This July will see the release of two new Spider-Man related series’ from Marvel; Superior Foes of Spider-Man and Superior Carnage. The former will focus on Boomerang, Shocker, Speed Demon, the Beetle, and Overdrive, and promises to offer us a glimpse at what goes on in the minds of the villains who make up the new Sinister Six. With Steve Lieber (Hawkeye) on art duties, Secret Avengers scribe Nick Spencer will be penning the book. While the majority of it takes place from the point of view of Boomerang, Spencer had this to say about the team. “These guys, they’re actually a lot like Spider-Man, in the classic sense of the character. 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 starsso much as trying to survive. Every time they win in one part of their lives, they lose in another. With the number of times Spidey’s gone head to head with them, of course they’re going to notice changes. In some ways, they know Spider-Man better than anyone.”

As for Superior Carnage, writer Kevin Shinick (Robot Chicken) and artist Stephen Segovia (Thor) will be handling that five-issue mini series, which Shinick promises will mix humour and the kind of horror we expect from a character such as Cletus Kasady. “I’m not going the humorous route directly,” he says. “I think this is a nice balance to what I’ve done in the past, because I think it can be very graphic and frightening. But I think any time anybody takes on more than they can chew there is room for humor.” The premise of the book will be that The Wizard decides to try and control the now comatose symbiote in the same way that the U.S. government is using Venom. “I’ve decided that, kind of like and inspired by the way the government and the Avengers have used Venom and turned him into Agent Venom,” adds the writer. “That the Wizard has gotten the idea that if he can harness Carnage and convert him into sort of an agent evil, that it would be even more wicked and more ridiculous than turning Venom into an agent.”

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