Amazing Spider-man 55 Preview

[Orbus]

I admit I am a traditionalist so I am no fan of a Spider Family. Why? There is no need for Spider Family. Peter has a family: They are named Aunt May and Teresa ( and God willing ) MJ.First off, Peter generally speaking works best alone. Why? 1: Unlike the majority of 21st Century superheroes Peter is every bit as important to Amazing as Spider-Man ( Spencer even proved that when we split them up), so why does Peter need Miles, Cindy, Julia and the rest ( especially Gwen for obvious reasons)? 2: There is the time factor. Instead of time spent on a Spider-Family ( and for that matter Boomerang) we can see Peter square off against Otto and the rest of the bad guys and gals we have not seen yet in SpencerÂ’s run ( Otto and Lady Octopus versus Peter would be appealing). 3: The idea of a Spider-Family basically makes The Totem ( and of course The Other) more relevant and Amazing Fantasy 15 less so. If OMD does NOT go away which I suspect, Spencer will have succeeded in taking my three most despised stories ( OMD/BND, The Other and Silk) and actually strengthened them.

You're a traditionalist when it comes to Spider-Man but you want Teresa as his sister?

Also the idea that Spider-Man is a loner is a little silly when one of his longest titles was a Marvel Team Up and he frequently has team ups with other heroes in his own books and frequently guest stars in others. That's before we get to his membership of the Avengers and the Future Foundation and his long standing friendships with Daredevil and Johnny Storm. Also wasn't one of the better recieved parts of the 90s Clone Saga was when Peter and Ben worked together.

I'm not sure how the 'Spider-Man' family popping in for the big Spidey events takes page time away from Spider-Man fighting his classic rogues. If they've not been used as much in Spencer's run it's because he doesn't want to use them not because they're being supplanted by the Spider family.

[Vortex85]

The stuff with the Spider Family to me served their purpose. Again, what would the stakes be (other than MJ at the very end) if they were left out of the book? Face it, they aren't there to save the day, but they were needed to give Peter something to fight for and protect other than himself.

The only argument I would sort of agree with is we really didn't need 5 .LR issues. It may have actually have been better to combine the .LR and the main issues and just cut back and forth between scenes as it would have been more story in each book and less drawn out feeling. But on the other hand when it's all over with, the way we got it allows for much more in depth look at what happened which will add to how this story is viewed in the future.

I read one reviewer say it seems "over indulgent" which I can defintely see, but if you are building up to a Kindred confrontation for 2 years, I'd rather it err on the side of over indulgent than under.

[TheCape]

Spider-Man is a loner, at least when it comes to crime fighting most of the time. But he isn't against working with others if he needs to or accepting help if offered most of the time, unlike most loners in fiction, he is just not a dick about it thought

[PCN24454]

Spider-Man is a loner, at least when it comes to crime fighting most of the time. But he isn't against working with others if he needs to or accepting help if offered most of the time, unlike most loners in fiction, he is just not a dick about it thought

Depends on the story.

[Pattern_Maker]

You're a traditionalist when it comes to Spider-Man but you want Teresa as his sister?

Also the idea that Spider-Man is a loner is a little silly when one of his longest titles was a Marvel Team Up and he frequently has team ups with other heroes in his own books and frequently guest stars in others. That's before we get to his membership of the Avengers and the Future Foundation and his long standing friendships with Daredevil and Johnny Storm. Also wasn't one of the better recieved parts of the 90s Clone Saga was when Peter and Ben worked together.

I'm not sure how the 'Spider-Man' family popping in for the big Spidey events takes page time away from Spider-Man fighting his classic rogues. If they've not been used as much in Spencer's run it's because he doesn't want to use them not because they're being supplanted by the Spider family.

I agree with this. If Peter was a loner he wouldn't have bothered to try and join the Fantastic Four when he needed money or the Avengers back when he was sent the Hulk.

Going to his social life he wouldn't have tried to ask Sally Avril out back in Amazing Fantasy 15 if he was a loner. More or less he was just pushed aside by the popular crowd and that made everyone during his high school years treat him as an outcast. Then during his college years, he didn't try to make friends with anyone at first because he was focused on Aunt May, but later on he became a part of Gwen, Harry, Flash, and MJ's social circle.

[Frontier]

Also the idea that Spider-Man is a loner is a little silly when one of his longest titles was a Marvel Team Up and he frequently has team ups with other heroes in his own books and frequently guest stars in others. That's before we get to his membership of the Avengers and the Future Foundation and his long standing friendships with Daredevil and Johnny Storm. Also wasn't one of the better recieved parts of the 90s Clone Saga was when Peter and Ben worked together.

There's a difference between frequent one-time team-ups and generally operating in tandem with other heroes. Peter usually flies solo on a general basis.

