When was it the least fun to be a Spider-Man fan?

[Batman Begins 2005]

Inspired by chicanery asking the high points, let's lament the lows:

The Clone Saga with the exception of Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker and JMD's stories.

Sins Past and One More Day. The two worst Spider-Man stories ever. Painful to say as I have JMS as one of the best Spider-Man writers ever. I know JMS is very divisive.

Alpha.

Brand New Day.

The cancellation of The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009).

Silk. I hate that character.

TASM (Vol. 3), TASM (Vol. 4). Absolutely awful.

The treatment of Ben Reilly under Slott, PAD, Lowe and Wells. I'd rather he had stayed dead with the exception of JMD's miniseries.

The editorial interference in TASM (Vol. 5).

TASM (Vol. 6).

[PCN24454]

JMS

Anything after The Gauntlet

Spencer’s Run

Well’s Run

[Vegan]

I am not happy with this run in the extreme, but nothing compares to the stranglehold of Slott on the book, with each new relaunch raising hopes for a new voice on the character, only to find out it would be more Slott

[Matt Rat]

I grew up with the Clone Saga and it led to Spider-Girl, so I can't hate it.

-Mackie/Byrne

-Love JMS to death, but he peaked with Romita Jr and when he left that's when he should have too (I kind of like Sins Past just to be contrarian and because I came to loath Gwen Stacy)

-Slott's run. It's a shame because I really thought he was the best thing about Brand New Day's rotating writers, but by that point he'd become obsessed with online fame and dedicated a lot of his time to trolling people and bending the characters to whatever suited his imagination rather than use the established characters to tell the stories better.

-I recall 2011-2013 wasn't a particular strong number of years for the newspaper strip, nothing was clicking for me then. Things got better when the Marvella II arc for MJ kicked in.

-Wells run thus far has been agonizing.

[NC_Yankee]

Inspired by chicanery asking the high points, let's lament the lows:

The Clone Saga with the exception of Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker and JMD's stories.

Sins Past and One More Day. The two worst Spider-Man stories ever. Painful to say as I have JMS as one of the best Spider-Man writers ever. I know JMS is very divisive.

Alpha.

Brand New Day.

The cancellation of The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009).

Silk. I hate that character.

TASM (Vol. 3), TASM (Vol. 4). Absolutely awful.

The treatment of Ben Reilly under Slott, PAD, Lowe and Wells. I'd rather he had stayed dead with the exception of JMD's miniseries.

The editorial interference in TASM (Vol. 5).

TASM (Vol. 6).

Silk: That arc pissed me off so I stopped reading for a couple of years.

[Daibhidh]

I was enjoying the Nick Spencer run, despite the wobbly plotting and over-elaborate retcons, and reading back issues, because of the Peter/MJ relationship. And then they took that away.

[Riv86672]

Inspired by chicanery asking the high points, let's lament the lows:

The Clone Saga with the exception of Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker and JMD's stories.

Sins Past and One More Day. The two worst Spider-Man stories ever. Painful to say as I have JMS as one of the best Spider-Man writers ever. I know JMS is very divisive.

Alpha.

Brand New Day.

The cancellation of The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009).

Silk. I hate that character.

TASM (Vol. 3), TASM (Vol. 4). Absolutely awful.

The treatment of Ben Reilly under Slott, PAD, Lowe and Wells. I'd rather he had stayed dead with the exception of JMD's miniseries.

The editorial interference in TASM (Vol. 5).

TASM (Vol. 6).

^^^Keeping this in mind…
…for me, from the nineties till about when Nick Spencer took over.

[Mister Mets]

When I didn't have money.

Another answer would be when material was regularly mediocre, and there weren't a lot of reprints readily available. During my lifetime, that would be the clone saga. The Mackie/ Byrne relaunch coincided with my discovery of the Essential Spider-Man volumes, which reprinted the Lee/ Ditko and Lee/ Romita classics.

Essential Spider-Man Volume 1 was released the month the Clone Saga ended, so that would be an argument for the Clone Saga.

Even if you don't like the current comics, odds are you haven't read everything on Marvel's Digital Unlimited service. Meanwhile, the movies and video games are good.

[KC]

Right now. Wells' run of Amazing Spider-Man and especially the current Dark Web arc has not been great to me.

Spencers run during and after the Sins Rising arc. I thought the Sins Rising story was terrible.

