Randy Schueller later recalls his involvement with the black costume and Marvel in an article at Comic Book Resources.ĭuring Secret Wars, Spider-Man had his costume heavily damaged, and the other heroes pointed out to the room full of machinery to fix his costume. So, the cloth was gotten rid of by Peter as a request from Mary Jane who was terrified after being kidnapped by Venom and Peter went back to his classic red and blue costume. So, the idea was then that Black Cat made him a non-alien cloth version that Peter could wear.įinally, new artist Todd McFarlane made it clear to Marvel that he didn't like drawing the black suit. The problem then was, that fans actually started to like the black costume, before it was removed. Upon realizing that Peter knew this, the symbiote got tighter on Peter, not wanting to remove itself from Peter's body until it was blasted off, via a sonic wave blasting gun that Mr. The idea was then to have Peter to want to remove the symbiote because it was an alien lifeform that wanted to permanently bond with Peter. The writers then needed to come up with a reasonable excuse for why Peter would want the symbiote removed, in order to please fans. However, Marvel could not remove the black suit since Secret Wars #8- which revealed the suit's origin- had yet to be released. Before its revelation, fans rejected the idea and wrote to Marvel asking them not to change the suit. The black costume first debuted in ASM #252 with the tagline "The rumors are true", affirming suspicions that Spider-Man would be getting a new costume.
The suit would later be revealed to be a symbiotic lifeform. The machine produces a black sphere, which then engulfs Peter in black goo, eventually forming his suit while augmenting his powers and abilities. Having damaged his original costume in battle, Spider-Man discovers a machine thought to be a fabric replicator. It was not until 1984's Secret Wars that the black costume would debut. Schueller submitted different versions of the story, but ultimately, Marvel took creative control. The idea was purchased by Jim Shooter at Marvel for the sum of 220 US dollars (over 500 dollars today) and the opportunity to craft the story. Composed of the same unstable molecules found in the Fantastic Four's costumes, this new suit would be more durable and stealth-like than the handmade red and blue costume. Schueller's idea was to slightly upgrade Spider-Man's abilities and appearance: He would don a new black, stealth-like suit designed by Reed Richards and The Wasp of the Avengers. The black costume originated in 1982 from an idea submitted by 22-year-old fan Randy Schueller, after Marvel ran a competition for aspiring writers and artists to elicit new ideas for the Marvel Universe.