Exclusive: Spider-Man Editor Nick Lowe Explores Life And Death With The Clone Conspiracy

10/12/2016 03:02 pm EDT

Today, everything that "Dead No More" has been building up to in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man begins to come to fruition.

The Clone Conspiracy #1 hit stands today and began the new Spider-Man event with a bang. ComicBook.com spoke to Spider-Man group editor about Nick Lowe about what fans should expect from The Clone Conspiracy, and what new aspects of Spider-Man's life it will examine.

Also, be sure to check out exclusive The Clone Conspiracy #2 artwork in the gallery below. Check back on Friday for the second part of our interview with Nick Lowe, where we'll talk about how Silk and The Prowler tie into "The Clone Conspiracy" and about the blossoming romances between Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales!

How and when was "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" first conceived?

Nick Lowe: It'll be three years in January that I've been managing the Spider-Man line. The funny thing is that Dan had already been laying seeds for it I believe two or three years before that.

Pretty much from the first time the Jackal appeared in Dan's run is when he had started laying seeds for that. We'd been talking in earnest as far back as when we were in the middle of "Spider-Verse." I said, "Let's put the pin in exactly what our next Spider-Man event is after 'Spider-Verse.' What are we going to do?" This is something that had been living in his head for quite some time. We talked about it. He convinced me that it was a big story, but not quite that it was an event yet because we were still trying to figure out the details of it.

We decided on this at the launch of our most recent Amazing Spider-Man #1. You see the start of it there and then #2 where we got the man in red, which was the Jackal's new look. We pretty much knew that "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" would be our big hit, our big event, and then started working in earnest towards it for the last 19 issues.

A single creator sticking on a series for years-long runs isn't as common as used to be, but Dan Slott has been an exception. He's been on Spider-Man for more than five years now. What is it about Slott hat has him so dialed into Spider-Man?

NL: I completely agree with you. Even when Dan had started, the multi-year run was something that had kind of going out of vogue and everyone was doing either 12-issue or 24-issue runs at most. It's kind of a tribute to Dan, especially Dan, but also Steve Wacker for putting him on the books solo and putting him on in the first place, then Dan Buckley and Joe Quesada and Axel Alonso.

I feel like what makes Dan perfect is that in many ways he is Peter Parker. He's an incredibly funny guy. He's found a lot more success, personal success than your usual Spider-Man, mainly because he probably doesn't throw on tights and fight super villains. He's also the kind of guy who will put his foot in his mouth sometimes, just like Peter does. He's got a huge heart. He'll always fight the good fight in a lot of ways. Sometimes he drives me crazy because I'm the one he's fighting. He's just got such a great heart for this.

The other thing is, as an editor, so much of what I do is try to think about, "Who do I want to write and who do I want to draw this book?" So many times you cast a writer who you think has got a good ear for the character, they've got a voice but who won't take risks. I've seen so many writers come and go, immensely talented writers who started writing a book and the stakes never get too high. I think it's often because they're afraid to really test the character and they're so afraid of breaking them that they don't put them under the fire.

That's definitely not something that Dan worries about. Dan has put Peter in some of the most extreme positions that anyone ever has. Just look at Superior Spider-Man. You're like, "Boy oh boy did he stretch this character to the limit there," where I thought people were going to riot in the streets from people's reaction to the announcement of Superior Spider-Man.

He's not afraid to try new things. But that's been such a huge thing and it's something that people don't do all the time. You think that Captain America is Captain America. You think Thor is Thor and sometimes people give you an opinion that they want them trapped in a Simpsons-esque bubble where nobody ages and you have your status quo.

I love The Simpsons, but Marvel Comics aren't that. Sometimes people try to say they should be or think they should be. But one of the beautiful things about them is that the characters change and they look different and sometimes it's as subtle as going from one artist to another artist and seeing how different John Romita's Spider-Man was from Steve Ditko's. Then going from that to Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man, to Humberto Ramos' Spider-Man, and so on and so forth. Then writers, the same kind of thing. Dan was one of the first writers that I can think of in a long, long time who put Peter so far from his status quo, and that's a brave move. That's a really brave move. I think it's that courage that makes Dan who he is and makes this run what it is.

"The Clone Conspiracy" is a spiritual, if not direct, sequel to "The Clone Saga," which is a story that fans have pretty strong opinions about one way or the other. Was there ever any worry about reopening an old wound, in that regard?

NL: Oh yeah. Calling this "The Clone Conspiracy," that's another very courageous move of Dan's, because "clone" is a dirty word for a lot of Spider-Man fans. It's really interesting to look at how different Spider-Man fans react to the word "clone." Even Dan kind of waffled on using the word "clone" inside the story and outside the story because he has such a reaction to that story.

