Well, if nothing else, this is certainly a change from media outlets ruining stories the day ahead of publication. Fox News, of all places, reveals the answer to “Who is Alpha?” tease for August’s 50th anniversary issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (Spoilers for those who don’t want to know, of course. Everyone else, click through the jump):
Alpha, it turns out, is Spider-Man’s new 15-year-old sidekick, Andy Maguire, who’ll receive super powers in an accident paralleling Peter Parker’s own origin that Parker himself is responsible for. But for those who think this is a bad idea, don’t worry; there’s already foreshadowing in the interview that things will ultimately go wrong:
Andy, Marvel editors and writers say, does not have a confidence problem. Like Parker of yesteryear, he is an outcast. However, Andy has a brashness, an edge, that Parker will find challenging, especially as he molds a potentially unpredictable teen who’s more powerful than he is. This may make Spider-Man and Alpha seem less Batman and Robin and more Odd Couple.
“If you put Spider-Man and Batman in the same situation, you’re going to have way more fun with Spider-Man,” said “Amazing Spider-Man” writer Dan Slott. “With Batman, he never really screws up the way Spider-Man does; he always seems to make the right decision. But with Spider-Man, he always screws up. He’s us as a superhero. Batman is a paragon of what we’d like to be, but in reality, we’re more like Spider-Man. He makes all the mistakes we make.”
Something tells me there’s already an “Alpha rebels against Spider-Man’s mentoring with dramatic results” denouement planned. Of course, that could just end up being insufferable…
June 27th, 2012 at 7:29 am
In other words, he’d make an… Alpha flight? (ba-dum-bum)
June 27th, 2012 at 7:39 am
Cool, i think, i know, which of spideys supporting cast dies next
(And by the way: Sidekicks, beside of robin, sucks…)
June 27th, 2012 at 7:58 am
As Bleeding Cool put it, wasn’t the last time Spider-Man was mentioned on Fox News when Glenn Beck was claiming that Miles Morales was the anti-christ? Or whatever Beck claimed. I guess Marvel and Fox News buried the hatchet.
Also, I can’t wrap my brain around this being a legitimate story. Something has to be going on underneath the surface. There’s no way Marvel and Dan Slott would create such a bland-looking character to play sidekick to Spider-Man in his flagship title…Graeme’s got it right. There’s got to be something darker planned.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:09 am
I wish it was a parrot.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:42 am
I wish I could still comment on the regular Newsarama stories without Facebook. (I refuse to use the Face.)
This, like everything else Slott does, could be really fun or sort of dull. Most of what Slott’s run has been fun, but of late the story arcs are getting a bit schlepped out and a bit repetitive. And I don’t really love how Spidey veers from Batman-level competent to a total buffoon, depending on the needs of the story. I can easily see the same thing happening here.
At least, however, this doesn’t involve a war.
June 27th, 2012 at 9:16 am
I would like, if he turns evil and takes over the Venom Symbiot from Flash.
Isnt there also a change in the creative team of venom im september? This could be a hint.
June 27th, 2012 at 9:30 am
And now that I’ve seen the preview, it does look interesting. OK, it’s one of those absurd “same thing happens again!” things that makes comics wonderful to some of us and terrible to many. Essentially, Andy is Wally West with an edge.
Which could really be interesting. If handled right. But isn’t that true of most ideas for stories?
June 27th, 2012 at 11:29 am
I agree with Felix, that he turns evil. That would be such a Marvel thing to do.
June 29th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Major new Spider-man character is…a blond, blue-eyed, white guy. Wow. Seriously missed chance to diversify Marvel U. Even if this character ends up going bad, wouldn’t the character being a woman make it at least *somewhat* more interesting? Or black? Or asian? Or…anything but the same old homogenous dude we’ve seen a million times?