Anyone Enjoyed The Post-Clone Saga Pre-Reboot late 96-to 98 Period

[Pav]

I remember this era. I was still coming off of the whole Clone Saga thing and slowly getting back into the groove that Peter was Spider-Man again. I certainly remember this era mainly because of Identity Crisis. That threw me for a loop. Spider-Man taking on different identities and personas? Spider-Man didn't seem to have done that before. The TPB is a good, reliable standby of a story for me.

I bought the TPB at the last con I went to due to losing my original issues, and Im bummed that they didn't include the lead-up issues -- most notably, the issue of PP:SM in which Peter is given the Dusk costume in the Negative Zone.

I loved that issue as a kid, especially because we saw SHOC again for a bit.

-Pav, who had a letter printed in Sensational during Identity Crisis...

[Rzerox21xx]

the only complete collection set we got on that era was the Todd Dezago Sensation run with great art by the late Mike Wieringo.

[exile001]

It felt fresh while still familiar, and I really liked this era... up to a point. *cough*gatheringoffive*cough*

The highlight, of course, was JMD having a very entertaining run with the Chameleon, new Kraven, Mad Jack, the Green vs Hobgoblin arc, etc. It's a shame he didn't get to finish all his plot-lines.

ASM was over-the-top nonsense with the resurrection of Doc Oct, the powered-up Electro (still my favourite Electro story), the Black Tarantula, and Silver-Carnage (Carnage-Surfer? Surfnage?).

The crossovers were fun, too, I recent re-read Spider-Hunt and it's still a good time. I was thoroughly intrigued as to who was the new(?) Green Goblin. The resolution was poor (IIRC, Mackie wanted to just ignore it) but the mystery was fun while it lasted.

While Mackie and JRJR's book may have been more hit and miss, their issue with Peter, Norman and Normie in a destroyed lift was excellent.

It may not be a classic, but its a lot better overall than some more remembered eras. Each of the books had a different identity and feel, and that was a good approach.

Side note; I always felt that the Spider-office really missed a trick with Alyosha Kravinoff. He became a generic Kraven clone for a bit, then went Hollywood. It was weird.

[Rzerox21xx]

It felt fresh while still familiar, and I really liked this era... up to a point. *cough*gatheringoffive*cough*

The highlight, of course, was JMD having a very entertaining run with the Chameleon, new Kraven, Mad Jack, the Green vs Hobgoblin arc, etc. It's a shame he didn't get to finish all his plot-lines.

ASM was over-the-top nonsense with the resurrection of Doc Oct, the powered-up Electro (still my favourite Electro story), the Black Tarantula, and Silver-Carnage (Carnage-Surfer? Surfnage?).

The crossovers were fun, too, I recent re-read Spider-Hunt and it's still a good time. I was thoroughly intrigued as to who was the new(?) Green Goblin. The resolution was poor (IIRC, Mackie wanted to just ignore it) but the mystery was fun while it lasted.

While Mackie and JRJR's book may have been more hit and miss, their issue with Peter, Norman and Normie in a destroyed lift was excellent.

It may not be a classic, but its a lot better overall than some more remembered eras. Each of the books had a different identity and feel, and that was a good approach.

Side note; I always felt that the Spider-office really missed a trick with Alyosha Kravinoff. He became a generic Kraven clone for a bit, then went Hollywood. It was weird.

the Green Goblin vs Hobgoblin was actually Roger Stern Glenn Greenberg. JMD left earlier after Identity Crisis.

[exile001]

the Green Goblin vs Hobgoblin was actually Roger Stern Glenn Greenberg. JMD left earlier after Identity Crisis.

Y'know, that felt wrong writing it. You're absolutely right, and I take that as a signal to re-read my Hobgoblin Lives trade this evening.

[David Walton]

It may not be a classic, but its a lot better overall than some more remembered eras. Each of the books had a different identity and feel, and that was a good approach.

In terms of the approach to the overall line, it's one of my favorite eras. I really like how every creative team got to do their own thing. It was nice to take an extended break from the crossovers.

Side note; I always felt that the Spider-office really missed a trick with Alyosha Kravinoff. He became a generic Kraven clone for a bit, then went Hollywood. It was weird.

I feel like HUNTED was a course correction by Spencer to essentially get back to the potential Alyosha had, just using a clone instead of a son.

