What Is Your Verdict On Dan Slott's Big Time?

[esskay]

Big Time started off well and ended well.

In the middle, FAR too many team-ups, as well as one of the worst Spidey stories in recent memory - "I Killed Tomorrow". It was squished between "Spider Island" and "Ends of the Earth" and on paper was a HUGE story - New York will be completely destroyed!!!!!!!!!! - but it didn't make any sense and lacked any tension whatsoever. That whole sequence of story arcs - everyone in New York turns into a Spider-Man!!!!!!!!! / New York will be completely destroyed!!!!!!! / the whole world will be destroyed!!!!!!!!! - was one of the most tedious periods in Spidey history. All these big, big stories just got tiring - I didn't care about or believe in any of that stupid blockbuster stuff.

[Spider-Tron]

great then got stale after spider-island

[Metamorphosis]

One thing I liked about the Big Time was how Slott made Urich a different time of Hobgoblin, while also giving Kingsley an effective M.O.

Macendale's always going to be the worst Hobgoblin, I think. The sense of mystery was gone, and there were three separate attempts to make him seem more dangerous: the demonic possession, Kraven formula and cybernetic upgrades. He did coast by for a few years as the only Goblin.

All Urich did was get his ass kicked by everyone though, except when he would inexplicably get the drop on Spider-man or later remember how to fight against Kingsley. Urich also made Kingpin look like a tool for keeping him around, when all he did was fail him.

Macendale certainly sucked, but Phil sucks harder because he's never written consistently or logically.

[Darthfury78]

Better than BND but too many teams ups kept it from an A grade.

The team-up should have been separate from the main title. This was why Marvel Team-Up worked.

[Fiasco Jones]

I'd agree that Big Time was good (I binge read it after the fact as I was no fan of Superior). It presented some fresh new ideas, new characters and status quo for Spider-Man and Pete. I always enjoy when Pete is allowed to "progress" as a character rather than seemingly idle in neutral. Plus the new characters and quo also opened the door to newer feeling stories. Overall, I think that some of the ongoing sub-plots maybe ran a little too long, and/or things became a little stale toward the end, but that was likely because Slott was prepping for Superior.

[BlitheringToot]

I actually loved the introduction of Phil as the new Hobgoblin ... and (here I go into "broken record" territory again) I was pretty upset when it turned out it wasn't actually Roddy who lost his head (what can I say? The shock value of that scene was epic!).

[comicscollector]

I voted A.
Story wise the stories improved with ASM having just one writer making the direction of the stories more focused that they were previous with a team of writers.
Dan Slott wrote quite well "small stories" as No one Dies and more epic and significant stories as Spider Island or Ends of the Earth.
Visually speaking Humberto Ramos,Giuseppe Camanculli,Stefano Caselli and others kept the visual quality quite good as well.

[Dragolord09]

Slott may have gotten Spidey out of the doldrums that was OMD, but I don't think he has a good grasp on what makes Spider-Man tick, and that defect has only gotten worse over the years. In conclusion: D.

[oldschool]

Slott's "Big Time" run was just what the doctor ordered after the uneven (though largely good) BND era. Rarely has a new supporting cast/direction stuck around and yielded as many good stories as the "Big Time" era. Solid A.

[Ozymandias]

Slott's "Big Time" run was just what the doctor ordered after the uneven (though largely good) BND era.

Not exactly the only way out of that mess, but something had to be done, yes.

[oldschool]

Not exactly the only way out of that mess, but something had to be done, yes.

I didn't mean to suggest that it was "the only way out" from BND but I do think the whole BND setup of rotating creative teams was indeed a mess. It was little wonder that there was never a cohesiveness in the narrative and that new characters would often have to wait 3 months before their favorite creator was back "up at the plate" to take another crack at them. While there were many good stories to come out of the 100-issue BND era, it was largely an awkward and disjointed affair.