The Spider-Man Thread [Archive] - Comic Book Resources Forums

TimothyCallahan

08-30-2008, 10:20 PM

Grant Morrison said, and I quote, "I couldn't write Spider-Man. He's too specific."

I know exactly what he means, although who wouldn't love to see Morrison try to write Peter Parker's annoyingly witty banter?

But as I type this, I happen to be wearing an old-school "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" t-shirt, and I just finished writing a review for next week's "Amazing Spider-Man" issue. I'm not really a Spidey guy, but I've been enjoying the series ever since "Brand New Day," and "Ultimate Spider-Man" singlehandedly justifies the entire existence of that line.

Here's how much I care about the whole marriage controversy, by the way: 0%

Here's how much I like Spider-Man comics over the past few months: quite a bit.

What do you think about Spider-Man, in all of his incarnations?

section 8

08-31-2008, 12:01 AM

Clone saga aside it is a great title, not my fav, but great.

Cayman

08-31-2008, 12:05 AM

I feel much more interested in reading Amazing right now than I have in years.

deantrippe

08-31-2008, 12:09 AM

I wasn't outraged at the decision to devil-wish away Peter and MJ's marriage so much as I was incapable of understanding the decision, since I grew up with that as an important part of the Spidey mythos. It really just seemed to me like the creators behind this push couldn't write married life or women well, and wanted to find a way out of having to attempt either in any meaningful way.

I had a hard time reading the issues during the devil-wish storyline, so I dropped it, and afterwards found it hard to take the series seriously while the devil-wish alternate universe was (I assumed) temporarily in place. I could deal with Spidey popping up in Avengers titles, but Peter's appearances in his own book just seemed fake to me. Like Age of Apocalypse without the cool new costumes. Heh.

That said, I've finally picked the book back up again for the New Ways To Die storyline. I don't understand all the new status quo stuff, or why barely anything seems to be happening per issue (what is this, Superman?), but the art is incredible and the writing is very welcoming.

Questions: Why does Spidey know that people knew his secret identity but don't anymore? Why is Harry Osborn starting Starbucks?

Awesome Things: I love Ben Urich's Front Line paper. I'm glad to hear MJ and Pete were still together during the times I thought they were. Anti-Venom.

Basically, it'll be hard for me to not read a book with this many solid creators on board, but I just don't get the point of it. I'm trying to care. Slott's Pete dialogue is really good. I can do this.

deantrippe

08-31-2008, 12:11 AM

The back-up story with Waid and Granov is awesome, too.

TimothyCallahan

08-31-2008, 12:27 PM

I don't really understand all the details of the new status quo, but here's what I gather:

1. Peter remembers that everyone used to know his identity but he doesn't remember being married to MJ.

2. All of the MJ and Peter stuff happened, except they were just shacking up and were not married.

3. Even if they reboot it and have everyone re-remember the marriage, that still won't invalidate the stories going on now at all.

4. Harry needed something to do, so Starbucks, jr. it is.

I don't see why they couldn't have brought these creators on and still done kickass stories with a married Peter, but they didn't and now the book is actually good for the first time in a long time.

(And the "barely anything happening" per issue is a complaint I have with a lot of comics, but at least this one comes out so often, I don't mind as much.)

TCJohnson

08-31-2008, 12:32 PM

1. Peter remembers that everyone used to know his identity but he doesn't remember being married to MJ.

I don't think this one is right...I don't think Peter remembers that people used to know his identity.

TimothyCallahan

08-31-2008, 02:23 PM

But doesn't Peter say something to that effect in a recent issue? Or am I making that up?

deantrippe

08-31-2008, 04:26 PM

But doesn't Peter say something to that effect in a recent issue? Or am I making that up?
No, you're right. I don't get it either, but Peter is surprised that Norman Osborn doesn't remember his identity anymore, and notes that no one does. What?

Sean Whitmore

09-01-2008, 02:00 AM

I don't think this one is right...I don't think Peter remembers that people used to know his identity.

He has to, doesn't he? He knows he was once on Tony's side during the war, so at the very least, the government would had to have known his identity at the time.

SEAN

Michael P

09-01-2008, 03:27 AM

Marvel's Dirty Little Secret: They have no plan. They had no plan. They were just praying (or perhaps simply deluded enough to think) no one would care what exactly had changed. Now they're playing catch-up by the seat of their pants.