I'm not sure how the 'Spider-Man' family popping in for the big Spidey events takes page time away from Spider-Man fighting his classic rogues. If they've not been used as much in Spencer's run it's because he doesn't want to use them not because they're being supplanted by the Spider family.

I think the problem with the "Spider-Family" popping up for a big Spidey event is how abrupt it is in the context of the overall run and how little they're actually contributing in said event.

The stuff with the Spider Family to me served their purpose. Again, what would the stakes be (other than MJ at the very end) if they were left out of the book? Face it, they aren't there to save the day, but they were needed to give Peter something to fight for and protect other than himself.

Basically they're hostages to build on Peter's guilt and make him do what Kindred says he needs to do. That's basically been their biggest contribution to the plot.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if none of the other Spiders want anything to do with Peter after this (except maybe Miles). Nothing good seems to happen the longer they stick around him.

I read one reviewer say it seems "over indulgent" which I can defintely see, but if you are building up to a Kindred confrontation for 2 years, I'd rather it err on the side of over indulgent than under.

Personally I would prefer the story be told as straightforward as possible and cut down on the excess, but that's just me.

[TheCape]

Depends on the story.

I can think of a couple of times when he was one, but usually there were some extreme circumstances.

[NC_Yankee]

You're a traditionalist when it comes to Spider-Man but you want Teresa as his sister?

Also the idea that Spider-Man is a loner is a little silly when one of his longest titles was a Marvel Team Up and he frequently has team ups with other heroes in his own books and frequently guest stars in others. That's before we get to his membership of the Avengers and the Future Foundation and his long standing friendships with Daredevil and Johnny Storm. Also wasn't one of the better recieved parts of the 90s Clone Saga was when Peter and Ben worked together.

I'm not sure how the 'Spider-Man' family popping in for the big Spidey events takes page time away from Spider-Man fighting his classic rogues. If they've not been used as much in Spencer's run it's because he doesn't want to use them not because they're being supplanted by the Spider family.

Let me go over this point by point. First off Teresa is someone who works for me because she is basically a blank slate and can be used in Peter centric or Spider-Man centric stories. As for Marvel Team Up, those were one shot stories nothing like a Spider-Family or his time in the Avengers where he was treated as comedy relief. I actually liked the Future Foundation stories because Peter was treated as an equal not comedy relief or made to look like a loser ( like Harry is doing right now). Last but certainly not least my entire disagreement with the LR Arc is the long and winding road to get to the end ( or so I hope it ends). Basically it has become a soap opera. Sin Eater, Morlun and the Spider characters were not needed. In fact even MJ and Harry were not needed. Spencer could have had Norman as Kindred ( really dying in ASM 122), and the Norman we see now as a clone. It could have been simply Norman versus Peter and have Peter kick his sorry ass back to Hell. That would make a nice concise story which is better then two years of Kindred. This is especially true if OMD is not erased and ( or) this story does not end next week ( both of which I suspect will be true).

[Vegeta]

The problem with the "Spider Family" is that Peter spends relatively little time with these characters outside of events. He doesn't have that deep of a connection with really any of them, outside of a few scattered appearances in Spider-Gwen's now discontinued comic.

[Vortex85]

The problem with the "Spider Family" is that Peter spends relatively little time with these characters outside of events. He doesn't have that deep of a connection with really any of them, outside of a few scattered appearances in Spider-Gwen's now discontinued comic.

Please don't say that's a problem! Can you imagine Marvel reading that and thinking "Oh, people think it's a problem that Peter spends too little time with the other Spider people!" LOL

Anyway, I think what you mean is the problem with Kindred's point as he sees things?

[Jonathangoop1811]

Well, it's the final chapter of this story, honestly, I feel the story would have been better without the Order of The Web, perhaps without the LR. issues, it could have gone faster, just add the Norman and MJ thing in the main book to send her to the graveyard, it has enough space, specially considering how long some of the issues were but made so little, like Peter's dream of Harry and getting beaten/killed multiple times, I loved those parts, they were perfect, but perhaps it could have been shorter, hell, have the Sins become demons instead of possessing the Spiders or something else, it would have made the story better, Sin-Eater should have stopped and be killed by Kindred once his job was done.

