Local Hero Ferg brings Spidey home

It's not every day, however, that you find him perched on a rooftop in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town. Unless, that is, you happen to be reading his latest comic book adventure which, this month, brings the web-slinging super hero to the Capital as he attempts to track down the villains responsible for the deaths of his parents.

In Local Hero, scripted by Jock's Lodge-based writer Ferg Handley, Spidey swaps the skyscrapers of New York's iconic skyline for the gothic splendour of Edinburgh, in a story that takes him from the Castle to the old Royal Infirmary building on Lauriston Place – a choice of location that will come as no surprise to those who know Handley.

"My wife used to work as a staff nurse in the accident and emergency department of the ERI, so like a lot of people I'm fairly close to that building and not amazingly happy at the way it has been shut down and sold off for redevelopment," says the 44-year-old.

"I actually thought about putting in a criticism about that; maybe a line like, 'Can you believe this gorgeous building has gone for flats?' but you have to write for the readers, so sometimes you have to keep your thoughts to yourself."

In Handley's story, however, politics aside, the old hospital building has become the base for AIM – an 'evil terrorist empire' that Spidey aka Peter Parker, believes may have been connected to the demise of his parents.

Explaining how the story came about, the writer says, "As the magazine gets published in various European countries, we thought it would be a good idea for the readers if there was an adventure set in each of their countries.

"But we didn't just want to send Spider-Man off on a holiday or something like that, because Peter Parker is not very rich.

"There was an old story in the American Spider-Man comics where Peter Parker learned that his parents had been charged with treason shortly before they went missing in a plane crash.

"Determined to clear their name, and with the help of an American government agency, he found himself travelling across Europe.

"So drawing on that earlier tale I came up with this story, whereby Spidey picks up a different clue in each country."

Local Hero is actually the penultimate episode of a seven-part series. The adventure started in New York, from where Spider-Man travelled to Paris, then Berlin.

From Germany he went first to Rome and then to Cadiz in Spain. There he got a lead that some dangerous equipment was being smuggled into Britain and that set him off to Edinburgh – in the last episode he arrives in London.

Ensuring that his home town featured in the series was high on Handley's list of priorities.

"It was decided that the adventure would finish off in London, but I held out for a Scottish installment as well – it was just one of those things, I wanted to write about my own neighbourhood, espec-ially as Edinburgh is such a visual city."

For Handley, the challenge was to create a story that would allow London-based artist Andie Tong to recreate the cityscape authentically.

"In terms of the location of the story I really wanted to capture the old Edinburgh and keep it quite gothicy, especially as one of the characters is a werewolf," he elaborates.

"That's why, without specifically mentioning it in the dialogue, I stuck to the High Street, Candlemaker Row, The Grassmarket – that part of town. I mention in passing the docks and the airport, but that's just to give a bit of flavour."

With a laugh, he adds, "I tended not to name too many locations because the one thing I didn't want to do was get caught out by my friends saying, 'Ah, you got that one wrong, if he turned around that corner he would have ended up in John Lewis' ."

To ensure the imagery was spot on, Handley turned to the internet. "Andie is bloody good at his job, but for this Edinburgh story I sourced images of all the places I wrote about. I was fairly keen to get an authentic Edinburgh on the page, so I described every shot for him and if it was a specific location I would give him a visual reference too."

Born in Chichester, Sussex, the writer moved to the Capital as a child. "My mum is from Edinburgh and we moved back here when I was three," says Handley, who attended Morningside Primary and Boroughmuir High before heading to London where he studied politics and government – a course that cemented his ambition to become a writer.

"I started getting into comics as a kid with the Marvel reprints in the early 70s and got hooked on Spider-Man," he recalls. "However, I stopped reading comics at that age when lads discover football and that type of thing.

"Years later, when I was doing my degree, I did my dissertation on American comic books and ideology, and that brought a lot of stuff flooding back. That was when I decided I wanted to be a writer."

After marrying in 1998 Handley moved back to Edinburgh.

Now 44, he wrote his first Spider-Man adventure – Return of the Monster – four years ago this month, having previously written more than 200 books for DC Thomson's Commando series, the Winker Watson strip in The Dandy and the Warhammer title.

He admits, "I really appreciate being able to write for Spider-Man, it is a highlight of my career."

As is bringing Spidey to Edinburgh. He reflects, "When I wrote the first story I ever did I was really excited about seeing it on the page. After a while that feeling settles down, but with Local Hero I was really looking forward to seeing what Andie made of it, just because I live here.

"It's like when you see the shots of Edinburgh in a movie – it grabs your attention and gives you a real buzz."

And Handley teases that Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter-ego may well return to the Capital in the future.

"I don't see why he shouldn't. When I was doing my research for Local Hero I discovered that Spider-Man's girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, was left a bit of property in Scotland at some point – who is to say that property isn't in Edinburgh?

"That's the great thing about comics, the world is your oyster. In movies you have to think about budgets, with comics you can do whatever you like."

Ferg Handley will be signing copies of Local Hero at Deadhead Comics, Candlemaker Row, on Saturday, January 26 from 2pm. It is now on sale in newsagents and comic outlets across the Capital

Alan Grant's Batman blazes Capital trail

SPIDER-MAN is not the only comic crime-fighter to have paid the Capital a visit.

In 2000 it was another super-hero that could be found hurtling through the skies above Edinburgh when Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, took a break from his crime-fighting duties in Gotham City to trace his Scottish roots in an adventure called The Scottish Connection.

The story, in which the Caped Crusader solved the Templar mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel, portrayed Edinburgh Castle as a drab, if historically-romantic sentinel, guarding a Victorian Grassmarket.

Along the way was a dramatic derailment on the rust-red Forth Rail Bridge – no doubt recognisable to American audiences from film versions of The 39 Steps.

Culled from the imagination of Newtongrange-born writer Alan Grant, the tale saw Bruce Wayne travel to Edinburgh to discover his family's Scottish ancestry, before discovering a hypnotic amulet in a vault beneath Rosslyn Chapel and becoming embroiled in a dark web of mystery, cover-ups and intrigue.

"There were scenes set in Edinburgh Castle and Rosslyn Chapel – both of which I knew very well from my time growing up in the area," said Grant.

"I used to regularly go out with friends into the countryside and would think nothing about walking from Newtongrange to Temple or to Rosslyn Chapel and Dalhousie Castle.

"I also knew Edinburgh pretty well, so it made sense to set a story here and use all these locations that I had grown up with," added the former Dalkeith High pupil.

"I'm also very proud to have been able to establish one of the most iconic super-heroes as having Scottish ancestry.

"It was a great feeling to think a bit of Scotland was being presented to so many people across the globe."