Schadenfreude: The only means of enjoying Spider-Man left to me. I'll take what I can get.

TimothyCallahan

09-01-2008, 10:27 AM

They have no plan. They had no plan. They were just praying (or perhaps simply deluded enough to think) no one would care what exactly had changed. Now they're playing catch-up by the seat of their pants.

I don't think this is true, but then again, isn't this how comics were written for nearly 50 years? Is it so bad if they're just making it all up as they go along? And if so, why?

Cayman

09-01-2008, 10:29 AM

GRANT!

09-01-2008, 10:42 AM

I've been enjoying most of the Brand New Day stuff (mostly the Dan Slott stuff). It's definately one of the lighter reads out there but it's been pretty fun. ANd the emphasis on new bad guys has been great. Only a few stand out though like Paperdoll and Overdrive but I appreciate the effort. And the art has been great for the most part. Marcos Martin, Chris Bachalo, Steve McNiven, John Romita Jr. Some great looking issues. The thrice monthly thing is kind of killing me though. I almost think Marvel should just publish a fat 72 page monthly Spider-man book. Might actually do better with kids.

Michael P

09-01-2008, 11:40 AM

This doesn't seem to mesh with all the interviews I've read.

Are you privy to some inside info?

It's fairly obvious when observing what they actually put out.

TCJohnson

09-01-2008, 02:35 PM

I disagree. It seems like they do have an overall story there, even if they are making some of the smaller details up as they go along.

40footwolf

09-01-2008, 10:13 PM

The reason I don't read Spider-Man is because if you've read two-the funny story or the sad story-you've read every Spider-Man story ever written.

TimothyCallahan

09-01-2008, 11:12 PM

That's a pointless and inaccurate thing to say. You might as well apply that sentence to any story ever.

40footwolf

09-03-2008, 04:20 PM

Well, that's what it feels like to me, is what I meant. I can't really defend it, it's just that the stories seem very set in their ways.

Matthew E

09-03-2008, 05:50 PM

I think that Spider-Man is an extremely well-conceived superhero, perhaps the best-conceived superhero ever.

He's got a wide range of superpowers, and yet he is not overly powerful, and his powers are connected by a theme.

Role-playing-game-theory tells us that a good character must be able to do three things: attack, defend and move. Spidey has strength and speed for attacking, speed and toughness for defense, and webswinging and wallcrawling for motion.

I once listed (http://legionabstract.blogspot.com/2006/06/suprmetrics.html) all the different kinds of superpowers a character could have, and Spider-Man covers this list pretty well. He's got Strength, Invulnerability (well, some, anyway), Mobility, Distance Effect, Sensory, and his webs are Versatile. Spider-Man can cope with a wide variety of circumstances. And yet, again, he is not overly powerful.

Peter Parker's supporting cast is rivaled only by Superman's.

Parker's motivation to be a superhero is rivaled in storytelling potential only by Batman's.

Spider-Man's set of villains is probably the best in superhero comics.

He may not be the greatest superhero... but from a creative standpoint he may be the perfect superhero.

The Confessor

09-07-2008, 07:08 PM

I don't think this one is right...I don't think Peter remembers that people used to know his identity.

But doesn't Peter say something to that effect in a recent issue? Or am I making that up?

When he realises that Norman Osborn no longer knows that he's Spider-Man,
Peter actually says "He doesn't remember anymore. He has no idea I'm Spidey. Nobody Does. Everything we did is still up and running. I'm safe."

The reason why he says this and who the mysterious "we" are haven't been revealed yet but will be made obvious in the coming months apparently. There's some discussion about it here...

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=235896

Don't forget that there was an as yet unspecified amount of time between the end of One More Day and the start of Brand New Day, so I'm assuming that Peter's statement has to do with something that happened during that time.

Maybe erasing everybody's memory of Peter being Spider-Man wasn't something that Mephisto did? Maybe someone like Dr. Strange helped Peter out with that part of the re-set? I'm only throwing out random speculation here, of course.

mikekerr3

09-10-2008, 03:36 PM

This doesn't seem to mesh with all the interviews I've read.

Are you privy to some inside info?

It's pretty likely though If they had a plan they "brain trust " would know it an they wouldn't have been giving out contradictory answers to the same questions.

