Mark Millar: It’s probably a combination of all three. I’m trying to write the most interesting and far-reaching Spider-Man story I can and have an idea that basically revamps all his major villains. I didn’t grow up with Venom, but I appreciate how intrinsic he’s become to Spider-Man mythology. Even Sam [Raimi] is talking about using him in Spider-Man 3 and elevating him to household name status. I have more of a fondness for the Ditko villains.

NRAMA: That said though, how did you get your hooks into him, creatively, to make him interesting enough for you to care about him, at least for his appearances in the three issues?

MM: Well, the Evil Duplicate idea is always surprisingly resonant. He’s a very simple, visually appealing idea and the affection kids in particular have for him proves to me that having this big, epic Spider-Man story without one of his Big Three villains would feel a little hollow. I also came up with a take on him that I particularly liked. I thought of ways he could move and fight we haven’t really seen before, but the actual hook that brings him into the story allows me to explore the super-villain subculture in a way that hasn’t really been touched upon very much.

The villains always really interest me and, as I write issue nine of this series and look back at the earlier issues, I can see that revamping the villains has been a subconscious objective. Spider-Man has a great Rogues Gallery and yet I’ve seen so many stories – especially through the ‘90s – where they were portrayed as goofy or funny. They never seemed funny to me at all. Ditko and Lee really instilled some of that Astonishing Tales kind of creepiness in these characters and I wanted to get back to that. I wanted to make Electro, The Vulture and The Owl all big players and all serious threats. This arc focuses a little more on Green Goblin again and Doctor Octopus to some extent, but Venom really takes centre stage in the middle act.

NRAMA: Speaking of all the various villains, you’ve been running through them wholesale in a fairly logical manner, as Spider-Man thinks, or is lead to think that they may have something to do with Aunt May’s disappearance, or, in the case of the Vulture, swooping in at his moment of weakness. How is Venom tied into all of that?

MM: Well, I really see this story-line as a weighty twelve issue in three acts. The plot becomes increasingly complex as the series progresses and absolutely nothing has been done that doesn’t tie together with upcoming scenes or lines in the upcoming acts. In terms of plotting, it’s the most complex thing I’ve ever attempted and I’m honestly lying in bed at night unable to stop thinking about it. Pretty much every villain you can imagine gets a little screen-time in this first year and the plots and characters introduced in “Down Among the Dead Men” (Act One) slip into the background a little as we continue the main through-line, but bring Eddie Brock into the mix for Act Two and “Venomous.”

At the end of issue five, we’re given hints that someone or something has been doing ‘tests’ on Spider-Man’s villains and what started as a small, personal vendetta might actually be bigger and more far-reaching than we initially thought. Also, Venom seems to have been brought into the story by a third party who’s playing on the fact that he doesn’t want to be Venom anymore.

NRAMA: So this does tie-in to what’s been going on with the character elsewhere?

MM: Right. His last few outings – in Spectacular Spider-Man and other places – has seen a real resignation to Eddie Brock as opposed to the spitting Venom that his character had when he started. He’s matured and the fight just seems to have gone out of him. I like the fact that he’s a basically decent guy and openly religious and so I based his story a bit on the serial killer in Germany who handed himself over to the police and confessed everything after watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion. Paul [Jenkins] introduced the notion that Eddie had cancer and the symbiote was the only thing keeping him alive. Well, after seeing The Passion, Eddie decides that the cancer was really God’s judgment on the way he lived his life and he wants this black, sticky thing exorcised from his heart. He wants to die.

NRAMA: Does that mean a new Venom?

MM: Possibly.

NRAMA: Stepping back for a moment, let’s continue about Eddie Brock – who is he in your hands?

MM: Eddie Brock always struck me as a good guy gone bad. He only really had a problem with Spider-Man and so his redemption isn’t really that hard to swallow. The symbiote, on the other hand, should be terrifying. I really see this thing as almost satanic and we have a lot of fun with the character in this arc. He’s lurking between the panels for the first half and then all Hell breaks loose. The fight between Spidey and Venom is issue #8 is being drawn by Cho right now and it looks absolutely stunning. Frank has done issues #5 and #8 and Terry and Rachel are drawing issues #6 and #7. It’s the best work I’ve ever seen from either of them. Terry, by the way, will be drawing the concluding act. This is called “The Last Stand” and it runs for issues #9 through #12.

NRAMA: Alright – along the storyline then, Venom shows up in issue #5, but the cover of issue #6 shows Spider-Man and the X-Men. How is one thing related to another? Spidey looks for
help from people he hasn’t pissed off recently?

