Rereading Zeb Wells and co's Amazing Spider-Man

[Frontier]

By the same token, I think it's valid to praise him for it. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the bulk of his run and a part of that was his restoring things I liked and retconning past mistakes.

I actually strongly support the idea that each new writer effectively has their own mini-continuity rather than having to be slave to decades of ultimately meaningless continuity. But Marvel and DC have been operating like that for a decade or so now, more or less.

Oh, I thought he did a good job of it overall and fixed a lot of stuff that legitimately needed fixing, it's just hard to find an identity for that run outside of that at times.

[Tuck]

first things he did was discard the story elements hanging from the Slott run he didn't want to integrate in his run (Peter's being an Editor in the Daily Bugle, OG Kraven being Alive, Felicia the Queenpin of Crime.)

He didn't just fix the Queenpin stuff, he fixed Felicia's entire post-OMD character, which was somewhere between questionable and awful. The character was violated more by the Mephisto deal than anyone else (Peter and MJ made the choice, and knowing Peter was Spider-Man was important to Aunt May, but not crucial to her having a functioning relationship with Peter or redefining a significant element of her life.)

[Frontier]

He didn't just fix the Queenpin stuff, he fixed Felicia's entire post-OMD character, which was somewhere between questionable and awful. The character was violated more by the Mephisto deal than anyone else (Peter and MJ made the choice, and knowing Peter was Spider-Man was important to Aunt May, but not crucial to her having a functioning relationship with Peter or redefining a significant element of her life.)

Yeah, Felicia was in a pretty terrible place before Spencer came in.

[Toonstrack]

Now the big one...


Amazing Spider-Man Volume 6 #21-26
I wonder why Marvel opted to tell the story at this moment. There is a sneaky way it could acclimate fans into a status quo that they wouldn’t like, with Wells using the mystery box to break up Peter & MJ quietly, kinda like dropping a frog into a pot of water and slowly increasing the temperature until it boils. It is similar to what Marvel did with One More Day and One Moment in Time, although in that case they waited longer (nearly three years and eighty issues of Amazing Spider-Man) to explain what Peter and MJ knew about their break-up.
It seems that this story plays fair with what we've learned so far. We learn why Spider-Man is alienated from the Fantastic Four and Avengers, how he worked with Norman Osborn to save Mary Jane, why Ms Marvel is working with Peter, who Paul is, why he hit Peter at one point and why Mary Jane is raising two kids with him.

It's an intense story with consistent forward momentum. One of my favorite scenes ever is when he's really pissed off at Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man #122. It pissed me off that we didn't see this in Amazing Spider-Man 2, and one of the reasons I love Spider-Man: No Way Home is that it featured that facet of the character when he no longer cares about the rules. So I'm definitely primed to enjoy this story.
It is a deeply unfair situation for Peter and Mary Jane. Spider-Man understands the urgency of the situation, and moves as fast as he can, and it may be enough to save Mary Jane's life, but not his relationship with her. There are some complaints about the lack of agency, but sometimes people are in situations where their choices are limited.

The pacing is a bit weird with most of the story devoted to the flashbacks, and the last issue featuring a showdown with Rabin, who is a menace on the level that would require a lot of superheroes. I don't mind Ms Marvel's death, especially since Peter will be able to have a chat with her five issues later. She's brave, outpowered and still ends up saving the world.
Romita Jr's storytelling remains exceptional. Kaare Andrews delivers a sense of tremendous energy to the MJ spotlight. Rainbow Rowell & Alvaro Lopez have a goofy story about Spidey chasing a thief at a wedding. I'm not familiar with Lopez, but he's got a solid take on Spidey and I would not mind seeing him again on this title.
A-

Im appreciating your honesty in reviewing these issues, truly. Your take on it may not be the most popular of them but itd yours .

[exile001]

Im appreciating your honesty in reviewing these issues, truly. Your take on it may not be the most popular of them but itd yours .

Absolutely! I stopped reading a long while ago so kind of keep up with it via the threads complaining about each issue.

Having an overview by someone who clearly thinks it's an all-time great run is refreshing to read, even if I don't agree.

[Mister Mets]

Absolutely! I stopped reading a long while ago so kind of keep up with it via the threads complaining about each issue.

Having an overview by someone who clearly thinks it's an all-time great run is refreshing to read, even if I don't agree.

Thanks to you and Toonstrack.

I'm not sure I'd call the Wells run all-time great, but I do like it. I could easily name a dozen I liked more, especially if runs could be split (IE- if Lee/ Ditko is a different run than Lee/ Romita, or if Slott's Big Time era is distinct from Superior Spider-Man.)

The Slott/ Bagley run of Adjectiveless Spider-Man might be all time great, as far as I'm concerned.

[Ubauba01]

Wait, I'm a bit confused. In issue 29, why did Doc Ock have the Goblin Serum to turn Norman evil again, even though it is made clear in the issue that, before capturing him, he didn't even know Norman became good in the first place? Doc Ock said the serum was really hard to make, implying he made it before capturing Norman Osborn.

What I mean is, why did he device a Goblin serum to make him evil again BEFORE capturing him, if he only learned that Norman became good AFTER capturing him?