HaroldAllnut

10-18-2008, 11:00 PM

What do you think about Spider-Man, in all of his incarnations?

Firstly, I'd like to preface this by saying I read and greatly enjoy your column, Mr. Callahan.

That having been said, I'm one of the big-time marriage proponents. I tried the first arc of "Brand New Day" and I was not wooed by Slott-McNiven's fine storytelling, because, ultimately, I could not get over the fact that Marvel essentially admitted that they would rather appease the nostalgia-based audience than embark on a new and exciting status quo for their leading man. All throughout middle school (Yes, this is premature nostalgia since I'm 19 years old; please bear with me) I read and loved JMS's epic run on Amazing Spider-Man, mainly because of his excellent characterization of Peter and Mary and the shaky but beautiful set-up of their marriage.

To me, Marvel destroying it in favor of changing Peter Parker from a growing, organic character with a real sense of responsibility and priorities into a cheap, nostalgia-pandering pastiche of the "good ol' days" was just a slap in the face. That having been said, the only Spider-Man related title I read now is Ultimate Spider-Man, seeing as Earth-1610's version of Peter Parker hasn't fallen victim to intellectual laziness.

Though I do feel passionately about the subject, I didn't mean to insult the current readership of Amazing Spider-Man.

As for Grant Morrison writing the title, I think it would be incredibly funny to watch him toy around metafictionally with the idea of "Brand New Day." That having been said, would Marvel ever allow that to happen? Considering that they essentially retconned/destroyed the fruits of his creative labors after his titanic run on New X-Men, I doubt it would ever happen. That, and Buddy Baker would probably be jealous.

FunkyGreenJerusalem

10-20-2008, 08:49 PM

"Ultimate Spider-Man" singlehandedly justifies the entire existence of that line.

Really?

I loved it when it started, and dropped out around trade 7 or so, but I can't even re-read without noticing how much decompression goes on, how little actually happens - even when stuff is - the amount of sub-plots that get dropped (maybe not subplots, but one liners that should lead to them going nowhere), and the fact none of the stories or characters are anywhere near as exciting as those they are based on.

I've recently picked up the collections of Brand New Day Spider-man, and although it's hard to actually care about characters or story when Marvel have shown they will cop out if it suits their EIC's whims, it's alright.
Enjoyable and fun, and most importantly, with killer art.
If it hadn't been for my opening a trade to the Bachelo issues, I never would have bothered.
Unfortunately, I'm much more into writing than art, so if they stop with the high profile/really great artists, I can't see me continuing with it.
Also, Bob Gale seems to be trying way too hard.
I liked his silver age styled Daredevil arc from back before Bendis took over, a six parter with Winsdale on art, but his silver-age style on Spider-man, with 'cutesy' self aware caption boxes is really annoying, and distracts from the momentum of the stories.

TimothyCallahan

10-21-2008, 05:52 PM

Bob Gale is pretty terrible, but the rest of Brand New Day has been good, and the recent art was the best yet (largely because of the JR Jr artwork!)

I do think "Ultimate Spider-Man" justifies the existence of the entire Ultimate line, because it's the best continuous Spider-Man title yet. And when you say it's not as exciting as the stories it's based on, I don't really understand that. When you go back and read those original stories, are they really all that exciting to you? If so, I'd like to hear about some specific examples.

I do think Mark Bagley is the most mediocre (if anyone can be "most" mediocre) penciller working today, but Bendis's Peter Parker is a great character.

FunkyGreenJerusalem

10-21-2008, 09:42 PM

Bob Gale is pretty terrible, but the rest of Brand New Day has been good, and the recent art was the best yet (largely because of the JR Jr artwork!)

He would be a whole lot better if he dropped his pseudo-Stan Lee style... it feels really, really forced, and sticks out as none of the others seem to be doing it.
(I've only read Vol's. 2 & 3 though, so haven't read any Slott yet.)

I do think "Ultimate Spider-Man" justifies the existence of the entire Ultimate line, because it's the best continuous Spider-Man title yet. And when you say it's not as exciting as the stories it's based on, I don't really understand that. When you go back and read those original stories, are they really all that exciting to you? If so, I'd like to hear about some specific examples.

