was from drawing Amazing Spider-Man.
It was the peak, the top. It was impossible for a newbie like me to get to draw Amazing Spider-Man. And, well, here we are.
” With a Kelly-penned script that “is so great, so sensitive, and so fun that it’s easier to make a work I can be proud of,” Larraz continues, “To those things that seemed impossible not so long ago, we could add working with one of the best, proactive editors in the House, Nick Lowe, from who I’ve learned and keep learning from so much. Or get to work with one of the writers whose work I enjoyed and admired since I was a teenager, Joe Kelly, or to work along with a member of the royalty of comic books like JRJR. And also to get mi hermano Marte Gracia on colors one more time.
For all that, I’m really grateful. Also, a huge thanks to my studio companions, especially Kenny Ruiz and Salba Combe, because without their help, this book would be considerably worse.” He concludes, “We tried to make the best Spider-Man book we could.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.” Amazing Spider-Man #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics. The post New Amazing Spider-Man Creative Team Talks Relaunch appeared first on ComicBook.
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