“Johnny Blaze is on his way out,” that’s what they would say.
Whether they meant his motorcycle stunt shows weren’t pulling in audiences anymore, or his personal downward spiral into alcohol and what-else - both were true. Johnny was done for, and every soul knew it.
Every soul, and a few others.
The story goes that trouble found Johnny, but he was at the end of his rope, and with his father figure one foot in the grave himself, it would be more accurate to say Johnny went looking.
The Dealer didn’t need to haggle much. A simple trade - a soul for a soul, with a little extra sprinkled in. A little bang for your buck. When you’re that far gone, you don’t focus so much on the details.
But now the details were all Johnny could think about. How readily he’d sped down easy street. How eagerly he’d let slip his hold on the handles. It had turned out The Dealer was more than he seemed, as was the deal.
The heavy feeling of coal Johnny had in his chest didn’t vanish with his problems - instead, it was now alight. Before long, it was an inferno, and so was Johnny.
It wasn’t the first contract he’d signed that had a few exploitative loopholes , but it was certainly the last. However, Johnny was cleverer than some, and while The Dealer had trapped his soul and cursed him, Johnny wasn’t so easily caged.
Through the nights, he began hunting. Hunting others who sought to exploit the desperate. Hunting those looking to force a bad deal of their own. And maybe, somewhere down the road, he would find his own loophole.
It probably wouldn’t be praise-filled soliloquies about his excellent work ethic, his sense of morality, or his impeccable cleanliness.
What Gargan might say about himself, when he was sure no-one was listening, was he was very good at figuring people out, and letting them underestimate him. Hence his job as a private investigator, and his habit of manipulating people whenever he got the chance.
And J. Jonah Jameson was just the kind of sucker that Gargan was after. JJ was willing to fork over plenty of cash to find dirt on that damn Spider-Man, and asked no questions as to what sort of illicit ways Gargan was planning to achieve this.
Tracking the masked “hero” was trickier than expected, but in his search, Gargan did stumble onto something - a blossoming tech company’s shadier side project of experimental combat armor.
Knowing his income would dry up if he couldn’t get a pin on Spidey, a new opportunity formed in Gargan’s mind. After reporting back to JJ, he led his employer to believe these dots were connected, and so JJ “coerced” him to put on one of these combat suits. Upon doing so, Gargan claimed he had no way of removing it, and that the inner workings of it were driving him mad.
He swore vengeance against Jameson, against Spider-Man, against anyone he could form a narrative around. And this, in turn, brought him new friends.
Private investigating was old news. Now, there were more interesting characters to play with. And a Scorpion had just entered the playground.
Whatever you might say about Mac Gargan, it’s nothing compared to what he’ll say about himself to get what he wants.
How comes’ you don’t post some of the arts you got on twitter on tumblr?
If you’re referring to the Scorpion pic, I’m currently drafting up his little bio before posting here! I think everything else on the twitter is stuff that’s already been here - it’s just that most of it is older work :)
Hey, I just love your art and ideas for the characters in your own universe. So, I gotta ask are you going to change a few of marvels characters genders? like what they did with Dock Ock in the spiderverse? I would just love to see what other cool ideas you can come up with!
Thanks so much! Yes, this is something I have been pondering on - I think I’m waiting for the inspiration for it rather than deciding to change one for the sake of it. I love ITSV’s Doc Ock a bunch - although wouldn’t have minded seeing a more heavyset design, seeing as Ock is typically portrayed as such. My visual for Ock is still a bit loose, so hey maybe that’ll be first genderswap to show up. We’ll see! Definitely open to it for whenever the idea hits :)
Anon said:
Thanks for your take on Spinneret. Although Peter’s wrong, MJ’s unstoppable even without powers.
True <3
@fathermazz asked:
Who is apart of the avengers in your universe
At the time of the Makeover comic: Cap, Iron Man, Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor, and Hawkeye.
Anon asked:
What do you think of Otto Schmidt’s MJ redesigns? I love them, especially the one with her drinking from a coffee cup, and think it’d be amazing if Marvel actually implemented them, but I don’t think they ever will because of how iconic her look is :(
He does some great stuff! And yeah, you might be right - although I was surprised to see Gwen’s fresh appearance in ITSV - so maybe, with the right writer/artist combo that’s courageous enough to push the designs, we’ll see something like that for MJ in the comics :)
Fun fact, back in 2015 I had originally considered giving MJ an undercut in Makeover - something like this:
… which would have made my Peter and MJ preeeeeetty similar to ITSV’s Miles and Gwen, haha. (This isn’t a ‘they copied me’ thing of course - just funny to see!)
@girlouttatime asked:
who are peter’s biggest mentors/role models in your verse??
Doctor Octavius is the big one, for sure. And Peter sees Osborn as a sort of mentor early on, but catches on that Norman is manipulative, and that muddies his trust with other such figures going forward. But Otto’s solid. I mean, the guy doesn’t have a mean bone in him - and a brilliant scientist to boot. He’s the perfect mentor and there would be no reason to ever think otherwise!
Johnny Storm is also a bit of a role model, for Spider-Man. I think Peter sees something truly admirable in Johnny’s ability to be incredibly caring and giving under the guise of seeming nonchalant attitude.