From CBR

Fialkov & Bobillo Introduce an Amnesiac "Amazing Spider-Man" to Infinite Comics

It's been well established over the past few days that Peter Parker will return in April's new "Amazing Spider-Man" #1, but there's no reason to assume it'll be a smooth transition back to life. An April-debuting entry in Marvel Comics' digital-first Infinite Comics initiative from writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Juan Bobillo is set to pick up with Peter in the process of a bank robbery, devoid of his memories.

"If you remove identity and get to the core of who Peter Parker really is, is he a hero? Does his heroism go beyond Uncle Ben dying, beyond Gwen and Captain Stacy dying?" Fialkov asks, in an interview announcing the series on Marvel.com. "All the people and things he's lost. All those sacrifices. At his heart -- as a blob of tissue, removed from all personality and experience -- would he act as a hero, when presented with the opportunities of a villain?"

Fialkov, currently writing much of Marvel's current Ultimates output, has prior experience in the Spider-Man world, having written the "Alpha" miniseries starring the one-time Spidey sidekick. Bobillo has illustrated a number of Marvel projects over the years, most recently issues of "FF" written by Jonathan Hickman.

The new Infinite Comic, said to be composed "under the watchful eye" of long-running Spider-Man scribe Dan Slott, is set to run for 13 digital installments.

"You can put [Spider-Man] in horrific situations, but it's inherent in him to deal with things with a light touch," Fialkov said of the tone of his story. "He’s gonna keep working; keep grinding, no matter what. Yeah, it’s a drag. Yeah, it’s a bummer. But he knows that the only way to cope with it is to be Spider-Man."

In the interview, Fialkov also expressed his admiration for the Infinite Comics format, which is intended to make use of the unique storytelling opportunities provided by tablets and other mobile platforms.

"It's a whole new medium to work in, and that's pretty exciting," Fialkov said. "I can sit down with my daughter and read this form of comics, and it’s less overwhelming for her in that guided view. It's a great educational tool and a great way to tell story."

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From Bleeding Cool

Thanks to the anonymous retailer who sent this in.

And, no, I don’t mean the scanned panels of Superior Spider-Man #25. Sorry, I can’t run those, too much of a spoiler. Maybe tomorrow.

But this? This should be fine.

(Click for larger image)

Confirmation, it seems, of a story that we ran the other day. With news that Dan Slott is involved. And that the art is to be published as a multi-layered infinite comic, or decampi comic as I prefer to call them…

For the leaked images head over to Bleeding Cool.

SPOILER UPDATE: I emailed Marvel earlier today without response, instead CBR ran an official PR-arranged story about half an hour ago. Which also may have a serious Superior Spider-Man spoiler, which we’ve decided to white text. Select the following blank space to find out more…

An April-debuting entry in Marvel Comics’ digital-first Infinite Comics initiative from writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Juan Bobillo is set to pick up with Peter in the process of a bank robbery, devoid of his memories.

Spoilers!

So....Slott will write this too?....(Infinite) ??....
And how it is a spoiler?....they announced it...

Ironically it wasn't too long ago that I had said this idea is what Superior should have been about...in order to prevent Doc Ock from living in his body Peter sacrifices his and Otto's memories wiping him from his own mind. Thus he would be a Peter with no memory of who he is.

Something tells me this is how Superior will end.

April 2014 Solicits

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1

Dan Slott (W) • Humberto Ramos (A/C) Variant Cover by Marcos Martin Variant cover by Ed McGuinness Variant cover by Pop Mhan Variant cover by JEROME OPEñA 75TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY ALEX ROSS 75TH ANNIVERSARY SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY ALEX ROSS Young variant cover by Skottie Young Blank Cover variant ALSO AVAILABLE - The Greatest Super Hero of All Time RETURNS! The world may have changed since Spidey’s been gone, but so has Peter Parker. This is a man with a second chance at life, and he’s not wasting a moment of it. Same Parker Luck, new Parker attitude. Putting the “friendly” back in the neighborhood, the “hero” back into “super hero,” and the “amazing” back into “Spider-Man!” Also returning: The recharged and reenergized ELECTRO!

