How do you feel about Spencer/Ottley on ASM?

[SpiderClops]

Wait and see.

[blackspidey2099]

Really quite meh. Ottley definitely seems to be a downgrade from Immonen, and Spencer hasn't shown any inclination or skill with writing Spider-Man whatsoever (see how he just completely left Peter out of Secret Empire, when Peter could have had a huge and important role). The only thing that makes Spencer a "wait and see" rather than "bad" is his Superior Foes work, though even that really had little Spider-Man in it, and doesn't have too much of a correlation to how good he will be at writing Spider-Man. But if this is even more "back to basics", count me out. I've already seen what Marvel thinks Spider-Man's "basics" are, and it's completely off the mark.

[The Negative Zone]

I'm ready for a new direction in Spider-Man, but you know the art is just really going to take some getting used to it. Can't decide if I like it or not.

[Frontier]

I was getting to a point where I was just happy to be getting any new creative team on ASM after so long, so while I can't say Spencer was my top choice I guess I'll count my blessings...

I guess I'm cautiously interested to see what Spencer does on the title, and that it'll be good to have some fresh blood and creative juice going into the book even if it might end up being my cup of tea.

Certainly I'm interested to see what direction Spencer will go with what will be his first major Marvel work since Cap/Secret Empire which, love it or hate it, left him at a very controversial point in his career to the point where I'm almost a little surprised Marvel gave him the job of writing ASM.

I'm not expecting him to use the book to try and "rehabilitate his image," but it'll be interesting to see what he does on the book and exactly what his Spider-Man will be compared to Slott and other interpretations, or even Spencer's other books.

At least on a technical level, I think Spencer's writing will be a step-up from Slott, even if we'll trade Slott speak for everyone being a sassy quipper .

But I don't expect we'll see as much gimmick plots as we saw with Slott (mind-swapping, everyone has a Symbiote now, every Spider ever, every dead person is back to life, etc.) and maybe less of a focus on creating spinoffs over the core book.

I also think the portrayal of female characters will be a step-up from the past run, not that Spencer hasn't had his fair share of issues in that area too.

Ryan Ottley on Spider-Man is phenomenal. I loved his work on Invincible and I can't wait to see what he brings to the table for Spider-Man .

[kalai]

Spencer is a good writer.
Ottley is a great artist.
Hype

[Username taken]

I'm excited.

Spencer is one of Marvel's best writers while Ottley has killed it on Invincible.

As much as I liked Slott's work, a new voice for Spider-man is a welcome idea.

[esskay]

Not keen on Ottley. First impression of the art is it's too cartoony, and I hate all those big, blocky thighs. But I haven't really liked any Spider-Man artists in the past 10 years except Marcos Martin (and Romita Jr of course), so what do I know. I just accept that the art direction on the book is not going to be my taste for the foreseeable future.

[oldschool]

I'm pretty pumped; I have enjoyed almost everything Spencer has written that I have read (yes, even "Secret Empire"; guess I am in the minority there----considering the scope and ambition of that project starting with "Avengers: Standoff" I thought he did a hell of a job and I never let HydraCap anger me much as it was clearly going to temporary same as SpOck) and Ottley seems to be a great choice for a more kinetic and colorful artist on the book. I just think it's a good team to signal a change to get the book a bit closer back to where his center should be and I am looking forward to it after being pretty disappointed with Slott's work the last few years.

[SilverWarriorWolf]

Not keen on Ottley. First impression of the art is it's too cartoony, and I hate all those big, blocky thighs. But I haven't really liked any Spider-Man artists in the past 10 years except Marcos Martin (and Romita Jr of course), so what do I know. I just accept that the art direction on the book is not going to be my taste for the foreseeable future.

Funny. I seems I like every artist that people complain is too cartoony. I like and am optimistic about Ottely’s work, and I loved Ramos’ art.

[David Walton]

He does seem to have some major blind spots when it comes to politics, so that is a bit concerning.

That criticism is legitimate only when viewed through the prism of his work on Captain America/Secret Empire which, by and large, is mostly what he has been known for the last several years.

Captain America is inherently political. We're talking about a guy who punched Hitler before the US officially declared war, discovered Nixon was involved in the Secret Empire, and quit rather than become an official government operative answerable to Ronald Reagan. There have been stretches where Cap was a more conventional superhero and they tend to be forgotten.

