Marvel Comics has lifted the lid on next month’s one-shot Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish, revealing it will feature chef and humanitarian José Andrés, in a story by Steve Orlando and Roi Mercado, and a cover by Mike Mignola. The one-shot will mark the first in a series celebrating the “life-changing and impactful work” of Andrés’s World Central Kitchen in “communities in crisis around the world.”
Peter Parker heads downtown to photograph the opening of world-class chef José Andrés’ brand-new restaurant, but soon finds it crashed by an insatiable villain: Electro! The electric fiend came prepared for Spider-Man, so José and World Central Kitchen must chip in with Spidey to save the day — and everyone’s dinner!
Orlando previously worked with Andrés by scripting the graphic memoir Feeding Dangerously (published by TKO Studios in 2023), while Mignola raised funds for the WCK by auctioning art at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (which was subsequently commemorated by Mike Mignola: The Quarantine Sketchbook), and after the wildfires in Hawaii in 2023.
The writer comments, “With my own secret origin, working in the wine and spirits world before comics stepped in as my main gig, Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish feels like a perfect moment of kismet. The chance to write a Spider-Man adventure set in the food scene is one I could never pass up — the two arts, the two worlds I love the most are finally colliding in a delicious and exciting way! This is the kind of story I’ve been waiting for — and I can’t wait for folks to dig in!”
When the special was originally solicited for December, there was no sign of it being a WCK tie-in, with the synopsis instead listing Rhino as the villain, and Ken Niimura as the artist. It said Spidey would co-star “Daily Bugle food critic Chet Chekowski,” who bears an uncanny resemblance to Marvel’s editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski:
As well as the main story, Meals to Astonish will feature the first print edition of Paul Eschbach and E.J. Su‘s Infinity Comics series T.E.S.T. Kitchen. The comic, originally released in 2022, follows Edwin Jarvis’s niece after she lands a job as Tony Stark’s personal chef.
It will also include two original stories by Gustavo Duarte, the first of which will star Spider-Ramen/Peter Potnoodle, who first appeared in 2020’s Spider-Verse #5. The second will be “Jeff’s Table,” a recurring Jeff the Land Shark segment, where the adorable critter “makes a mess in the kitchen.” It’ll feature another real chef, Paul Carmichael.
The book will be released on March 11, with variant covers by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Peach Momoko. You can check those out, as well as an additional preview page below:
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