While I forgive OMD (it was Quesadaphisto's fault) I cannot forgive Sins Past. That mess should never ever have happened!
While I forgive OMD (it was Quesadaphisto's fault) I cannot forgive Sins Past. That mess should never ever have happened!
Everything up to Sins Past (the infamous arc that reveals that Gwen Stacy had sex and became pregnant with the twins of Norman Osborne) is good-to-great, after Sins Past it goes downhill and never recovers. I do think JMS over stayed his run on the book.
Last edited by Cyberstrike; 05-25-2020 at 01:51 PM.
All good points, but I suspect Spider-Man's personality is a factor too. Every kid is exposed to Spider-Man either on film on television very soon after they learn to talk. Spider-Man's playfulness (something we tend to associate more with kids) arguably registers more with a four-year old than Superman or Cap's personalities do at that age. In that sense, Spidey being "young at heart" is one of the reasons kids are immediately drawn to him.
Best writer, on equal standing with dan as my favorite.
some of his arcs should be made into animated movies. He could also write the next live action film.
AKA FlashFreak
Favorite Characters:
DC: The Flash (Jay & Wally), Starman- Jack Knight, Stargirl, & Shazam!.
MARVEL: Daredevil, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), & Doctor Strange.
Current Pulls: Not a thing!
I think it's pretty terrible that the Paul Jenkins/Mark Buckingham Peter Parker: Spider-Man run from the same time JMS/JRJR were on Amazing, and Bendis/Bagley were on Ultimate, gets overlooked so often. Jenkins/Buckingham started on PPSM 10 months before JMS started on ASM and they were like the first glimmer of revitalization for mainline Spider-Man comics.
I think that whole 2001-2004 period roughly is a high point creatively for Spider-Man. That's not even counting Tangled Web (a type of book I wish would happen again with creators of all sorts leaving a mark on some aspect of Spider-Man's world).
When I say 2001-2004 I'd say that starts with Ultimate Spider-Man being on fire and Peter Parker: Spider-Man bringing life back to the main universe's books by doing thoughtful stuff instead of convoluted stuff, and then JMS jumping on the main book and having some really different directions to take the character. In between that period sure there's some weaker stories interspersed but the overall thruline is very strong with each book offering something unique (USM a reimagining of Lee/Ditko Spidey for the 21st century, PPSM well-written, introspective smaller scale stories focusing on Peter, often giving us the classic rogues not found in ASM, ASM injecting big questions of mysticsm vs. science that hadn't ever been touched on before along with new rogues and a more mature status quo as a teacher, and Tangled Web giving us stories about the characters surrounding Spider-Man by talents that don't typically tackle Spider-Man.
I'd say roughly that golden period ends around Avengers Disassembled tie-ins, and Sins Past. So basically weird editorial mandates stepping in.
True! That run was starting just as JMS/JRJR was wrapping up, I forgot that book but that's something that definitely qualifies. It offered a really different tone from any other Spidey books at the time or before, really, and there's not many other Spidey runs like it that put Spidey through the wringer and have so many villains intertwined. I would say the cutoff period is that point because after that the Spidey books are all pretty mired in crossovers and tie-ins to events for years ( Sins Past, Sins Remembered, Avengers Disassembled, New Avengers, The Other, Civil War, Black in Black, One More Day).
It's pretty nonstop from there on out and I think the quality dropped for JMS' work on the title pretty quickly as did his enthusiasm despite it feeling like he was trying his best. I think Civil War Spidey tie-ins and Back in Black have their fans but I don't think those stories were a great time for Spider-Man, they didn't really feel like good examples of Spider-Man stories. To Have in To Hold is definitely the big stand-out all-timer of that era that really got Peter and MJ in a great way. That's just one awesome issue in the middle of a bunch of consistently mostly mediocre stuff, though. Aguire-Sacasa on Sensational was probably the strongest title of the Civil War/Back in Black years.
Last edited by Spidey_62; 05-31-2020 at 10:51 PM.
There are far more good and even great parts of his run than there are bad parts, but the bad parts or so bad. Blame for those parts largely falls on editorial mandates, as has been well documented by interviews with both JMS and Quesada. If I had been in charge, I'd have done the following:
Keep the marriage intact.
Keep May being aware he is Spider-Man.
Sins Past would never have been published. If forced to write a "Gwen secretly had twins" story, I'd make Peter the father. Miles Warren would have gotten his hands on them, used his knowledge to effect rapid aging. The story would end with the twins' deaths due to Miles' experiments on them.
Spider-Man would have started anti-registration and never unmasked. Utilize a telepath or Dr. Strange to erase knowledge of his secret identity from the pro-registration side.
Some of them you can blame on editorial.Blame for those parts largely falls on editorial mandates, as has been well documented by interviews with both JMS and Quesada.
I still the fault of Sins past is 100% JMS's. The twins being Peter's still wouldn't have been a good story, but when he was told not to do that, he chose to go with Norman and make the thing as horrible as it was.
Plus there's all the spider-totem stuff, Peter growing claws, and eating a guys head...
The Other was an editorial mandate and not from JMS. They wanted to pad out a crossover and asked him to bring back Morlun.
Sins' Past though, yeah that's on him. And he has admitted as much.
In any case, it's not beyond the realm of possibility for a writer to be capable of doing great work and weak work in the same run. And ultimately ongoings are judged on the strength of the best work, especially considering the length of time he stayed on Spider-Man.
I acknowledge that the idea to bring back Morlun and pad out the crossover wasn't his call, but he's responsible for what we saw in the comic itself.The Other was an editorial mandate and not from JMS. They wanted to pad out a crossover and asked him to bring back Morlun.
He was given somewhat vague directions. The details and the quality of the work are all his.
Plus, honestly, I never thought any of the totem stuff was a good idea to begin with (the exception being the first few appearances of Ezekiel where it was just an idea that was kept vague.)