Ya CBR was saying that Spider-Man(Peter) would not have the memory of what happened to Uncle Ben. So Slott would explore what type of person he is without it. That's brings me back to when this all started. Slott said IIRC something like Peter isn't really a good guy/hero. He does what he does out of guilt. He's actually kind of selfish. It was something like that.

That has me worried because I do not see it that way and would hate to see otherwise.

@_nexus_: Wouldn't that just upset both fan bases?

Spider-Man: Zur-en-Arrh

@master_of_suprise: Didn't Superior end up pissing off both fan bases anyway?

@_nexus_: touché

ok, isn't it time someone else write the title... i mean, vilanious memoryless peter?!! really??!! If that's true, then i guess it'll be another year reading batman and old spidey comics...

I was really hoping he would keep the Superior Suit.

@pedrada: I don't think that'll be the case. Peter will probably have his memory in Amazing Spider-man #1. I imagine there will be another kind of twist.

From Newsarama

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Goes Weekly with Digital, Fialkov

If you've been reading Newsarama this week, you've seen two names over and over: Peter Parker and Joshua Hale Fialkov. The writer is busy, with new books for Dark Horse, Oni, and the Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe relaunch. And Peter? Oh, he's coming back with an all-new Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April 2014.

The two are also teaming up for that other comic book buzzword, digital comics. In the new infinite comic also starting in April, Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I? Peter Parker has more than one identity crisis to deal with after returning to his body and taking over the role of Spider-Man once more. In the digital series written by Fialkov and drawn by Juan Bobillo, Antonio Fabela, Geoffo Beauleau and JL Mast, Parker starts the story with no memory and in the middle of robbing a bank. He'll find out he's Spider-Man, but, thinking he's a villain, continue on with his "scheme," as Fialkov put it in a press release.

The thirteen part story will then explore just what it is that keeps Peter Parker acting as a hero. With no memory of the major people and events that made him that way, will he naturally move toward being a good guy, or will he act selfishly, as he did when he first got his powers?

Stop with this bull**** Dan Slott

From CBR

"Amazing Spider-Man" Asks "Who Am I?" In Fialkov & Slott's Infinite Comic

Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov teams with Dan Slott & Juan Bobillo for "Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I?," an Infinite Comic starring an amnesiac Spidey

Unlike his current Superior counterpart, the Amazing Spider-Man is a pretty likable guy. He goes out of his way to save the citizens of New York on a regular basis and he has a pretty good sense of humor. Not everyone in the Marvel Universe appreciated his brand of heroics, however. Not surprisingly, New York City mayor J. Jonah Jameson is one of those people. When he ran the "Daily Bugle" Jameson used the paper to smear the Web-Slinger and label him a villain so consistently that Spidey occasionally doubted himself.

Peter Parker Resurrected in Slott's "Amazing Spider-Man"

What would happen if Peter Parker's sense of self was defined by the way the Bugle covered him? What kind of Spider-Man would he be? Those are two of the central questions in "Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I?", a weekly Infinite Comics series from writers Dan Slott and Joshua Hale Fialkov and artists Juan Bobillo, Antonio Fabela, and Geoffo and JL Mast. CBR News spoke with Fialkov about the series, which begins in April and stars an amnesiac Peter Parker.

CBR News: Josh, I understand like the other recent Marvel Infinite Comics this is a story that you scripted, but you and Dan Slott, the writer of "Superior Spider-Man and the upcoming "Amazing Spider-Man" relaunch, came up with together, correct?

Joshua Hale Fialkov: Yes, Dan and I had a lunch during, I believe, WonderCon last year. We talked it over, had a brief outline and just went from there. Dan is so sweet and so generous. He gave me the freedom to do what I wanted and tell the story that I wanted to tell.