I guess I'm saying I can't think of anyone who's had a successful Cap run without a 'blindspot' for their politics.

Someone will probably mention Roger Stern, but he brought Cap's New Deal brand of liberalism into play again.

[oldschool]

Captain America is inherently political. We're talking about a guy who punched Hitler before the US officially declared war, discovered Nixon was involved in the Secret Empire, and quit rather than become an official government operative answerable to Ronald Reagan. There have been stretches where Cap was a more conventional superhero and they tend to be forgotten.

I guess I'm saying I can't think of anyone who's had a successful Cap run without a 'blindspot' for their politics.

Someone will probably mention Roger Stern, but he brought Cap's New Deal brand of liberalism into play again.

Great points, David; I have been a longtime Cap reader and his book is and always has been "political". Whether it is the storyline where he quit in the 1980's after disagreeing with the White House or the post-9/11 issues, he has always---and should always----have a political bent to his stories. I think Spencer got criticized for a few different reasons: the HydraCap change was a pretty bold one (even though everyone should have known it would be retconned), he was on the title a long time and---most likely---a lot of people may have disagreed with his personal views. In other words, I find it is pretty common today that when people tell entertainers of any kind to "keep politics out of it", they almost always disagree with their particular take on things. Lastly, and I doubt many would argue this point, our country has become extremely polarized lately and there is a lot of hyper-sensitivity on both sides of the political spectrum so any kind of expression of opinion regarding the current state of affairs is going to invite criticism.

[LooneyKoala]

Honestly, I’m just quite “meh” about this announcement... I really enjoyed Superior Foes and what I read of Ant-Man. I even enjoyed Secret Empire (can totally understand all the criticisms it received though). But Spencer for me is very hit and miss. I’m not too keen on Ottely’s style either, but he’s clearly very good at what he does (it’s just not my preference). I’ll check it out and hope for the best though!! I think it’ll just take some getting used to regardless regardless of the creative team as I started reading with Spider Island, so Slott has been writing it the whole time I’ve been reading it (and I’ve loved his run).

My dream team would be Waid and Samnee or Gillen and McKelvie.

[oldschool]

Honestly, I’m just quite “meh” about this announcement... I really enjoyed Superior Foes and what I read of Ant-Man. I even enjoyed Secret Empire (can totally understand all the criticisms it received though). But Spencer for me is very hit and miss. I’m not too keen on Ottely’s style either, but he’s clearly very good at what he does (it’s just not my preference). I’ll check it out and hope for the best though!! I think it’ll just take some getting used to regardless regardless of the creative team as I started reading with Spider Island, so Slott has been writing it the whole time I’ve been reading it (and I’ve loved his run).

My dream team would be Waid and Samnee or Gillen and McKelvie.

I would sign up for Waid and Samnee right now over virtually every other possible creative team! That would have been awesome.....

[David Walton]

Great points, David; I have been a longtime Cap reader and his book is and always has been "political". Whether it is the storyline where he quit in the 1980's after disagreeing with the White House or the post-9/11 issues, he has always---and should always----have a political bent to his stories. I think Spencer got criticized for a few different reasons: the HydraCap change was a pretty bold one (even though everyone should have known it would be retconned), he was on the title a long time and---most likely---a lot of people may have disagreed with his personal views. In other words, I find it is pretty common today that when people tell entertainers of any kind to "keep politics out of it", they almost always disagree with their particular take on things. Lastly, and I doubt many would argue this point, our country has become extremely polarized lately and there is a lot of hyper-sensitivity on both sides of the political spectrum so any kind of expression of opinion regarding the current state of affairs is going to invite criticism.

Agreed. I think it would be almost impossible to write a story that's perceived as entirely apolitical these days, but especially regarding characters with politics baked into their DNA. And I find it somewhat odd that Spencer's Cap run being political is being held against him...we might as well worry that he's going to write about power and responsibility when takes over ASM!

[David Walton]

I would sign up for Waid and Samnee right now over virtually every other possible creative team! That would have been awesome.....

Looks as though Samnee is leaving Marvel after Cap #700, and I'm not sure what Waid's current relationship with DC is.

They would do some really amazing things with Superman in my opinion! Or anything they want to work on. Such a great team.