Venom and Spider-Man are horrified by Carnage’s plans for Norman Osborn in Absolute Carnage Vol.1 #1 “Chapter One: The Bleeding King” (2019), Marvel Comics. Words by Donny Cates, art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin Jr., and Clayton Cowles.
Like most everyone who has either read or worked on the wall-crawler’s more recent print adventures, former Venom Vol. 4 writer Donny Cates is not a fan of Marvel Comics’ continued insistence that of all the medium’s costumed characters, from Captain America to Superman, Spider-Man is the only one who is not allowed to experience any sort of lasting growth, character development, or status quo shake-up.
Peter Parker receives a visitor in Absolute Carnage Vol.1 #1 “Chapter One: The Bleeding King” (2019), Marvel Comics. Words by Donny Cates, art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin Jr., and Clayton Cowles.
Cates, who also wrote brief runs on Hulk Vol. 5 and Thor Vol. 6 before a near-fatal car accident brought his comic book career to a sudden-but-temporary halt, shared his frustration with Marvel Comics’ editorial during a recent interview given to Popverse’s Dave Buesing.
Venom comes clean to Spider-Man about his son Dylan in Absolute Carnage Vol.1 #1 “Chapter One: The Bleeding King” (2019), Marvel Comics. Words by Donny Cates, art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin Jr., and Clayton Cowles.
Amidst a discussion on his now-abandoned pitch for Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 3, which he was originally tapped to relaunch before his accident took him off the board, Cates noted that similar to the book’s current direction under Jonathan Hickman, “My entire pitch for [Ultimate Spider-Man] was that people want him to be married, to have kids.”
“Do it for them!” he exclaimed. “What are we doing here? There’s an entire contingent of people screaming for him and Mary-Jane.”
“It’s like we have a Chili’s, you have people screaming for ice cream [and Marvel Comics is saying], ‘No, f–k you, we don’t have ice cream,’” Cates added. “[It’s like,] ‘Sell ice cream! What the f–k’s wrong with you?’”
Mary-Jane and Peter take to the skies of New York City in Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #1 (2024), Marvel Comics. Words by Jonathan Hickman, art by Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson, and Cory Petit.
To this end, the King in Black event architect then explained that Marvel’s refusal to roll back the events of One More Day stemmed from the fact that the publisher “doesn’t want to give him kids and a wife because the character is evergreen.”
“Eventually, when you give him the wife and kids, eventually what’s gonna happen is either he’s gonna have adult kids and you have a grandfather as Spider-Man, or he’s gonna lose a child, or he’s gonna get a divorce,” Cates detailed. “That’s their reasoning. That taints Spider-Man over time.”
Spider-Man does his best to reassure Dylan Brock following the supposed death of his father Eddie in Venom Vol. 4 #33 “Agents Venom” (2021), Marvel Comics. Words by Donny Cates, art by Iban Coello, Jesus Aburtov, and Clayton Cowles.
However, while the publisher’s editorial team may believe keeping the web-slinger in this state of arrested development is the sole way to keep him relevant to newer readers, Cates argues that this reasoning is not only disingenuous, but outright bulls–t.
“My argument would be he killed Gwen Stacy like a year into it,” said the Absolute Carnage Vol. 1 scribe. “He broke that b-tches’ neck. He’s okay. He’s been divorced. All these things have already happened.”
Peter shares his fears with Mary-Jane in Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 3 #14 (2025), Marvel Comics. Words by Jonathan Hickman, art by Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson, and Cory Petit.
“The way that I think of these characters is that you don’t honor these characters by treating them as fragile,” Cates asserted. “I think it’s our job as the inheritors of the legacy of these characters to try to break them as hard as you can. And it’s only in doing that that they will show you how strong they are.”
Putting a stamp on his pushback, the Marvel Comics alum ultimately declared, “Look, every character survived the ’90s. They can’t be broke. If we didn’t fuck up fucking Mullet Superman dying, coming back…”
“And I mean Cap was a Nazi, and Peter can’t have a kid?” conclude Cates. “What are we doing? Just say you don’t wanna do [it,] that’s fine.”
The Star-Spangled Avenger reveals himself to be an agent of Hydra in Captain America: Steve Rogers Vol. 1 #1 (2016), Marvel Comics. Words by Nick Spencer, art by Jesús Saíz and Joe Caramagna.
Mentioned In This Article:Donny CatesMarvelMarvel ComicsSpider-ManUltimate Spider-ManUltimate Spider-Man (Vol. 3)Venom
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Former Venom scribe Donny Cates says Marvel Comics should let Spider-Man, like Captain America, experience some actual status quo shake-ups. Read More