Off the top of my head... the death of Gwen Stacy.
In fact, the whole Gwen Stacy storyline in the book.
It seemed great when it started, a totally different take on the character, separating her and MJ personality wise, and the possibility of a love triangle of sorts going on, and then she died quite quickly and pointlessly... she hung around for a few arcs not doing much, and then had a throw away death which wasn't even the center piece of the arc it happened in, and her death didn't really have that much of an effect - Peter questioned himself a bit more that day.

As for the originals being exciting, I was amazed last year when I read Essential Amazing Spider-man vol.1 - first time I read the issues - at how enjoyable and energetic Lee and Dikto's character was.
They kept things moving and constantly changing.
Ultimate Spider-man came out the gate with the same sort of energy, even with six issue arcs, but it settled into a pattern much quicker, and two or three part stories started getting dragged out to six.

I do think Mark Bagley is the most mediocre (if anyone can be "most" mediocre) penciller working today, but Bendis's Peter Parker is a great character.

I think Bagely's a fine artist - not great, but you know he'll get the job done - but Bendis' Parker, who started out as a very interesting take on the character, hasn't really progressed all that much.

stealthwise

10-22-2008, 07:35 AM

FunkyGreenJerusalem

10-23-2008, 12:19 AM

FGJ, I would try and get back into Ultimate Spider-Man again, as I dropped it for a while, then started it picking it up in trades, and once I got past, say, Clone Saga, it started getting better. The introduction of Immonen to the book seemed to completely invigorate the writing as well, as Bendis has been introducing a lot more twists, and Immonen's storytelling skills are off the wall. It's been a long time since I was actually involved in action scenes, but the way he does his layouts are astounding at times.

Not only that, but the book actually is leading somewhere, and the last two trades have been pretty good.

I can't see myself doing it.
I tried to keep myself going after I got tired of it, but it was slow and directionless.
Last arc I can remember reading had Moon Knight in it, and a few other characters brought over, and there was nothing even remotely interesting or new about any of the characters... surely it would have been better to create new characters than bring in established one's and not actually have a use for them.
The book just died a death of a thousand yawns for me, and my recent attempts to re-read them all died about vol.2 where I just couldn't get into it.

Sean Whitmore

10-23-2008, 03:00 AM

Cayman

10-23-2008, 05:27 PM

I don't understand why Gale gets as much flak as he does, to be honest.

Frankly, when it comes to Spidey these days, I just take a nap in between Slott's turns at bat, so I'm not arguing that he's great or anything. I just don't get why, out of the mediocre Guggenheim/Gale/Wells stories, Gale's stories are seen as so offensively mediocre that he keeps getting name-checked.

SEAN

His scripts are pretty bad. The other guys do a lot better.

FunkyGreenJerusalem

10-23-2008, 10:23 PM

I don't understand why Gale gets as much flak as he does, to be honest.

Frankly, when it comes to Spidey these days, I just take a nap in between Slott's turns at bat, so I'm not arguing that he's great or anything. I just don't get why, out of the mediocre Guggenheim/Gale/Wells stories, Gale's stories are seen as so offensively mediocre that he keeps getting name-checked.

SEAN

It's his caption boxes at attempts at being zany... it just feels so forced, especially when none of the others are doing it - except Guggenheim, but he at least keeps it to the ercap box.

stealthwise

10-25-2008, 09:42 AM

Finally picked up the last issue of New Ways to Die.

Zzzzz...

for a title and character that was considered to be so innovative, exciting and influential for its first 25 years, Spider-Man has become so generic, bland, and, well, boring.

Reptisaurus!

10-25-2008, 07:42 PM

Needs! More! Freaking! Third! Acts!

Is the big one. Spider-man's starting to feel like the '90s X-men, which is the worst possible approach to the material. Plots are started.... and never finished, no solid resolutions, no endings, precious few F$%^ yeah moments.

Also ill-defined supporting characters, and villains.

Plusses:

Marcos Martin! I haven't dug a regular Spider-man artist this much in decades.

Good story balance between Peter Parker and Spider-man. Generally really good characterization of Peter/Spidey.

I like the general tone of the book. Nice and Stan Lee-esque.

Right now, Spider-man is probably about as good as this kind of... how to put this delicately... editorially driven clusterfuck approach to comics can possibly be.

Reptisaurus!

10-25-2008, 07:44 PM

Grant Morrison said, and I quote, "I couldn't write Spider-Man. He's too specific."

"Specific?"

I love Morrison as much as anyone except for everyone else who writes for CSBG except for Greg Hatcher...

