What is the worst period of the Spider-Man comics?

[boots]

I was upset at the time, but I was like twelve. In hindsight I think my reaction was childish (which makes sense). If I read the same thing now I think I'd really like it. My tastes have changed quite a bit. I also have decades of experience that tells me that the original would surely return, and I'd be able to just enjoy the ride until that happened.

yeah, that's the interesting thing about polls like this...changing tastes and growth. the clone saga seems to be one of those ones that some readers have mellowed on over the years (once peter's character was out of the "danger zone")

i actually hated the michelinie stuff as a kid but i've grown fond of it now. i've had the opposite experience with defalco. there is a strong element out there though that essentially want the same stuff they got as younger readers (which isn't a bad thing necessarily).

[The Negative Zone]

Does the awkward period after Superior Spider-Man and before Spider-Verse count for anything? I really don't dislike any Spider-Man era from what I've read.

[Mister Mets]

One period I've highly disliked, was the Peter Parker / Mary Jane separation period, that began with MJ's "death" (Amazing Spider-Man Vol.2 #13) then brief comeback / immediate separation that lasted until Volume 2, issue 50.

Mileage may vary, but the prior year on the series was pretty bad (Chapter One, the first twelve issues of Amazing Spider-Man Volume 2 and Peter Parker Spider-Man.) And this was a period with some really good comics (Jenkins' Peter Parker Spider-Man, the Morlun Saga in ASM, "The Conversation," the best of Tangled Web, Death & Destiny)

Does the awkward period after Superior Spider-Man and before Spider-Verse count for anything? I really don't dislike any Spider-Man era from what I've read.

It was eight issues. That's probably not long enough to count.

[Daniel22]

yeah, that's the interesting thing about polls like this...changing tastes and growth. the clone saga seems to be one of those ones that some readers have mellowed on over the years (once peter's character was out of the "danger zone")

i actually hated the michelinie stuff as a kid but i've grown fond of it now. i've had the opposite experience with defalco. there is a strong element out there though that essentially want the same stuff they got as younger readers (which isn't a bad thing necessarily).

I think there's a HUGE percent of readers that want the same thing they read as kids. I think usually when people say "true version" or "essence" of a character it more often than not means "how they were when I fell in love with them". It might make up the larger percentage of Marvel and DC readers. And I agree that it's not a bad thing, people like what they like and of course that's fine, it's just not how I feel currently. I might get nostalgic in my old age and want "Clone Saga Part Two: The Re-Clone-ining" (title may need work).

[Noronha]

To me it´s everything that came after OMD.

[boots]

I think there's a HUGE percent of readers that want the same thing they read as kids. I think usually when people say "true version" or "essence" of a character it more often than not means "how they were when I fell in love with them". It might make up the larger percentage of Marvel and DC readers. And I agree that it's not a bad thing, people like what they like and of course that's fine, it's just not how I feel currently. I might get nostalgic in my old age and want "Clone Saga Part Two: The Re-Clone-ining" (title may need work).

yeah nostalgia and comfort "food" are big things for this generation. i mean, i was probably hoping clone conspiracy was going to be a bit of "the re-cloning" kinda vibe, but ended up its own thing for better or worse.

and on that point of "what i read as a kid", i sometimes wonder if they're chasing something unattainable.

[blackspidey2099]

It's hard for me to choose between Mackie/Byrne or The Clone Saga periods as my least favorite. I literally can't bear the writing and art-style from then, and I always skip from Clone Saga to JMS' run whenever I do a Spider-Man reread. None of the other eras here are even comparably bad, IMO.

[MagSeven]

i loved it as a kid, but I think Maximum Carnage should be a choice.

[boots]

i loved it as a kid, but I think Maximum Carnage should be a choice.

i guess that’s under pre clone saga?

[oldschool]

For me, it's the Mackie/Byrne relaunch; there just really weren't very many good stories at all during that extended period. Slott's post-Superior work was not great and Denny O'Neill's run was more boring than anything else but the Mackie/Byrne era just reeked of misfire: poorly constructed stories without much direction.

[ngroove]

Mileage may vary, but the prior year on the series was pretty bad (Chapter One, the first twelve issues of Amazing Spider-Man Volume 2 and Peter Parker Spider-Man.).

Chapter One was not that bad, if viewed under the mindset of it being its own divergent continuity, like Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man - sure, I knew back then it attempted to retconically assimilate itself to 616's Volume Twos, such as saying the spider that bit Peter Parker was irradiated from the same science demonstration / meltdown that fused tentacles on Otto Octavius, and Electro's blue and white costume, but it was still neat to see more characters, this time Spider-Man, his friends, and his foes, done by John Byrne, formely reknown for X-Men, Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and She-Hulk, with here and there on Avengers.

[Daniel22]

yeah nostalgia and comfort "food" are big things for this generation. i mean, i was probably hoping clone conspiracy was going to be a bit of "the re-cloning" kinda vibe, but ended up its own thing for better or worse.

and on that point of "what i read as a kid", i sometimes wonder if they're chasing something unattainable.

I wonder how much more nostalgia there is now than in the past? It seems like more but I can't say for sure. I do know that almost every cartoon/tv show that I watched as a kid in the eighties has been rebooted at least once. My twelve year old nephew has spent his whole life asking me "Have you heard of GI Joe/Transformers/TMNT/Full House/X Files/a hundred other things" whenever he discovers the new versions of them, which I always find funny. I'm also in that coveted and catered to "male 18-39" demographic so that's a big part I'm sure.

I think they are surely chasing something unattainable. I also think that they aren't remembering things particularly accurately.

[Tuck]

I also have decades of experience that tells me that the original would surely return, and I'd be able to just enjoy the ride until that happened.

The thing is the plan in this case was for the original to be permanently replaced. Peter coming back was a course correction made after fan backlash.

[Daniel22]

The thing is the plan in this case was for the original to be permanently replaced. Peter coming back was a course correction made after fan backlash.

True... I still don't know how they thought that replacing Peter with a clone was ever going to work in the long term. No one was going to believe he was really gone (except for kids like me and maybe a few others) and even if they did believe, how many would have been happy about it? Kind of crazy that they didn't see the backlash coming. I know hindsight is 20/20 but that seems like an easy prediction for professional adults to make.

[Tuck]

They'd have better odds with a legacy.

Although, after a couple more decades, and DC pushing aside Wally and Kyle and some others . . . maybe that's a harder sell than it used to be. (I think people are fine with Miles being Spider-Man also, but would get upset if he were Spider-Man instead.)