Fialkov & Bobillo Introduce Amnesiac "Amazing Spider-Man" to Infinite Comics

What's it like writing for the Infinite Comics format?

It's challenging. My brain has to work a different way. I'm a structuralist and one of the things I obsess over is page turns. Then suddenly all those tools are still there, but they're used in very different ways. I'm very lucky to be working with Geoffo and JL [Mast]. They see the script and adapt it into the format. So I've been very fortunate to have them help guide the story.

In terms of plot and themes, what is "Spider-Man: Who Am I?" about? What sets the story in motion?

The premise is that when we find Spider-Man he wakes up with no memory of who he is, where he is, how he got where he is, and why he's currently robbing a bank. So Spider-Man goes with it; he finishes the robbery and makes sure no one gets hurt. Then once he escapes and gets back to his lair he does a web search for Spider-Man. And what comes up? What does it say in the digital archives of "The Daily Bugle?" "Spider-Man: Menace!"


There are hundreds of stories about all the weird crimes committed by Spider-Man and as far as Peter knows he's a bad guy. So suddenly he has to come to terms with the fact that he sure doesn't feel like a criminal or a bad guy, but clearly he's robbing banks. So it's a fun story.

What was exciting about it, and something that Dan and I talked about and this something Dan explored in "Superior Spider-Man," is the idea of what makes a hero? Is it the body? The Mind? Or the experiences? So we get to strip away all that stuff and at his core you have Peter Parker. You have a blank Peter Parker who has to come to terms with all these things that took him years to come to terms with.

It's a really fun story that I'm excited to be doing.

So essentially the Hollywood elevator pitch for this would be "Spider-Man Meets 'The Bourne Identity?'"

[Laughs] Exactly.

Dan Slott Readies the Return of Peter Parker and "Amazing Spider-Man"

You mentioned Peter Parker. That has me wondering about the continuity of this story and where it falls. Are you able to comment on that at all?

I can't say anything about that right now, but I can say that I feel very lucky because I got to tell a quintessential Peter Parker Spider-Man story. That's one of the things Dan really excels at.

This is a classic Spider-Man set up and getting to write Peter Parker as Spider-Man is a lot of fun. I did a one-shot where Spider-Man was Peter Parker, but most of the time [when I've written him] he's been Doc Ock, like in the "Alpha" miniseries. So having the chance to do Peter as Spider-Man is just so much fun.

How would you describe the pacing and tone of this story?

I wanted to hit that lighter tone that Dan was so good at and that I was doing in "Alpha." So it's much lighter and much more fun, and I don't get to do enough of those types of stories. I love writing crazy, funny, super hero comics and this is definitely an action comedy.

Let's talk a little more about your art team. Juan Bobillo is doing the line art. What do you feel he brings to the story as an artist?

I'm so excited. Working with Juan is a dream come true. I'm a huge fan of his work.

He's great with humor as evident from his work on Dan's [Slott] "She-Hulk" series years ago. I loved those comics so much.

Finally, what can you tell us about the supporting cast of "Who Am I?"

As Peter starts to figure out who he is we get some glimpses of his classic stories and villains. We get to see all the pieces of the Spider-Man mythos come back -- and then get ripped away again because I'm a jerk. [Laughs]

You'll see Mary Jane. There also might be another Spider-Man running around, which will beg the question is the Spider-Man we're following the Spider-Man? Or is something strange going on?

It's much more Spidey-centric. One of the things I love so much about the character is how well he functions without a lot of the stuff around him. The stuff around him is amazing, but he as a character stands up so well. He really works. So getting to do stories that deal just with Peter and not all these other elements around him is really satisfying.

The "Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I?" Infinite Comic debuts digitally in April.

you've just put some hope back in my B-day... hehehehe

@pedrada: I don't think he'd take such a risk, to "scramble" again with Peter's life after Superior. I believe the twist he's been talking about is Otto's "girlfriend will be pregnant.

