What thought goes into creating a new Spider-Man villain?
SLOTT: Well, first you have to envision the HeroClick. [Laughs] It’s hard to come up with new villains but I enjoy doing it. If you look back at my work on Arkham Asylum: Living Hell where I got to create new Bat-villains or Avengers: The Initiative where I get to create tons of characters, it’s part of the fun. Ever since you were a kid you come up with “here’s this guy and he can do this and he does this because of that.” It’s fun. I’m amazed more people don’t do it. Spider-Man has arguably the best rogue’s gallery in all of comics. How did the writers, also known as the Spidey Brain Trust, settle on Venom and Norman Osborn to be the first villains to return? SLOTT: When we were talking about different villains, I think it was [editor] Steve Wacker who threw out the idea of a white Venom and we were kicking that one around. Just like we had that rule of putting the villains in a box for six months, we came up with all these other rules and we stuck to them. At least I stuck to them.