I hope they still mention OMD, I only want Peter and MJ to know about the deal they made, that would make it great. But I really hope they don't erase it, I know many people want a story where Peter and MJ erase the deal or something, and make them married again, but I really hope that never happens, and I honestly think it won't and it's for this reasons: The stories would need to change, everything, when OMD happened, the only change done was that Peter and MJ weren't married, basically all the previous stories happened exactly the same, with the only difference being that MJ wasn't Peter's wife, she was his girlfriend, but if history were remade and they stayed married, it will affect all the stories Peter has had since then, we got the fact that both Peter and MJ actually had other relationships since then, I will admit Peter hasn't had a single good relationship since he and MJ separated, and the only one that lasted was Carlie Cooper, one relationship I honestly would like erased, but anyway, the point stands, it will erase many stories of Peter where he was single, like when he was having trouble with work, the new roommates, it would also affect several stories like Spider-Island, Gauntlet, Grimm Hunt, those to a less level, but still would mean drastic changes, and the biggest changes would probably to the Superior Spider-Man and Parker Industries, I mean, there is no way Superior could have lasted if they were married, and if Marvel ever did it, it would be creepy, specially Otto's relationship with Anna Maria Marconi, and there is the fact that during Parker Industries era, MJ was the assisstant of Tony Stark, so working for the business rival of her husband would be bad, at the end, Peter and MJ grew up separated for the last couple of years, developed new adventures, Peter went through many traumatic experiences that made him stronger, and he has build friendships and relationships with so many people like Kaine, Otto, Jonah, Teresa, Deadpool, Miles that some would be affected in some way, I loved the marriage of Peter and MJ, and though there were more downs than ups stories, Peter has actually grown in a different way the last couple of years in a way that marriage would have honetly interfered, if they have stayed married, I can honestly see better stories being done, but there were many good stories done recently that the marriage would affect, for that reason I think and hope OMD is never erased, and instead Peter remembers what he did, faces the consequences, and tries to move on, probably simply marrying MJ again.

[Celgress]

Other than the Order of the Web nonsense (sorry, but Peter and most of these people are not close and likely never will be), I've greatly enjoyed this story. I look forward to the conclusion whatever it entails.

*Crosses Fingers* I hope we get an explanation about if there are two Harrys or not and how Kindred's powers work exactly.

[Frontier]

The problem with the "Spider Family" is that Peter spends relatively little time with these characters outside of events. He doesn't have that deep of a connection with really any of them, outside of a few scattered appearances in Spider-Gwen's now discontinued comic.

I think the problem is Marvel/Spencer is trying to have their cake and eat it too to where the other Spiders are generally irrelevant to each other but then get forced into "event" stories together just because of branding reasons.

[Lukmendes]

Kindred is acting like the Spider-Family is the Batfamily when the comparison just...doesn't really work. Peter's not really an orphan (Aunt May), he sought a family in real life instead of as Spider-Man, he's not really that close to most of them, and they're taking his symbol generally had very little, if anything, to do with him.

I mean, even Gwen gets to the heart of it because, despite looking somewhat like 616 Gwen, she really has nothing to do with Peter and doesn't want her life defined by him. Even Harry doesn't think she's like their Gwen so she has virtually nothing to really add to this.

And "children?" Does Harry not know how long Peter has been doing this? It's not like Spider-Man has ever been one for advocating against teen heroes since he was the original.

Spider-Man is not Batman.

Honestly, it seems one of Kindred's super-powers is to make the most moronic points and most characters not being able to point out how dumb his points are.

It's not even a case of "Oh, those characters weren't inspired by him originally, but retcons changed that", Jessica has nothing to do with him, even got her powers before Peter, Julia became a super-hero because it was an exciting life (Or so I remember from her early stories), Anya is a fan of Peter but never seemed to be inspired by him to become a hero, Cindy kinda counts since she was obviously a big fan watching him kick ass for over 10 years so probably Spidey was a reason she even considered, Miles, I'd say he kinda counts, 'cause while we know the truth of why Peter became a super-hero, in-universe that's not known, so as far as everyone is concerned, it was 616 Peter.

Kinda funny that the other characters who are inspired by him aren't here, Mattie is still dead, Ben and Kaine are missing, and they're pretending Miguel never came back to the past, so we're left with only two, out of six, which makes Kindred's point pretty dumb, which is another on the pile of his dumbass points I guess...

For some reason I'm wondering if Spencer had an idea like this for a possible Batman run that he's just repurposing for Spider-Man or if he just needed a reason to make the Order of the Web seem actually relevant to this story beyond marketing, even if said reason really doesn't hold up all that well.

I mean, heck, this would've made more sense in the Marvel's Spider-Man cartoon where Miles, Gwen, and Anya were obviously inspired by Peter for their Spider-Hero identities and styled their costumes after him. But that's not the 616 versions.

I think it's because of his original plans, and he was too lazy to change, because Ben, Otto, and possibly Kaine were supposed to be here, and while I wouldn't count Otto as someone inspired by Peter, it'd have a higher amount of people to give Kindred a better point.

Agreed. I understand the need for reader representation, but keep them in their own books. And if their own books can’t survive on the marketplace, then there’s obviously not enough demand for them. I think perhaps all of them except Miles and Silk should be killed off. Silk can fit the female minority quota, and Miles is popular enough in his own right. But no one cares about Madame Web though...

