Tom DeFalco

But a lot of the times, people were doing that.

And I interviewed Tom DeFalco one time about his run on Fantastic...

No, Ralph Macchio about Fantastic Four.

the DeFalco run.

Stern's work would be so good he would mosey over to Amazing Spider-Man and, along with artist John Romita Jr., would give us the best, most consistently good run in a long time.

After him, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz would continue this winning streak, and Spectacular would give a new writer, Peter David, a chance.

The decade would conclude with David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane breathing new artistic life into the character and Jerry Conway returning.

So, whittling down 10 to 12 issues for this was rock hard.

The story is straightforward.

After revealing she knows Peter is Spider-Man, MJ tells Peter about her past, her abusive father, a dying mother, a sister trapped in the same cycle, and how she hid it all behind a happy-go-lucky party facade that has become so much of her nature as to barely be a facade anymore.

Writer Tom DeFalco wisely chooses to not reveal exactly when MJ learned Peter's secret, would that other writers had followed his lead, and once again shows how invaluable a strong supporting cast can be.

Speaking of a strong supporting cast, when writer Peter David made his debut on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, he made Spectacular genuinely worthwhile again after it had floundered for over a year.

At the time, Marvel was under the five editor-in-chief group structure.

So Tom DeFalco had finished and now there were five editors-in-chief.

And the editor-in-chief overseeing X-Men books was Bob Harris.

And each line of books had like a little logo specific to the department that was on the cover of each one.

Cover price is just 60 cents.

The editor is Thomas P. DeFalco.

Rock me on the stairs.

Superstar.

You Can't Always Get What You Want is the name of the title of the story here.

Howard Mackey writer, Burt Blevins penciler, Al Williamson inker, Janice Chang letterer, Gregory Wright colorist, Bobby Chase editor, and Tom DeFalco editor-in-chief.

And we start off with Lieutenant Michael Badalito having the most intense sit in the dark.

I have to say, this is a sweet drawing.

Oh, no, that's not smudges.

I have it signed by Tom DeFalco and Ron Friends and Jim Owsley.

A little humble brag there.

Yeah.

That's very true.

Yep.

Well, and that's one thing that Tom DeFalco, I think, does make a lot of his characters thoughtful.

I do like that about his writing style.

Tom DeFalco, welcome to Creator in Conversation and thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Thanks for inviting me.

Prior to this conversation, I was trying to think where to begin.

I thought, I'm no Marv Wolfman, so no, Steve Ditko.

And I turn to my first plot, and a couple of days later, I get this call.

And this voice on the phone says, are you Tom DeFalco? I said, yes.

And he says, what gives you the right to write about heroes? And I thought, what gives me the right to write about a hero? I said, who is this? He says, this is Steve Ditko.

And then he and I had like an hour, an hour and a half long discussion on what is a hero? You know, the philosophy of heroes, you know, what is the essence of a hero? What, you know, what makes someone a hero? What makes someone an anti-hero? That sort of thing.