Amazing Spider-Man 74 - Preview - LET'S GOOO!

[Spiderfan001]

The only positive is he left the book in a much better place than his predecessor. However, who knows the next writer could screw things up. I sure wouldn't want to follow Spencer on the book after leaving fans hanging with Mephisto and not directly dealing with OMD but having non-stop references. Also, what are they going to do with the proposal? They can't ignore it forever, but if they aren't even going to address OMD there is no way they are getting married. So the only option I see is the next writer will be tasked with breaking up Peter and MJ or just doing nothing with them. I'm afraid to me there is only downhill from here.

There was a lot riding on this issue about my feelings for Spider-Man comics going forward, but Marvel have shown their hand with the way this was handled and I don't see things going the way I would like in reading Spider-Man anymore. I was hopeful I would gladly jump into Beyond but I don't think I can get over the disappointment of this to motivate myself to spend that kind of money on this book.

Pretty much this, it was fun while it lasted but damn it didn't land, atleast acc. to spoilers.We still have like 70+ pages of comic we haven't seen and I don't see it all being filler.

Where is SpiderFan to defend this and say this was 100% what Spencer played and this will go down as the definitive Spider-Man era?
Anyhow… as others have mentioned, this was a convoluted mess. As someone who started reading Spider-Man with Harry’s original death, I’m ashamed to admit that I forgot that Mendel Stromm was dead and would have been Gaunt” at the time of Harry hiring him to make the clones or whatever. And Stromm wasn’t in his robotic body until way later during Jenkins’ run. More F’n clones. Some BS Mephisto/Strange page wasters. Can someone break down all the “fixes” Spencer’s done? I already heard about Black Cat’s relationship with Peter. Some act as though killing Kraven and replacing him with (yet another) clone is “fixed”. Yeah Sins Past is gone but what was really fixed?

Dude stop trolling, I have never said that this is the definitive Spider-man run, in fact I've always said the opposite that this is a transitional Spider-man run that doesn't stand w/ the best on it's own but is beneficial in the long run.

Also it reeks of Editorial interference.

If you're having trouble tomorrow, just remember this issue is 10 bucks! You could buy at least 2 other better books with that lol.

We haven't seen like 70+ pages, for anyone who's read it.What's in all that?

I guess it is rare these days for an extended run to stick the landing from beginning to end. At least without some controversy.

Shame too

Well at least we get an answer as to why the devil is interested in poor ol' Petey

Yeah, I quite like that part from leaks

Slott was right. They will NEVER EVER undo OMD in continuity.

They kinda did though, in a very unstatisfying way but the fact that spoilers:

Mayday

end of spoilers is a possibility means the curse/cost from OMD has been lifted.

[Spiderfan001]

I feel like Immortal Hulk might be the one big extended run recently that stayed pretty consistent in people's minds up til recently, but that has also been marred by the controversy of its dumb artist. Maybe Donny Cates on Venom? I feel like that had some ups and downs but it seemed like it connected with a larger audience/ felt more legitimacy than that character has before in comics.

Immortal kinda fell of at the end for me, hopefully finale pulls it back.And the art is great although I hear the artist is a terrible person.

The end of KIB was bad IMO, like the Captain universe choosing Eddie of all people kinda gave me pause.And Knull is so strong yet got held down by Jean grey w/out Phoenix force for a sec.The invasion started of strong but devolved into a mess.

[Vortex85]

They kinda did though, in a very unstatisfying way but the fact that spoilers:

Mayday

end of spoilers is a possibility means the curse/cost from OMD has been lifted.

When people say they want OMD addressed they mean it's actually revealed to the characters. The worst part of OMD is no one knows about it so there can be no reflection on it. It also means there is no knowledge of the marriage to Peter and MJ which is a huge problem for me. I am of the opinion that the marriage was an integral important part of the character. It should not be erased from history. The least Marvel could do is have memories restored.

[charliehustle415]

I guess it is rare these days for an extended run to stick the landing from beginning to end. At least without some controversy.

In this day with corporate superheroes?

We're lucky we have runs longer than 24 issues with the same creative team let alone good endings.

I feel like the big TWO are super quick to throw a creator out of the building by the scruff of their necks if they feel they aren't towing the corporate line.

If not that, then the creators themselves get disillusioned and take off i.e. Nick "mothersubstackin" Spencer

I mean homie was so fed up he straight up created a whole new way to make comics for creators with a damned internet newsletter company.

If Hickman, Morrison or Straczynski cannot escape editorial meddling there is absolutely no hope for other writers

[your_name_here]

And with that, I think I’ll be dropping off Spidey again for the foreseeable. I last dropped it at OMD, returned for Red Goblin and Spencer’s run.

I have no interest in Ben.

