From CBR
SPIDER-MANDATE: SLOTT PROMISES "MASSIVE, SEISMIC SHIFT IN SPIDEY'S WORLD"
Welcome to SPIDER-MANDATE, CBR's regular column featuring the lowdown on everything Spider-Man. Whether it's the core adventures in "Amazing Spider-Man," the upcoming "Civil War II" event or other titles in Spidey's corner of the Marvel Universe, Peter Parker and company have a lot on their plates.
If the Spider-Verse books are a family, "Amazing Spider-Man" is the Dad. He's been around the longest, gone through the most changes, and -- okay, fine, this is a terrible metaphor, but Dan Slott's "ASM" is the backbone of everything going on in the "does whatever a spider can" side of the Marvel Universe.
SPIDER-MANDATE: Lowe Delivers a State of the Spider-Verse Address
With the "Scorpio Rising" arc heading into high gear, an unstoppable enemy on the horizon in the enigmatic Regent (as well as the return of Mary Jane to the book), and a huge event coming sooner than you think with "Dead No More," CBR spoke Slott to get the inside scoop on all of the above. Plus, the writer answered a few of your fan questions, to boot!
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Larger Image 
Mary Jane's Iron Spider costume is part of a storyline,
not a on-the-cover-only image Cover art by Alex Ross |
Okay, let's talk about something you can talk about: the upcoming Regent arc. He was a big surprise, popping up in "Amazing Spider-Man #1," coming over from the "Secret Wars: Renew Your Vows" series. Is this the same Regent we know from Battleworld?
In the Battleworld version, you had the section on that wacky map which was called The Regency. When you think about it, all they really knew in their world was the Tri-State area. That's not as far as the world extended -- they just dealt with that.
This is a Regent that lives in our world, and sees the totality of it. We're also going to see more about why he's doing what he's doing. In Battleworld, he was doing it because he knew about this god named Doom, that was controlling their fates. Everything he was doing was to build up to a confrontation, to make himself as powerful as a god, to confront Doom. This Regent has a completely different set of motivations in our new, Marvel-Prime Universe.
Does Spider-Man know this Regent?
Nope. The Marvel-Prime Peter has no idea, but you can bet -- since we're doing a Regent story -- that yeah, there's going to be Peter and Mary Jane dealing with this. It's a way of bringing her back into the book.
She's been in "Iron Man" for a while, and their status quo is always interesting.
One of the things you haven't seen in Brian [Michael Bendis'] book is, Mary Jane has let Tony know she has Peter Parker's number on her phone. [But] Tony doesn't know how they really know each other. Peter doesn't know she's working for Tony. Tony doesn't know Peter is Spider-Man! There's a lot of fun things to play around with when we get the three of these guys together. There's going to be a lot of tension, and a lot of fun.
We also saw a teaser with Mary Jane in the Iron Spider, or Iron Jane costume -- whatever you want to call it.
I'm calling it Iron Spider! It's Iron Jane in the same way no one calls her "Spider-Gwen" in the book.
That's getting pretty far in the future, but what can you tease about that image?
It will come to pass. [Laughs] It's not one of those, "Hey, we showed it on the cover, but you never saw it in the book!" No, it's not one of those.
It happens around the same time as "Civil War II," and of course Peter first got the Iron Spider costume in "Civil War." Is there a tie-in there?
Eeeeeeh?
Great answer.
Good luck transcribing that one!
Dick Grayson -- great name -- says, "Peter has an interesting love life," which seems to be an understatement. "Any chance having Mary Jane or Carlie Cooper?"
No plans for Carlie at the moment. We've already seen that MJ is coming up. And we might start showing some sparks between Spidey and someone else, soon…
A superhero someone else, or a regular old person someone else?
Everyone is special, Alex. [Laughs]
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