Favorite ASM Centennial Issue?

[oldschool]

It's been awhile since we have discussed this but with ASM #800 coming up, I thought the timing was good to revisit this topic. Pretty simple question: what is your favorite centennial issue of ASM? Vote and feel free to discuss as well! I think all 7 (so far) centennial issues have been special in their own way but, if you had to pick just one, which one is it?

[xpyred]

Definitely Amazing 400. The story was powerful on many different levels. The fact that May reveals a secret and then passes is very cinematic. Yes - it was cliche but it was done well. Ben Reilly's grief is also very powerful when May passes because he never even got to speak with her. Overall it was a great issue and one of the best.

[blackspidey2099]

For me it comes down to either ASM 300 or ASM 600...

[John Ossie]

Definitely wasn't 700 for me (anyone who knows me won't be surprised by that LOL). 400 is a pretty good one for reasons xpryed mentions. I'll have to mull it over for another twenty-four hours before I vote but at the moment it's between 400, 100 and 300 for me personally.

[Miles To Go]

Toss between "The Gift" and the conclusion to "Happy Birthday"

"The Gift" is an emotional and touching farewell to Peter's foster mother figure, what should have been the closing of one door and the path made clear for another as MJ awaited their kid. The ending with Peter led away in handcuffs with MJ confronted by Ben is hard to sit through and I tend to ignore it on rereading because I hate to see my favorite hero kicked while he's down, especially as an expecting father. It's also the peak of the first half of the Clone Saga, back when it could easily have been hailed as a seminal Spider-Man story instead of the cause of a lot of future problems

The only thing that prevents me from selecting "The Gift" is that it's retconned a few years later, even if it remained canon to MC2.

I went with "Happy Birthday" though, because given the context of history, it's the last anniversary to really celebrate Peter Parker as the man he used to be, what he had accomplished, what paths he might take, how to best avoid pitfalls, travel up and down the treacherous time-stream, and get to make further peace with his Uncle's memory. MJ ends the story wishing her husband, her best friend, a happy birthday in what I feel is the perfect ending to the Spider-Man story as it stood then. Had JMS bowed out here and left his dangling plot threads to others, we would have had a near perfect run and someone else could have had their day in the sun tainted by One More Day

[Celgress]

ASM #400 it is perfect in every way.

[oldschool]

For me, it remains ASM #200----it is not only a nearly perfect told story (especially with the preceding 4 issues) but it could easily have served as a wonderful final ever Spidey story as it left Peter and Aunt May both in a very good place. It also put some of the guilt he carried around since AF #15 to rest and was also a wonderful use of several of Spidey's longest-tenured foes as well. Just superb.

#300 and #400 would be (close) runners-up, though.

[Spidey5640]

200 - really comes down to Pete, not Spiderman, vs the Burglar. doesn't get better than that.

[Mister Mets]

I'll go with 300, but man, the centennials have a good track record.

500 is probably the worst, and 500 is pretty decent.

[comicscollector]

I have liked them all so far.
They are diferente from each other,but so far i think all the centenary issues were quite great.
My favorites is issue 100,followed closely by 300 and 200.

[oldschool]

I'll go with 300, but man, the centennials have a good track record.

500 is probably the worst, and 500 is pretty decent.

I would agree that 500 is my least favorite (hard to call it "worst") and it still probably a solid B. And, yes, these issues all really hold up well.....even #100 which wasn't celebrated as such a big deal back then is a great and compelling story (with one of my favorite JR SR covers to boot). It's worth noting that none of the satellite centennial issues (and I know there are not as many) have had anything close in quality to these with the exception of PP:SSM #200 which suggests that only the flagship title is worthy of the big celebratory moments.

[John Ossie]

After mulling it over I've plumped for 400.

[Gnarlly]

Issue 300 for me. Early Venom, Todd McFarlane on art, MJ and Peter happily married, and the return of the red and blue costume. So many things to like.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I think 200 is really good, the one I might think is equal is 600.

I'll go with 300, but man, the centennials have a good track record.

500 is probably the worst, and 500 is pretty decent.

I think 500 is better than 700, and I place it ahead of 400 cause it's not poorly retconned a few years later.

[darthblinx]

I went with "Happy Birthday" though, because given the context of history, it's the last anniversary to really celebrate Peter Parker as the man he used to be, what he had accomplished, what paths he might take, how to best avoid pitfalls, travel up and down the treacherous time-stream, and get to make further peace with his Uncle's memory. MJ ends the story wishing her husband, her best friend, a happy birthday in what I feel is the perfect ending to the Spider-Man story as it stood then. Had JMS bowed out here and left his dangling plot threads to others, we would have had a near perfect run and someone else could have had their day in the sun tainted by One More Day

Words outta my mouth. Imo much better than #400, since as mentioned, nothing even 'counts' from that story. Ben would've still been around. Nothing stuck from this story. Now you can say nothing really important happened or stuck in #500, but that wasn't the point of that story. It IS the case with the other centineal issues, they're actively trying to change things. #500 gave us what we rarely get, a happy Parker.