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

[comicscollector]

The Clone Saga of the 90s.
Not to be mistaken with the Clone story arc from Gerry Conway from Amazing Spider-Man#139-150,because the original Clone story arc from the 70´s is actually great.

[dimo1]

There are quite a few stinkers in each of these periods, but for me everything after Superior couldn‘t grab me.
In all fairness I stopped the first time when the second Clone Saga began, dropped out again when Sins Past began and followed Superior, which, when announced, sounded completely bonkers to me, but was surprisingly well executed.
Tested the new run because of Uncle Wya (Ryan Ottley) but quit after issue 3 I think.

[SuperiorIronman]

Parker Industries

-Zodiac was meh
-The Spider armor looked cool but what did it even do the other costume couldn't with some hand-waving?
-The fall from orbit was fluffin ridiculous even for comicbook science.
-Black Cat was a villain in one of the single lamest heel turns for a writer of that caliber.
-The villain redesigns either sucked or really didn't work (Electro but a GIRL) (or Ben Reilly but EVIL)
-We had no idea what PI does before the tail end of the run, and what we did know they made makes it hilarious Peter would purge the servers (lightbulbs, solar panels, and a phone you could wear on your wrist). Yep, that's a reason to put thousands of people through unemployment. And even the thing about that gadget to find Electro, that's only Electro. And anything before that was made by Otto so if he already knows how to make it, what's the problem?

The only redeeming factor was Superior Octopus but he didn't even have a book and any good that could come from Otto and Peter both have from being on the same playing field is lost when PI goes under.

[xpyred]

I chose the Mackie/Byrne relaunch for a few reasons. The first one being the absolute garbage that was the retelling of the origin. The biggest disappoint for me was the two part story where Peter chose to sleep in the garbage because he didn't want to burden Aunt may after his lost his apartment or whatever dumb crap excuse was given. It was right there where i felt insulted as a fan and felt that the writers had no idea what the hell they were doing.

[Coal Tiger]

The Clone Saga helped drive me away from comics, so I guess I missed the Mackie/Byrne reboot. The period between Peter's returning parents being revealed to be cyborgs and the Clone Saga wasn't great either.

I wasn't a fan of the later half of JMS's run, after JRJR left. I was mostly fine with BND, but sometimes it tried to hard to be different and shocking.

[WebLurker]

Funny that this thread is getting a lot of activity but the one on best Spider-Men eras not so much.

[boots]

Funny that this thread is getting a lot of activity but the one on best Spider-Men eras not so much.

ha. says a lot?

[themasething]

For me, I've been more interested in the character of Peter Parker and his progression from nerdy High School student through to sorta-responsible adult. So I tend to find things like anything to do with his marriage to Mary Jane to be most interesting as that is where I'm at in my life too. I actually picked up "Renew your vows" because that is the Peter Parker I want to see more of. Yet once the stories in Amazing Spider-Man hit "The Other", I think the writers lost their way. Civil War was good as it showed how adult and respectful of his peers Peter was at the time, then turned back to crap with OMD/BND. So I still think the New Avengers & Brand New Day Eras are some of the worst (Exception being Civil War as that was a completely different story for the most part, having Peter be a part of a large whole than just his usual solo stuff) ever written.

I actually enjoyed things like Superior Spider-Man & Parker Industries because it returned Peter Parker to being an adult, someone who actually is trying to grow up and do the right thing with his life. However, as usual, this era of Marvel writers cannot bring themselves to move Peter out of the "awkward 20-something that screws up a lot" phase and just let Peter have some success in life. Peter Parker is not Batman, his misery does not make the character. We're seeing small parts of Peter being happy return with his reunion with Mary Jane, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and something to rip them apart again.

[Daniel22]

Funny that this thread is getting a lot of activity but the one on best Spider-Men eras not so much.

I find the boards to be WAY more negative in general than real life. People complain about things they don't like more than they talk about things they like here in general and in the Spidey section in particular.

I had a professor who would post two videos to social media every semester. One was about a coat drive for the homeless she did every year. The other was a random fight between two women. The title was literally just "Two women fight", no context or reason to care or click. Guess which one got WAY WAY more views and comments, every single semester? I think most people agree and sort of feel that the internet is negative, but seeing her demonstrate how extreme it is was very eye opening to me.

[Mister Mets]

Funny that this thread is getting a lot of activity but the one on best Spider-Men eras not so much.

I suppose. Though people may be more invested in this argument than about whether which of several great eras is the best.

Generally, people are unlikely to despise the eras that are considered great. However, there are some eras that some people hate that have passionate fans (Clone Saga, Superior Spider-Man.)

[WebSlingWonder]

I find the boards to be WAY more negative in general than real life. People complain about things they don't like more than they talk about things they like here in general and in the Spidey section in particular.

I had a professor who would post two videos to social media every semester. One was about a coat drive for the homeless she did every year. The other was a random fight between two women. The title was literally just "Two women fight", no context or reason to care or click. Guess which one got WAY WAY more views and comments, every single semester? I think most people agree and sort of feel that the internet is negative, but seeing her demonstrate how extreme it is was very eye opening to me.

Right?! Like I thought I was the only one. There are a few times when I'm appalled by the overall negativity, and realize that it's just a microcosm of bandwagon disdain. I mean, there are certain Spider-Man stories that I don't like, but I don't really hate any of the stories.

[boots]

Right?! Like I thought I was the only one. There are a few times when I'm appalled by the overall negativity, and realize that it's just a microcosm of bandwagon disdain. I mean, there are certain Spider-Man stories that I don't like, but I don't really hate any of the stories.

i hate that you wrote that. i hate this thread. i h88888888888888888888888888888888

[Prof. Warren]

Funny that this thread is getting a lot of activity but the one on best Spider-Men eras not so much.

Everyone pretty much agrees on best eras. They're discussed often. "Worst", not so much. Also, there's a lot of fans who always love to bitch!

As for the selections here, I think there's some pretty bad choices included - in that some of these periods are not bad at all and are, in fact, quite good. Or at least good enough to not be on a "worst" list.

If I had to choose, I'd probably go with either Denny O'Neil's run - the first really poor run in ASM's history up to that point - or the Byrne/Mackie relaunch. That was a misfire on almost every level and thankfully JMS pulled the book out of that tailspin.

But I'm not voting. Not crazy about the choices listed. And even with the ones I agree are down periods for ASM, there's not much point in piling on them at this late date.

[Jokerz79]

Sins Past, Mackie/Byrne, and Brand New Day were all massive low points for me with BND driving me away for years.

I actually liked the Clone Saga and Ben Reilly's time as Spider-Man and felt it allowed Peter to both "Grow Up" and finally move on with his family earning his happy ending while keeping a classic version of Peter as Spider-Man.

[Scott Taylor]

The first two eras seem like they shouldn't be in this poll. Same goes with Superior Spider-Man. Those weren't bad eras, just different and/or editorially constrained.

Parker Industries for me. It betrayed a basic concept of Peter Parker.