What is a "typical" Spider-Man run or story?

[Mister Mets]

In a discussion about Dan Slott's run, someone suggested it wasn't always typical Spider-Man.

This raises an interesting question...What are typical Spider-Man runs or stories?

[Celgress]

In general, Peter juggling the competing responsibilities of his personal and superhero lives while combating street level crime.

[oldschool]

An interesting question; I always thought the "typical" Spidey story was one that took place in New York and included: scenes with Aunt May, Daily Bugle crew, his current love interest, maybe a few friends if they fit and of course the villain of the story. Typical Spidey tales were usually 2, perhaps 3 issues in length and it was common to have subplots continue to build with a payoff sometimes a year or so down the road. Len Wein's 1970's run comes to mind as a pretty good example of "typical Spidey" stories. Marv Wolfman's run as well; I would say Michelenie's run might have been where things first started to change as it featured an over-reliance on both Venom and Carnage and the crossovers started to really effect the flow of the individual titles.

Current storytelling which sometimes ignores the street-level everyman part of the character and instead favors wide-screen action movie settings is certainly atypical by that definition. But I wouldn't say Slott and the current Marvel style is the first to go atypical; JMS' run was a pretty dramatic break from that norm as well, especially once Peter, MJ and Aunt May moved into Avengers Tower.

[Lukmendes]

There are a lot of "layers" of a "typical" Spidey story, which is basicaly fighting street level villains with the occasional bigger threat, Spidey's personality (Like being determined and always keep his principles), his life having good and bad because of the consequences of his actions and inactions with the bullshit bad luck sometimes, interactions with supporting cast as Peter Parker and his own occasional inventions or something else to show his brains. Truthfuly speaking, JMS' run only really picks the "personality", and keeps his interactions more limited to MJ and Aunt May, then later on with more heroes, so it's arguably the most atypical Spidey ever, but since Spidey's personality is obviously such a huge deal for his stories, it may "feel" less atypical.

[WebLurker]

The old '60s ASM (actually the various pre-2007 ASM Epic Collection volumes I've seen read very typical), Ultimate (pre-Ultimatum), the short-lived Spidey series, Marvel Adventures, are what I think of when I think of "typical Spider-Man."

However, I do think that different people have different priorities in what is "typical," meaning that various twists may be atypical but still feel natural to them. Case in point, Dan Slott's early BND stuff is more or less typical in terms of content, but, for some people, is missing an important thing or two. Conversely, the RYV series feels very typical to me (Spidey on the street-level), despite him raising a family is something that 616 never dealt with and so is not typical.

[Mister Mets]

The Lee/ Romita run seems to be the first "typical" run. It's when Spider-Man was established enough that he has a history with some of the villains/ supporting cast, but new characters could pop up. It's when he balanced his academic life (he'd be a college student of some form for over a decade), job as a photographer, private life and hobby as Spider-Man.

An earlyish atypical era was Wolfman/ O'Neil on Amazing Spider-Man, Mantlo/ Stern on Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, as the traditional supporting cast was replaced by the people from Peter Parker's grad school program, a group that did not have the same level of staying power. It just feels a bit weird reading reprints from the era.

There may be something to be said for the idea that it works better when some work is atypical, and it's followed by something closer to the usual standard. Shake-ups have an effect, while a departure from the norm helps fans appreciate the norm.

[Scott Taylor]

I was the one who brought it up in the other thread, so here goes.

When Lee/Romita finished up, we had the gold standard for the typical Spider-Man story. They took what Ditko started and mainstreamed it. Even though the dialogue is somewhat old fashioned, the stories and characters set a bar.

For me, typical is Peter having a rich and diverse supporting cast, including Aunt May and a love interest. He's poor. Spider-Man is his alter-ego, not the other way around. As far as the stories themselves, I'm pretty flexible as to what is typical. If you look at the Lee/Romita run, the villains and their schemes were really all over the map. Mainly, Spider-Man wins out in the end. But another factor in most typical stories is that Peter tends to neglect his supporting cast a bit, feeling a constant need to make things up to them. Hence, soap opera (typical, too).

[Frontier]

I think several episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon embody what I feel are "typical" Spider-Man stories.

[Celgress]

I think several episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon embody what I feel are "typical" Spider-Man stories.

Indeed, the Spectacular cartoon is one of the best and most accurate to the source material renditions of Spider-Man.

[rrb]

I enjoy seeing writers step out of the box to create fresh and non-typical Spidey stories. That's why Dan Slott, and previously JMS, are two of my favorite runs/writers.

[Mister Mets]

I enjoy seeing writers step out of the box to create fresh and non-typical Spidey stories. That's why Dan Slott, and previously JMS, are two of my favorite runs/writers.

I think a push and pull works best.

The most successful example in another franchise was when Grant Morrison's New X-Men was followed by Whedon/ Cassady's Astonishing X-Men, which made them superheroes again.