[HypnoHustler]

Winner (or loser): BND era. It’s a shame because there were a few good to great stories (like ‘Unscheduled Stop’) but the overall taint of what had been done to Peter left a sour taste in my mouth that took years to get rid of. I think it took until Superior before I could read an issue without having that damn Mephisto deal in the back of my mind.

(Dis) honorable mention 1: Mackie/Byrne relaunch
Chapter One was a horrendous attempt at a retconned origin that thankfully didn’t stick. Aunt May was brought back in an atrocious manner (substituting her for Baby May in a sick twist) and the stories were generally dog crap. The writing was so, so, so bad. It beggars belief that someone thought that duo should be on Marvel’s flagship book.

(Dis) honorable mention 2: Slott’s ASM Volumes 3-4… basically anything post-Superior. I actually liked Superior as a concept and while it was flawed and the first half is much better than the second half, it was something fresh and original at the time. And Slott should have left with its conclusion, and between that and Big Time he might actually have a decent legacy. He was clearly burnt out by the time he was churning out trash like Clone Conspiracy. He stuck around waaaay too long like a bad fart in an elevator.

Wells’ run is quickly shaping up to be my third runner-up on this list, but I’ll give him a chance to redeem himself before I write him up.

[Spider-Tiger]

For me it was probably 2009-2014. Although there were some exceptions, the majority of stuff we were getting from the comics, film, television, and gaming industries were overwhelmingly mediocre. Probably the lowest point for the Spider-man brand as a whole in the last 20 years.

Even if the comics aren't my cup of tea right now, there are other projects in the pipeline that I'm looking forward to.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

2010-2017 for me. There was nothing great about Spider-Man in that era, in any medium. I say that as someone who liked the Andrew Garfield movies.

I am not happy with this run in the extreme, but nothing compares to the stranglehold of Slott on the book, with each new relaunch raising hopes for a new voice on the character, only to find out it would be more Slott

Also, Editorial didn't lose control of the narrative during Slott's run the way they did now. Slott, for all his faults, knew how to sell novelty to make up for poor characterization in a way Wells just doesn't. That made things more frustrating than they are now.

[CaptainUniverse]

Inspired by chicanery asking the high points, let's lament the lows:

The Clone Saga with the exception of Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker and JMD's stories.

Sins Past and One More Day. The two worst Spider-Man stories ever. Painful to say as I have JMS as one of the best Spider-Man writers ever. I know JMS is very divisive.

Alpha.

Brand New Day.

The cancellation of The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009).

Silk. I hate that character.

TASM (Vol. 3), TASM (Vol. 4). Absolutely awful.

The treatment of Ben Reilly under Slott, PAD, Lowe and Wells. I'd rather he had stayed dead with the exception of JMD's miniseries.

The editorial interference in TASM (Vol. 5).

TASM (Vol. 6).

Pretty much this...although I liked the Clone Saga, it gave me Spider-Girl...so, yeah. Oh and I never saw Spectacular so I guess I can't really count that one as I have no attachment to it.

[Morgoth]

One More Day. Some parts of Brand New Day. Majority of Slott's run. The second half of Spencer's run. Beyond and Wells' run.

[TinkerSpider]

I am not happy with this run in the extreme, but nothing compares to the stranglehold of Slott on the book, with each new relaunch raising hopes for a new voice on the character, only to find out it would be more Slott

This. Every word of this. The Slott run was just unbearable in its slog of mediocrity as he continued to squat on the title year after year.

Followed by the Wells run. It's fine splitting up Peter and MJ. Be my guest. But make it part of the story. Give the characters believable motivations. Have it be organic to the story.

But following the Spencer run - which ended with a decidedly anticlimatic mystery reveal - by deciding to open with multiple mystery boxes was quite the decision. And then Wells continues to sit on his mystery boxes - for a year! - without even dropping a single breadcrumb.

And it would be bearable if Wells gave us decent characterizations. But no, his Spidey is ineffectual and incompetent and gives up at the drop of a pin and sobs he's going to die and needs to be rescued, while his Peter is irresponsible and stalks his ex and gets sick to his stomach when asking out another ex - who he only asks out to make himself feel better, not because his feelings for her have grown or turned to romantic love.

And I'm not even touching the farce that is Ben, or how the entire supporting cast has been wasted.

Yeah, this has decidedly been an "unfun" time to read ASM. Thank goodness for the JMD miniseries. And I'm looking forward to the new Spider-Verse films and the new PlayStation game (I hope, without having indepth spoilers available)