[Zeitgeist]

I enjoyed it so much I pretty much dropped Spidey books around this period. The messy Clone Saga had taken it's toll on my attention and Bagley leaving the books was just another blow. Skorce's art was the only reason I stuck around, and then when he stopped, welp

[Rzerox21xx]

In Spectacular Spider-man, Luke Ross art was different in the 90s but his characters are very expressive, i love it, he put alot of emotion that fit will with JMD writing and his Spidey poses in that very first shot from 241 give off a Mcfarlane look. Sensational has the late Ringo, Amazing Skorce was good, hes no Bagley since in my opinion Bagley was 90s Spidey at its best but it was good, his fight scenes are really well done, and weakest book in my opinion was Mackie but JRJR art was really good. yeah the last Roger Stern Spectacular Hobby as well one shot issues of Amazing, Sensational right before Gathering of the Five was a good jumping off point for me at this point, at this point for the x-titles, Seagle and Kelly had to abandoned Maggot and Cecilia and only kept Marrow due to editorial wanting to bring back Colossus, Nightcrawler and Kitty to get the classic xmen feel again was a good jumping off point too, it seem Bob Harrass at the time was trying to bring back that classic feel for both Spidey and X-Men which resulted in their good going runs at the time to be cut short for something inferior.

[JGC]

I was a huge fan of the art on the books at that time: Skroce, Weiringo, Ross and JRJR is a pretty solid art team if you ask me. The books looked beautiful, and back then artists could draw 12 issues in a year not like today... *cough* Ottley *cough*.

[TheSuperMule]

Possibly my favorite era. And very nostalgic to me too. Comics stopped being published in general stores in my country so I missed a few years of stories. Spider-Man in particular was around the beginning of the clone saga (avoided all the nonsense!) and came back a few years later with the Revelations story (made it back in time for the end! ). So this era is really special to me. It's a return to comics for me and I remember these stories fondly.

[jackolover]

It was a very strange and relatively quiet time for the Spidey books as they tried to re-establish Peter following the clone saga. Light, but a little aimless. There were a few semi-classics like Spec #250 (Osborn returns), ASM #425 (Spidey and X-Man take on Electro) and Peter Parker: Spider-Man #95 (Peter and Norman trapped in an elevator) and of course the whole ‘Spider-Hunt’ and ‘Identity Crisis’ arcs , but nothing I’d call a true classic. Looking back I have fond memories of most of the issues, but it was a brief period and not particularly memorable besides what I mentioned. It’s also hard to find many of those stories in any collections. While not particularly stand-out, it was certainly better than what followed it with that ‘Gathering of Five’ trash, Aunt May coming back, and then the whole reboot period. Ugh.

I liked that lazy-day feel to the period. Peter didn’t have all that angst anymore, and he had a lot of fun with the 4 new identities. It didn’t matter he had a price on his head, he was happy-go-lucky again. It was one of those periods where MJ and Peter could really unwind. Be happy.

Afterwards, what did Osborn get cursed with from the gathering? Did that ever get redressed afterwards?

[comicscollector]

Identity Crisis and Spider Hunt were interesting story arcs from that time.
The new renumbering of Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man was the best visually speaking for the main Spider-Man comics during that time.John Byrne and John Romita Jr!
And story wise there were some great plots in Amazing Spider-Man as with the stories with the Black Tarantula a new character in stories of that time.
So it´s not as good as are many other of my favorites period of time of Spider-Man comics but still a period of time of stories that i am collecting from the Spider-Man comics.

[From The Shadows]

I felt it was a lot fun after all the darkness of The Clone Saga. Not to say their weren't any serious moments like dealing with the loss of a baby, the exposure of Peter's secret identity and how it impacted those he loved and having to work around that, also, still coping with the years Peter had lost. There was a lot of stuff but there was a lot of hope too and some really good old-fashioned happy stories. I'm surprised that so many people here liked it or didn't think it was awful. A lot of the fans at the time of the earlier days of the internet (this place included) you had better be prepared to be cyber-stomped if you didn't consider it awful. I in know way implied that it was as good as Sterns 80's era because that is unmatched. It also had some great artists like Romita Jr., Buscema, Skroce and Wieringo. I felt Sensational was the best of the bunch and Todd Dezago's writing was really good, so I'm not ashamed. Nyah! It had some good guest-stars.

With that said, the change in art on Spectacular from Sal Buscema to Luke Ross was jarring (to say the least).

Yeah, he would have been a better companion to John Romita Jr.

I enjoyed this era immensely. While there aren't a lot of stories that stand out, the overall feel and consistency of the line did. I especially like the way they approached the marriage. The problems felt more authentic, things like them struggling to make time for one another while Peter worked on his graduate studies.

And MJ took a baseball bat to the Chameleon!

Yeah, this! I loved their "civilian" life and there were some new additions to the supporting cast. I also loved the Chameleon story and MJ in it! Go MJ!

[Knightsilver]

I liked that lazy-day feel to the period. Peter didn’t have all that angst anymore, and he had a lot of fun with the 4 new identities. It didn’t matter he had a price on his head, he was happy-go-lucky again. It was one of those periods where MJ and Peter could really unwind. Be happy.

Afterwards, what did Osborn get cursed with from the gathering? Did that ever get redressed afterwards?

I think it was madness.

[PCN24454]

Honestly, yes.

The stories I felt flowed much better than a lot of the post-2010 ones. That being said, the fact the I read the later ones first meant that I was kinda spoiled on what to expect.