Not that Marvel is actually using my idea, but I totally had an idea for a Sinister Six comic that explored the villains’ personal lives, you guys. I’m super serious here. If only I was a professional comic book writer, then maybe I’d get to write the series instead of Nick Spencer. Still, Marvel is going to publish the Superior Foes of Spider-Man as a series starring Boomerang, Shocker, Beetle, Speed Demon and Overdrive.

I love a good Shocker comic

I have always been a fan of Spider-Man’s street-level villains, especially the Shocker. I love exploring the idea that these villains are still real people who have real world problems. Not all super-villains are serial kills or mad scientists or want to take over the world. Some of them are working class men and women just trying to make some money through costumed villainy. That seems to be exactly what Nick Spencer has in mind.

“A big part of this book is definitely showing you the life behind the costume. A lot of the time we spend with them, the masks are off. That was actually my pitch here: that these guys, they’re actually a lot like Spider-Man, in the classic sense of the character,” said Spencer. “They don’t have the innate nobility or the desire to do the right thing, but they’re hard-luck stories, just like Peter Parker is/was. They’re not shooting for the stars so much as trying to survive. Every time they win in one part of their lives, they lose in another. So there’s something intrinsically cool and intriguing about that mirror aspect of the relationship.”

Of course, this means I have to cross this pitch off my list of ideas for when I finally get to sit down with Marvel’s editors. Curses!