Spider-Man Unlimited #3

This is the secret origin to 6th, the short I wrote for Spider-Man Unlimited #3, and if written well enough, this account will read as completely unnecessary, but it really illustrates the difference between my thinking right now and six years ago in how I approached writing a story. For the first couple years, I'd create these sprawling apocalyptic type epics built around complex action sequences, very obviously imitating the styles of Chuck Dixon, Warren Ellis, and Grant Morrison, but as often happens when we're wearing our influences too proudly, we ignore what makes them work. Attracted to the style and completely ignoring the substance, and the emotions driving the situations forward. I didn't get that without the feeling, there wasn't really a point. 



Now, the feeling is where everything starts, piss me off and I'll write a story about it, hurt my feelings and it becomes a series, catharsis broken into panels. I have questions and I'm scared of far more than I'm comfortable with, so you know, I'm writing comics about it, emotional investment cranked to its height, which makes the process both easier and harder. My old The Reserve story came from being frustrated over my pursuits at "breaking in,' feeling so close and yet incredibly far away from anything that resembled an end point. And end points are what 6th is about. 


The first draft of 6th wasn't about death, like the final draft ended up being, and centered around a cool little sequence between Spidey and Venom. Once Venom disappeared from the story, due to some contradictions with the villain's own series, I had to find another angle, and when the time came to make the first revision, simply adding the Vulture wasn't enough. It lacked that sense of weight and balance that was originally anchoring the fight scene, and for whatever reason, I'd been having bad thoughts that week. Probably has something to do with watching too much evening news, but if I'm pointing to one thing that just terrifies me, that was just messing with my head around that time, 
it was the notion of "untimely" death and the methodical pattern that leads to it. Death by split seconds.



It could've been a leftover from that horribly bizarre San Diego plane experience that found me sitting next to the emergency door, and the flight attendants having us practice going into our crash positions…just in case. I'm not one of those dumb ass dudes that believes they're invincible, and nothing bad can or will ever happen to them, but this was the first time I was confronted with an even remote possibility of death. With becoming one of those headlines we get to see every morning, before they move on to celebrity news and the weather. And all I could think about it were reasons not to slowly freak out, this damn Justin Timberlake song I couldn't get out of my head, and the fact that my comic writing legacy would now be a scripting job over someone else's plot, that I finished in five days. That's it right there, the idea that I won't have the chance to finish whatever it is I'm supposed to. Will likely never reach a point where I'm like, “you know what, that's it, I think I'm finished,” but I know it wasn’t anywhere near that window seat, looking out over the water. Not even close. 



So, the more revisions I completed, the stronger this aspect became in the narrative, and hopefully, the more individualized the story became. That was something that was incredibly important to me, that I was writing something that could only be related through Spider-Man. Writers are often cautioned against becoming too emotionally involved in characters which are owned by corporations, as your control over them is never unlimited; even though this is a smaller venue, I'm glad I went ahead and put this down. No one expects to change the world with eleven pages, but with any luck, something about this will stand out. 



Realizing that you may not have a chance to do better tomorrow, the almost orderly coincidence that influences or interrupts our day, and what this all means to a guy who can "feel" danger coming is what the story is ultimately about. The Vulture’s in it too, and Ale Garza's pencils effectively bring this crazy aerial dogfight to incredible life.

Originally published as Five Five Zero Four on SilverBulletComicBooks.com.