Exclusive: Spider-Man Editor Nick Lowe Details Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen Romance, Clone Conspiracy Tie-Ins

This week saw the release of The Clone Conspiracy #1, beginning the next big event in the life of Spider-Man.

Like any major event, “The Clone Conspiracy” touches certain other titles as they tie into the events of the main event plot.

ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Marvel’s Spider-Man editor Nick Lowe about all things “Clone Conspiracy.” In the first half of our interview, Lowe discusses the core plot of “The Clone Conspiracy.” In this half, we discuss how Silk, Prowler, and Amazing Spider-Man all factor into the big event.

On top of all of that, Lowe teased the young romance between Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen, and shared with us some new artwork from Silk, Prowler, Spider-Man, and Spider-Gwen.

“The Clone Conspiracy” has a few tie-in books. One is Silk. What’s Cindy Moon’s role in this story?

NL: She’s got a really interesting arc because not only does her story here tie in with the main “Clone Conspiracy” story, and but it has a lot to do with J. Jonah Jameson who’s been a huge part of it from the very beginning. We’ve seen him dealing with the Jackal with his resurrected wife Marla. As we’ve shown on the cover of Silk, his adopted daughter, Mattie Franklin, is back, another resurrection that was given to J. Jonah Jameson, and becomes a huge figure in Silk. There’s been some death in her life as well and some of it very recent and you’ll see maybe some of that come back to haunt her in very interesting ways in the story.

You’re also launching The Prowler series, featuring Hobie Brown, who has been potentially compromised by the Jackal. How does that series play into “The Clone Conspiracy?”

NL: Prowler has been a character that Dan has pulled into the spotlight with our most recent Amazing Spider-Man #1. That has been something he’s been trying to get to for years at this point. Hobie is a great character. We’ve touched on him a little bit here and there as you’ve been going through this Amazing Spider-Man story, with the “Before Dead No More” stuff and now into “The Clone Conspiracy,” it’s been really, really fun to try and do.

In Amazing Spider-Man #17, our new Electro kills him, and the Jackal brings him back to life. We don’t get to see much of what that pitch was to him but you’ll see a lot of that in Prowler #1 and throughout “The Clone Conspiracy” of what Jackal actually does to convince people, beyond just, “Here’s your dead loved one” or “Here you are back from the dead.”

One of the neatest things about this is the Jackal has got a very compelling argument that he’s putting forward. So the Prowler has kind of become part of that. His book is really cool. Sean Ryan, who I obviously have a lot of faith in as a writer. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his run in Nova. He’s bringing forth some really cool ideas and working a little bit with Dan on that. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Sean there.

The other thing that is going to blow people’s mind is Jamal Campbell’s art. Javier Soltera’s doing layouts and Jamal Campbell, who’s been doing a bunch of covers for us for some time, he’s an incredibly talented artist. I think people are going to flip their lids when they see his interior art on this book.

How do The Clone Conspiracy issues interact with the core Amazing Spider-Man series during the event?

NL: My biggest note to Dan is often, “There’s no way you’re going to fit this in 20 pages,” and he fits way more than I ever think he’ll fit, but he certainly never fits all of his ideas. So much ends up on the cutting room floor and that was certainly true of “The Clone Conspiracy” as well.

Originally the plan was for it to run in issues of Amazing Spider-Man, but it got bigger and bigger and bigger and we needed more real estate to tell all these stories that he had to tell. The first issue tying you into Amazing Spider-Man expands upon Doctor Octopus and how he’s back and what that process was like. You got a taste of it in Amazing Spider-Man #18, with the Living Brain stuff in there. But Amazing Spider-Man #20 fills in a lot of the blanks of how the heck Doc Ock is here and alive. These are all co-written by Christos Gage, and he’s doing terrific work with Dan, just like they have for a long time.

The second issue deals a lot with the Scarlet Spider and reintroducing Kaine into the Spider-Man side of the Marvel Universe.

After that, we’ve got an issue revealing a lot of the details about Gwen Stacy. In The Clone Conspiracy #1, we have an incredible backup story by Dan and by Ron Frenz that is just fantastic. We’re going to be dealing with more of that in Amazing Spider-Man #22 and #23. Then I can’t even tell you what #24 is because it has too much spoilerish stuff to even talk about at this point.

Stepping away from “The Clone Conspiracy,” the Marvel NOW! catalog teased some romance between Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales. Long-distance relationships are hard enough when they span multiple dimensions. How does this work for Miles and Gwen?

NL: Brian Bendis and Jason Latour and I and my group have been talking a lot about this kind of couple. We talked one of the last times they were both in town. We talked on the phone a ton about what this story is and how to do it right. You’re absolutely right. Like you said, crossing dimensions, getting to know people is very, very difficult. This isn’t really a by the numbers romance, although maybe metaphorically it can be, but it’s a really incredible story that spans dimensions but is also incredibly human story. I’m very excited for people to read it. It’ll be really be hitting big in January so we’re excited for everybody to see that. That’s going to be a great big story for both of them.