What is your verdict on Gerry Conway's Amazing Spider-Man run?

[Mister Mets]

Recently, I've done a few threads asking about relatively recent Spider-Man runs.

But let's look at a classic run, the tail end of the first 150 issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

I'm curious about what the consensus on it is.

To explain the potential scores, as it's possible for one man's B to be another man's C...
An A+ is the highest score. It's meant to be pretty rare, an indication that this run is up there with the best of the medium (Frank Miller's Daredevil, Byrne/ Claremont X-Men, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, etc.)
An A is impressive, but not quite on that level. It would be among the best for the character.
A B indicates that the run is good but not great. The majority of the material is still worth rereading. In terms of quality, it's largely a success.
A C is pedestrian. It's neither good nor bad, and most of the material is probably not worth rereading.
A D is poor. It's a flat out failure. Most of the material isn't worth reading in the first place.
An F is worse.

It's also possible that some of the people here might not have an interest in Silver/ Bronze age comics, so there is an option for those who probably aren't going to read any of it.

[Metamorphosis]

Haven't yet got to reading all of Conway's ASM run--hope to read in totality someday.

[exile001]

I'd give it a weak B. Not pedestrian as C suggests, but some forgettable, bland stuff.

That said, there is some absolute gold in there and he certainly changed the Spider-man mythos forever (and for the better). The death of Gwen Stacey, the introduction of the Punisher and the original Clone Saga are excellent reads.

[Mister Mets]

I'd give it an A.

There are some bad stories, but also a few that belong on lists of the best ever. The Night Gwen Stacy Died deserves all the accolades, the first appearance of the Punisher is great, and the Harry Osborn saga may just be underrated (in comparison to Dematteis's take, which was excellent, but built on Conway.)

The characters changed over the course of the stories, which was rare for a superhero comic. And Conway was also one of the first writers to tie up most of his loose ends at the conclusion of his run, even if the original clone saga was good but not great.

[oldschool]

I voted an A but a B+/A- is probably more accurate. Conway's run is when I started reading the title as a young boy so the pull of nostalgia is undoubtedly strong and weighs into my decision but, to be fair, the man wrote one of the indisputable classic tales ("The Night Gwen Stacy Died") and also had the stones to snuff out the Green Goblin. Additionally, he created the Jackal, Punisher, Hammerhead and Man-Wolf; his Ock/Hammerhead gang war subplot was always a strong one IMO despite the fact that he tended to write Ock powered down a bit. He created a few clunkers as well (Mindworm and Grizzly) and penned one really bad story (the Doc Ock/Aunt May almost-wedding issue) but the fact that he was the first regular writer to follow Stan (not counting Roy Thomas' handful of fill-in issues) and created the classic Gwen story as well as giving us The Punisher and the first (best) Clone Saga, I think it's fair to call his run one of the all-time best.

[Ozymandias]

I voted an A but a B+/A- is probably more accurate. Conway's run is when I started reading the title as a young boy so the pull of nostalgia is undoubtedly strong and weighs into my decision but, to be fair, the man wrote one of the indisputable classic tales ("The Night Gwen Stacy Died") and also had the stones to snuff out the Green Goblin. Additionally, he created the Jackal, Punisher, Hammerhead and Man-Wolf; his Ock/Hammerhead gang war subplot was always a strong one IMO despite the fact that he tended to write Ock powered down a bit. He created a few clunkers as well (Mindworm and Grizzly) and penned one really bad story (the Doc Ock/Aunt May almost-wedding issue) but the fact that he was the first regular writer to follow Stan (not counting Roy Thomas' handful of fill-in issues) and created the classic Gwen story as well as giving us The Punisher and the first (best) Clone Saga, I think it's fair to call his run one of the all-time best.

Welcome back, nice summer vacation, I take it.

You want accuracy? How about 4.28205128 (out of ten)?

[oldschool]

To further sum up my take on Conway era:

*High Points: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" (duh), Intro of the Punisher and Jackal, Harry as GG2, Clone Saga.

*Average Stuff: Scorpion Two-Parter, Vulture 3 arc (inspired by Kitty Genovese story but got dated quickly).

*Low Points: Mindworm (but it was a one-shot so tolerable), Grizzly (unforgivably corny) and Doc Ock/Aunt May almost-wedding).

The lowest of the low is really not that bad while his high points are up there with the best stuff ever done in the title. Even his average stuff suffers only through the 1970's prism. Just a terrific run made more impressive by the fact that he was just 19-20 years of age at the time and followed Stan The Man!!

[Ozymandias]

To further sum up my take on Conway era:

111 5,5
112 5
113 5
114 4,5
115 4,5
116 4
117 4
118 4
119 5
120 5
121 6
122 5,5
123 5,5
124 5,5
125 4,5
126 4,5
127 4
128 4
129 4
130 3,5
131 3,5
132 4
133 4
134 4
135 4
136 4
137 4
138 3,5
139 3,5
140 3,5
141 4,5
142 4,5
143 4
144 4
145 4
146 4
147 3,5
148 3,5
149 3,5

[Scott Taylor]

For me its an A, because of Gwen Stacy, the Doc Ock/Hammerhead story, the Punisher and the Clone Saga. Plus the Hulk story he did just before ASM 121, which was quite good and underrated I think. The Luke Cage story. Alot of good stuff there! Lows for me include the Disruptor, the Kangaroo, the Vulture story was pretty meh. His run was well constructed and had quite good writing overall. Its just too bad he didn't pen the ending to the Clone Saga and really close out that story. Anyone know why?

[oldschool]

For me its an A, because of Gwen Stacy, the Doc Ock/Hammerhead story, the Punisher and the Clone Saga. Plus the Hulk story he did just before ASM 121, which was quite good and underrated I think. The Luke Cage story. Alot of good stuff there! Lows for me include the Disruptor, the Kangaroo, the Vulture story was pretty meh. His run was well constructed and had quite good writing overall. Its just too bad he didn't pen the ending to the Clone Saga and really close out that story. Anyone know why?

Y'know, I tend to forget that Hulk story but it was a very good one in it's own right and tends to get overlooked as the lead-in to TNGSD so good point! Yeah, the Kangaroo was so lame the first time around in the JR SR era, that I was surprised he was brought back but at least, much like the Mindworm, his return was in a one-and-done issue!

[Ozymandias]

the Kangaroo was so lame the first time around in the JR SR era, that I was surprised he was brought back but at least, much like the Mindworm, his return was in a one-and-done issue!

Nice pattern recognition there.

[Darthfury78]

He should have included the Black Widow into Spider-Man's world, as well as Tigra.

[Scott Taylor]

Y'know, I tend to forget that Hulk story but it was a very good one in it's own right and tends to get overlooked as the lead-in to TNGSD so good point! Yeah, the Kangaroo was so lame the first time around in the JR SR era, that I was surprised he was brought back but at least, much like the Mindworm, his return was in a one-and-done issue!

Haha, I actually kind of liked Mindworm.

[oldschool]

Haha, I actually kind of liked Mindworm.

Actually, I personally like the issue but mostly because it was a major turning point in Peter's relationship with Flash.

[Turlast]

I've read about 95% of Conway's run, so I haven't read it all yet. Still, I have no problem giving his run an easy A.