Absolutely the Darkest Spiderman

[Blake'sTyger]

Question to all Spiderman affeccionados aqui:

What, in your opinion, is the best noir-dark collection/graphic novel done of Spiderman?

I'm new to Spiderman, but have always loved the character since I was small. I'm wondering what people think is the Darkest Spiderman book.

Any input would be really appreciated. Thank you!

B'sT

[Matt Linton]

I'd go with Kraven's Last Hunt. The Death of Jean DeWollf is a close second. Both stories are excellent.

[Cody H]

Spider-Man: Reign is probably about as dark as it gets for Spider-Man. It's kind of an alternate reality storyline with a ton of parallels with Dark Knight Returns. But boy is it dark. Second Kraven's Last Hunt as well. Probably my favorite Spidey storyline.

[Shade 20x6]

Spider-Man: Reign is probably about as dark as it gets for Spider-Man. It's kind of an alternate reality storyline with a ton of parallels with Dark Knight Returns. But boy is it dark. Second Kraven's Last Hunt as well. Probably my favorite Spidey storyline.

Agreed. Reign, followed by KLH.

[ZT4]

-Kraven's Last Hunt
-Peter and MJ living with Liz and Crazy Harry
-The Spider
-Spider-Man: Reign

[DeadXMan]

his beat down on Norman after gwen's death

[Theophilus]

Question to all Spiderman affeccionados aqui:

What, in your opinion, is the best noir-dark collection/graphic novel done of Spiderman?

I'm new to Spiderman, but have always loved the character since I was small. I'm wondering what people think is the Darkest Spiderman book.

Any input would be really appreciated. Thank you!

B'sT

I think you'll be especially appreciative of Kraven's Last Hunt, given your name. You'll love the way J.M. DeMatteis incorporates Blake's Tyger.

[JoshuaCee]

Spider-Man: Reign is probably the darkest Spidey story. As far as in continuity stuff goes, Kraven's Last Hunt is by far the darkest.

[rZi]

Kraven's last hunt would be dark even if he was in the red and blue costume, that story worked really well reagardless. I don't even think their was a single day time scene was there?

[ZT4]

Kraven's last hunt would be dark even if he was in the red and blue costume, that story worked really well reagardless. I don't even think their was a single day time scene was there?

Vermin gets caught in mourning rush hour traffic at the very end.

[Mister Mets]

Kraven's Last Hunt

There may be darker stories, but they're not better.

[Venom]

Spider-Man: Reign
Kraven's Last Hunt
The Death Of Jean DeWolfe
I Am The Spider
The Clone Saga

They're the darkest Spider-Man stories I can think of at the top of my head and the ones that I've read.

[Teh m0nk3y]

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 (Marvel Comics, February 1987) - (one-shot) Written by Christopher Priest and drawn by Mark Bright.

It's basically about one of Logan's old flames resurfacing from her retirement and leaving a trail of sleeper agent corpses.
Peter ends up in the whole mess during a photo assignment in Germany.

It's got the Cold War. Moral ambiguity. Death of a friend.
Wolverine's moral compass compared with Spider-Man's.

Edit: I think it's also getting a sequel of sorts through a What If story arc. In this alternate interpretation Peter never came back from the cold war, too guilt stricken and damaged, instead he accompanies Logan in effort to atone for his mistakes.

[matthewaos]

Kraven's last hunt is a spider-man story than you can give it to a vertigo fan and enjoy it. It's really great. There are also the spectacular issues, #189 - 200, with Harry just plain crazy. After that there is the whole robot parents, and the "I am the Spider" thing. The clone saga is pretty much a dark one, at least until "trial of Peter Parker". After that it gets just idiotic. There is a mysterio story with Ben as Spider-Man, media blizzard is called and I think it was dark. And blood brothers was also dark. But those were dark times, I may remember them as dark... Spider-Man Reign is like DKR. It's a very good story. Torment is dark also, how did I forget? But it's not that great.I'm gonna say something strange now... Mackie on PPSM wrote some dark stories, with JRjr on art. To be honest I enjoyed those.:o

[The Confessor]

I'd go with Kraven's Last Hunt. The Death of Jean DeWollf is a close second.

Seconded! Both are great stories but Kraven's Last Hunt has the edge. It's some kind of dark masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

[Billy Parker]

-Marvel Knights Spider-Man
-Spider-Man Feral
-Spider-Man Torment
-Spider-Man Death of the Stacy's
-Spider-Man death of Betty Brant's brother
-Amazing Fantasy 15

-Marvel Knights Spider-Man is my favorite of these. Spidey fights Green Goblin, Aunt May is kidnapped, Pete sends MJ into hiding, Spidey fights Vulture and Electro in seedy underbelly, fights Venom, Norman Osborn wants out of jail. Pete gets beat up pretty bad. The art by Terry and Rachel Dodson and Frank Cho is awesome, and Mark Millar is kickass as ever.