Meh. I struggle to blame Spencer. The run was, IMO, superb up until just after Last Remains (yes, plot points might not have been my favourite but everything felt like it was “part of the plan” - which is huge) Everything promised and hyped just couldn’t be delivered on. After LR, Peter had his moment with MJ where we was prepared to find out his sin to help Harry.
This will forever be the run that could’ve been. I never thought OMD would be erased, but this was the closest to actually addressing it and moving on from it as we could bet - and either Spencer chickened out or editorial stepped in. I think the latter. Spencer flat out wouldn’t do the OMD hyping throughout Last Remains without coming back to it. All his other books tell me he doesn’t set things up for no reason.

[Spidey_62]

In this day with corporate superheroes?

We're lucky we have runs longer than 24 issues with the same creative team let alone good endings.

I feel like the big TWO are super quick to throw a creator out of the building by the scruff of their necks if they feel they aren't towing the corporate line.

If not that, then the creators themselves get disillusioned and take off i.e. Nick "mothersubstackin" Spencer

I mean homie was so fed up he straight up created a whole new way to make comics for creators with a damned internet newsletter company.

If Hickman, Morrison or Straczynski escape editorial meddling there is absolutely no hope for other writers

Pretty much all this is right on the money, yeah. Honestly I wish Marvel would do more outside the box/outside of continuity books from talents all over the industry who want a crack at the characters. Yeah they've got their brand they gotta protect fiercely but they've got Disney backing them up. They don't need to play it so safe always, they should be able to experiment more.

The one good thing about Marvel's bankruptcy is that they said screw it and left creators alone to make books, and brought on lots of interesting people. Think about it, that was the era of Marvel Knights, MAX, Morrison on X-Men, X-Statix, JMS/Jenkins on Spidey, Ultimate U, lots of experimentation that didn't always work but they were being bold often, and as soon as things started to turn around for the company positively they started getting their hands over everything again (from accounts I've seen of creators like Paul Jenkins or JMS that started happening around 2004, and going into high gear after).

I saw earlier this year Chuck Forsman was wanting to pitch a great looking out-of-continuity What If style Spidey story and nada. I like how DC at least does comics based off their old media properties (the books based on the animated series, or the books based on old movies and shows) instead of always focusing on promoting what's current or having synergy like Marvel. Heck, I'd even take more stuff like Zdarsky's Life Story- just weird ambitious books that do stuff the main continuity apparently never will Apparently marriage and kids are too much for a relatable young hero. My friend's 26, engaged, and he's got a kid on the way next month- it happens, it's life lmao!

That all said, I don't envy guys like Slott or Spencer being on these books with all the behind the scenes eyes watching them as well as the eyes in front of them. It's a lot of people to please and it's hard to stay true to what you want when fans are holding on hard to what they want and the company is holding on to what they want to maintain. There should be a middle ground or a trust in the creators that they've given the keys to the book to at the very least that they know what they're doing. They trusted creators when they were bankrupt for all of a hot minute lol.

[HypnoHustler]

So has anyone besides shadow panther gotten a copy yet? I preordered Comixology and new issues usually drop pretty early like 3am the day of release (not always though). I’ve gotten over the fact it’ll be disappointing when it comes to OMD, but I’m ready to take it at face-value and try to find the positives. Sins Past is retconned, fake BND clone Harry is gone and Spec #200 is restored, Ben and Janine appear… those are all okay consolation prizes, I guess.

[Spiderfan001]

When people say they want OMD addressed they mean it's actually revealed to the characters. The worst part of OMD is no one knows about it so there can be no reflection on it. It also means there is no knowledge of the marriage to Peter and MJ which is a huge problem for me. I am of the opinion that the marriage was an integral important part of the character. It should not be erased from history. The least Marvel could do is have memories restored.

I know and agree.My point was it has been undone in canon, which is a huge step.Again Spencer probably wanted to do it all the way through, but this opens up that discussion for future runs.It's not perfect, heck it's barely good but think of it as opening a door.The lock is gone, and even though the door is slightly opened it's much easier to push the rest of the way.

Also saying this again, everyone w/ the book hasn't said anything about like 70+ pages, we've only talked about and seen like 12 pages max(some of which were just panels).Also that 4 chan thread is now gone

And with that, I think I’ll be dropping off Spidey again for the foreseeable. I last dropped it at OMD, returned for Red Goblin and Spencer’s run.

I have no interest in Ben.

Meh. I struggle to blame Spencer. The run was, IMO, superb up until just after Last Remains (yes, plot points might not have been my favourite but everything felt like it was “part of the plan” - which is huge) Everything promised and hyped just couldn’t be delivered on. After LR, Peter had his moment with MJ where we was prepared to find out his sin to help Harry.
This will forever be the run that could’ve been. I never thought OMD would be erased, but this was the closest to actually addressing it and moving on from it as we could bet - and either Spencer chickened out or editorial stepped in. I think the latter. Spencer flat out wouldn’t do the OMD hyping throughout Last Remains without coming back to it. All his other books tell me he doesn’t set things up for no reason.

