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Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Amazing Spider-Man/Venom crossover 'Death Spiral.'

The spring Spider-Man x Venom crossover event 'Death Spiral' ended recently in Amazing Spider-Man #27, with Peter Parker reluctantly taking on the Carnage symbiote to save his relatives and loved ones as they were being hunted down and killed by the new villain Torment. In the final blow, it was one of his loved ones - Mary Jane Watson, as the new Venom - stepping up to save everyone by stopping Torment (and apparently killing him). And along the way, a heretofore unknown Peter Parker relative - cousin named Mr. Crane - was revealed, portending a big Spider-Mystery leading into the big Amazing Spider-Man #1000 later this year.

Ahead of that and the upcoming 'Death Spiral' coda revealing the actual origin of Torment, Popverse talked with Amazing Spider-Man writer Joe Kelly and resident Spider-boss Nick Lowe (AKA, Marvel Comics' Spider-Man group editor, VP of Content & Digital publishing, and an executive editor) about the event, including how it came together, and how they feel they stuck the landing.

Popverse: Joe, Nick, was the finale for 'Death Spiral' the same ending that you had originally envisioned when you first pitched the story?

Nick Lowe: Oh, yeah. It is wild. So many times, comic stories can take a journey, and you have an idea of what you want to do. And as you're going down that road, things change, and you learn things. This was one that started at a bar after a Marvel summit. Charles [Soule], Joe, Al [Ewing, Venom writer], and I, and Jordan [D. White, Venom editor], and our teams were all chatting and talking about what we could do. We started building this thing, and we had a big meeting about it.

The end of 'Death Spiral' itself, Al pitched that in that bar on a rainy New York night, pretty much just as Joe executed it in that issue. There were definitely some things that we added along the way that we weren't expecting that ended up being super helpful to it. Spider-Man's cousin was a relatively new thing, but it ended up really helping drive home Torment's superpower. These things just magically coming together. It was the story that these writers pitched, built together, and outlined, and they just nailed it.

Joe Kelly: It was really close. We did a lot of breaking on this story from that initial meeting at a bar to where it wound up on the page. You never feel like you have quite enough real estate. Characters start to grow and change, and you want to spend more time with them. But overall, I would say it paced out pretty much the way we broke it, with a couple of happy surprises and areas to sort of expand the story.

Were there any surprises for you with the concept of the series versus what it became, and how fans have received it?

Joe Kelly: I think, honestly, for me, the biggest shock was how much we all loved Torment. Torment became a really cool character, to the point where I think it's fair to say that the extra chapter showing Torment's origin was like, yeah, we have to do this now.

That is May's Amazing Spider-Man: Death Spiral - Body Count one-shot.

Joe Kelly: That was not the original intent. He was sort of going to be a mystery man.

Nick Lowe: It’s just with the design, and with the amazing character work that Joe, Al, and Charles did throughout 'Death Spiral,' like he was just so compelling. And we showed so little during that time, we knew it was right, and we knew that it would be really cool to open that door a little bit and let some light in on Torment's life.

So let us ask - will we see more of Torment despite seemingly plummeting off the side of a building to his death thanks to Mary Jane/Venom?

Nick Lowe: It's going to be a challenge. I would say read Body Count to get more of the background on him, and whether or not there could be more. But Torment bites it in Amazing Spider-Man #27, and it's very brutal. So it's getting pretty hard for Torment to do anything else ever again. But I will say this: there's still plenty to learn about him in Body Count, and we may still have a surprise or two up our sleeves in that regard.

Related: How Sony's Spider-Verse movies changed Marvel's Spider-Man comics forever

With Torment going after Mary Jane's loved ones, was there ever a temptation to include her sister Gayle and her nephews, or would that have diluted the focus on the symbiote found family?

