Ralph Macchio is an editor and writer synonymous with Marvel, spending four decades at the company. In addition to all of the high profile editing jobs in his tenure at Marvel, many longtime fans fondly remember Macchio’s run on Marvel Two-in-One with co-writer Mark Gruenwald, especially “The Project Pegasus” saga.
We took a trip down memory lane with Macchio at this year’s TerrifiCon 2024 in this exclusive interview.
I believe that you started your career at Marvel writing Marvel Two-in-One with Mark Gruenwald. So what was it like working on that particular book and working with Mark on it?
Ralph Macchio: Mark was a guy who was full of ideas and energy. I created Project Pegasus on my own with a two-issue story. I thought I did what I wanted to do. So a few weeks later, Mark says “I’ve got this idea for a six-part story about Project Pegasus. So I said, okay, let’s talk to the editor, Roger Stern, and see if we can do it, and that’s how we got the six-parter out of it. right?
A six-part story was unusual for the time, correct? What was the genesis of the idea for Project Pegasus?
Macchio: Roger Stern had asked me to come up with a couple of Marvel Two-in-One ideas over a weekend. So I was sitting there thinking when I said, you know, maybe I could create something that will actually be a place in the Marvel Universe. The reason I thought about was I had been a big fan of Kirby’s DNA project in Jimmy Olsen. And I said, you know, Jack left something at DC, even if he left the company, everybody can go to Project Cadmus, which they renamed from the DNA Project.
Obviously, I can’t rip off the idea of genetics, but that was the time of the energy crisis in the late 1970s, so I said, how about an alternative energy place that the government sponsored and then Roxxon oil, will want to take it down because they don’t want alternative energy. And I took the name Project Pegasus because I liked the idea of motion and energy and movement and the horse Pegasus. I thought that’d be a nice insignia. Yes. So that worked out. And I actually stole the look of Project Pegasus being underground from Project Wildfire from the Andromeda Stream. So I stole everything!
That’s how it all came together and then I did the two issues and I was kind of done with it. I said, well, I created this place in the Marvel Universe and if anybody wants to use it, use it. And they’re still using it today. Mark came back a few weeks later and says “We can do something big with this idea” and we did.
The anchor of Marvel Two-in-One, of course, was Ben Grimm. What was it like putting him in that story/situation and how do you like writing that character?
Macchio: Well, it’s always fun to write his kind of guy because he plays off the straight character so well. The other thing is, Mark and I always said, however crazy the story gets, Ben has always got to be at the center and he’s always got to have a major part in the resolution of the story. But I said, sometimes these stories can get away from you. They get too cosmic. And you forget who the main character is, so you wanted to make sure that when you read Two-in-One, Ben Grimm was always there at the end to make sure he was in the climax.
Many fans know you as one of the most prominent editors at Marvel. How did that aspect of your career develop?
Macchio: Well, I was always an editor. I wrote on the side. Originally, people who started Marvel in the 70s, like I did, they would come on staff only to be editors long enough to get books to write. I was never like that. I wanted to be an editor and write on the side, so that’s how that worked.
You’re always working with people as an editor. You want to bring out the best in them. I always try to encourage my writers and my artists to be the best they could. It was great work. It was great watching people like Bill Sienkiewicz develop. I started with Frank Miller on Daredevil watching him develop. It is very rewarding to see their potential fulfilled and you’re there with them. So that’s what’s very, very, very wonderful.
Spider-Man is a character you’re very connected to as well. What was it like to manage the Spider-Universe and the monthly books?
Macchio: I edited the Spider-Man books for five years and it was very difficult because you have all these books that you have to coordinate. Peter Parker’s personal life had to be throughout all the books, you have four writers and you all have different ideas in all. We had to finish The Clone Saga, which was a monstrous undertaking. It’s time to take you to the show. Once that was done, then we could get to the other business of having Spectacular, Peter Parker, Amazing, and Sensational, along with all of the annuals, one-shots, graphic novels…I was spidered-out.
The Clone Saga that was a Herculean effort, correct?
Macchio: Well, I came in halfway through. They previous editor left and Bob Harris had been made Editor-in-Chief. So he called me in the office and he said, well, he goes, “We’ve got to finish this up because the sales are hurting a little bit. People are getting tired of it”, but they had already set things up. Bob wanted it reversed because we got to get rid of the baby. We’ve got to show Peter Parker as Spider-Man, not Ben Reilly. It went on and on and eventually I sat down with my writers and we did everything we needed to do.
And then you could retire.
Macchio: And then I could retire after that.