Spencer said/ or it's heavily speculated wanted OMD as a sort of redemption for Cap fiasco(I've heard like 5 people say he did say it, but have no source).Also he didn't just fix OMD and some other stuff, he fixed the characters in a way we can get pre-OMD type comics w/out the new writer having to waste time writing around or breaking continuity.He fixed characters which is more important IMO.I'm probably gonna take break from ASM as well, I'll read panels and/or spoilers online and maybe buy Peter issues depending on previews/direction.Hopefully the thing after is worth the wait.

[charliehustle415]

Pretty much all this is right on the money, yeah. Honestly I wish Marvel would do more outside the box/outside of continuity books from talents all over the industry who want a crack at the characters. Yeah they've got their brand they gotta protect fiercely but they've got Disney backing them up. They don't need to play it so safe always, they should be able to experiment more.

The one good thing about Marvel's bankruptcy is that they said screw it and left creators alone to make books, and brought on lots of interesting people. Think about it, that was the era of Marvel Knights, MAX, Morrison on X-Men, X-Statix, JMS/Jenkins on Spidey, Ultimate U, lots of experimentation that didn't always work but they were being bold often, and as soon as things started to turn around for the company positively they started getting their hands over everything again (from accounts I've seen of creators like Paul Jenkins or JMS that started happening around 2004, and going into high gear after).

I saw earlier this year Chuck Forsman was wanting to pitch a great looking out-of-continuity What If style Spidey story and nada. I like how DC at least does comics based off their old media properties (the books based on the animated series, or the books based on old movies and shows) instead of always focusing on promoting what's current or having synergy like Marvel. Heck, I'd even take more stuff like Zdarsky's Life Story- just weird ambitious books that do stuff the main continuity apparently never will Apparently marriage and kids are too much for a relatable young hero. My friend's 26, engaged, and he's got a kid on the way next month- it happens, it's life lmao!

That all said, I don't envy guys like Slott or Spencer being on these books with all the behind the scenes eyes watching them as well as the eyes in front of them. It's a lot of people to please and it's hard to stay true to what you want when fans are holding on hard to what they want and the company is holding on to what they want to maintain. There should be a middle ground or a trust in the creators that they've given the keys to the book to at the very least that they know what they're doing. They trusted creators when they were bankrupt for all of a hot minute lol.

This era was amazing, they knew they couldn't just goose the number anymore they had to get real talent to write books of all kinds.

But now they have no fear of losing it all, they ARE Disney.

So it's the same ol' status quo forever

[Vordan]

Granted it's mostly teen Spidey in outside media, and seeing how they're developing Insomniac Peter...I wonder just how strict they are about it.

Insomniac Peter is so weird because Slott and Gage were involved and yet that version is the most Peter has felt in character to me since OMD. He’s got a level of maturity there that just wasn’t present otherwise in Slott’s take. Marvel didn’t want to let them kill Aunt May but they did such a good job Marvel backed down. Wouldn’t surprise me if they do want Peter and MJ to get married and maybe that will even happen in that game since it’s an alternate continuity like RYV. But mainline 616? Maybe after Quesada leaves, or the entire Spidey editorial office gets sacked lol.

I mean, even someone who appreciated some of the what he fixed/dealt with, it didn't feel like he added or contributed to anything really meaningful past that.

Of course it's great that he got Peter and MJ back together but he also didn't really develop their relationship much outside the first few and last arcs. Part of that was because she was written out for a solo book, but still.

I don't think anyone really cared about Harry's death at this point, at least compared to Kraven's death, to the point where his return needed "fixing."

It's also great that he showed such an appreciation for the vast swath of Spidey history but he didn't seem to really add or contribute much else of substance to it.

His Peter really feels mature to me in a way Peter hasn’t been for a long time. I love that scene where he’s on the stage and talking about how frustrated he feels, that he’s felt like he’s running in place for so long and can’t move forward. I liked how he wrote Peter and MJ’s relationship as well as Black Cat and Peter’s relationship. I liked that he had Peter go back to college to get his degree for real, that he put the spotlight on lesser known villains like Boomerang, that he showed off a lot of aspects of Spidey lore we don’t usually get to see.

But this entire run was building up to payoff that now isn’t there. Even if issue 900 does deal with OMD, and there’s no guarantee of that, Spencer won’t be writing that issue. So as it stands right now, I can’t really recommend his run. I’m a Gen Z guy whose first ASM run he ever read was JMS. Sins Past wasn’t as big a deal to me because Gwen has always been the “dead one”, I don’t really care that much about her. In contrast OMD is this festering wound I can’t ignore, Marvel straight up enshrining in universe that there’s a limit to how much Peter can develop before he snaps back to what they consider “normal”. And when that’s the case why bother caring? If there’s not even a chance of him developing or growing as a character, why care?