Nick Lowe: It definitely came up in conversation. It was definitely something we talked about. But like any story, you never have enough real estate in a story, and so you really have to focus on the things that are important in trying to get there. We really wanted to boil into who Torment is and how that works. I think Al talked about it in an interview we did somewhere else, too - Torment has certain goals that he's trying to achieve, and certain things, and the reasons for it.

We've seen some of them up to this point. Joe has written brilliantly into this book, and we'll see more of it in what Charles writes in Body Count. I think Gayle, Kristy, and a lot of MJ's extended family were pretty lucky they weren't in the New York metroplex during this time, because as we've shown, Torment is a merciless, merciless murderer.

Leading into, and over the course of 'Death Spiral,' we saw Mary Jane evolve a lot as she has come to grips with being partnered with the Venom symbiote. With what happened, specifically the finale, do you think this will change her relationship with her ex, Peter?

Nick Lowe: Pretty instrumentally. Everything that happens in Death Spiral is very big for Peter and Mary Jane, and they both did a lot of things that one might not expect them to do, and we got to see sides of them that we haven't really seen. The first place to look for the two of them dealing with some of these issues that came up during the end of Amazing Spider-Man #28 and throughout the whole story, the first place is in the next Venom issue that comes out, I think it's issue #258.

That is definitely one that people should look at. And then we deal with a lot of the stuff coming up in Amazing Spider-Man #28 and #29, and especially in #31 and #32. But the effects of this for Mary Jane and Peter, individually and together, are definitely going to be felt for quite some time.

Last question then, what were your favorite bits of Death Spiral?

Joe Kelly: Oh, there are many. Even just from the very opening of like, 'Can we kill somebody on every single page of this book?' And many in multiples. It's not the sort of thing we typically get to do in Spider-Man. It is just not the tone that we normally do. It was like, well, if we're going to do a crazy over-the-top serial killer thing, let's go nuts. Getting to do that sort of chaos, the death of the Shocker, sad as it is for all of us, because we really do love the Shocker.

That was a very cool thing to write. I think some of these showdowns, the emotional stuff between Eddie and Dylan, I really liked a lot. I thought that paid off so well. And then also seeing that on the flip side with Dylan and Paul. I felt like those characters really came to life. It had a lot more meat than I think I originally thought it was going to.

Nick Lowe: I loved how Carnage worked in this story, because usually he is bombastic and just going around physically killing people. I loved how this was more of a cerebral story for Carnage, and it was Carnage messing with people's heads, and playing chess one step ahead of all of our main characters, even with Torment.

He was playing everybody. Carnage has always been a clever character, but getting to see this strategy was not something I was quite expecting, and I loved it. Dylan continues to be an absolute delight. I'm so grateful that Donnie and Ryan created him. I'm so grateful that Al perfected his teenage douche, and he is just a delightful jerk. When he's a jerk to Paul and Mary Jane, and making fun of people.

It's so fun. Jerks in comics and storytelling, going back to Namor, going back to all these people, they are just some of my favorite characters. I loved, even though it was brief, Spider-Carnage was super fun. That was another fun kind of thing that we played with. And there's part of me that wishes we had a whole other issue with Spider-Carnage, but I love what Joe did with it and how that worked.

Joe Kelly: The dropping off the roof beat, from the second Al pitched it, and he was just like, 'Was that you or was it me?' That's such a good moment. That is so good. He knows what he's doing, that Al Ewing. It was really great.

Nick Lowe: And it's just one of those things that makes you see characters in new lights and adds complexity and depth and all these things. I love seeing it, and the amount of character growth and change, and yet, being true to who Mary Jane is and who Venom is, and how this story has been affecting them. I find that Venom book so engaging and so fun, and so getting to see that happen in Amazing, and Peter getting to see this has just been such a delight. 

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
• The best Spider-Mans (or is it Spider-Men?)
• Spider-Man movie watch order
• Spider-Man's actors, ranked
• The best Spider-Man suits
• and the Spider-verse explained!

Just watch out for that radioactive blood.