At the “Spider-Man and his Venomous Friends” panel exhibition held at New York Comic Con in 2024, there was a face-to-face meeting between Nick Lowe, who has been the editor of “Spider-Man” for many years, and some Marvel fans. An awkward escalation occurred both on the panel and online. The online report prompted criticism from fans of his editorial choices and questions about what exactly happened during the panel. I know what happened to both of them. Because I’ve been there.
So here’s my report on what happened regarding the awkward co-occurrence of events.
First event: Marvel panel brouhaha
At NYCC, the Marvel panel typically hands out exclusive collectible comics at the end, but you have to stay until the end. However, for this panel, attendees were able to pick up comics during the Q&A, so no one was actually pressured to stay in the room. We don’t know where that rumor came from, but we can confirm that it’s false.
The panel discussion was led by Spider-Man editor Nick Lowe, who joined Jordan D. White, Joe Kelly, and Al Ewing on stage. Dan Slott was also scheduled to attend, but decided not to attend the New York CC because he is recovering from the coronavirus.
Starting a little earlier than usual, Lowe tried to rally the crowd’s enthusiasm and humor. There was a trailer video and a funny voiceover featuring Al Ewing doing his best to narrate at a fast pace on screen. Reaction to Spider-Man’s plans was mixed, but there were some surprises, including a “surprise” appearance by Charles Soule, who announced that he would star alongside Eddie Brock in the role of Carnage, Jesús Sais. There were also some favorable comments.
And this panel was just your average regular Marvel panel at NYCC, so I have to highlight everything for context. At least until the Q&A, when the first fan asked a very pointed question about Kamala Khan and her treatment at Marvel, and Lowe’s response to that question wasn’t very helpful.
This Reddit post did a decent job of summarizing, but it’s missing a lot of context and words exchanged about what actually happened in this exchange, which makes the rest Let me be clear. The issue that arose on stage was not so much this series of questions about misogynistic texts, but people’s legitimate concerns about Kamala Khan’s cryogenics and death (though not actually a comic death). In particular, and I think many Marvel fans would agree, emotions started to run really high.
For better or worse, Rowe became incredibly defensive in public and kept getting yelled at by fans and tried to fight back. What you read above is an abbreviated version of a long, snappy exchange that lasted longer than it should have.
After that first question from a fan, Rowe tried to fight back with an argument instead of professionally answering just one or two of the fan’s questions and moving on. He also began his answer to a question with a passive-aggressive retort of “I don’t agree with the premise of the question” (his actual words), invalidating the very premise of that fan opinion.
To the audience, it seemed like a somewhat condescending response. There is also a term now widely used in popular psychology regarding asking whether someone else’s beliefs are true. This is called “gaslighting.” Just to be clear, I say this because I worked as a psychology professional for seven years before becoming a journalist. In Nick’s defense, he was a deer caught in headlights completely caught off guard by this line of questioning. I admit this because as a reporter myself, I was caught off guard, thinking this panel discussion was coming to an end, and just like you, I was genuinely shocked. Other than that.
It didn’t help that there was a deafening silence in the room during this brief five-minute exchange. I don’t agree or disagree with this, nor would I call it an extreme declaration of blatant misogyny on the part of the writers, but many fans feel that Marvel editorials, Marvel editorial departments, Marvel editorial departments, etc. I think I’m still reeling from the way Kamala Khan’s death was handled. It doesn’t even happen in her own book. Especially when he found out she wasn’t dead.
I think a better moderator would have ended this line of questioning earlier, or even better, without even engaging in excuses in the first place. Please answer the honest fan opinion question with “take it or leave it.” Move on. That said, as soon as the regular Q&A resumed, the room fell silent, with some children asking questions into the microphone.
As reports of this exchange made their way to the Internet, further evoking eternal online complaints about Marvel’s handling of Spider-Man, another online-only incident from the same panel was unfolding.
Second event: An announcement that never happened
The online incident was a misinformation sent by journalist John Gorga, who tweeted that Nick Lowe had just referred to author Justina Ireland as “the first woman to write a serial for The Amazing Spider-Man.”
The problem is that this didn’t actually happen and was later proven to be false and corrected by Gorga. Spider-Man has at least two female writers on board, including then-great Anne Nocenti and, more recently, Kelly Thompson, who was furious over the misinformation, as revealed in a now-deleted tweet.
As the online outrage swirled, mixing with anger over what actually happened at the panel meeting, Gorga posted a correction, but the damage was done.
At this point, the fandom was already heating up on both X and Reddit, leading to criticism of Lowe’s recent decisions during his tenure as Spider-Man editor.
No matter what happens in the Spider Office, it’s true that fans online are never satisfied. Anyone in the writing chair will be hated (Dan Slott) and despised (Zeb Wells), and editors will become convenient punching bags. Whatever happened that day. A quick tweet of another fact will only add to the excitement. That said, if you’re doing a panel discussion in front of the public, editors probably want to make their decisions a little less awkward, especially in the case of legitimately controversial events like Kamala Khan’s death. You should be ready to defend yourself.
Stay tuned for more coverage of NYCC ’24 from The Beat.
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