Amazing Spider-Man #700: Some Commentary From J.M. DeMatteis

Veteran writer J.M. DeMatteis, the writer of the classic Spider-Man story Kraven’s Last Hunt, came back to provide a touching back-up feature in last week’s Amazing Spider-Man #700, the series’s final issue and the last in-continuity appearance of Peter Parker as Spider-Man (at least for now).Interestingly, as we’ve noted elsewhere, DeMatteis’s Kraven’s Last Hunt is a story that features the same kind of desperate madness that imbued Dan Slott’s “Dying Wish” storyline and kicked off Superior Spider-Man and concluded in ASM #700. After having apparently killed Spider-Man and buried Peter Parker, Kraven’s Last Hunt also features Kraven donning Spidey’s tights briefly to prove he’s, ahem, superior to Spider-Man.DeMatteis joined ComicBook.com to talk about his story, “Spider-Dreams,” and its connection to the mythology he’s crafted with the character and elsewhere in his career over the years.Does it feel a bit like a “greatest hits tour” when you end up doing stories for characters you’ve been associated with for years? You had a run on (Blue Beetle &) Booster Gold, followed by the JLI one-shot and now this.No.In fact, one of the things I wanted to avoid with this Spider-Man story was a “greatest hits” feeling.I wanted to do a Spidey story that was very different from any I’d done before…and yet would pay tribute to the history of this character I love.Not just a tribute to Spider-Man’s general history, but to my own personalhistory writing Peter Parker’s adventures.I hope I succeeded.