What If the Lee Ditko run was released today for the first time?

[Ubauba01]

How well do you think it would hold up?

[Ubauba01]

Marvel Age Spider-Man released in the 2000s was the most faithful adaptation of the Lee-Ditko era, and that one lasted 19 issues but they were still not the exact same as the original stories, of course. The basic plot were usually mostly the same, but the dialogue and the art were different.

There is also Spider-Man Chapter One, but I am not too familiar with that series. It does not seem to had been well received. Albeit it seems to me a big part of why it was not well received is because it was retconning the original Lee-Ditko run out of continuity.

[Daibhidh]

My impression is that the genre conventions are dated but once you accept those genre conventions the storytelling within those genre conventions is extremely good.

[HypnoHustler]

How well do you think it would hold up?

It wouldn’t make sense for it to be released today. It was a product of its time and influenced countless artists and writers in the succeeding decades who made their own impacts on the industry. You remove the Ditko/Lee run and insert it in modern times, then you remove a huge piece of the formative history of comics. It’d be like asking what if Citizen Kane was released in theaters for the first time today.

[Ubauba01]

It wouldn’t make sense for it to be released today. It was a product of its time and influenced countless artists and writers in the succeeding decades who made their own impacts on the industry. You remove the Ditko/Lee run and insert it in modern times, then you remove a huge piece of the formative history of comics. It’d be like asking what if Citizen Kane was released in theaters for the first time today.

Perhaps we could assume something else replaced it in this scenario. Sure, the comic history would have been changed significantly, but they could have probably still judged the story on its own merits, unless the standarts of storytelling would have changed massively.

[Mister Mets]

One question would be what happened in a universe without Spider-Man comics. Would all of the things that made Spider-Man special have come out at roughly the same time (IE- the focus on his private life, a teenage superhero who wasn't a sidekick, a costume that covers every part of the lead allowing kids of all races to imagine themselves as him, a hero growing from high school to dropping out of grad school, a protagonist struggling with bills and girls, John Romita Sr exploding as a superhero artist, etc.) There are all sorts of weird effects that could lead to a radically different comics environment.

But assuming things were relatively similar (the same comics professionals became popular, most Marvel heroes are as popular as they otherwise would be) the Lee/ Ditko run published now would be as a some kind of retro project like Copra. It would be well-received, but it would likely be niche. The biggest issue would be the lack of strong characters who aren't white men.

[Tuck]

Pitch your sequel.

[Ubauba01]

I think the dialogue of many of those old comics, including the Lee-Ditko run, is not as cheesy as some people make it out to be. Such dialogue would not stick out much nowadays for the most part. Nowadays, I think one difference is that characters don't talk out loud as much to themselves. Such lines are mostly presented as inner thoughts.

[ARkadelphia]

It would get rebooted after 5 issues

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

Most people won't hear the brand Marvel, business would collapse and this company would get hit by the Malibu Comics treatment of their brand not being used by the company buying it due to copyright reasons and such crap.

And I wouldn't know majority of the VA names that worked on Spider-Man shows and games, nor would I join a message board.

Tobey Maguire won't be rich, Kevin Feige would mostly be anonymous, Sony Film studios will collapse...

[Kurus]

I think people would be very confused by all the outdated sixties slang