Spider-Man's Popularity

[Keeper of the Crows]

Taking a look at the sales chart the book seems to be doing well. But I don't think that the character has the respect or admiration that he once did. Now he will never, ever get the respect that top dog in the kennel Batman has (I don't even think Captain will get that). But I haven't heard that much buzz or excitement about the character. I remember visiting a comic book shop back in the winter, and hearing one of the clerks say that he 'he hoped that Peter never came back to being Spider-man." because he's annoying.

I think that OMD annoyed many fans and caused us to walk away. I was actually thinking about this today, I could have lived with Peter and MJ splitting up, provided that they kept the continuity. But when they decided to regress Peter where he behaves like a man-child. That just killed my interest and turned me off. To me what makes a hero a hero, is not their powers and abilities. But how they conduct themselves. When I started collecting comics, Peter had recently married MJ and we were privy to his life, trying to be a hero, a husband, getting his graduate degree etc. To me that took honour and courage. It's easy to quit on life and not live up to your full potential, or spend the rest of your life behaving like a teenager. That's not admirable and I don't want to spend money reading about someone like that.

I think the approach to Peter you’re describing came out of a desire to make Spider-Man lighter and fun after just how dark the character became post-Civil War. It's possible they overcorrected, though I think Slott has a pretty good take on the character most of the time.

It’s very possible that the next writer of Amazing might have a different take on the character more in line with the mature approach you prefer, though I don’t think the marriage is coming back anytime soon. That’s one of the great things about comics. No run lasts forever. There have been lots of different takes on Spider-Man, and there will be plenty more in the future. I hope the next one is one you can enjoy again.

[Donuts]

Dang, I remember during the "early" days of the new board, there was a topic about who is more popular at the moment Superman or Spidey and I answered it as saying that neither of them are as strong as they once were.
I believe my statement is still true. It's also sad when your flagship character gets his body stolen by his arch nemesis and that's the character everyone is clamoring for a more permanent return. Now I enjoyed Superior to a certain extend, so hopefully nothing gets twisted with that.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I think he lost some heat in the last few years
Or maybe people who hate him surfaced more on the interwebz

Spider-Man is still popular. He's still one of the most recognized super heroes on the planet. His last movie still made $708,050,837 worldwide. He's still Marvel's flagship character. His comic relaunch still shipped over 500,000 copies.

You know how popular Spider-Man is? He's so popular that people still like him after a bad four issue story that started in November 2007 and ended in January 2008. That's how popular he is.

Movies are getting underwhelming, the previous movie earned $738+ million
I think it's time cinema take a break from the character, or possibly improve their film quality

[emac1790]

I think he lost some heat in the last few years
Or maybe people who hate him surfaced more on the interwebz
Movies are getting underwhelming, the previous movie earned $738+ million
I think it's time cinema take a break from the character, or possibly improve their film quality

This movie did make less than the last one. But according to Box Office Mojo, it made more worldwide than MOS ($668,045,518 worldwide.)* No doubt Sony should improve the movie series, but let's not act like the movie was a total flop.



*Source, http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/...perman2012.htm

[Cameron Samurai]

I I don’t think the marriage is coming back anytime soon..

That would imply it ever went away. It really hasnt, we still have the daily strips where Peter and MJ are married, and even when the BND era was in it's infancy you still had books where it was prominent like Spider-Girl being published well until 2010, and Slott's going back to the MC2 universe in the main book in October to further the Spider-Verse story.

The marraige will always be around in some capacity, and so long as it is, I have every confidence that it will be back once the current regime pisses off.

[Keeper of the Crows]

That would imply it ever went away. It really hasnt, we still have the daily strips where Peter and MJ are married, and even when the BND era was in it's infancy you still had books where it was prominent like Spider-Girl being published well until 2010, and Slott's going back to the MC2 universe in the main book in October to further the Spider-Verse story

That’s a very good point. There are a lot of different portrayals of the character in multiple media at the moment, and I think there’s something out there for all fans of the character to enjoy. Personally, I enjoy reading both single and married Pete (probably my favorite run is the JMD Spec run, featuring a married Pete), but there are some fans who remain turned off to the main title until OMD is resolved.

Good point about Spider-Verse too. I'll be crossing my fingers that both MC2 Peter and MJ make it out alive.

[marvelguy25]

what i'm actually hoping for is MJ being one of the spider-women in the spider-verse. i'd also love to see the 616 mj in the spider-verse as well.

i just hope morlun doesn't kill 1602 spiderman. that'd suck

[Coal Tiger]

I don't think so.

If you don't trust someone then that someone is tainted to you, right?

Would you trust anything that they say or do as a result of not trusting them?

People know Spider-Man as a comic book character.

If people are interested in Spider-Man to see a movie about him they will likely want to acquire more info about him by looking up his comic history and once they do they too will find out what happened in OMD. So, in general anyone who is interested in Spider-Man will find out about OMD and if people don't see his character as being tainted as a result of making a deal with a demon then I don't know what else to say.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 probably did more to keep people away from Spider-Man comics than a wikipedia article, and given the sales on ASM currently, neither did much damage.

[megaharrison]

do you ever feel that spiderman is getting less attention nowadays?

Marvel is deliberately doing this for movie reasons, though not nearly as badly as with other properties (X-men and especially F4) because they have a better relationship with Sony.

[RedQueen]

He'll always be popular but in regard to Sony, Sony relies on the reboot and it's not exactly a great reboot. It has it's perks sure. But overall Spider-Man is overshadowed to the general public because Marvel is promoting other characters and is producing higher quality movies. Spider-Man will always have his legacy but in the scheme of things he's not as relevant to a lot of people as he used to be. Comic book wise he'll always be relevant though but even that could change.

[Prof. Warren]

To me Spider-Man's popularity will always be tainted until the events of OMD are reversed.

All I can think about is Peter making a deal with a demon to undo his marriage to Mary Jane...heros are not suppose to make deals with demons.

It's a very, very small percentage of fans who still give a rat's ass about OMD. I doubt if you can find anyone that loved or even liked that storyline but it's also true that most of the comic reading world have moved on from it. It happened, it's over and Spidey's still Marvel's #1 character. It would help if Sony would make better Spidey movies but Marvel can't control that. As far as the comics go, Spidey's in tip top shape. Even directly after OMD, ASM was steadily in the top ten or twenty and it's not showing any signs of slacking.

If anyone is still hung up on OMD after seven freaking years, it says more about them than it does about Marvel's handling of the character.

[RobinFan4880]

The difference between now and 10 years ago is that Marvel/Disney is pumping out a bunch of excellent movies and promoting the characters of those movies far more heavily than they did in the past.

[Spidey5640]

It's a very, very small percentage of fans who still give a rat's ass about OMD. I doubt if you can find anyone that loved or even liked that storyline but it's also true that most of the comic reading world have moved on from it. It happened, it's over and Spidey's still Marvel's #1 character. It would help if Sony would make better Spidey movies but Marvel can't control that. As far as the comics go, Spidey's in tip top shape. Even directly after OMD, ASM was steadily in the top ten or twenty and it's not showing any signs of slacking.

If anyone is still hung up on OMD after seven freaking years, it says more about them than it does about Marvel's handling of the character.

Well said.

[Heasensy32]

The difference between now and 10 years ago is that Marvel/Disney is pumping out a bunch of excellent movies and promoting the characters of those movies far more heavily than they did in the past.

Aka Marvel wants the Web head back.