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Do you remember the train scene from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2? After stopping a runaway train, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man nearly collapses from exhaustion until he’s caught by the vehicle’s passengers. They return his mask to him and vow to keep his identity secret. When Doctor Octopus returns to finish Spidey off, the NYers gather around their hero to protect him.

It’s a touching scene that gets to the heart of Spider-Man and the people of New York. That’s one of the reasons why it almost served as the basis for the thousandth issue of Marvel Comics' Amazing Spider-Man, which will be published later this year. According to current ASM writer Joe Kelly, the millennial issue would have taken the idea of the spirit of New York in a more literal sense.

“We talked about it a lot,” Kelly revealed at MegaCon 2026. “We have these summits every six months where all the writers get together, and we talk about what’s happening and what’s coming up in the books. And we started talking about [Amazing Spider-Man #]1000, and Nick Lowe, who’s the editor, was like, ‘Do you have your idea for 1000?’ This was about a year ago. And I was like, ‘No, not really. I’m going to eventually.’ And so, he’s like, ‘I really want something that embraces New York.”

He went on, “We were talking about how there’s that excellent moment in Sam Raimi’s second movie where New Yorkers help Spider-Man. It’s such a beautiful moment and they’re just so into it. And so, we were trying to capture that idea. And literally at dinner that night, we’re like, what if there was this spirit of New York and that came to life? And we kind of pitched it the next day. It did not fly. And I was glad it did not fly.”

So what did fly in its place? Kelly wasn't saying, so we'll all just have to wait until Amazing Spider-Man #1000 hits stores in September to find out. 

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 
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Just watch out for that radioactive blood.