How Bad is JM Dematteis Non-Kraven's Last Hunt Spiderman?

[Timothy Hunter]

I'm a huge fan of JM DeMatteis. He has enough great comics to almost rival Alan Moore in my opinion: Dr. Fate, I Vampire, Justice League International, American Flagg, Seekers in the Mystery, Martian Manhunter, Brooklyn Dreams, Defenders, and Kraven's Last Hunt, considered by many to be the greatest Spiderman story ever told.

How does the rest of DeMatteis' Amazing/Spectacular run hold up? I'm aware that a lot of it is dedicated to the second Clone Saga, which is disturbing.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'm a huge fan of JM DeMatteis. He has enough great comics to almost rival Alan Moore in my opinion: Dr. Fate, I Vampire, Justice League International, American Flagg, Seekers in the Mystery, Martian Manhunter, Brooklyn Dreams, Defenders, and Kraven's Last Hunt, considered by many to be the greatest Spiderman story ever told.

J. M. DeMatteis is by general consent one of the greatest writers to ever work on Spider-Man. KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT is his masterpiece, and his best story.

But it's not by any means a one-hit for him.

JMD also wrote "The Child Within/The Best of Enemies" in Spectacular Spider-Man which is also a great story, and this in fact is JMD's most influential story. Harry Osborn was a largely neglected supporting character until JMD arrived. (People forget this, but Flash Thompson, not Harry was best man at Peter's wedding). JMD revived him and the reason for Harry having an elevated status in the Spider-Man Trilogy, Ultimate Spider-Man, and so on and so forth, is down to JMD's story.

How does the rest of DeMatteis' Amazing/Spectacular run hold up? I'm aware that a lot of it is dedicated to the second Clone Saga, which is disturbing.

JMD wrote the best Clone Saga-era stories.

ASM#400 "The Gift" is an all-time classic, one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever written.

"The Lost Years" is also excellent.

JMD also wrote one of the definitive Mysterio stories in Webspinners, and an iconic Chameleon story in Spectacular.

Collect JMD's output in a single volume and you would have a fairly consistent and diverse and interest body of work.

[TheCape]

His first run on Spec Spider-Man is pretty well regarded, especially the Harry Osborn saga. I do have my problems with it admittedly, i don't like the idea of Peter feeling guilt because of his parents death, because it's frankly nonsensical (i mostly blame that on whateve weird stuff was in Harry's bomb), but i still like it, it even has a pretty funny issue with Frog Man.

His second run on Spider-Man isn't as well regarded, but it is solid for the most part.

Now his ASM run is more mixed, leaning to more bad than good honestly, especially with Judas mysterious mystery aura...of mystery, but it has good moments here and there. I think that his hight points are MJ subplot in Back From the Edge (the Peter parts go between ok and really dumb) and 400.

[TheCape]

Forgot to mention, he is basically the guy that defined Ben Reilly and Kaine as characthers with Lost Years and Redemption (two solid minis).

[Mister Mets]

His first run on Spec Spider-Man is pretty well regarded, especially the Harry Osborn saga. I do have my problems with it admittedly, i don't like the idea of Peter feeling guilt because of his parents death, because it's frankly nonsensical (i mostly blame that on whateve weird stuff was in Harry's bomb), but i still like it, it even has a pretty funny issue with Frog Man.

His second run on Spider-Man isn't as well regarded, but it is solid for the most part.

Now his ASM run is more mixed, leaning to more bad than good honestly, especially with Judas mysterious mystery aura...of mystery, but it has good moments here and there. I think that his hight points are MJ subplot in Back From the Edge (the Peter parts go between ok and really dumb) and 400.

I agree on Spectacular Spider-Man.

He also had a decent run on Marvel Team Up.

A problem with his Amazing Spider-Man is that most issues were crossovers. Strangely enough, my favorite DeMatteis/ Bagley comic is the Spider-Man/ Batman crossover one-shot.

In addition to being a top five Spider-Man writer, DeMatteis is arguably a top ten Batman writer.

[FFJamie94]

Outside of Kraven's Last Hunt, I think I've only actually read Spectacular #200 and Amazing #400. Both are great comics and are highly recommend. My only complaint comes to Spectacular (and I get this is a bot of blasphemy here) but Sal Buscema's art is a bit too blocky for me. I love his art, but maybe it's because I prefer his Brother's John art.

[Chubistian]

As people have already said, JMD is a top Spider-Man writer and he wrote some of the best comicbooks of Spider-Man besides KLH.
I think the Harry Osborn Saga is just as good, with Child Within and Spec #189 and #200, there're also other good stories in-between; Funeral Arrangements and the frogs are very different in tone but both great.

His regular issues in the 90s Clone Saga are a mixed bag, trapped in crossovers, but he did ASM #400, Lost Years and Redemption, which elevate a little that period of Spider-Man comics that were almost unreadable imo.

I don't know how hard it's to track the Harry Osborn Saga nowadays, since it spanned for several issues, Child Within was reprinted not so long ago in Spain and France, the french edition I think it also collects Spec #189 and #200. Anyways, if you can get hold of those stories, I highly recommend them

[RJT]

His first run on Spec Spider-Man is pretty well regarded, especially the Harry Osborn saga. I do have my problems with it admittedly, i don't like the idea of Peter feeling guilt because of his parents death, because it's frankly nonsensical.