[Dzika_Sowa]

If what You guys are writing is true, I might drop new Spider-Man books for a while. I mean, this whole run started so good and I feel disappointed right now.
Spidey backlog is big so I can still read stories that helped to create the spider mythos.

Still considered being here for Ben thou. I like Ben.

[HypnoHustler]

The issue is now available on Comixology.

I only have time to skim it right now (at work in my time zone).

From what I’ve read I don’t think it’s as bad as some have made out to be, but the spoilers were accurate. I’ll give further thoughts later. I will say it’s very telling that Spencer does not have any goodbye letter for the conclusion of his run (instead we randomly get one from Nick Lowe).

To be honest, I was more interested in the Ben Reilly back-up. That is a big gift for Ben fans who have been clamoring for some acknowledgement of his 90s continuity and supporting cast from that era, especially a felonious redhead.

EDIT:

Okay, the issue wasn't terrible. It wasn't as good as it should've been, but I had braced myself for disappointment in advance. Some OMD stuff is still hinted at. But yeah, a pretty big disappointment. And nothing much changes at all. Peter and MJ are in a quasi-relationship and it's status quo. Honestly, in some ways those fake 4Chan spoilers from a few weeks back might've been better (and while it got plenty wrong, a couple plot points were accurate). The Harry clone dies (no degeneration though). Tbh that's probably the ballsiest thing to come out of this issue. I've never liked Harry being back (I know there are some who do), and always thought he should have stayed dead. Glad Spec #200's importance is kind of reinstated. It's comics though, so I'm sure some writer will bring him back... again... in a decade. As for Gabriel and Sarah... I don't know. A lot of convoluted baloney. Good to have Sins Past retconned, now hopefully they never refer to Kindred or the Stacy twins again. Doctor Strange and Mephisto had some good exchanges, and I did like the images of Mephisto's future (of course that was the first thing spoiled from this issue). As for Norman, I've said before I'm not a fan of him being good. He's totally uninteresting as some meek, guilt-ridden saint. Norman should always be an evil POS, so I hope he reverts to form next time he appears.

The two back-ups... the first one I'm sure has been done before. Multiple times, probably. It's the cliched Peter-runs-into-an-old-friend-of-Uncle-Ben-who-talks-about-how-great-Ben-was boilerplate nonsense with perhaps a small twist that still doesn't justify it. I expected more of Gage, who I know is a good writer.

The Ben Reilly story, I did enjoy. But that may just be a product of me being a Reilly fan. Your mileage may vary. But it was great to see Janine back, and it was competently scripted with solid art (better than some art in the main story tbh).

Overall, I'd give the book a B- as I did find it an okay read at face-value. But if you're looking it as the conclusion of Spencer's masterplan, then it obviously disappoints. Overall, I'd give Spencer's uneven run about a C average. (Still better than Slott)

Some non-story stuff bothered me as well. For example:

The art was really inconsistent. Some of the art was nice, and then you'd have an abrupt shift to another artist who was sub-par for a few pages.

Second, wow, they did Spencer kind of dirty. Nick Lowe wrote a letter thanking fans for reading the entire Kindred saga. As he lists the people who contributed (starting with the letterers and colorists for some inane reason), Spencer gets literally two sentences (literally... and one of those sentences is "thanks, Nick"). I don't know how true the rumors are of editorial interference, but this leads me to believe things ended on a pretty sour note.

[Spiderfan001]

Just read it and it's not as good as it should be, but it's far from bad.
It fails as a finale to the run, but IMO it works as a F U to OMD.Even though we directly didn't get it everything in this run and the finale reads as an FU to OMD and Slott and I'm here for it.
It leaves a lot, and I mean a lot for the next writer to use.Which is why I'm scared since all this will be a B or C plot in Beyond when we have enough to make multiple A plots.Hopefully Beyond doesn't rush through them and leaves them aside for the next run.
It has a lot of moments I absolutely loved though, once we can make issue specific threads we need a breakdown for this page by page.

Oh and, to all those who have read.Does MJ know?spoilers:

Because she was telling Peter something and then Kindred's show up.

end of spoilers.This feels like what last Remains should have been, there is wayyyyy to much to unpack here.I have no idea how they are going to fit all that in Beyond and after that.

[Dzika_Sowa]

So basically it's the Editorial meddling again?
I see many people pointing out that #74 feels like it's not Spencery enough.

[HypnoHustler]

So basically it's the Editorial meddling again?
I see many people pointing out that #74 feels like it's not Spencery enough.

We won’t know for sure unless Spencer confirms. But it certainly feels that way. My sense is Spencer had to modify mid-course, but at least got a few concessions out of it such as the conversation during the Vegas game between Mephisto and Strange. I’m just speculating though.