Rereading Nick Spencer's Amazing Spider-Man

[Mister Mets]

2099 Alpha:


This isn't even included the upcoming omnibus, but it makes sense to read it as part of Nick Spencer's larger Spider-Man, because he wrote the main issues and it connects to the Spider-Man 2099 appearance in the main book. I figured it could provide some added context. That may have been unnecessary, as this prelude is hardly essential reading for anything going on in the Spider-Man comics.



It's mostly a series of vignettes, with some interesting moments (an interrogation by Doom 2099, poor Herbie looking for his mom, and an opening with a strange girl encountering Thor's hammer are highlights) and there is an effort to consider the problems the world may have in eighty years. Artist Viktor Bogdanovic reminds me a lot of Greg Capullo, so I could easily see him being a superstar at some point in the near future, since he's able to depict dynamic action sequences, impressive splash pages and quieter moments. He just needs a script where we spend enough time with the characters to care about hem.
C+

Spider-Man 2099 (2019):

Nick Spencer wrote the alpha and omega issues of the 2099 event, as well as this one-shot. The best scene has a very different take on Miguel O'Hara's origin than what we're used to from the Peter David/ Rick Leonardi run, which says something different about the human condition and shows that Marvel's going in a different direction while honoring the first version of the saga.



With all these changes it is a bit hard to get a read on the characters, or to understand them enough to care about what happens next. Artist Zé Carlos is fine, but this is a comic where the worldbuilding overshadows the protagonist.
C

[Frontier]

That whole 2099 "event" was...definitely a thing that happened.

It was probably Spencers' least successful story up to that point.

[Lukmendes]

That whole 2099 "event" was...definitely a thing that happened.

Of all the comic books released, 2099 event definitely had a bunch of 'em.

[Mister Mets]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #32-34:



Patrick Gleason's work immediately has a different style from previous artists, down to the colorists. I think it works for this story about a shadowy conspiracy and future tech.



There are a lot of plates spinning in this story where Teresa Parker wants revenge on the Chameleon, Latveria's up to something, Spider-Man 2099 is captured by people eager to get their hands on future tech, the Foreigner has a secret and Peter Parker seems to have made his peace with being unemployed, right before he's given the opportunity to work with someone who has one hell of a promising invention. The story does kind of fizzle out sometimes hinting at stuff that's better than what we see, although there is a revelation about Silver Sable which works pretty well, retroactively improving her last appearance.
B

[Mister Mets]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #35-36:

Artist Oscar Bazaldua is solid. It's essentially a continuation of the previous arc, although it's a decent Spider-Man VS Doctor Doom story, which helps with the transition to a different style. This is a story with high stakes, and efforts at revenge, but the clean style keeps it peppy. Sometimes it's a bit disarming, before the story reminds us that Doctor Doom is one of the dangerous people on the planet and in a different league than Spidey.



It's easy to forget that Doom was one of Spider-Man's first opponents, and has been a big part of some of the adaptations. Here, he remains an unambiguously A-list threat, even if someone else manipulates him in a way that boxes him into a corner. This story also connects quite well to the larger arc of the Clairvoyant device, although we also get a sense of its limits.
B+

2099 Omega:

The bookend to the 2099 event (where it does seem that Spider-Man 2099's issue was the only essential one) tells a story that we've seen before of a superhero in a world where people have forgotten about the marvels. It works okay given Miguel O'Hara's unique history, and the unconventional team-up does make use of the 2099 arc in Amazing Spider-Man. I'm not sure this story needed three issues, to say nothing of the assorted one-shots that weren't as important to the larger narrative.
B

[Frontier]

Teresa being in jail didn't last long.

[Mister Mets]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #37:

This is pretty much a set-up issue, but it's fun. Spider-Man uses the clairvoyant device to make his life easier, and it's a nice twist on the "day in the life" stories. It seems pretty obvious that there's going to be some price to pay, but it's nice to see a tale of Peter Parker having a good day, even if one important thing doesn't quite go the way he wants.
B+

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #38-40:

Jonah gets a new job at a place that seems to be a parody of modern media. Spencer and company have more fun with the trope of supervillains gambling on situations related to superheroes, in a clash between largely forgotten 1980s villains Foreigner and Chance.

This story is deliberately low stakes but that works with the focus on Spider-Man and Jonah. It's a strong balance between Jonah's new understanding that Spider-Man is a fundamentally guy he maligned, and his stubborn insistence that he wasn't always wrong.
B+

[FFJamie94]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #35-36:

Artist Oscar Bazaldua is solid. It's essentially a continuation of the previous arc, although it's a decent Spider-Man VS Doctor Doom story, which helps with the transition to a different style. This is a story with high stakes, and efforts at revenge, but the clean style keeps it peppy. Sometimes it's a bit disarming, before the story reminds us that Doctor Doom is one of the dangerous people on the planet and in a different league than Spidey.



