Marvel announces Spider-Man ‘year one’ tale with Learning to Crawl

Marvel’s number one hero flashes back to a story that looks to fill in some of the blanks of what happened after he learned that with great power comes great responsibility.

“With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” These words have echoed through time and helped shape a teenage boy into the greatest super hero the world has ever known! You thought you knew the whole story? You were wrong!

There’s more to the story of how Peter Parker became the Amazing Spider-Man. This May, explore those early adventures in Amazing Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl, a new 5-issue limited series from New York Times Bestselling writer Dan Slott (Superior Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man), Eisner Award winning artist Ramón Pérez (Tale of Sand, Wolverine and the X-Men) with covers by legendary painter Alex Ross!

“We all love a good ‘Year One’ story,” says Senior Editor Nick Lowe. “But this is MUCH more! Not only does this address Spider-Man’s past, but it sets up a new villain that will be a huge part of Dan Slott’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN plans moving forward.”

Picking up shortly after the murder of his mentor and beloved father figure Uncle Ben, Learning to Crawl will both tell the story of Peter Parker’s first 60 days as the Amazing Spider-Man – in an all-new story set parallel to the events of 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 and 1963’s Amazing Spider-Man #1 – #3 and introduce a stunning new villain in the classic Marvel style!

“If you read the early issues [of Amazing Spider-Man], he doesn’t start patrolling for crime until issue #3 or #4,” says writer Dan Slott in an interview with Marvel.com. “What’s he doing? Every adventure, he either stumbles across it, or he’s looking for money. ‘Oh! If only I could get pictures of the Vulture!’ He doesn’t wake up one morning and go, ‘I need to catch the Vulture.’ He sees a thing in the Daily Bugle requesting some photos for good money. ‘That’ll pay the rent! Maybe Aunt May won’t have to hock her jewelry.'”

“That path that he’s on will eventually lead him to being a hero,” continued Slott. “That’s the story. It’s his path to becoming the Spider-Man that we know. There’s a story that you haven’t heard.”

With Peter Parker set to return to the Marvel Universe in this April’s Amazing Spider-Man #1, revisit the origin of the wallcrawler like you’ve never seen before! Seeds sown here bear bitter fruit for present day Peter Parker as everything you knew about Spider-Man will be called into question! The high-flying, webslinging action of Learning to Crawl kicks off this May in Amazing Spider-Man #1.1!

‘Year one’ stories are nothing new really in the comics world. Over the years there have been plenty of them, some being pulled off to greater success than others. They’ve run the gamut too, from continuous stretches of a book’s regular run to one-off graphic novels. Learning to Crawl kind of straddles the line here as it’ll be a five issue mini-series.

I like the timing here too as Peter Parker will be returning to the pages of Spider-Man with Dan Slott’s The Amazing Spider-Man #1. Fans should be keyed up to touch base with the core character that they’ve grown up with once again after having Otto Octavius fill in for some time now.

Get back in time with Spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl #1.1 on May 7th from Slott and artist Ramon Perez.