Marvel's press conference on Thursday brought writer Tom DeFalco, his editors, and sales veep David Gabriel together to discuss the Last Planet Standing mini-series and Spider-Girl #100, which may or may not mark the end of the MC2 universe and the Spider-Girl title.
Last Planet Standing is a sequel of sorts to last year's Last Hero Standing, which Defalco also penned. 'Last year the crew and I were asked to pitch in and do a five issue limited series,' Defalco said. 'We had a grand old time doing it, and to our surprise and delight, the readers seemed to have a lot of fun with it.' In some ways, the miniseries was a spin-off from the Spider-Girl series, but sold twice what Spider-Girl had been selling, so another miniseries was planned for this year.
In thinking about the second miniseries, Defalco said the idea of a cosmic story, which hadn't been done by Marvel for years, came up, and the team decided to try to 'do something that really blows everybody's socks off.'
The new storyline will feature Galactus, and his evolution. 'Everything wants to grow, and that includes Galactus,' DeFalco said. 'He'll have to make some sacrifices, which in his case is most of the rest of the universe, but that's a price he's willing to pay.'
Although it could mean the end of the MC2 universe, the final decision hasn't been made; DeFalco said that the last five pages of issue five have yet to be written. But he also indicated that he's been having a lot of fun in that universe, and that he's 'betting on a happy ending,' because he likes having it around.
Spider-Girl #100 is expected to be the end of the series, which has been slated for a final issue numerous times before. DeFalco recounted how after the initial run, which was planned to be a limited series, the team was asked to do another six issues, and then another six, and so on until the august #100 is now scheduled, a milestone that many series planned as continuing never reach.
David Gabriel noted that Spider-Girl will continue in other formats. The character will continue to be featured in the digests. And an A-Next Digest will be released in August, and a Fantastic Five Digest late this year or early in 2007, so the MC2 universe will carry on for some time in that format.
Spider-Girl hardcovers for libraries, each featuring single issues, will also continue for the next several years.
Asked whether any special consumer marketing behind the MC2 events was planned, Gabriel noted that Marvel's press conferences were usually reserved for event books, so the fact that one was being devoted to the miniseries and Spider-Girl #100 was an unusual level of support for a 'smaller' book in and of itself.
Gabriel also mentioned that Spider-Man Family had done surprisingly well as a one-shot last year, and that another issue was slated for this August. 'There's a 25th anniversary in the Spider-Man universe coming up, and that will be the featured story,' he said. Marvel is also planning a couple of other Spider-Man Family issues in 2006.
Last Planet Standing will kick off May 10th, with four more issues following monthly; Spider-Girl #100 will ship in July.
