July may be Superior Spider-Month at Marvel Comics, but that doesn't mean they'll be pulling back on the big Spidey stories in the months ahead.

Announced today during Marvel's Superior Spider-Man panel at San Diego Comic-Con, a new storyline called "Darkest Hours" will, at long last, bring Spidey super-fan and current Venom Flash Thompson face-to-face with the Superior Spidey.Ock-Spidey has seen his fair share of challenges since taking over as Peter Parker, but dealing with the symbiote will be a whole new ballgame.I had a quick chat with writer Dan Slott on what "Darkest Hours" means for Spidey, Venom, and the Peter/Flash relationship.

Yes! [laughs] I hate that we’re announcing stuff so far ahead. Yeah, one of the things we’ve done since giving Flash the symbiote is we’ve kept it at a distance from Spider-Man. Even when he was on the Secret Avengers and Spidey was on the New Avengers, even when the teams would get together there would never be a scene where both guys were in the same room. Even in all of Spider-Island both Venom and Spider-Man played very pivotal roles but they kept missing each other. We’ve done a very good job of keeping these guys apart, and finally in this story we slam them together.Yes! That was the plan. If you’re Flash Thompson, you’re Spider-Man’s biggest fan. You love the way he does things and all the quips and whatnot. You’re just crazy for Spider-Man. That’s why the original appeal of being Venom was kind of cool to you because now you get to be a Spider-Man. And he’s going to come face-to-face with the Superior Spider-Man who does things very differently. I think Flash will be in for a surprise.This plays out completely in Superior, but it will have major repercussions for those who care about their Venom lore.There’s something about Venom, ever since he first appeared, that just resonates with fans. Especially your inner fan that just goes, “That’s so cool!” He’s the original badass Spider-Man, you know? And now we have a badass Spider-Man throw-down.I would say that they’re always progressing. Change implies chaos. This story keeps growing. Doc surprises you, but I think once he does whatever he does, you go, “Well that makes perfect sense! Of course he’d do that.” Things keep having repercussions. Things keep stirring the pot. When you think of the early days of Spidey, in every issue there’d be a change to the status quo. Every issue there’d be a whole new character introduced or a new wrinkle into the way things work. “Oh hey, now I have a job at the Bugle!” There was always something. That’s the nature of comics.

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito , or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN . He often wonders whatever happened to Billy's RadBug.