MM: The thing I really wanted to explore here is what superheroes do when they have a problem. Spider-Man has always been really big on keeping his identity a secret. His Aunt May and Mary-Jane are the two people he’s closest to in the world and yet they both only found out relatively recently so we’re really not in a Reed Richards situation. Someone figuring out who he is was the reason Gwen Stacy died. If his identity had stayed a secret from Osborn Peter would be married to Gwen right now and Kirsten Dunst would have paid ten bucks to see the movie just like the rest of us. For this reason, someone discovering his secret ID has enormous psychological ramifications for him and the villains knows it. That’s why they’re dragging this out and why all these other stories in the individual acts are coming into play.

What I have here is really three Spider-Man arcs, but they’ve been woven carefully into the mix and by act three you’ll really see how they all work together. Issue #9 is a real eye-opener. This is the issue where we find out what really happened to Aunt May and why. It’s also going to have huge ramifications on Spider-Man’s villains and, without destroying anything, make you think differently about almost every issue from, say, around the middle of the Ditko run on the title.

NRAMA: And so…the X-Men?

MM: Anyway, like I was saying, this is a story about what superheroes do when they’re in trouble. Who do they turn to? The Avengers can’t help without him saying who he is. The FF can’t find her. SHIELD can’t find her. And so he decides to visit one of the X-Men’s psychics and see what they can figure out. But I wanted to make Peter very isolated. He’s a loner. He solves problems– and makes mistakes– by himself. Even when he gets help from other people it usually doesn’t work out. This isn’t a team-up or anything. You don’t have a spread of Spidey swinging alongside a charging gang of X-Men saying “Okay, guys, let’s go find Aunt May.” That works well for the more 2D characters like the JLA where everything is primary-colored, but Peter’s always been done realistically and I just wanted to put myself in his shoes. Aunt May has been the most important part of his life since his parents died. He’s going to be at the end of his tether.

NRAMA: Fair enough, Back to Venom – the solicits for issue #7 show a costume design for Venom – full on eight eyes and a new facial design. Your idea or was Terry or Frank bored with the old look?

MM: You’ll see when you read the issue. I don’t want to give too much away, but we had to redesign Venom a little for this story-line.

NRAMA: Does Venom bring any friends into the mix, or is it just him?

MM: We only get a quick look at Eddie in issue #5, but it all comes together in issue #6. I think this and issue seven pretty much feature every villain Spider-Man has ever fought in forty years. This was a huge amount of work because, since the book is in-continuity, we had to find out who was out of prison, what they looked like now, who died in a 1994 mini-series we hadn’t read and so on. The guys at Spiderfan have been an invaluable help on all this. We’ve got this all just so bloody watertight. I think a character like Spider-Man, with such a rich history, needs to have that history respected. I know it’s been fashionable to say that continuity doesn’t matter, but for Spider-Man it really does matter because so many people have invested in those story-lines and a living, breathing world has been created here. Besides, continuity can really work to your advantage to. The fact that the Goblin had never been thrown in jail before or made as public as he’s being done now really is a massive part of this series. Nothing has happened here by accident.

NRAMA: Speaking of the art for a minute…you’ve got Frank and Terry at your disposal on this series, and what do you have them draw – no, not hot chicks, but an ooey, gooey
bad guy who’s looking to put the hurt on Spider-Man. What is wrong with you, anyway?

MM: Doesn’t everybody get their wife to dress up as Venom?

NRAMA: Something you want to confess?

MM: Not now, no.

NRAMA: Okay then. So far, the fan response to the storyline has been…kind of
mixed. Any thoughts as to why the story you and Terry (and Frank) are telling may not be everyone’s cuppa?

MM: For the most part it’s actually been very good. X-Fan and all the other main review sites have given the issues Very Good to Excellent every month and we’ve been pretty consistently the number one or number two book over at Herorealm. The first issue was probably the most widely praised thing I’ve ever worked on. I don’t think I saw a single review that wasn’t weirdly glowing. Even the guys who hate me like aintitcool were tossing platitudes so overall the reaction has been great, but that Avengers scene just killed it for some people. I spoke to Stan recently and we talked about how Spidey was always the perennial outsider and uncomfortable around other superheroes and that’s what the scene was all about, but that scene alone seemed to send a few people off screaming and turned them against the book.

Most reviews have been really good, but the guys who hate it hate it really loudly and that’s naturally a bit of a pain. It’s their right, of course, but it’s an unusual take on a character that’s very well known and that’s never going to be 100% easy. I have a very particular vision for this book and that won’t be to everyone’s taste. Fortunately, the people who love it really love it and that seems to be the long-time Spider-Man fans in particular. They’re really who this book is aimed at. I think, as the issues progress, even the guys who don’t like it will see what I’m doing and get into it. This first year, as I keep saying, is a very ambitious plan. I really love Spider-Man and came into this wanting to write one of those stories you can stick on your shelf with the best of them.