That was kind of when we knew it was right. We're like, "Oh, we're putting Peter through some extreme things here." That was one of the things that made me think, "Okay, we really got something here."

I will be honest with you, when he pitched this story to me, I was like, "Dan, I don't think we can do this." This story goes to such dark places. I was like, "I don't know if we can do this. This is really crazy." We talked, and we beat it up and beat it up and we'd have these disagreements on what is fair play and what isn't, but it got to be the point where he had enough of these big moments and enough big story for Peter and also for his big tapestry.

I'm not spoiling anything talking about Dr. Octopus. Doc Ock is a huge part of Dan's run from the get go. He is a huge part of this story. His plan for the Jackal, we've kind of shown you guys the tip of the iceberg here. I think people are going to lose their minds as the read the story and then see what we've got coming for them. The pitchforks might come out again. I'll just leave it at that.

A lot of the hype around "The Clone Conspiracy" has concerned the return of so many of Spidey-Man's rogues. Amazing Spider-Man #19, the last lead-in issue, featured no villain at all, but was instead a really personal, tragic, and very "Spider-Man" kind of story, with the death of Jay Jameson. Why hit that note before heading into "The Clone Conspiracy" in earnest?

NL: It was something that Dan and I cooked up, emphasis on Dan. We knew we were playing with a story where it's about dead people rising. We knew that there had to be something that really hit home with Peter as part of this story and we thought, "What does death mean to him?" That was why the story about this death of someone very close to Peter came to fruition.

It was a very difficult story to decide on because Dan and I both love Jay and he's been such a special piece of this puzzle from the time we met him. I remember being so shocked when Mark Waid and Marcos Martin introduced him. The role he played in Peter's life and with Aunt May and all this kind of stuff, it was just such an interesting fun addition. It was a very difficult decision to say, "Okay let's do it."

But I'm very proud of the work that the whole team did on that issue. Dan and Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith inked, and Jason Keith as the colorist. I'm also incredibly proud of that backup story in it which tells you kind of like the other side of the Free Comic Book Day issue story with the Kingpin and the Rhino, which I think is one of the better short stories that we've ever done. I'm very, very proud of that story.

It is clear from that story that the Kingpin isn't done with the Jackal yet. How would you describe the Kingpin's role in "The Clone Conspiracy"?

NL: You've hit the nail on the head. You have not seen the last of Wilson Fisk in this story. I don't want to give away too much of what his plan is, but he plays a pretty big role in "The Clone Conspiracy," and that might not be the end of his role in the story. Remember, he was a Spider-Man character first, before he rose to such heights with Daredevil. I think Dan's ideas for him have been really interesting and really different than what we're used to seeing him do.

What is the overall theme of "The Clone Conspiracy?" You mentioned examining Spider-Man's relationship to death, which has been foreshadowed in Amazing Spider-Man already.

NL: The overall theme of "The Clone Conspiracy" comes down to "What is life and what is death?" The Jackal very much in the story blurs the line between death and life and also what makes a person a person And how does Peter deal with death? This is such an unusual Spider-Man story in so many ways because there's a lot of detective work he's doing in the story, but also several revelations that he gets really throw him on his ass. They floor him. He has to face these things straight on and think about what it all means. If you can get someone you love back, should you? And what would you do to do that? What are you willing to sacrifice, or what of your morals and ethics are you willing to compromise for the people you love?

I love this story. I think it's so interesting because it also touches on a lot of things in the news. I heard a story on the morning news on NPR that there are people experimenting with human embryos and human embryo stem cells and cloning and stuff in Norway. I remember hearing a few months back that Dolly, who was a famous clone sheep, there's still some of Dolly's, I don't know if you call them sisters or something like that, who are still alive and roaming the plains in I think Great Britain, in England. These are things that we're going to be dealing with.

While Amazing Spider-Man #19 was a quieter episode, The Clone Conspiracy #1 really hit the ground rounding. Should fans expect the series to keep up this pace and really action-heavy tone all the way through?

NL: We definitely have a lot of that. One thing I want to trumpet is how amazing Jim Cheung is and the art that he's doing on this series has been just incredible. When you've got Jim Cheung, you want to give him some cool stuff to draw and that has been very helpful. He's such a classic Marvel artist. He draws Marvel characters and they just feel right. It's been a pleasure just to get his pages in.

It's pretty action packed. There are definitely some quiet moments that we've got coming and some parts where there's calm before the storm, but there's a lot of action in the first two issues. Then the last issue and a half are especially crazy. We're putting the finishing touches on those scripts right now. It goes huge and crazy and interesting and troubling, and then really troubling. There's a good amount of action but some really nice quiet moments as well. People aren't going to know what hit them in the story. I don't think we've had a Spider-Man story like this.

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