Spider-Man in J. Michael Straczynski's Captain America

[Mister Mets]

In the context of all the arguments about J. Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man run, and what led to his decision to leave, it's worth mentioning that Spidey popped up last month in the second issue of JMS's new Captain America run.



I think the Cap run is quite good so far, mixing a nasty new villain with flashbacks of the pre-serum Steve Rogers encountering Nazis in pre-World War 2 New York City. But a Spider-Man team-up came written by a favorite writer came and went.

[Huntsman Spider]

In the context of all the arguments about J. Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man run, and what led to his decision to leave, it's worth mentioning that Spidey popped up last month in the second issue of JMS's new Captain America run.



I think the Cap run is quite good so far, mixing a nasty new villain with flashbacks of the pre-serum Steve Rogers encountering Nazis in pre-World War 2 New York City. But a Spider-Man team-up came written by a favorite writer came and went.

Mostly because Spidey didn't do very much in that issue. That said, I agree with you on JMS's run being quite good thus far. Especially loving the flashbacks to Steve Rogers's pre-Captain America past and taking on American Nazis, as it reminds me a lot of his cocreator Jack Kirby's response to American Nazis threatening him over his first Captain America cover where he punched Hitler, which was getting ready to put boots to Nazi @$$es, only they'd fled by the time he reached the spot where they intended to assault him because someone had called the police.

[Jman27]

Yeah it was a pointless use of spider man should have been better

[Frontier]

It was kind of embarrassing, to be honest. I was expecting more from JMS.

[Mister Mets]

It seems obviously interesting to have a fan-favorite Spider-Man writer tackle the character again.

It was more poignant in the Silver Surfer: Requiem mini-series, but it's worth considering what JMS is saying about the character.

I'm trying to think of examples of when writers left and barely touched Spider-Man after.

Ditko famously didn't want to do any more Spider-Man comics, even if he did back-up stories in annuals, or drew a story where a villain self-consciously copied Doc Ock.

Marv Wolfman wrote a Dracula team-up and a separate Blade team-up in the 90s.

Stern wrote a few stories in the Brand New Day era.

So why did JMS choose to tell the story he did in his new ongoing?

[Frontier]

"Something can stop the Juggernaut" was not really needed after "Nothing can stop the Juggernaut."

I guess it did more with Carly.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

I personally expected just what we got. I think in Slott's F4 one of Spidey's first appearances was in a similar vein, in relation to being annoying to Ben Grimm about being at his wedding. I think writers might just feel like exploring a different side of the character, since you can do cameos this way as well.

Regardless, I was full well expecting something alongside this, so I wasn't surprised in the slightest that Spidey was mostly showcased as ineffectual and the butt of a joke (while not exactly "ineffectual and the butt of a joke", Spidey behaved quite Looney Tunes-y in his first pre-#500 meetup with Strange under JMS himself; I was contrasting this with DeZago who had written Spidey as getting Strange to acknowledge he was being a bit inflexible as well as not even telling him a mystery he solved only with Strange's help too). I was just amused that I saw other places react to the cameo as "Spidey being treated better than in Amazing" and I can't for the life of me see it.

If the sentence "we don't want to read Spidey as ineffectual and the butt of a joke" had the following disclaimer "(so long as the name on the cover reads Zeb Wells!)" attached to it, sure, that'd make perfect sense.
Either way, that's par for the course with Spidey's cameos on other books. They can't all be Zdarky's Daredevil's.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

It was cool seeing JMS write Spidey again. Didn't discuss it with anyone because, honestly, he didn't do much. It was more of a quick cameo.

So far JMS' Cap is everything I expected it to be.

[Frontier]

I personally expected just what we got. I think in Slott's F4 one of Spidey's first appearances was in a similar vein, in relation to being annoying to Ben Grimm about being at his wedding. I think writers might just feel like exploring a different side of the character, since you can do cameos this way as well.

Regardless, I was full well expecting something alongside this, so I wasn't surprised in the slightest that Spidey was mostly showcased as ineffectual and the butt of a joke (while not exactly "ineffectual and the butt of a joke", Spidey behaved quite Looney Tunes-y in his first pre-#500 meetup with Strange under JMS himself; I was contrasting this with DeZago who had written Spidey as getting Strange to acknowledge he was being a bit inflexible as well as not even telling him a mystery he solved only with Strange's help too). I was just amused that I saw other places react to the cameo as "Spidey being treated better than in Amazing" and I can't for the life of me see it.

If the sentence "we don't want to read Spidey as ineffectual and the butt of a joke" had the following disclaimer "(so long as the name on the cover reads Zeb Wells!)" attached to it, sure, that'd make perfect sense.
Either way, that's par for the course with Spidey's cameos on other books. They can't all be Zdarky's Daredevil's.

I've never seen the appeal no matter the writer.