But I don't think M has the dialog chops to pull off Spidey. His strength, as a writer, ain't street level soap opera.

TimothyCallahan

10-26-2008, 05:53 PM

FunkyGreenJerusalem

10-26-2008, 06:30 PM

I can't imagine what a Morrison Spider-Man comic would "sound" like, but I definitely think any criticism about Morrison's dialogue is unfounded. He's one of the best dialogue writers in the business. Read Animal Man. Read All-Star Superman. Very different, but very effective use of dialogue in both cases.

Sometimes he writes really cool lines, but other times his dialogue is quite awkward... there were a few instances in New X-men where I can remember it pulling me out.
I mean, he's never naturalistic, and not trying to be, but he still falls short of Ennis, who I think is the master of writing not how people do speak, but how we wished we spoke.
You read his dialogue out loud and it kicks arse.
You don't always get that with Morrison.

Reptisaurus!

10-26-2008, 07:34 PM

I can't imagine what a Morrison Spider-Man comic would "sound" like, but I definitely think any criticism about Morrison's dialogue is unfounded. He's one of the best dialogue writers in the business. Read Animal Man. Read All-Star Superman. Very different, but very effective use of dialogue in both cases.

I think he's good at using dialog to hork the plot along, and I think he's *very* good at economically conveying complex ideas.

But, conversely, I think he's generally fairly poor at using dialog to convey character. Most of his characters speak with the same, distinctively Morrisonian rhythms, and even tend to say the same sort of things (Generally some derivation of "I'm such a bad-ass.") All Star Superman # 2 was when I realized this, actually. It read like, "Wow. He's trying SO hard to portray in-character guarded affection between Superman and Lois. But failing."

stealthwise

10-27-2008, 10:25 PM

I think he's good at using dialog to hork the plot along, and I think he's *very* good at economically conveying complex ideas.

But, conversely, I think he's generally fairly poor at using dialog to convey character. Most of his characters speak with the same, distinctively Morrisonian rhythms, and even tend to say the same sort of things (Generally some derivation of "I'm such a bad-ass.") All Star Superman # 2 was when I realized this, actually. It read like, "Wow. He's trying SO hard to portray in-character guarded affection between Superman and Lois. But failing."

Whoa, first of all, All-Star Superman failed at NOTHING. It's nearly flawless, and the dialogue is no exception.

Second, you're right about most of the rest of it. Morrison seems to almost consider dialogue as kind of... unimportant when it comes to telling a story, which I think is unfortunate. I'd almost prefer to see him scripting with someone else doing the dialogue for him.

TROUBLEZ

11-29-2008, 04:38 AM

Spider-man is one of my all time favorite characters.

I initially got into Spider-man after seeing a friends issue featuring Venom, #316 I believe. After that I was a fan, buying up Amazing, Spectacular, and Classic Tales.

I liked how when I bought any back issue, it was like finding reading a small chapter out of the characters life. Back issue so the Alien Costume saga were awesome, Kravens Last Hunt, Web of Spider-man early issues, they were all fun. Once Bagley took over I bailed and never looked back.

I also liked that he had the best and most solid continuity of all characters. I really thought that May's death was a very good story, but they should have thought it through better, whether it fit for the long term or was a short term answer for increased sales.

I don't want to be too picky but I have no interest in getting back into Spider-man after finding out Norman Osborn had sex with Gwen Stacy, May came back to life after being impersonated by an actress, and Peter made a deal with Mephisto to erase his marriage in exchange to change time and undo May's imminent death.

Reptisaurus!

11-29-2008, 01:06 PM

Since this thread popped up again: Oh My Freaking God, but that last issue of Spider-man was good. Best Spidey story I've read in a couple-three years. (When did that weird Sam Keith story with the Sandman all displacing himself into different elements of his psyche come out? Was it before or after the one with Stegron?) Anyway, Best Spider-man story since those two.

Dark Soul # 7

11-30-2008, 03:34 AM

Peter "Spider-man" Parker is without a doubt my favorite fictional character of all time.

He's relatable, funny, complex, different from other superheroes, has a will of iron and is on the whole a good guy whom the universe unfortunately seems to have decided to take a constant dump on. He has his ups and downs but he always gets through it in the end. And he's matured and grown up in a pretty natural waythroughout the years. Overall, he's just a great character.

