Has there been any word as to why Spencer is leaving?

[RD155]

Use to frequent this forum quiet a bit before but just got exhausted with the title after Last Remains. Now I’m trying to play catch up so the news of Spencer leaving really caught me off guard when I read about it today.

Has there actually been any word or even some speculation as to why the sudden departure?

[Celgress]

Other than getting a new job at Substack (sp?), I, for one, haven't heard anything.

[Mister Mets]

There's speculation, but I don't believe he has said either way.

* Edit- To be clear, he has given few interviews about his Spider-Man run.

[MajorHoy]

How long has his run on Spider-Man been?

Maybe he just feels like he's done all he wanted to do with the character?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

How long has his run on Spider-Man been?

It will be almost exactly three years. His first issue came out in July 2018, his last is September 2021. If you factor that three months in 2020 had no comics because of COVID, then his run would likely have ended in June 2021 or July 2021 at latest.

Maybe he just feels like he's done all he wanted to do with the character?

We won't know until he sits down with an interview and spills the beans.

My guess is that the COVID pandemic and other life stuff made him sour on licensed comics and drop out earlier than expected.

[Digifiend]

74 issues is still a decent run, and that doesn't even include giant-size one-shots, annuals, or minis such as the upcoming Sinister War.

[Spiderfan001]

Other than getting a new job at Substack (sp?), I, for one, haven't heard anything.

That and Marvel's page rate is horrible.

[Jman27]

He rarely talks about the series anyway but I bet he will put something in the final issue explaining why

[Revolutionary_Jack]

He rarely talks about the series anyway but I bet he will put something in the final issue explaining why

It will mostly be a PR thing and not quite reflect the truth.

If Spencer was leaving on his own terms with his head held high, the announcement would come with an interview with his own words and talking about the final run and he would have announced it in advance. The fact is that the announcement doesn't quote Spencer at all, he's mum, so that doesn't suggest he's leaving on happiest terms.

The reasons as to why and so on, that will take a while before we get an answer.

[RD155]

It will mostly be a PR thing and not quite reflect the truth.

If Spencer was leaving on his own terms with his head held high, the announcement would come with an interview with his own words and talking about the final run and he would have announced it in advance. The fact is that the announcement doesn't quote Spencer at all, he's mum, so that doesn't suggest he's leaving on happiest terms.

The reasons as to why and so on, that will take a while before we get an answer.

That’s sought of what I was thinking as well. Didn’t want to say anything and play devils advocate but...on the surface it seems like it might not be the best terms just because of how sudden it was and the fact that he hasn’t said anything.

I wonder if the direction he was taking the character (Addressing OMD, moving towards engagement/mArriage) have anything to do with getting off the title.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

That’s sought of what I was thinking as well. Didn’t want to say anything and play devils advocate but...on the surface it seems like it might not be the best terms just because of how sudden it was and the fact that he hasn’t said anything.

I wonder if the direction he was taking the character (Addressing OMD, moving towards engagement/mArriage) have anything to do with getting off the title.

Any speculation people make now is about equally valid...whether it's the case or not, we won't know for a while.

The Peter-MJ and addressing the marriage and OMD stuff was there at the outset so it would be odd for Marvel to make a fuss about that now, but a company doesn't necessarily behave rationally, nor should we assume that to be the case.

[Snoop Dogg]

Spider-Man is his favorite character and he had a ridiculous sweatshop shipping schedule. Occam's Razor.

[Vortex85]

I brought up another thread from this forum that appears to show the end of his run being advertised in TPB 15 "It. All. Comes. Down. To. This!" posted on April 6th., for issue 70-74, I guess his run ending must have been known back then. So maybe it wasn't as last minute / knee jerk as it could have been... IDK... maybe they changed things earlier this year and decided to end his run early. I must assume last year he was planning at least a 4 year run because in his interview he talked about 2021 as the next stage as if it was just going to continue after that.

[RJT]

Spider-Man is his favorite character and he had a ridiculous sweatshop shipping schedule. Occam's Razor.

This. With all the Point One issues, giant sized specials, and the Sinister War mini, he’s got to be close to 100 issues. That’s a long run.
And often times a writer will have plans up to a certain issue/major plot point, then reevaluate. Grant Morrison said he planned to leave Batman after RIP, but then came up with ideas for Batman & Robin, said he would leave after that, but then had ideas and stayed on an did Batman, Inc. Slott seemed like he was going to wrap up his ASM run a couple of times, but ended up having more ideas.

It’s possible Spencer had up to issue 74 worked out with the possibility of extending the run after that point, and for any number of reasons decided to leave (the shipping schedule does seem a super obvious culprit, since Marvel is switching to a formal thrice-monthly schedule after he leaves, so it’s something they think is worth doing from a sales perspective)

Not everything is some kind of secret conspiracy. And since Secret Empire, Spencer had intentionally kept a low profile, doing very few interviews and having little social media presence.

[blunt_eastwood]

Was he expected to write more issues? Because if he never set any expectation for how long he would be on title, I don't think there's anything to explain or speculate about.