How would you rate Nick Spencer's current Spidey run compared to past writers?

[Spiderfang]

I have nearly all of the JMS run (missing OMD & BND), and just started the Slott run [Spider-Island, Superior, Parker Luck & Clone Conspiracy - yes I am a filthy trade waiter -- sue me!] I've been seeing/hearing good things about Spencer's Spider-Man run so far (I think he started in 2017?) and figured that enough time has passed that I can start collecting trades for reasonable prices (I've searched for Spider-Man Big Time, and Kaine's Scarlet Spider run -- which are apparently out of print and upwards of $120 USD!)

I genuinely enjoyed the Conway Spider-Man runs and the 90's interlude between Clone Saga and JMS, and I loved Superior Spider-Man, what would the consensus be on a trade-waiter should I jump on the Spencer run before it goes out of print and skyrockets in price??

[federicodettofred]

To me it is easily the best run in decades. I love '60s-'70s-'80s Spidey and some parts of the '90s (except for the Clone Saga and other WTF stories), but I'm not a big fan of JMS (after JRJR left everything went downhill) or Slott (I do love Superior and other story-arcs tho). Spencer's run has the right dose of humour and dark moments, but it also had the "friendly neighborhood" atmosphere in the first 20/25 issues that I really liked. Seeing Peter back with roommates and MJ was very nice to me (even though it is always the same Peter Parker with no money or a job, after that trash that was the ending of the Parker Industries). It feels like Spider-Man again, without sensationalism, out of character actions or secrets that suddenly jump out of the closet (let'see how the Kindred arc will end tho )

[Batman Begins 2005]

Hmm. JMS had higher highs but the lowest of lows in Sins Past/One More Day which really counts against him. The two worst Spider-Man stories ever. Slott had some highs but his lows were awful in TASM (Vol. 3) and (Vol. 4) made me drop the book. I'd take Spencer over Slott but I think I'd still go with JMS to Spencer even through what I said about Sins Past/OMD. JMS wrote a great and mature Peter, MJ and Aunt May.

[Batman Begins 2005]

I have nearly all of the JMS run (missing OMD & BND), and just started the Slott run [Spider-Island, Superior, Parker Luck & Clone Conspiracy - yes I am a filthy trade waiter -- sue me!] I've been seeing/hearing good things about Spencer's Spider-Man run so far (I think he started in 2017?) and figured that enough time has passed that I can start collecting trades for reasonable prices (I've searched for Spider-Man Big Time, and Kaine's Scarlet Spider run -- which are apparently out of print and upwards of $120 USD!)

I genuinely enjoyed the Conway Spider-Man runs and the 90's interlude between Clone Saga and JMS, and I loved Superior Spider-Man, what would the consensus be on a trade-waiter should I jump on the Spencer run before it goes out of print and skyrockets in price??

Hi. Brand New Day was after One More Day and it wasn't by JMS. Don't blame you missing OMD. Good luck working through the Parker Luck and the Clone Conspiracy. Spencer's ASM run started in 2018. Hope this helps.

[FFJamie94]

For me, it kind of sits around Slott's first half in terms of quality. There's a lot more good than bad, and a lot of fun ideas at play, but Spencer seems to be juggling so much and I don't think he can pull it off as well as he could.
I think Chip Zdarksy had a better run (even if he was on Spectacular), it's a good 20 issues, and it's to the point.

I think it'll be regarded as a classic, but only because it's miles better than what came before it.
As much as I like it and I think it's picking up the pace, I do look forward to when the next writer comes on now.

[TheCape]

I like it more than Slott for sure and i don't have a lot of good things to say about Zdarsky either (and i can i blame him for some of the stuff that i don't like in Spencer run). Spencer is solid most of the time and like his voices for the characthers more than most post-OMD, mind you is not perfect, is too descompressed sometimes and there has been some serious dubs like 2099.

[your_name_here]

I, like a lot of people, dropped the book around the time of OMD. I knew what was going on in Slotts book, but for whatever reason I just wasn’t invested. I came back Go Down Swinging which I really enjoyed.

To me, Nick Spencer’s run is the most accessible run since OMD. JMS and JRJR was great, but once JRJR left the hook I wouldn’t rank any story as good (Back in Black being the exception).
Spencer is having a ball and you can tell he’s a fan. You’ve probably picked a tricky time to ask this question as slot of people aren’t too pleased with the pacing or structure of the current ark. Personally, I think it’s all worth getting.

I’d rank JMS slightly higher just because he was able to give Peter more to do, Spencer’s run is more based around Spider-Man or supporting cast.

Sins Rising/Return of The Green Goblin is one of my favourite Spider-Man stories in such a long time, though.

