Better than Slott, but still pretty poor. Would have been far better just to give him a second Superior Foes series for the Fred stuff.
Better than Slott, but still pretty poor. Would have been far better just to give him a second Superior Foes series for the Fred stuff.
Very slow, BORING run that tended to drag storylines out WAY too long and focus on C and D list characters more than it did Peter/Spider-Man in his own book. Slott's run was better than Spencer's, because at its best, Slott's run was really good. Spencer's run had ZERO highpoints in my opinion, however. I couldn't wait for it to end and a different writer to be announced.
Until the last few years of his 10 year run, I really enjoyed Slott's run, too. I think he just stayed on too long, Because for the first few years, most people seemed to like Slott's run. Even now, most people seem to have favorable opinions about certain parts of his run, like Spider-Island, No One Dies, and Superior Spider-Man. On the other hand, I can't think of any real highlights of Spencer's run and haven't heard or seen many people name any hightlights of his run either. That should tell you all you need to know about Spencer's run, in my opinion (extremely average at best, terrible at worst).
Giving it a solid 4/10.
Really enjoyed Hunted, Boomerang/Spidey stories, Sins Rising. Any of those on their own are 8/10s for me or higher.
Smaller stories in between bordered 5-7 range, worst prior to 50 being the 2099 arc which went nowhere.
Sinister War and Kindred in general get 1.5/10. Little to no resolution of setup, contradictions, overloaded references to obscurities, none of which pays off in any degree, including Kindred's refrain of "CONFESS" never coming to fruition. Slott has some low points but it never became a contradictive mess that would make the Clone Saga blush like this did. It's very clear this series was done with mystery box storytelling, which always famously creates bigger allure of mystery than the writers can do. We also got a failure to launch spinoff of the Order of the Web, which was met with a collective shrug by the fandom.
Also, frankly just as a small note, I didn't enjoy having Spencer never write in the letters and left it for Lowe to do. The most highfalutin marvel series, Immortal Hulk, still has it's author chit chatting every issue with readers. Whatever experiment Spencer was trying here being silent while writing failed terribly, because all we go was a removed, slow moving series that milked its readers dry with dozens of useless extra issues, and without insight by the writer, the whole ordeal feels cold and calculated, without heart and as hollow as Kindred's empty bug filled husk of a body(which is apperently never really that and actually mudmen clone slugs of the Stacy Twins)
Man I don't understand anyone who would rank this run above Dan Slott's. Dan Slott's run had some legit highs, an occasional homerun or two. Spencer never got past second base and basically wrote 45 consecutive unimpressive issue. Seriously from the end of Hunted to #74 was just a terrible run of comics.
D+
I'm going to need to reread it, but at the moment I'd rank it as one of the weakest in some time.
I'd split JMS into two eras, his work with Romita Jr and then his work with Deodato and Garney when Spider-Man got more involved with the Marvel Universe and those were better.
I liked Brand New Day. I really the Big Time. I loved the Superior Spider-Man era. And the Parker Industries period wasn't perfect, but it was well-realized.
So Spencer's on par with DeFalco in the transition period between the Clone Saga and the '98 relaunch.
There are specific things I really don't like, and parts went on way too long. On the other hand, there were legitimate highlights: the conclusion of the Boomerang storyline in the King's Ransom hardcover, the first issue, and that issue where Peter planned to propose to MJ and it just didn't work out.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
You’re the only person I’ve met who likes the second half of JMS’s run better than his first half, but to each his own. When I think of JMS/Deodato all I think about is Sins Past, ‘The Other’ stuff, and some forgettable stories like the one with the bargain-bin Molten Man rip-off.
I did like ‘Back in Black’ though.
I feel like people discredit them but sins rising and last remains were great spider-man stories, like it really felt Spencer was geniunely setting up something great with all the pieces he was putting on the board. It was also really interesting seeing Peter get broken down like he did in last remains. Obviously knowing how things ends, the impact of those stories won't hit as hard but I still remember really enjoying those issues as they came out.
It's all a shame, really. I know Nick Lowe's job is to be the hype machine but didn't he even say that the story Nick Spencer was building to was going to be the biggest Spidey story ever? I think a lot of us who kept taking the OMD hints and connecting it with that could see that actually being a big deal for real. This is like a big wet fart of an ending. It's kinda fine in a vacuum but it didn't line up with anything that came before for 90% of the run.
Oh, man. Great first half and bad second. Pacing was a big problem. Dan Slott's run had higher highs (Big Time, Superior Spider-Man) and lower lows in TASM (Vol. 3)/TASM (Vol. 4) which I hated to Nick Spencer so it depends whether the good outweighs the bad from Slott or vice versa. I have the same problem with JMS balancing his Spider-Man run out. Terrific first half with Coming Home/The Conversation/Doomed Affairs and the two worst Spider-Man stories ever in OMD/Sins Past.
Last edited by Batman Begins 2005; 09-29-2021 at 09:20 PM.