The thing is that it is very natural for orphans to feel guilt for their parents death--it seems nonsensical from an adult perspective, but children often internalize that survivor's guilt. The idea that Peter would carry it with him and not process it until he was well into adulthood is not far-fetched at all; DeMatteis was utilizing a very common phenomenon.

[TheCape]

The thing is that it is very natural for orphans to feel guilt for their parents death--it seems nonsensical from an adult perspective, but children often internalize that survivor's guilt. The idea that Peter would carry it with him and not process it until he was well into adulthood is not far-fetched at all; DeMatteis was utilizing a very common phenomenon.

I'm aware, but for what i know (and forgive me if i am wrong, i'm no expert in child psychology and i'm willing to be corrected), when an orphan feel guilt about their parents death isn't usually something that happens when the child is old enought to actually remember their parents?, Peter was a year old when they left him with Ben and May and never came back, i'm sure that a part of him miss then and wondered what would have been different if they came back, but feeling guilt seems a bit far fetched considering the circumstances.

As i said thought, if i'm wrong feel free to correct me.

[RJT]

I'm aware, but for what i know (and forgive me if i am wrong, i'm no expert in child psychology and i'm willing to be corrected), when an orphan feel guilt about their parents death isn't usually something that happens when the child is old enought to actually remember their parents?, Peter was a year old when they left him with Ben and May and never came back, i'm sure that a part of him miss then and wondered what would have been different if they came back, but feeling guilt seems a bit far fetched considering the circumstances.

As i said thought, if i'm wrong feel free to correct me.

Again, you are applying adult logic to children. A child who loses or is abandoned by their parents doesn't have the emotional development to rationally sift through the underlying reasons why their parents left. I'm not an expert in child psychology, but in many childhood traumas, the child feels guilt. (Physical and sexual abuse victims often experience this as well.) Peter might not be old enough to remember his parents leaving, but he grew up knowing that they'd left, that they'd left him, that at his spelling bees and science fairs other kids had their parents there and he didn't. I'm sure Ben and May explained that his parents left for work, that they'd died, but a child often will internalize the abandonment--"it's my fault" in part because children have a very self-centered view of the world (the term self-centered has a negative connotation, but the ability to empathize and view the world beyond yourself is something you develop as you grow older) and taking blame is also away of trying to take control. Again, it doesn't make logical sense, but it is a very common reaction to trauma.
Childhood trauma is a very common theme that DeMatteis uses in his writing. His creator owned book "Seekers: Into the Mystery" deals with this directly, but he's examined the childhood traumas of many characters in the DC/Marvel universes, including Vermin and Harry Osborn in "The Child Within." Around the time of "Batman Forever" he did a one-shot with Scott McDaniel focusing on the childhood abuse Harvey Dent suffered that led to him becoming Two-Face, and he created the villain "Sir" in his brief Daredevil run, whose abuse as a child played a heavy role in their origin. (And I know I'm forgetting about others--he writes about it a lot!) I don't want to speak for him, but given how much JMD has written about this, I have to believe that he has done research about the topic, and his take on Peter's feelings about his parents does square with much of what I have read about childhood trauma.

[HypnoHustler]

I'm a huge fan of JM DeMatteis. He has enough great comics to almost rival Alan Moore in my opinion: Dr. Fate, I Vampire, Justice League International, American Flagg, Seekers in the Mystery, Martian Manhunter, Brooklyn Dreams, Defenders, and Kraven's Last Hunt, considered by many to be the greatest Spiderman story ever told.

How does the rest of DeMatteis' Amazing/Spectacular run hold up? I'm aware that a lot of it is dedicated to the second Clone Saga, which is disturbing.

Have you actually READ the second Clone Saga? I’ve noticed a trend of people dumping on stuff here without even having read it. I can count the number of bad comics DeMatteis has written on one hand. He is my favorite writer, and even the stuff he wrote during the clone saga was excellent. Do yourself a favor and buy ‘The Lost Years’ or ‘Spider-Man: Redemption’ or better yet ASM #400... all of which were written during that period you casually dismissed and all are masterpieces.

[your_name_here]

Fantastic. Really, really good.

Spencer is leaning so heavily - or at least concentrating on that era - on a lot of that stuff with the current run.

Kravens Last Hunt just happened to be the greatest of a great load of stories.

[Pav]

Yeah, I'm not adding anything that hasn't already been said, but the work that JMD did before, during, and after the Clone Saga is all pretty strong. He helped Harry Osborn, Kraven, the Chameleon, and other characters become more three-dimensional, believable human beings. As others have said, his characterization of Ben Reilly and Kaine was defining for each of them, and it's clear in his work during the Clone Saga that he found those characters fascinating.

I've also chatted with him a bit on Twitter and he is one heck of a nice guy. I didn't know it at the time of my purchase, but a year or so ago I actually bought the first issue of his Defenders run, and when I mentioned it to him on Twitter, he was incredibly pleasant and didn't mind discussing that era of his work for a bit.

Great writer, great guy.

-Pav, who enjoyed when he went for funny issues as well...

[HypnoHustler]

Fantastic. Really, really good.

Spencer is leaning so heavily - or at least concentrating on that era - on a lot of that stuff with the current run.

Kravens Last Hunt just happened to be the greatest of a great load of stories.

KLH is great, but I actually prefer the Harry Osborn saga from early 90s SPEC (although it’s spread out over a couple years).

[K7P5V]

Probably doesn't count, but I enjoyed his run on Marvel Team-Up (a personal favorite being MTU #119):



https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Team-Up_Vol_1_119