Amazing Spider-Man 229-230. Years later what are your thoughts?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The Vulture two-parter is genius, and it's a damned shame that we've yet to see it properly adapted in other media. But Vulture just tends to get short-changed for reasons I can't fathom. He has the most striking visual of any of the Ditko villains--I mean, at first glance you can tell this guy will peck your eyes out with his beak nose and not give it a second thought--and yet they're constantly trying to make him younger and less like his namesake.

Stern's take on Vulture definitely inspired Michael Keaton's take in Homecoming. There's even an allusion there about Bestman, which is the name of the dude who screwed Vulture over. And again, if you read Stern's original story and compare Homecoming, where it's Tony Stark that screws him over, it just drives home how much MCU narrative is driven by IP/Star politics. In the comics, Gregory Bestman is a jerk and is condemned by Spidey and the cops for embezzling Adrian, but in the movie Tony Stark still ends as a hero and isn't called out specifically for what he did.

I love the friendship that Adrian Toomes has with Nathan Lubensky (a really underrated side-character in the Bronze Age and my favorite of Aunt May's boyfriends, that's right more than Otto and Jonah's lame dad combined and on their best day).

Stern's Vulture also inspired his appearance in Mark Millar's Marvel Knights where Adrian has this relationship with his grand-daughter and Peter gets involved there (leading to flat out one of Peter's most compassionate and selfless actions in his entire history).

It's hard to compare one-offs and miniseries to his 80s Marvel work because he's so great at running subplots. Hobgoblin Lives is really good but it's also a massive info-dump.

There's decent stuff there, with Betty Brant, and despite Stern's repeated protestations...he did write Peter and MJ very well as a married couple, and that bit where it's MJ who unravels the thread of Ned Leeds' death is great, as is the closing scene between the two. But on the whole...I think people would have wanted something like X-Men Forever, i.e. what if Stern picked up where he left off and completed the Hobgoblin run as he originally would have and followed his continuity and status-quo as intended. Hobgoblin Lives isn't that and it's really marred by the shenanigans with the Hobgoblin that happened after Stern left. And the fact that it came out after Norman Osborn returned as the original Green Goblin (leading to the followup Goblins at the Gate, plotted by Stern but written by Glenn Greenberg), also made it hollow. And I agree with PAD who pointed out that the Daniel/Roderick twins thing was a cheap copout and resolution.

[Lukmendes]

Probably because a fully powered Spider-Man should be close to unstoppable by anyone street level. Think about it. The speed, the strength, the webs AND the Spider-Sense? That's insanity.

That's part of the reason Spidey gets villains who are above his weight class like Rhino, Sandman, Electro, Hydro-Man, among others, he gets to show off his powers against an enemy who can take his beating and/or who can make him use his brain.

Disagree with your thoughts on the story but completely agree with your stance on New Avengers. I absolutely hated how Spider-Man was portrayed through out and that’s coming from a big Bendis fan. He never had a good feel for the character and to me
It was one of the wimpiest portrayals of the character ever by far.

Perhaps Bendis made him like that since he was still thinking of Ultimate Spidey, and made 616 Peter less competent because of that.

[RD155]

That's part of the reason Spidey gets villains who are above his weight class like Rhino, Sandman, Electro, Hydro-Man, among others, he gets to show off his powers against an enemy who can take his beating and/or who can make him use his brain.



Perhaps Bendis made him like that since he was still thinking of Ultimate Spidey, and made 616 Peter less competent because of that.

That’s what I’ve always suspected about Bendis in regards to his 616 version of Spider-Man. He could never differentiate the two. I love love loveeeeeee USM. From start to finish it’s one of the greatest runs ever. Just an absolute masterpiece of a series as far as I’m concerned. His version of Spidey worked there but it definitely didn’t work in 616.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

The Vulture two-parter is genius, and it's a damned shame that we've yet to see it properly adapted in other media. But Vulture just tends to get short-changed for reasons I can't fathom. He has the most striking visual of any of the Ditko villains--I mean, at first glance you can tell this guy will peck your eyes out with his beak nose and not give it a second thought--and yet they're constantly trying to make him younger and less like his namesake.

I like how they changed it in Spectacular animated series.