@pedrada: And Happy Birthday, man!

You know what they say... "a burnt child dreads the fire..." and thanks BTW!

Cool beans, I am excite! But for serious, can we now look back at how crazy some of the reactions have been? It's been kind of a wild ride.

@pedrada: :)))

From Newsarama

PETER PARKER is Back But Doesn’t Know It in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Digital Comic

It seems everyone in the world knows Peter Parker is coming back to comics this April. But we’ve found one person who doesn’t know… Peter Parker.

As the all-new Amazing Spider-Man #1 hits this April showcasing the return of Parker to the land of the living and his classic red-and-blue costume, series writer Dan Slott is doing a second Spider-Man comic that finds Parker back – but unaware of who he is. In the upcoming digital comic Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I?, Slott and co-writer Joshua Hale Fialkov sees Parker wake up in an amnesiac state with no idea who he is. The thirteen-part story will see the web-crawler asking “Who am I?” as he learns about Spider-Man by reading accounts of the “criminal” in The Daily Bugle.

Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I? takes Peter Parker’s memories away to let readers find out who he his at the same time the character is as well. Newsarama spoke with Fialkov about this identity crisis for the returning hero, and the idea of finding out who you are from the best (and sometimes worst) places.

Newsarama: Josh, what can you tell us about Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I?

Joshua Hale Fialkov: It's so much fun to get to write Spider-man, and to do it at the feet of Dan Slott is an honor. I'm not 100% on why our editor Stephen Wacker told me I had to literally sit on the floor of Dan's apartment and wash his feet, but either way, an honor. Humiliating, sure, but an honor.

Dan had a tremendous idea for a Spidey story, and I was lucky enough to be the guy that gets to tell it with/for him. So it's a thirteen parter, following an amnesiac Spider-Man who finds himself falling on the “Threat And Menace” side of the Spidey mythos. He has to figure out who he is and whether he's really the monster everyone seems to think he is.

Nrama: Where does it start?

Fialkov: Well, as we meet Spider-Man, his memory is gone, and he's in the process of robbing a bank. Which, it seems, he's done a lot of both in the past few months, and after an online search of the Daily Bugle's archives, over the course of his adult life. He doesn't know that he IS a hero, but, that heroic nature keeps peeking it's nasty little head through.

Nrama: Spider-Man has fought crime and criminals for decades -- what makes this story different?

Fialkov: One of the brilliant things that Dan has done on his Spidey run that you see exemplified perfectly in this story (or at least, Dan's concept for it) is the idea of how much can you take away from Spidey and yet, let him be Spider-Man. Dan did it quite literally by switching the brain inside his head, and, even without a brain, we saw Spidey become a hero, in a darker way, obviously, but... With this, we're taking away all of his identity, all of his guilt, all of his knowledge of the past few years of his life as Spidey, and, letting him loose. Seeing if the man beneath all of the tragedy and mistakes that shaped him might be just as much of a hero.

Nrama: And how is Spider-Man going about stemming this crime wave?

Fialkov: Well, he's not 100% sure that he's supposed to. So, as he fumbles through it all, he does his best to make sure his goons don't hurt anybody, which is much harder than it seems, all while trying to figure out just how his memory got wiped and what the heck he's doing with these goons.

Nrama: Will there be any other familiar faces to look forward to in this story?

Fialkov: Oh yes, we have Iron Man show up, we have Mary Jane, and, my favorite guest star has got to be Spider-Man. Or, another Spider-Man. Maybe, in fact, the REAL Spider-Man.

Nrama: You've had the opportunity to write Spider-man once before -- Amazing Spider-Man #692 with the story "Just Right." It was a small little story, so has the idea of doing more with the web-crawler been eating at you since then?

