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

[Kingkalamari]

Spencer's true contribution to the Spidey mythos will be a cacophonous ending that made the Clone Saga look like nothing. The convoluted nonsense, the unanswered story points, the mystery box storytelling and decompressed pacing in a mystery that never makes sense and just continues to grow more and more confusing as the reveals go on.

[Vortex85]

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.

[xpyred]

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?

[Batman Begins 2005]

Read the spoilers and it sounds a right mess. Dammit.

[Batman Begins 2005]

Nick Spencer did some things right fixing things that needed to be but not the biggest one, OMD. The pacing is my biggest issue with Spencer's run with some stories going too long and required trimming down.

[Vortex85]

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?

Peter and MJ's relationship and fixed post-OMD Harry / original Harry death valid. But overall I'd say the characterization and bringing back a focus on Spider-Man's history as opposed to making everything different/everything new and losing sight of Peter's core supporting cast.

[Spidey_62]

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.

[Frontier]

This basically.

I don't even think Disney would allow Marvel editorial ondo OMD at this point.

Considering that a not-married Peter Parker is what features pretty much everywhere from movies to video games.

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.

Peter and MJ's relationship and fixed post-OMD Harry / original Harry death valid. But overall I'd say the characterization and bringing back a focus on Spider-Man's history as opposed to making everything different/everything new and losing sight of Peter's core supporting cast.

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.

[DrewHLMW]

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.

they need to have some sort of massive thing for either issue 99 (LGY 900) or issue 100 or maybe they're even planning on saving resolving OMD/marriage for 1000.

[Spidey_62]

It will definitely be interesting how we look at this run now that it's wrapped in hindsight and having seen how things played out. I would have to agree that nothing was really contributed of substance. I think in a vacuum there were some enjoyable breezy stories early on that felt nice. I quite liked the first story, the first JJJ story, the Bar With No Name story, and maybe more controversial but the Gog story was fun to me.

Most of those were drawn by Ryan Ottley so I think that might be coloring my ranking as I absolutely loved seeing him draw this book, he brought the right flavor to the world and the characters and it was great seeing Marvel go outside their usual box and get some big artistic talent from elsewhere (same for Gleason honestly). I think that was Nick Lowe responsible for that at least, and I give him a lot of flack but those big gets early on were a job well done. More recently however, eh- this book has not looked good most of the time. Bagley's been nice to see but he doesn't seem like he's really on his game.

[Vortex85]

they need to have some sort of massive thing for either issue 99 (LGY 900) or issue 100 or maybe they're even planning on saving resolving OMD/marriage for 1000.

At this point I may just not think about it anymore, move on for a few years. LOL

If I check back in from time to time I won't be too upset if I missed out and am pleasantly surprised. Finding back issues of newer comics isn't that hard if I wanted to pick up some key ones.

But I'm about ready to just save some money again at this point. I really don't want to continue building a collection of books that are just not fulfilling to read. I've missed eras of Spidey before so there is no incentive to "get them all" for me.

[Frontier]

It will definitely be interesting how we look at this run now that it's wrapped in hindsight and having seen how things played out. I would have to agree that nothing was really contributed of substance. I think in a vacuum there were some enjoyable breezy stories early on that felt nice. I quite liked the first story, the first JJJ story, the Bar With No Name story, and maybe more controversial but the Gog story was fun to me.

Most of those were drawn by Ryan Ottley so I think that might be coloring my ranking as I absolutely loved seeing him draw this book, he brought the right flavor to the world and the characters and it was great seeing Marvel go outside their usual box and get some big artistic talent from elsewhere (same for Gleason honestly). I think that was Nick Lowe responsible for that at least, and I give him a lot of flack but those big gets early on were a job well done. More recently however, eh- this book has not looked good most of the time. Bagley's been nice to see but he doesn't seem like he's really on his game.

I definitely agree that I think the initial few arcs were a good pallet cleanser and a return to form, and that the "cleanup" felt necessary and not, like, the entire basis for the run as it seems like it ended up being, but when they lost Ottley, we get less art consistency, and around the mid-point it seemed like the run kind of lost its way.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I definitely agree that I think the initial few arcs were a good pallet cleanser and a return to form, and that the "cleanup" felt necessary and not, like, the entire basis for the run as it seems like it ended up being, but when they lost Ottley, we get less art consistency, and around the mid-point it seemed like the run kind of lost its way.

Spencer's par for the course for any run that's longer than 40 issues, go back to Lee Romita, Michelinie, JMS, Slott. The longer you write ASM the less consistent it gets.

There seems to be no escaping this.

[Frontier]

Spencer's par for the course for any run that's longer than 40 issues, go back to Lee Romita, Michelinie, JMS, Slott. The longer you write ASM the less consistent it gets.

There seems to be no escaping this.

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

[Spidey_62]

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

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.