It's easy to forget that Doom was one of Spider-Man's first opponents, and has been a big part of some of the adaptations. Here, he remains an unambiguously A-list threat, even if someone else manipulates him in a way that boxes him into a corner. This story also connects quite well to the larger arc of the Clairvoyant device, although we also get a sense of its limits.
B+

2099 Omega:

The bookend to the 2099 event (where it does seem that Spider-Man 2099's issue was the only essential one) tells a story that we've seen before of a superhero in a world where people have forgotten about the marvels. It works okay given Miguel O'Hara's unique history, and the unconventional team-up does make use of the 2099 arc in Amazing Spider-Man. I'm not sure this story needed three issues, to say nothing of the assorted one-shots that weren't as important to the larger narrative.
B

I want to point out that Bazaldua goes by Jan now (She came out as Jan a couple years ago, but no one really reported on it).
Regardless, they are a solid artist, but I feel their Spider-Man work is not… good. Her work on Legion of X is much better however.

[Huntsman Spider]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #37:

This is pretty much a set-up issue, but it's fun. Spider-Man uses the clairvoyant device to make his life easier, and it's a nice twist on the "day in the life" stories. It seems pretty obvious that there's going to be some price to pay, but it's nice to see a tale of Peter Parker having a good day, even if one important thing doesn't quite go the way he wants.
B+

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #38-40:

Jonah gets a new job at a place that seems to be a parody of modern media. Spencer and company have more fun with the trope of supervillains gambling on situations related to superheroes, in a clash between largely forgotten 1980s villains Foreigner and Chance.

This story is deliberately low stakes but that works with the focus on Spider-Man and Jonah. It's a strong balance between Jonah's new understanding that Spider-Man is a fundamentally guy he maligned, and his stubborn insistence that he wasn't always wrong.
B+

Spencer always had a nose for being topical, even if it didn't always land right. In this case, I'd think he did a considerably better job, and I liked how he expanded further on Jonah and Spider-Man's dynamic now that Jonah knew who Spider-Man really was. He actually did raise fairly good points about Spider-Man not necessarily helping his own case at times, and if not for the sympathetic angle cast on Spidey/Peter as the central protagonist of his vast, sprawling mythos, I could see how Jonah would reach some of his previous conclusions in good faith, as opposed to deliberately maligning and vilifying Spider-Man for ratings. Speaking of ratings, I also liked how when he tried to call out Norah Winters, Norah made a similarly valid point about how Jonah's brand of journalism with The Daily Bugle --- constantly casting aspersions on Spider-Man to draw controversy that would rake in attention and big ratings for the paper, not to mention big profits --- laid the groundwork for Threats and Menaces' business model. In a nutshell, Spencer used this arc to slip in some good commentary on legacy news media having ultimately no one and nothing to blame but itself if its proponents wanted to complain so much about the degradation and devaluation of modern journalistic media and its standards. That, I did appreciate.

I want to point out that Bazaldua goes by Jan now (She came out as Jan a couple years ago, but no one really reported on it).
Regardless, they are a solid artist, but I feel their Spider-Man work is not… good. Her work on Legion of X is much better however.

And before ASM, I believe she did some work on Miles Morales/Spider-Man when Brian Bendis was still writing his series, before he left Marvel altogether.

[Mister Mets]

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #41-43:



The Spider-Man/ Boomerang stories are a highlight of Nick Spencer's run, so it does make sense to go for one more of these before everything goes to hell in the coming Kindred mega-arc (that may also be the reason the previous arc was about Jonah.)



We get some deep cuts, as Boomerang's role in the Lifeline mini-series becomes relevant, and we get a connection between that Tablet of Time and a bronze age minor character. The middle issue may be one of the weirdest in Spider-Man history, as it's a sci-fi story about an alien and his pet that ends up providing pathos to one of the least-regarded classic Spider-Man villains, and results in a potential change for Peter.



Who would have expected that from Gog?
A

[Huntsman Spider]

Indeed. Surprisingly broke my heart for the little guy there.

[Rzerox21xx]

I believe this story arc with Gog is when the first volume of the Omnibus coming out will stop at. Volume 2 is gonna collect the Kindred portion.

[Mister Mets]

I believe this story arc with Gog is when the first volume of the Omnibus coming out will stop at. Volume 2 is gonna collect the Kindred portion.

Yep.

Incidentally, I would give the first omnibus an A grade. It's a pretty good half-run of Spider-Man.

[JTait]

Weirdly, the Gog issue is for me one of Nick Spencer's most memorable issues and probably a contender for my favourite single issue Spider-Man story of the last five years. I love it.

[Matt Rat]

Did they ever explain where Gog wound up?