Spider-Man Gathering of the Five?

[Spiderfang]

Hi all, I have been continuing the hunt for my post Clone Saga & JMS trade collections. I thought I had wrapped up my Clone & post-clone saga stuff with the Green Goblin's Revenge, but I learned about the Gathering of the Five trade and it supposedly ties into Clone Saga and the Next Chapter (with Maddie Franklin becoming Spider-Man). I guess my question is is this trade really a necessary stand-alone book or has it been collected in other trades that I might already have? (I have all of the Clone Saga, plus all 4/5 volumes of Spider-Man the next chapter). Also I read somewhere that this is the book wherein Peter learns that Aunt May is alive (she supposedly died during the 90's Clone Saga after suffering a stroke), so I'm guessing this ties up all of that stuff?

[WebSlingWonder]

Hi there! Yes, in order to understand some of the reboot material, you'd need The Gathering of Five trade. From what I understand, the trade collects "The Gathering of Five" and its followup "The Final Chapter". So it fills in those story gaps before the Byrne/Mackie reboot.

[Tendrin]

..*sigh*

..poor Mattie...

[Miles To Go]

Can someone verify if one of the essential Spider-Girl volumes currently out has reached the point where the alternative version of Gathering of Five is told?

[bob.schoonover]

Can someone verify if one of the essential Spider-Girl volumes currently out has reached the point where the alternative version of Gathering of Five is told?

Looks like that would be in a hypothetical third or fourth volume of the Spider-Girl Complete Collections (it's issue 49, I believe, and the first two collections go through 32)

[Spiderfang]

Bumping for a recent reading order problem...

So I finally got Gathering of the Five, have collected the complete clone saga epic as well as the Next Chapter, Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Revenge of the Green Goblin. My question now is, where does GOT5 go? Assuming GOT5 is where Mattie Franklin is introduced and by the end Peter burns his spider suit in a bin that The Next Chapter (Mattie taking over as Spider-Man, while Peter lives a "normal" life) the Revenge of the Green Goblin after the last volume of Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Senseless Violence)?

Sorry for the bump, but I want to re-read the Clone Saga as well as the after years (the years of Spidey that I didn't get to read because I wasn't reading at the time).

[WebSlingWonder]

Bumping for a recent reading order problem...

So I finally got Gathering of the Five, have collected the complete clone saga epic as well as the Next Chapter, Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Revenge of the Green Goblin. My question now is, where does GOT5 go? Assuming GOT5 is where Mattie Franklin is introduced and by the end Peter burns his spider suit in a bin that The Next Chapter (Mattie taking over as Spider-Man, while Peter lives a "normal" life) the Revenge of the Green Goblin after the last volume of Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Senseless Violence)?

Sorry for the bump, but I want to re-read the Clone Saga as well as the after years (the years of Spidey that I didn't get to read because I wasn't reading at the time).

Gathering of Five goes right before Spider-Man: The Next Chapter volume 1!

[Spiderfang]

Ah so it's actually the first post Clone-Saga Spidey story then? Should be interesting.

[HypnoHustler]

Ah so it's actually the first post Clone-Saga Spidey story then? Should be interesting.

No, not at all. It came out 2 years after the clone saga ended. It’s a soft reboot of the post-Clone saga era, and the first time the books were reset to a new #1.

I should warn you, ‘The Gathering of Five’ is BAD. It’s not as destructive to the mythos as One More Day. But just story-wise, it’s one of the worst Spidey stories of all time. I would not waste money on it, unless you’re really curious about train-wrecks.

[Pav]

No, not at all. It came out 2 years after the clone saga ended. It’s a soft reboot of the post-Clone saga era, and the first time the books were reset to a new #1.

I should warn you, ‘The Gathering of Five’ is BAD. It’s not as destructive to the mythos as One More Day. But just story-wise, it’s one of the worst Spidey stories of all time. I would not waste money on it, unless you’re really curious about train-wrecks.

If I recall, to me, it wasn't the Gathering of Five that was terrible so much as it was the next story, The Final Chapter. I realize the Final Chapter was merely a continuation of what happened in the Gathering of Five, but I don't recall anything frustrating about GoF specifically; in fact, I was happy to see Override back again!

But the Final Chapter is really bad. And the reboot stories were... lesser-than compared to the pre-reboot stuff, in my opinion.

-Pav, who quit comics for a while due to the reboot...