Because I like the character so much, it pains me a little to not read his comics anymore. I just don't like the status quo. I'm sure that the talented people writing ASM nowadays are doing the best job they can. It's just not for me. I loved the marriage too much. And I absolutely loath the horrendous and lazy way it was dealt with. Like it was some problem they could sweep under the carpet with a quick fix solution that doesn't even fit into Spider-man's part of the Marvel Universe.

Oh well, at least there's the Spectacular Spider-man cartoon, Spider-man Loves Mary Jane comics and Amazing Spider-girl comics. They give me what I want. Unfortunately two of those are ending sooner that I'd like.

Jonah Hardenbrook

12-01-2008, 08:11 AM

I started reading ASM with Back in Black, and stuck around for the controversy of One More Day, then quickly fell in love with Brand New Day. I did not have much stock in the story prior to One More Day, and was not nearly as outraged as much of the Internet fandom.
Is that the route I would have taken in returning Peter back to being single? Probably not, but that was not my decision to make.
Could many of these Brand New Day stories have been told with a married Peter? In my opinion it definitely could have been done, especially considering the creative teams that have spearheaded Brand New Day.
Brand New Day has offered exciting, fast paced stories on a weekly basis with an excellent supporting cast, new villains, and new mysteries. The creative teams bring a new energy to the title that had seemingly been missing for quite some time (That is based on hearsay though, since as mentioned above, I didn’t read Spiderman till very recently), and as someone mentioned before, Dan Slott nails Peter Parker’s dialogue.

mr.brighteyes

12-01-2008, 12:09 PM

CyberHubbs

12-08-2008, 08:21 AM

I love brand new day. While not all of the story lines are to my liking (myan snow storm guys I absolutely love most of the art. the new ways to day story line was over hyped and way to drawn out. If you want to see what quality writing looks like check out the Flash Tompson stand alone. BTW has J. Jonah Jamison Sr. ever appeared before now?

No.

It's sort of a retcon on Waid's part, or he felt that Zeb Wells' Behind the Mustache gave him enough wiggle room to slip it in without really contradicting the story.

rev sully

03-26-2009, 03:50 AM

Hey Callahan!

I love this! Glad I found this thread. More later from me but this reminded me to bring my "old" 11 CD-ROM Spidey collection of AF#15, ASM#1 through 500+. To let a work mate read on his breaks.

BTW Tim. What do you think about the future of ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN by Bendis after ULTIMATUM. I am not looking forward...I am in fact sad. USM is one of my favorites. If anything, Spidey should be perpetually 16 years old. it's the best Spidey/Peter. See the CW's Spectacular Spidey on Saturday AMs.

Also Grant would totally be great for Spidey dialog/history-wise. And JR Jr was terrible in New Ways To Die...nothing like his JMS work of the early '00s. JMHO! ^_^
Humerto Ramos in the defunct Spectacular Spidey was AWESOME! I gotta get to work! Don't wanna miss the bus! More later!
THANKS!

rev sully

03-26-2009, 12:19 PM

Morrison on Spider-Man. Wow. Let me run with this for a bit. May my random thoughts coalesce into coherence.

I think if Grant invented One More Day with the Devil's Bargain...it woulda been retconned already. I'm talking to you Xorn, Hawkman & Hawkgirl...

I keep coming back to the amazing Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale piece "Blue". Wow. This is great. Or such as Morrison's own FF "1234". But "Just Imagine..." a four-year run of Spider-Man by Grant Morrison...with occasional pencils by Frank Quietly. Is this too much? Callahan, we'll disagree here but I loved Grant's "DC 1MIL"...I can totally see a Spidey comic by Morrison in this tone for voice and panels...like Val Semekis' art in that I loved. I know you have legitimate problems with DC1MIL and I respect your opinion. Give Spidey a great time travel arc. A parallel Spidey from the rich Marvel Multiverse. The Return of Uncle Ben. As Morrison loves to put in his bubbles, "heh!". A Wholesale Emergency Crisis-Level Threat...Grant gives titles original great bad guys and sometimes the bad guys are what make these superhero stories great...the opponent. Grant did invent Solaris. (PS You didn't dig the marginalized, impotent Luthor in DC1MIL, only represented in voice bubbles of exclamation from LuthorTower?). And I loved what Grant did with "Sublime" in New X-Men.

