Chip Zdarsky just can’t stay away from Spider-Man. The former Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Life Story writer is returning to the character with another alternate history tale. Illustrated by Pasqual Ferry and Matt Hollingsworth, Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow will follow a Peter Parker who never gave up his alien costume, and the dramatic turns his life takes as a result. The miniseries of unidentified length will feature covers by Phil Noto. No letterer has yet been announced for the title.
Here’s how Marvel describes Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow:
Peter Parker once put on an alien suit that nearly destroyed his life – but what if he’d never taken it off? Ignoring every warning, Spidey embraces the dark symbiote! Haunted by terrible nightmares and exhausted by an endless barrage of bad guys, Peter can’t seem to catch a break these days. So when the Hobgoblin attacks, he finds a hero at the end of his rope… and vulnerable to new dark impulses. Spider-Man is about to change his rules – but is it truly Peter who is in charge?
Along with the announcement, Marvel has debuted a pair of interior pages by Ferry and Hollingsworth, which feature the black-suited Spider-Man in battle against The Hobgoblin.
Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow is said to be kicking off a new line of What If stories for the publisher, in which classic storylines are reimagined with new endings or elements added. The question of what would have happened had Peter kept the symbiote is one that’s been addressed in one of those reimaginings before, though 1989’s What If…? #4 found Peter unable to remove the suit upon discovering it was alive, with the symbiote eventually taking over Peter’s body completely and destroying it before moving on to other hosts including Thor and The Hulk.
Symbiotes have been all the rage at Marvel for the past several years, with the success of the Venom ongoing series spawning not one but two event series, 2019’s Absolute Carnage and the currently ongoing The King in Black. Peter himself has appeared in the alien costume in flashback tales during recent years, including a paid of Symbiote Spider-Man miniseries and a handful of one-shot event tie-ins.
Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #1 arrives in stores in April.
How is this different the Symbiote Spider-Man series that has been running for a while, I wonder.
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