NRAMA: Right – you recently said that about your upcoming run on Wolverine…

MM: I honestly approach every project I do with that attitude. I try, to the best of my abilities, to give people the best Spider-Man or the best Wolverine or the best Superman story they’ve read. I think coming into a project with any less intention is cheating people out of money. I feel that same electricity with this plot that I felt when I was emailing off Red Son. I hope and pray this is one for posterity because there’s a huge amount of love behind it. That said, I’ll never actually read it once it comes out. I was reading an interview with Woody Allen this morning in The Observer and he says the same thing. I honestly think about these stories when I’m having breakfast, when I’m watching a movie or when someone is even talking to me. I obsess over a project while I’m working on it and read it over again and again to the point where I can’t do anything else and then I send it to the editor. From that point on, I never look at it again. I’ve never re-read any issues of The Ultimates. I’ve never re-read any issues of The Authority, Red Son, Superman Adventures, Swamp Thing or anything I’ve done in the past. Even Wanted and Chosen and The Unfunnies are still lying in their comp boxes. I look at the artwork – because the art is eighty per cent of it to me and I work with the artists I most admire, but I can never actually read the comics because, as Woody Allen says, all you can see are the bits and pieces you would do a different, better way with the benefit of four months hindsight.

I don’t say this with any false modesty. I’m also very aware that my work is fortunate enough to find its way into the homes of a huge number of people. My Marvel works sells very, very well and even my little creator-owned projects – originally written for fun – have ended up selling better than some X-Men and Spider-Man books and are now being bought as movies and games. I’m enormously grateful for this and it’s bringing me a lot of good luck, but I’ve never been one to swallow my own press. I think a few people make this mistake and they’ll be very disappointed when the clapping stops. Because it will. It has to, especially for the guys who’ve been doing it longer than me and it’s going to be very painful if you believe all the good stuff people write about you.

Alan Moore told me he’s never read a single thing he’s ever written once he’s sent it away. I just write the stories that are in my head in the hope that one day I’ll write the perfect comic. I’m always amazed to see people saying they can fire out stories and find it easy. The only thing your body can fire out easily is diarrhea and I want my comics to be a little better than that. I find it difficult, but I think that’s a positive thing because it means you’ll always try your best to make whatever you’re working on better than the last

NRAMA: Speaking of making things better than the last, “Venomous” wraps in #8. You’re close to running out of villains…what’s coming next?

MM: Act Three, starting in issue nine, pulls everything together. Aunt May disappeared in issue one and there’s been no phone calls and very little clues – except a couple in issue six. This didn’t happen by accident. Someone is sitting in the background and wearing Spider-Man down and down until the point where he/she/they come forward and explain everything in issue nine and what this has all been about. We get some more clues through Venomous, of course, but this is also an almost self-contained story. Issue eight probably has the best, most Spider-Man-like scene I’ve ever written. I wanted to play around with the usual Spider-Man lore like the love triangle with two cute girls, the Bugle offering five million dollars for the name of the guy behind the torn mask, Peter’s money problems, etc, and do them all in a whole new way. However, there’s a little scene at the conclusion to issue eight that just had me so pleased I switched off the computer and took the afternoon off after I completed it. Now if I’m hit by a bus and I can die happily knowing that I’ve written a perfect little Spider-Man moment.

Issue #9, the issue I’m writing right now, has a real weight because even the very small appearances throughout the series so far really come into force and we kick off with a flashback to Peter as a little kid, crying up in his room. We often forget that Peter really was the weediest kid in school prior to getting bitten by the spider and I’ve got this scene where he’s sitting in his bed in his pajamas and crying and Uncle Ben comes in and asks him what’s wrong. Has Flash been bullying him again, etc? He just sits there and won’t say anything, but eventually confesses that he’s just noticed how Ben and May are thirty years older than everyone else’s parents and he’s only just realized that they’re going to die long before everyone’s else’s parents, leaving him alone again. Ben consoles him and promises they aren’t going anywhere and nothing bad will ever happen to him and we’re left with this horrible, ominous feeling. Pretty much everybody Peter has ever loved– from Gwen to Ben to Harry to his Mom and Dad– and now possibly May have been killed prematurely.

That’s the theme behind Act Three and the drive that makes Spider-Man do something we might not have considered he would do before. I’m really pushing a lot of buttons with the final act and both the mystery and the twist is a good one.