-Spider-Man Feral is animals at the zoo going insane, MJ wanting to stab Aunt May with a knife, and Lizard apparently injected his son with lizard DNA and they attack Spider-Man. Black Cat helps. And why the craziness?!?!?! You have to read the end to find out. It's a throw back to some older Amazing Spider-Man where J. Jonah Jameson was seriously going crazy. Roberto Aguirre Sacassa and Angel Medina did this.

-Spider-Man Torment is great, I don't care what people on this board will say. It works like a silent film and the art and battle with Lizard is incredible. It's a very moody setup and the story works so well without giving any explanations. It's just a 5 issue fight with no reasoning, just an encounter with the Lizard. Actually there is this witch that is making Lizard fight Spider-Man, but he doesn't know it. Also you'll see why Todd McFarlane experienced success that no one else but a handful has had in comics.

-Death of the Stacy's is great and significant. Captains Stacy's story is built up really well over a number of issues. It's a monumental story for Peter to go through and is written by Stan Lee. Gwen Stacy's story is good in that it changed the Spider-Man comics forever. Though how did she die? It's still debated somewhat, I wish it was made clear in the original issues, but ever writer Gerry Conway says he's not sure.

-Betty Brant's brother dies in the early Stan Lee issues, like in the first 38 somewhere. It's a really great story as I remember and the first major horrible thing to happen after Uncle Ben's death. It changed Betty and affected the Hobgoblin comics.

-Amazing Fantasy 15 is a dark twisted tale as well if you haven't read it. But so is the Spider-Man movie, with the same origin. I mean someone you love is indirectly murdered by your own actions?!?! Yah that sucks.

But really Marvel Knights is awesome and worth the bucks, believe me!

[spiderman_rj]

pratically all spiderman what ifs,even though the what if title makes it looks like sth happy,there is always a tragedy,or someone die,or sorrow,like when he marry gwen,the black cat,doesnt get rid of the simbiont......i thinnk of spider what ifs as the cript tales of marvel.

[Noronha]

Kraven´s last hunt and Death of Jean DeWolff

[Leocomix]

Kraven's Last Hunt (which, by the way, must have been the original inspiration for the mystical origin)
Death of Jean DeWolff comes next
Reign, I couldn't get into but so many people praise it that I might try again.
What is this I am the Spider that people mention? (Is it a part of The Other?)

[Noronha]

What is this I am the Spider that people mention? (Is it a part of The Other?)

No,it was after Peter discovered his parents were robots and Aunt May had a seizure,he went on for God knows how long babbling"Peter´s dead,i am the Spider".
Written by DeMatteis(ASM 390-400 more or less) it was actually good at first but like the Clone Saga it dragged for so long that it started to get really tiresome.
And the only reason was to make us readers dislike Peter so that when Ben Reilly arrived we would be something like"Yes please give us a new spider-man,the real one!"

[Phil Hunn]

Kraven's Last Hunt is probably the darkest Spidey story I've ever read.

And it's awesome.

[Leocomix]

No,it was after Peter discovered his parents were robots and Aunt May had a seizure,he went on for God knows how long babbling"Peter´s dead,i am the Spider".
Written by DeMatteis(ASM 390-400 more or less) it was actually good at first but like the Clone Saga it dragged for so long that it started to get really tiresome.
And the only reason was to make us readers dislike Peter so that when Ben Reilly arrived we would be something like"Yes please give us a new spider-man,the real one!"

Ah, that was when I had stopped reading it.

[Spider-Sense]

It's a tie between Kraven's Last Hunt and The Death of Jean DeWollf,imo.

[nuclearman]

I'd go with Kraven's Last Hunt. The Death of Jean DeWollf is a close second. Both stories are excellent.

.. I'd agree with Matt and say both those stories are dark but not only that they're great books.

looks like a common theme ...:D

[shawnh]

I agree with the KLH and some of the other ones already listed, but for others, what about Mad Dog Ward? Peter going to an asylum was pretty dark.

The one I remember being most upsetting to me in my childhood is Spectular Spider-Man 120, "A House Is Not A Home." It was just a story about greedy landlords using gangs to try to run poor people out of a tenement, but it had Keith Giffen art that looked like nothing I'd ever seen before, very gritty, dark and ugly. I didn't know that he was aping another artists style at the time, I just knew I was freaked out.

