Spider-Man may be going Beyond with cool new gadgets and corporate backing in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, but Joe Kelly and Gerardo Sandoval are about to take the wall-crawler in a decidedly different direction. Marvel has announced Savage Spider-Man, a new five-issue miniseries from the writer and artist, with cover artist Nick Bradshaw, set to debut in February. No colorist, letterer, or additional members of the creative team were named in the announcement. The series, which spins out of the events of the Kelly-written Non-Stop Spider-Man, sees Peter Parker undergo a startling transformation, turning into…something else.
Here’s how Marvel describes Savage Spider-Man:
Peter Parker finds himself at the middle of the biggest, most wide-ranging adventure he’s ever had and out of the gate it has turned him into a savage beast! Forget everything you know about Spider-Man. All rules and regulations are out the door and Peter Parker may never be the same!
In a statement announcing the series, artist Gerardo Sandoval described the challenge of working on this particular Spider-Man comic compared to your average Spidey tale:
“Spider-Man is always a huge challenge to draw, he’s not an easy character for an artist. But at the same time Spider-Man is a huge joy to draw and now we have a Savage Spider-Man who provides an even bigger challenge for an artist,” says Sandoval. “I have the pages that I am working on and I can say that I am doing my best work here for sure. Joe Kelly is the kind of writer that understands an artist needs enough room to create great illustrations and it makes my work easier and more fun. I really hope you enjoy this new book as much as I do!”
Savage Spider-Man won’t be the first time that Peter Parker has been transformed into a human-sized Man-Spider. A story by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden featured in early issues of Marvel Fanfare saw Spidey and Angel travel to the Savage Land, where they were captured and experimented on by the Savage Land Mutates, who ‘de-volved’ them into giant beasts.
Spidey’s Man-Spider mutation was also famously adapted as part of the “Neogenic Nightmare” storyline on the ’90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. What similarity Savage Spider-Man will have, if any, to those previous storylines remains to be seen, but you can expect the body horror to be on full-display either way.
Savage Spider-Man #1 (of 5) arrives in stores and digitally in February 2022.