Killing off characters for the sake of killing them is silly, if the characters have no demand just forget they're around for a while, maybe they can be brought back with a writer who can make 'em work later, and killing them off only makes that annoyingly harder.

Does he really have any reason to blame Peter for them? It's not like the Spider-Family have done anything to him personally or done anything Peter really cares about. I guess he could be just trying to bolster Peter's guilt complex but it would be kind of funny if he's either misconstruing things because he's lying through his teeth or because he genuinely has no idea what he's talking about.

The narration actually admiting that Harry is full of **** would be great lol.

Thinking on it, they really could've just scaled this down to Miles, Gwen, and Julia. Miles as the actual Peter legacy, Gwen because everyone keeps remembering OG!Gwen (which probably makes her want to leave 616 as soon as possible), and Julia to be Madame Web. They're the only ones who've had any relevant opinions in this arc.

And even then, Miles only had something useful to say in ASM#48, after that he's "Another Spider-Person who has nothing useful to say unlike Gwen and Julia"

Next week is the moment of truth for Nick Spencer's run, that's for sure.

To be honest, I am kinda dreading the issue next week because I've been more positive and far less down on his run than others here have but it's all banking on an expectation that this will lead to a payoff that will be worth it. Depending on how Spencer plays it, it could work out or it could be the equivalent of the "Bat/Cat wedding" in terms of how it singlehandedly killed good will for Tom King's run, and Tom King as a whole.

Or the "Hail Hydra" moment in Cap's comic.

Honestly if Spencer fucks up so bad he manages to repeat something that bad, on a similar level, despite his run so far not being anywhere near that bad even at its worst, I'll be amazed.

(In the same way, that I think Tom King's War of Jokes and Riddles is one of the better Batman stories since Morrison stepped down even if the rest of his run and the Moore-backstabbing he's done has lowered my estimation of him).

Man, never seen someone actually praising that lol.

Yeah probably but it sounds like they wanted to go big with it. I don't mind the scope of it and I never had a problem with including all the other characters. I enjoyed the story but the fact that its bigger just means we needed to wait some extra time to get to the end to see how it all plays out. This is clearly frustrating a lot of people who were already tired of waiting for answers and had to endure up to the very end to see if there even are any in this arc.

The problem is how Spencer decided to do this, 'cause if someone wants a story to be big, then it has to have enough content to justify being big, and it just doesn't have enough to be that long, the story had a nice pacing, up until Peter actually met Kindred, after that, it's just dragging, very slowy, with Harry essentially just screaming on Peter's ears about a vague sin for 3 issues, and we don't need 3 issues of that...

I feel like there's one more element at play, that you guys are not picking up. That element being that this whole run has been extremely meta.
As like all of you I think its ridiculous to assert a Spider-Family as similar as something akin to Bat Family. I doubt Spencer is going that route.
Although I do believe he is referencing the amount of Spider people now.

Lets be honest in universe, hardly anyone has been inspired by Peter to pick the mantle, but in meta the mantles have been given off like cookies
because of Peters popularity. I think Spencer is trying to reference that. Also the whole concept of family might lead to Harry finally revealing how
Peter sacrificed his actual family. Beside that I really doubt Spencer not leading it up to OMD. The future vision in ASM 54LR should be an obvious indication.

Meta commentaries that make no sense in-universe are just stupid though lol.

Kindred did do some commentaries that are kinda leaning on the 4th wall (Saying he hates when something is just a dream in ASM#24, and saying that his meeting with Peter in ASM#44 being a dream within a dream is a cheat), but those are just weird commentaries, actually using meta commentary when it's Harry talking **** about Peter's toxic influence in-universe? That makes no fucking sense lol.

I admit I am a traditionalist so I am no fan of a Spider Family. Why? There is no need for Spider Family. Peter has a family: They are named Aunt May and Teresa ( and God willing ) MJ.

How's Teresa traditional? About the most "traditional" thing about her is using the "Peter has secret agent parents" **** from ASM Annual#5 that Lee and Romita made, but even then all that did was talk about his past and they weren't active while he was alive, and that was pretty much forgotten about for a long ass time, so having someone related to Peter who's alive and a secret agent is not traditional at all.

AU where Spencer had Peter spend an issue with each spider throughout the run to build up to this better.

With how much he half assed the Spiders here? Pass, he probably would essentially write the same story 3 times, maybe 4, until getting to the character he actually put some thought on, with Gwen and Julia (Even then I'd doubt the quality).

Please don't say that's a problem! Can you imagine Marvel reading that and thinking "Oh, people think it's a problem that Peter spends too little time with the other Spider people!" LOL

I mean, if it happened too much it'd certainly be annoying, but once in a while it wouldn't hurt.

[Snoop Dogg]

hydra cap will always be better than kindred because he was revealed and explained like 10 issues into the run