Check out this page from it:

http://www3.telus.net/Wolfe/giffenpptssm120p04.jpg

And Spectacular 118 had a big effect on me, too, because the little boy with disintegration powers dies in the end even though Spider-Man tries to save him from SHIELD.

Also, J.M. Dematteis and Sal Buscema pooled their talents to make Spectacular as depressing as hell for a while, with stories like The Child Within, Funeral Arrangements and The Death of Vermin.

[becominAfanAgain]

I would go with the What if titled "The Spider", Second by "Kraven Last Hunt", follow by "The Reign ". These by far are the darkest Spider-man books.

[The Orange Bat]

I remember when Kraven's Last Hunt came out in the 80s. It was pretty revolutionary for it's day and ticked off a lot of Spider-Man fans for how dark it was. That was also just before McFarlane took over Spider-Man and introduced Venom. McFarlane went on to do the book just called "Spider-Man" in which he tried to tell stories of a much darker Spider-Man.

Man, I forgot how much I LOVED Spider-Man stories at the time. Spider-Man was a bit edgier without crossing the line. Unfortunately, McFarlane's attempt to make Spidey a much more serious character didn't last long. Marvel began hiring artists who were just trying to copy McFarlane. Soon, McFarlane left Marvel for Image and Spidey became really cartoony, rarely in any really good, serious story lines.

Now it seems Spidey has gone the other direction the past couple of years. While the Spidey in Kraven was regular ol' Pete in some pretty hairy situations with some classic characters, Spider-Man lately has become more of a soap opera.

[Matt Linton]

I remember when Kraven's Last Hunt came out in the 80s. It was pretty revolutionary for it's day and ticked off a lot of Spider-Man fans for how dark it was. That was also just before McFarlane took over Spider-Man and introduced Venom. McFarlane went on to do the book just called "Spider-Man" in which he tried to tell stories of a much darker Spider-Man.

Man, I forgot how much I LOVED Spider-Man stories at the time. Spider-Man was a bit edgier without crossing the line. Unfortunately, McFarlane's attempt to make Spidey a much more serious character didn't last long. Marvel began hiring artists who were just trying to copy McFarlane. Soon, McFarlane left Marvel for Image and Spidey became really cartoony, rarely in any really good, serious story lines.

Now it seems Spidey has gone the other direction the past couple of years. While the Spidey in Kraven was regular ol' Pete in some pretty hairy situations with some classic characters, Spider-Man lately has become more of a soap opera.

Spider-Man has always been a soap opera. The darker stuff, while great, was always more of a change of pace than the usual status quo. It's really not a recent change at all.

[DeadXMan]

if we're counting non-canon then wolverine vs spider-man what if... has him pretty damn dark

[nuclearman]

I agree with the KLH and some of the other ones already listed, but for others, what about Mad Dog Ward? Peter going to an asylum was pretty dark.

And Spectacular 118 had a big effect on me, too, because the little boy with disintegration powers dies in the end even though Spider-Man tries to save him from SHIELD.



I thought of Life at the mad dog ward which was directly after kravens last hunt was more frustrating than dark ... i just wanted peter to get out of there!!

Spectacular 118 was brilliant .... and it did have a dark ending ... that shield agent that killed the boy i remember in a later issue ... maybe in web of ... that spidey humiliated him in some way i just can't remember how.

[Chris Nowlin]

I agree with the KLH and some of the other ones already listed, but for others, what about Mad Dog Ward? Peter going to an asylum was pretty dark.

The one I remember being most upsetting to me in my childhood is Spectular Spider-Man 120, "A House Is Not A Home." It was just a story about greedy landlords using gangs to try to run poor people out of a tenement, but it had Keith Giffen art that looked like nothing I'd ever seen before, very gritty, dark and ugly. I didn't know that he was aping another artists style at the time, I just knew I was freaked out.

Check out this page from it:

http://www3.telus.net/Wolfe/giffenpptssm120p04.jpg

And Spectacular 118 had a big effect on me, too, because the little boy with disintegration powers dies in the end even though Spider-Man tries to save him from SHIELD.

Also, J.M. Dematteis and Sal Buscema pooled their talents to make Spectacular as depressing as hell for a while, with stories like The Child Within, Funeral Arrangements and The Death of Vermin.

I was about to post in this thread, but you said everything I was about to and more.

So let me just wholeheartedly second these recommendations.

[Will.S]

Well on top of the usual Kraven's Last Hunt story the latest Back in Black stuff was pretty dark as well.