Fialkov: Writing Spidey is just a wonderful, wonderful gig. As a character, there's never been a pop culture icon who's more relatable and more like every single person who reads him than Peter. Part of that, I suppose, is that each of us spends so much time fluctuating between self-doubt and self-aggrandization, and that's a big part of what makes Spidey, Spidey.

Nrama:Amazing Spider-Man: Who Am I? is being released in the Infinite Comics format; you were an early adopter of digital comics and doing more with them than just posting scans of pages. How are you going about utilizing the unique tools Infinite Comics has to offer?

Fialkov: The format was a big challenge for me, because I think of so much of what our job is as comic writers is pacing. And, we're ceding pacing to our collaborators and to our readers in a very... unique way. But, I'm extremely lucky to have JL, Geoffo, and Juan along for the ride. Those guys are all much, much smarter than me, and I'm extremely lucky to have them.

Amazing.

Can't wait for Peter to return!!!

This new variant for ASM#1. /drools

Preview is out.

EXCLUSIVE: SLOTT & RAMOS' "AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" #1 HITS 500K ORDERS + PREVIEW

Marvel has informed CBR exclusively that April's "Amazing Spider-Man" #1 has passed 500,000 copies in initial retailer orders. An exact number was not made available, and may change following next week's order cutoff.

That number would place it, based on Diamond estimates, as the highest initially ordered individual issue in the last decade. January 2009's "Amazing Spider-Man" #583, which featured a guest appearance from freshly elected President Barack Obama, totaled for more than 500,000 copies, but that number includes combined initial orders and reorders the subsequent month. By comparison, February 2014's reported top-selling comic of the month -- DC Comics' "Batman" #28 -- had estimated sales of 114,089 copies.

"I've been working in comics for over half of my life, and I've never seen fans react as quickly, as crazily, or as passionately about anything I've been a part of more than they have with the death and return of Peter Parker," "Amazing Spider-Man" writer Dan Slott said. "Speaking for the creative team on 'Big Time,' 'Superior,' and the all-new 'Amazing,' seeing that level of passion has been one of the great rewards of this run."

"Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created one of the greatest characters, not just in comics, but in all of fiction," Slott continued. "And thanks to legendary artists and writers like John Romita Sr. and Jr., Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, and on and on... he's stayed popular and relevant for over half a century. It's kind of silly, but Spider-Man, that wisecracking wall-crawler, is immortal now. He's folklore. He's myth. He's always going to be there for us, and for generations to come."

"Amazing Spider-Man" #1, written by Slott and illustrated by Humberto Ramos, marks the ongoing return of the flagship Spidey series following its temporary conclusion with December 2012's "Amazing Spider-Man" #700. The book was then replaced by "Superior Spider-Man," featuring Doctor Octopus' mind controlling Peter Parker's body. That story wraps with "Superior Spider-Man" #31, on sale April 16.

Gallery

I'm actually optimistic about the relaunch guess that shows how little I've learned.

So far am I the only one who doesn't find Silk interesting at all?

@teerack:

What I really find anoying is the fact that Spider-Man is the least powerful of all the Spiders.

Everyone gets better powers than he does. Heck even Kaine beats him by a long shot.

Now this Silk chick, that seems to be at the "center of the web" whatever the hell that means.

I never seen a hero so far off the center of his own universe.

@heavenlydarkdragon: The only people with better powers then Peter are Kaine and Silk. I'm find with Silk being the strongest Spider if she is meant to be the center of the web I never really got why people think a character being stronger and more unbeatable made them better.(That's actually a big part of why I don't think Silk is interesting at all.) It's better when the character actually has clear limits and has to be smart and over come real challenges. Kaine is physically superior to Peter but the big edge Peter has over Kaine is spidey-sense, spider-fu, and a genius level intellect, so I don't think Kaine could take Peter in a series fight.

wait!!! kaine doesn't have spider sense?

@master_thief:

Nope. No spider sense. And if he looses control of his anger his inner spider takes control and he becomes more spider than human.