EDIT: I would've much rather got the story we were supposed to get with Kaine and Baby May, which was utilized somewhat in Spider-Girl. But oh well.

[WebSlingWonder]

Ah so it's actually the first post Clone-Saga Spidey story then? Should be interesting.

No, it's the last post-"Clone Saga" trade.
Also, it's completely up to you whether you think it's bad or not. I would say read it for yourself to determine it's quality.

[HypnoHustler]

If I recall, to me, it wasn't the Gathering of Five that was terrible so much as it was the next story, The Final Chapter. I realize the Final Chapter was merely a continuation of what happened in the Gathering of Five, but I don't recall anything frustrating about GoF specifically; in fact, I was happy to see Override back again!

But the Final Chapter is really bad. And the reboot stories were... lesser-than compared to the pre-reboot stuff, in my opinion.

-Pav, who quit comics for a while due to the reboot...

Yes, that’s correct. It was The Final Chapter that I’m remembering. But GoF and TFC tie directly into one another, so I still wouldn’t bother buying GoF by itself. And I also gave up comics for a while, my first time doing so. The reboot was almost unreadable until Paul Jenkins took over PP:SM (and then later when JMS got ASM, happy days were here again). I actually think the immediate post-Clone saga stuff was fun. You had JM DeMatteis and Luke Ross doing some great Chameleon, Kraven and Norman stories. Mackie’s SHOC stuff and mob war stories in PP:SM weren’t great, but okay. And Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo had some fun, light stories in Sensational. Actually, the only book from that time I thought was bad was the core ASM with DeFalco and Steve Skroce. I like DeFalco, but that run represents his all-time weakest Spidey work. Green ninjas.... *sigh*

[Spiderfang]

Yes, that’s correct. It was The Final Chapter that I’m remembering. But GoF and TFC tie directly into one another, so I still wouldn’t bother buying GoF by itself. And I also gave up comics for a while, my first time doing so. The reboot was almost unreadable until Paul Jenkins took over PP:SM (and then later when JMS got ASM, happy days were here again). I actually think the immediate post-Clone saga stuff was fun. You had JM DeMatteis and Luke Ross doing some great Chameleon, Kraven and Norman stories. Mackie’s SHOC stuff and mob war stories in PP:SM weren’t great, but okay. And Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo had some fun, light stories in Sensational. Actually, the only book from that time I thought was bad was the core ASM with DeFalco and Steve Skroce. I like DeFalco, but that run represents his all-time weakest Spidey work. Green ninjas.... *sigh*

Do you mind listing the immediate post-clone saga content? I have all of the Next Chapter, GOT5, PP: Spider-Man & Revenge of the Green Goblin - I know there's Spider-Hunt & Identity Crisis.

[bob.schoonover]

Do you mind listing the immediate post-clone saga content? I have all of the Next Chapter, GOT5, PP: Spider-Man & Revenge of the Green Goblin - I know there's Spider-Hunt & Identity Crisis.

Pretty sure Hobgoblin Lives is the first collected story after the Clone Saga. Spider-Hunt and Identity Crisis follow on pretty much after the second story in Hobgoblin Lives, then the Gathering of Five collection follows that up (there's a four month gap in between - no idea if that has been collected). Someone else will have to fill you in on the post GoF/Final Chapter chronology. There's a bunch of uncollected stuff in that range between Revelations and the second story in Hobgoblin Lives (Ock's Rebirth, DeMatteis's second run on Spec.). I think there's a Sensational Spider-man collection that covers some of that era?

[WebSlingWonder]

Do you mind listing the immediate post-clone saga content? I have all of the Next Chapter, GOT5, PP: Spider-Man & Revenge of the Green Goblin - I know there's Spider-Hunt & Identity Crisis.

Here's what is collected:
- Spider-Man by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo: Sensational Spider-Man #7-24, #-1
- Spider-Man: Spider-Hunt: Sensational Spider-Man #25-26; Amazing Spider-Man #432-433; Spider-Man #88-90; Spectacular Spider-Man #254-256
- Spider-Man: Identity Crisis: Sensational Spider-Man #27-28; Amazing Spider-Man #434-435; Spider-Man #91-92; Spectacular Spider-Man #257-258
- Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives: Spectacular Spider-Man #259-261; Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1-3
- Spider-Man: The Gathering of Five: Sensational Spider-Man #32-33; Amazing Spider-Man #440-441; Spider-Man #96-98; Spectacular Spider-Man #262-263