Rereading Nick Spencer's Amazing Spider-Man

[Mister Mets]

I've been interested in reading Nick Spencer's run of Amazing Spider-Man from beginning to end. I've read every issue as they were coming out, but I haven't reread some of the later stuff. The twenty issue Kindred/ Sin-Eater showdown with Sins Rising, Last Remains and all the tie-ins might come across differently if I'm not reading it all in one go.



2018 Free Comic Book Day Special
Spencer and Ottley immediately establish a contemporary vibe for the series, and have a nice set-up for Peter's private life, or at least his housing situation. The battle with supervillains is okay, and leads to a movie style rescue sequence, while setting up some mysteries. It's a decent prologue.
A



Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5#1
The first issue works quite well as a proof of concept. I'm not sure Spencer and company ever surpassed it, although that's more about why this comic is good than a criticism of his later work. It's a great A-plot, and there are fun changes like Kingpin trying to push a rift between Spider-Man and the Marvel heroes, or Boomerang as a roommate. It's an excellent intro to Ottley who ably depicts all other Marvel heroes, and Peter's supporting cast, balancing struggles for Peter with an alien invasion. The intro of Kindred at Mysterio's trial is also creepy, and it's a smart move to have Ramos on that back-up as it fits his wheelhouse and sets him up as part of the initial creative team. I do like how things are going badly for Peter, but one thing goes very well.
I was bothered by Peter losing what's probably the character's ideal job as a science reporter, but the final pages do set up something different that has potential going forward. And I do like how they play around with form with what's kinda like a post-credits sequence, which also gives Peter & MJ"s reconciliation more weight. This is an issue that can be explored in depth as an example of a decent Spider-Man comic, and taking advantage of one shot to impress new readers.
A+

Technically, the first issue is part one of the larger "Back to Basics" story, but it really is more of a standalone, distinct from the A-plot of the next four issues.

[Minerboh]

Not very pleased personally. The first arc was promising but from that moment onwards, it was dull.
TheKindred story was a complete mess. The only good that ended up rom that fiasco was the retcon of the Osborn Brats.

[Matt Rat]

Hands down the best run of core continuity stories in ten years. That includes everything that went wrong with it.

[Jman27]

Not very pleased personally. The first arc was promising but from that moment onwards, it was dull.
TheKindred story was a complete mess. The only good that ended up rom that fiasco was the retcon of the Osborn Brats.

felt like that was a cop out. like Spencer at the end couldnt/ wouldnt be allowed to address the main problem so he had to settled for something that in comparison is so much smaller

[PCN24454]

Hands down the best run of core continuity stories in ten years. That includes everything that went wrong with it.

But nothing happened in it?

…oh. I see why it’s good now.

[Mister Mets]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #2-5:

Again, it feels weird that this is labeled "Back to Basics Parts 2-5" as it is very much its own story, about the temporary separation of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Incidentally, that was based on a suggestion by a former CBR poster. And it's a fun story that says some things about Peter Parker and Spider-Man. This story also finds Spider-Man facing a few villain duos, setting up Nick Spencer as a guy who picks deep cuts for villains. There are some great character details like a failed double date, or Aunt May giving Peter a months-early birthday card so he can pay his rent.
A

[Spidey5640]

Not very pleased personally. The first arc was promising but from that moment onwards, it was dull.
TheKindred story was a complete mess. The only good that ended up rom that fiasco was the retcon of the Osborn Brats.

I would add that he (with a huge assist from Jed MacKay) did a nice job of bringing Black Cat back in Spidey's orbit and getting her out of that stupid "Queenpin" garbage. Wasn't crazy about most everything else he did but those two things were good.

[Minerboh]

I would add that he (with a huge assist from Jed MacKay) did a nice job of bringing Black Cat back in Spidey's orbit and getting her out of that stupid "Queenpin" garbage. Wasn't crazy about most everything else he did but those two things were good.

I absolutely agree. I can't believe I didn't mentioned it! Thanks for adding it.

[DragonPiece]

I really enjoyed this run as it was happening, especially around the sins rising arc. The ending really soured me on it of course, because of how much the Kindred plot was built up and how it needed to have a solid conclusion for the whole run to work but sadly we all know how that ended. I do think people are being too harsh on the run because of that though, there is a lot of good that tends to get ignored.

