Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows-One Year On: What Do You Think So Far?

[Miles To Go]

In October 2016, Marvel caved and finally allowed the Spider-Marriage to have a new ongoing comic book in the aggressively fickle mainline market. Written by legendary scribe Gerry Conway and illustrated by top-tier talent Ryan Stegman, the title focused on the group efforts of a content and happy Parker family to clean up crime in the city, with Peter sharing his powers with his wife.

Twelve months later, and the book is still with us. Many were predicting it would not last the full year...and indeed, in that time there have been some ups and downs. At one point the book was not in the top 100 comic books at all, there were concerns about how young Annie was and questions over whether Peter and MJ were in their right mind allowing her to be involved in crime fighting

And then there were mysterious goings-on behind-the-scenes that saw the swift exit of Gerry Conway, with Stegman stepping up as a co-writer and then acting solo writer before a new creative team, and a time skip of over eight years, were announced in time for the Marvel Legacy initiative.

So with a new era imminent for the title, let's reflect on this overall year

What was your favorite story?

Who had the best character development?

Did you think the stories were often at times too short?

Do yuo think Peter Parker got a fair shake in this title? Or was he overshadowed by his wife and kid?

Do you think more could have been done with the supporting cast? (Annie's school, the Daily Bugle)

[SpiderClops]

I think it was enjoyable and fun, but nothing really special. Not like the first mini.

[oldschool]

I think it has been really enjoyable but giving both MJ and Annie powers has been a mistake IMO; I thought having a strong and supportive yet non-powered family would have been good enough. Having an abundance of spider-characters has been enough of a drag in the 616 lately and I thought RYV would have been better served as a continuation of sorts from where the ASM title was headed in the 1990's as opposed to a Spider-Family title which is what this has become. Still, it is a fun and refreshing read so I am not hating on it; just think it would be better if Peter was the only spider-powered one.

[Batman Begins 2005]

I've enjoyed it though it's not at the level of the original. I am concerned about the 8 year jump and how the new creative team does.

[Batman Begins 2005]

What was your favorite story?

Who had the best character development?

Did you think the stories were often at times too short?

Do yuo think Peter Parker got a fair shake in this title? Or was he overshadowed by his wife and kid?

Do you think more could have been done with the supporting cast? (Annie's school, the Daily Bugle)

1. The one focusing on Annie's POV at school.

2. Pete' as he's likeable unlike in the main book.

3. Yes. X-Men and Venom.

4. Sometimes.

5. Definitely the two you refer to and I'll add MJ's business but to a lesser extent of the others.

[Cmbmool]

I enjoyed the series and I found how Annie's living her life in regular school was interesting.

The X-men idea was also of interest, but it made me wonder why doesn't the team allow Spider-man to train her powers. She maybe a mutant of birth, but she is still Peter's daughter. Plus the Logan and Jean having a kid was a nice twist of a surprise.

Peter is enjoyable in this series than he is in Amazing and even, dare I say it, in the MC-2 series too.

I would like to see more of Annie's school life.

With the time-jump coming up it makes me worried and wonder just how different the series will approach itself from its Spider-girl predecessor ?

[Lukmendes]

Well, of the currently released issues, the series has two annoying issues, it's too fast paced, and the villains are chumps, I'm not saying every villain should be like Venom used to be to Spidey and almost kill them at every encounter, but they shouldn't be defeated that easily either, defeated Sandman got subdued too easily, MJ defeated Magneto with one punch, Venom Symbiote was subdued too easily once MJ got Spider-Man's powers again, Spider-Man knocked down Rhino too easily just because he was pissed (Although Rhino wasn't fighting back, but it's still weird looking since I think Rhino is supposed to be able to take it).

That said, those two flaws could easily make any other comic be either bad or terrible, but there's just something about the light-hearted family dynamic that makes the stories fun, adorable, so it's still decent~good.

[Celgress]

I'm disappointed with the direction of the RYV ongoing. I find the timeskip makes the series feel too much like MC2/ Spidergirl. Been there, done that, have the teeshirt. I instead would prefer a comic dealing with either Spidey & his spouse fighting crime together while juggling their civilian lives or else one focusing on a young family of superheroes with a more gradual time progression.

[WeirdSpider]

Best Spider-Man book on the market right now.

One thing that bugs me is the timeline. In Spider-Girl it was clear that everything from 616 was canon up till the Gathering of Five story. In Renew Your Vows we don't have a clear picture of what stories after the marriage are canon. We know that Harry's death in Spectacular Spider-Man issue 200 is still canon, but in RYV Harry and Liz were divorced where as in 616 they were still married. We know that Civil War didn't happen.

Flaws aside it's nice to once again have a Spider-Man book where Peter is an adult especially giving how much Marvel has pushed teenage Spider-Man on everyone the last few years.

What was your favorite story?

Brawl In The Family Part 5(the family fun night issue).

Who had the best character development?

Annie.

Did you think the stories were often at times too short?

Sometimes.

Do yuo think Peter Parker got a fair shake in this title? Or was he overshadowed by his wife and kid?

Yes and no though to be fair it's a tough balancing act when you have a book with three main characters.

Do you think more could have been done with the supporting cast? (Annie's school, the Daily Bugle)

Absolutely.

[RD!]

I may write a more thorough review later and share with anyone interested, but these are my thoughts in brief.

On a personal level I loved the series, it gave me the return of characters and a dynamic I've missed since 2007, only improving on it and giving us Annie who I think is a great character as well.

Objectively, it's still a good series but not amazing. I'd give the run a biased A+ but an objective B+

Positives:
The Spider family. I know there are a lot of Spider people, but I really liked seeing them working as a family. I disagree that this book would have been better off had Peter had a supporting "civilian" family. That would've been too similar to the main title.

Normie and his whole arc.

The Venom storyline and focus on MJ.

Great supporting cast.

Classic Spider-Man adventures.

The Negative:

It was paced terribly. The Venom stuff needed more issues than two, as did the finale. We got four issues of Mole Man and two about the X-Men. That's half the damn series, the main plot was crammed into four issues and we got to enjoy two stand alone issues which were the strongest two comics in this run.

I know the X-Men needed to be in it to set up what happens during the time jump, but one issue could have sufficed.

MJ was clearly the main character, which was good, but the book was called Amazing Spider-Man. Perhaps a bit misleading

My main faults are that the Ms January reveal came from nowhere, she babbled on about "For Hary" but we never got her back story explained, we needdd it. Also I would've liked to see MJ struggle with Venom more. It all seemed too easy.

Still, I think a new creative team will do wonders for this book and am looking forward to a female writers take on Annie and MJ.

[The Whovian]

I like it a lot. And this panel has to be one of the greatest in comics of all time:

[Huntsman Spider]

I like it a lot. And this panel has to be one of the greatest in comics of all time:

Indeed, it is. My only complaint about this first year of RYV is that the storylines were too compressed and needed more room to breathe and be fleshed out, but when you have to live with the Damocles Sword of Cancellation over your head at all times, it's more understandable that Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman ended up rushing through a lot.