Maybe a remake of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN called ALL-STAR SPIDER-MAN... members of the Spidey-Squad come back on his toughest day ever...a barking spider smells the far future on them. A barking spider is also another name for passing gas and blaming it on something.

OK...so the best part of Spidey for me is Peter Parker, his internal monologue and this life he leads. Some of the best Spidey's I've seen are actually Future Peter Parkers. Such as the Ross/Krueger, et al "X" series...I loved the NYC Sherrif Peter Parker with the blue shirt, webslingers and the badge with the spider motif. Also the "tough" Pete Parker of the JMS/JR Jr years of the early '00s with the bad@$$ red & blue Spider-Man leather jacket facing down the armed NYPD at MJ's grave? That was almost as cool as Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider".

So to Tim Callahan and anybody else with their ear's on the Spider-Man thread...got a favorite artist for your favorite Spidey? Can you narrow it down to 1??? I cannot. I'll do it in Five though.

Todd McFarlane. Made an indelible standard with the eyes...making them once again the expressive part. Especially in the Black Costume years.
Mike Zeck. Hands down my ultimate favorite arc was "Kraven's Last Hunt".
Mark Bagley. Ultimate Spidey Rules! Rules Harder Than San Dimas High School Football!!!
John Romita, Jr. JR. Jr. grew up in NYC. The city shines underneath the swingin' Spidey as the second most important character in the JMS/JR Jr. Years.
Humberto Ramos! Hey...I loved the 2003-05 Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) written by Paul Jenkins. It was short-lived but it was really touching showcasing the life of Peter Parker in 27 issues...it was while he & MJ were separated and he was living in a Flat in Queens. He also was responsible for the care of his "roommate" Flash Thompson, who at the time was wheelchair-bound in a vegetative state. Ramos' lines & details compounded with a lithe Spidey with the most expressive eyes...almost the Best Spidey Ever but I cannot choose One.

'namaste...

David Walton

07-21-2009, 02:19 PM

There's some quality talent working on Spider-Man right now but I've soured on the status quo.

My favorite era is the marriage and that's colored not just my perception of how MJ and Peter's relationship should work but also how a serial narrative can move forward a bit. Not radically, mind you. Don't need to bring kids into the mix or anything. Just have a big event like the marriage that works as a part of Peter's continuous narrative and go with it.

I thought it was a special moment not only in Peter's life but in comics history. Off the top of my head I can't think of another major character whose relationship took such a radical and permanent change halfway through his history. (Reed and Sue married early and already worked as a unit.) At the time of OMD, Peter had nearly as many years of marriage behind him as bachelorhood.

I'd recommend anyone try out ASM right now, as it is quality work. In fact the quality has gradually increased for the past year. If you prefer the way things work in the Spider-verse now you'll love it. But personally I'm not as excited about ASM as the Bat-books, so I've dropped ASM in favor of them.

rev sully

07-22-2009, 02:08 PM

But personally I'm not as excited about ASM as the Bat-books, so I've dropped ASM in favor of them.

First. Love the Avatar, Kraven in a Black Suit. THAT'S MIKE ZECK!!!

I stopped ASM after "Sins Past". JMS being corralled into doing it though...I dunno. Lot's of bands have to jam and the song comes first...he could have done a better job and it ultimately became a throw-away idea. It could have been great. Just Imagine...an Harry and Gabriel dynamic...iDigress...

I thumbed through "New Ways To Die" on the LCS shelf. Didn't buy it. Was actually disappointed in the rushed art by JM, Jr. There's nothing out there Spidey I wanna buy except ULTIMATUM REQUIEM #2...

and another thing...I loved ULTIMATE SPIDEY. I'll stay tuned to POWERS but I don't want a "new" direction on a road that was facing the Promised Land. I LOVE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN! Only "love" was in CAPS there. ^_~ heh!

ASM I just noticed in 5 years gone up 100 issue numbers. Yeah I can count!!! 60 Issue = Five years!!!

current FAVE Spidey is the HDTV's Spectacular Spider-Man. Last Sunday, I watched a CHUNK of Season 2 on the couch, about 2 1/2 hours and it was all X-Mas themed (in July!!!)...since it moved from CW Spect. Spidey was hard to find. Hint: RTFM & use the "Search" feature on the Clicker, mouthbreather!!! ^_~

crea shaakti,