[Tendrin]

Way too backwards-looking a run, imo, dedicated to restoring status-quos better left in the past rather than wasting the page space to fix them. Weird to be putting Kraven back in the ground (but with a clone so we can have a 'Kraven' while 'Kraven' is dead, what is even the point of that,. either let him be dead or not) and Harry too, but then ... bringing back Ned Leeds? What?

The entire run winding up being a retcon of Sins Past, and adding Mephisto to Norman's background was just awful stuff all around and completely unnecessary and a waste of years-worth of issues, imo. We might get some fun stories out of supposedly 'sinless' Norman in the end, but ... still.

[Mister Mets]

In a few days I'm going to cover "Hunted" and I'm wondering how to consider cost and size.

Ostensibly, it's a six issue story but the TPB included the prelude, the epilogue and the .HU issues which often had big moments.

It's fifteen bucks on Comixology, and cost is irrelevant on Marvel's Digital Unlimited service, so I could consider it in that context. Does it provide as much satisfaction as a standard $15 digital volume? The TPB is pretty expensive as it's out of print, but that's not Nick Spencer's fault. The cover price is higher at $40.

All of the content will be included in the first Nick Spencer Spider-Man omnibus in November, where the price is just under $2.50 an issue.

Another question will be how to evaluate events like Last Remains or Sinister War which have tie-in issues. Should I grade Sinister War separate from Amazing Spider-Man 70-73? Should I go by how they packaged it in TPBs?

[Matt Rat]

Way too backwards-looking a run, imo, dedicated to restoring status-quos better left in the past

Wrong. Some things are timeless. And without 'fixing' Felicia and MJ you would not have had the runs by McKay and Williams, or the best part of Beyond in Black Cat/MJ. Those fixes needed to happen. Slott never wanted to touch original Kraven because he respected 'Kraven's Last Hunt' and wanted it to still matter, and Kraven had been turned into a joke after his revival anyway. Harry had contributed nothing for a decade and wasn't being utilised properly either, and, again, many fans would rather have DeMatties' legacy preserved than stained.

The entire run winding up being a retcon of Sins Past, and adding Mephisto to Norman's background was just awful stuff all around

Not really, it established Peter/MJ, regardless of where they go now, will always come back to one another and create the means by which Mephisto is defeated.

And, honestly, why is it so hard to grasp someone as relentlessly evil as Norman could be greatly influenced by the devil?

[Jonathangoop1811]

And, honestly, why is it so hard to grasp someone as relentlessly evil as Norman could be greatly influenced by the devil?

It's not the fact that Norman did a deal with Mephisto, but the fact that now it feels like he is just a creation of Mephisto and everything Green Goblin has done is a result of Mephisto's actions

[FFJamie94]

Spencer's run is interesting in that all 3 years it was published differ wildly in quality.
The first year (1-25) are some of the best stories in the Main Spider-Man comic since Superior. Hunted was a personal favourite of mine and I loved the small one off bits in each arc.
The second year (26-49) is... odd. The first half started weak with the weird female sinister six arc, we then got a few good issues before the pointless and forgettable 2099 arc. Then after that, it got good again. Like really good. We have that fun podcast issue with Jonah and Sin's Rising was also pretty good.
That brings us to its third and final year (50-74) which was... messy.
It was a messy period of Spider-Man history. The Last Remains arc... actually pretty damn good. But it didn't really end anything, instead it threw things into gear for the rest of the year. The payoff to each long story arc was a letdown and the Sinister War was rushed. It was Sinister Six event told in 4 issues and they were 20 pages at $4.99? Honestly, that's just a waste.
It really felt like Spencer wanted to do one thing and someone was forcing his hand to do something else.
Overall, it's just a fine run that doesn't achieve anything great enough to go down as a classic.

[Matt Rat]

It's not the fact that Norman did a deal with Mephisto, but the fact that now it feels like he is just a creation of Mephisto and everything Green Goblin has done is a result of Mephisto's actions

Again, I don't see a downside. I'm not one of those types that think Mephisto shouldn't be a big deal in Spider-Man's world or with his villains. He's very much the reason 616 is what it is now and that's down to his standing with Spider-Man. The attempts to play him down from fans and the company in general are dumb.