[HypnoHustler]

Count me as another one who thinks JMS was overrated. Too much mystical mumbo jumbo, including giving us that awful Spider totem stuff. He always seemed like he’d rather be writing Dr Strange (much the same way Slott seemed like he would rather write Doctor Who). And that’s not even touching the truly dreadful stuff like Sins Past and OMD (yes, the story was changed, but his original idea wasn’t much better). Yes, he did have some good stories too, but his bad ones were very bad.

Slott had some early promising stories, but was just terrible post-Superior.

And Mackie...? Well, the less said about his later output the better.

So Spencer is definitely better than the last two decades of regular writers, but that still isn’t saying that much. I’d still only rank him mid-tier or maybe a little above. To me, upper tier is JM DeMatteis in his prime, Roger Stern, Peter David in his prime, and perhaps David Michelinie. Spencer has good ideas, but as seen in the current LR arc, his execution leaves something to be desired. At least he isn’t actively wrecking parts of Spidey’s character as Mackie, JMS and Slott did at various points in their runs.

[PeterParked]

Straczinky at the time was good because he brought a more mature and contemporary sensibility, and was addictive to the myth. Slott wrote some nice Spider-Man stories more on the classic side, but his Superior Spider Man was really good. Spencer didn’t bring anything new in terms of storytelling or sensibility, or any innovation, his run has been pretty on the safe side, nothing that will be really remembered for in my opinion, just going from classic story to classic story and revisit them.

[Vortex85]

Spencer is the best representation of classic Spider-Man we have had in the past two decades. At the same time all the arcs of his run are ties together in one huge interconnected super story so I really love it.

[Dzika_Sowa]

Better than Slott, not as good as JMS. I'm not as familiar with other authors to compare, I've read only a couple of stories from others.

Anyway, Spencer's writes a good Peter and an entertaining Spider-Man. His Norman Osborn is truly menacing, and his introduction of Kindred to the lore was great. On top of that - MJ is back, and we probably will get rid of OMD in some form, so I'm looking forward to the rest of his run.

[Jman27]

so far he is good to me. I only read up from the tail end of slott superior til now and the beginning to the black suit stuff from the original run. Need to continue with the original stuff. But then again i pretty much like what I read from all. I dont really see one being better than the other unless its really noticeable

[Batman Begins 2005]

Spencer gets bonus points for redeeming Black Cat and Mary Jane Watson from Slott's time on the book.

[Voices From the Eyrie]

I give it an A-. A couple of warts here and there... but it's the best the book and the characters have been since 2004/2005.

After suffering for a decade under the BND/Slott era, the characters finally feel like themselves again rather than a group of poorly written pod people.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

My personal rule for an ongoing is to wait till its done before you start putting it in the pantheon. At least for Spider-Man which as a rule has a general consistency to it that other Marvel titles do not have. IN the case of X-Men for instance, it's fairly easy to coronate a run as great, becuse you have very highs followed by very lows, and a lengthy period of malaise, so against that Hickman's run out of the gate looks like a trillion dollars.

Still, provisionally, I think you can assess him based on where he is now (55 issues in).

I'd rank Spencer above Len Wein's run, Wolfman's, the entire Clone Saga and Post-Clone Saga, BND, Slott.

But I wouldn't rank him in my Spider-Man Pantheon in terms of runs on ASM: [Lee-Ditko, Lee-Romita, Conway, Stern, Defalco, Michelinie, JMS]. Spencer has done well in run so far, but he is not Jedi yet.

If we compare Spencer to Slott...and focus on the first 50-odd issues of Slott's run from Big Time to Dying Wish.

-- I think Spencer in TASM#1 did the new status-quo reset, tonal change, and new ideas far quicker and far better than Big Time did. I think the Game Night 2-Parter has more wit, charm, warmth, and humanity than Slott's run even when he tries to do that like in No One Dies.

-- Spider-Island is Slott's best story in this time (and if we're being real, Slott's best Spider-Man story overall). I don't think it's a great story but it's a story with an original hook and novelty to it, that makes it more charismatic than some of the stuff that Spencer's done in terms of events. Like I think HUNTED is on the whole a better executed story, but the premise of HUNTED as a sequel and homage to KLH does mean it has less novelty.

-- Spencer's a lot better at putting out great single issues than Slott is. With Slott and his erratic incoherence, his fixation for melodrama, his scattershot narrative, you don't find the control, and restraint that you get with Spencer. So Spencer has done these great single issues multiple times - ASM#802 (TASM#1V.5), the Gibbon issue of HUNTED, ASM#25, ASM#29, ASM#850.


How I compare Slott and Spencer to JMS is like this: Neither of them have done a story as bad as Sins' Past or even The Other...but neither have put out stories as great as Coming Home, The Conversation, "Doomed Affairs", "The Book of Ezekiel" and "Back in Black".