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Prolific comics & TV writer Gerry Conway passed away earlier this year. Although he was instrumental in everything from Law & Order to the 1980s Conan the Destroyer movie, we all know him best for his work with Marvel Comics and the Spider-Man character. With a bit of time since the initial shock and sadness, Popverse spoke with Amazing Spider-Man series writer Joe Kelly and long-time Spider-Man group editor Nick Lowe about his contributions and their own personal experiences with the man.

"I'm not super objective about this, because I've gotten to work with Gerry, and I've gotten to know Gerry over the last decade and a half. His loss really hit me like a ton of bricks," Lowe tells Popverse's Joshua Lapin-Bertone. "When you go back, and you read Amazing Spider-Man, of course, as far as writers go, you cannot underscore Stan's importance, and obviously, you have to include Steve Ditko and John Romita, because they were far more than just artists on their runs. But after Stan, Gerry did so much for Peter Parker and for that book. The amount of character and the tone of voice."

Gerry Conway took over as writer of Amazing Spider-Man at age 19, taking the reins from co-creator Stan Lee. Over three years and 38 issues, he and others created the landmark 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died,' and created the Punisher, the Jackal, Man-Wolf, Hammerhead, Grizzly, Tarantula, the second Mysterio, and others. In subsequent years, he wrote the milestone Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man crossover event and returned to the character on several occasions, including co-creating Ben Reilly, Tombstone, and Carrion.

But through it all, it was his layers on Spider-Man that have stood out most.

"If I’ve got to say, like Peter's voice, the voice that Joe Kelly writes for Peter, and the voice that Zeb Wells, Nick Spencer, Dan Slott, and all of these writers of the time I've been on there, but long before then - I think it might be more the voice that Gerry brought to Peter, than even Stan's," Lowe continues. "Gerry brought a little bit more realism, not that he was going for ultra-realism or anything like that. I think you know Gerry coming in as a young man writing on that book, he brought a perspective, but also a maturity, which is wild to say about a 19-year-old who came in."

Current Amazing Spider-Man series writer Joe Kelly has been working on the Spider-Man character for decades, starting with 1999's Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man, going on to work on the main series during the 'Brand New Day' era, Disney XD's Ultimate Spider-Man, the Spider-Man/Deadpool crossover series, and Non-Stop Spider-Man.

"When I first got the job, I reread the first swath of Spider-Man issues, and everything Nick said was totally right. The Peter that's in my head, I kind of didn't even realize it until he said it, but the Peter that I think we all know is Gerry's Peter," adds Kelly. "That DNA stretches forward in a fashion that I think is taken for granted. His legacy is well-carved into the DNA of Spider-Man and Marvel at large. I only had a couple of interactions with him, but he was incredibly kind. I spoke to him once; it was just kind of out of the blue. I think it was when I had started working on 'Brand New Day.'"

Lowe, who has been in charge of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man line for years, worked with Conway more extensively in the late writer's later Spidey tales, including a new run on Amazing Spider-Man in 2015.

"And he's just a kind, thoughtful human who loved playing role-playing games with his buddies. Who would always be looking out for young writers and artists to do stuff," says Lowe. "He would talk straight, he would be honest and bring his best. When I first started working with him, he never patronized me. He was hungry for collaborators. He was a collaborator, and I'm so glad I got to work with him, and I'm even more glad that the world got to experience his voice on the things that he wrote."

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.