Spectacular Spider-men 1 Preview

[phonogram12]

I'm currently only picking up two Spider-Man books at the moment (the other is Ultimate Spider-Man) and this is the only one I have genuine excitement over.

[Mister Mets]

I thought Spectacular Spider-Men #1 was okay, but not outstanding. Definitely better than what we're currently getting over in Amazing Spider-Man. I also think that the comic feels like a vehicle for Greg Weisman to jockey for the position of replacing Zeb Wells as the head writer. I did like the banter between Peter and Miles, with the idea of Miles, despite being younger, acting more like "the sensible one" while Peter definitely sounds like the same character from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon right down to using the word "quippage." Also neat that we got to see spoilers:

Sha Shan and the other Professor Warren after how many years? And the addition of the 616 Kenny "Kong" Harlan.

end of spoilers

That being said, when Ramos isn't doing the fight scene between Peter, Miles and "Hulk-Jackal," his worst stylistic traits come full force, especially how everyone seems to have stretchy powers like Mr. Fantastic. And Greg Weisman's choice to have constant flashbacks and interludes to break up the fight completely threw off the pacing and rhythm of the story, which also made it unnecessarily confusing. It took me a hot minute to realize spoilers:

those seemingly pointless, random "meanwhile" scenes were essentially dream sequences (I think?) from those who answered that ad for volunteers and is an obvious set-up for whoever the big villain of the arc is going to be. Very likely Mysterio since this has his hallmarks all over it.

end of spoilers Anyway, B- out of me.

Yeah, the flashbacks threw me off. I figured it would kind of connect to the fight with the Jackal, and that there was some kind of twist connecting everything. So the ending was underwhelming for me.

[t-spider]

It was a good start... just hope Weisman won't make Peter too juvenile, nothing again the humor, but I want to see Peter as very capable, as well.

[chachi]

This was weird. Did not like all the jumping around with the flashbacks, and the random scenes - none of it made sense and did not help with overall story. I did chuckle at the 60 year and decade comments, and Kong calling Pete, Paul. Doubt I will pick up issue 2 and beyond.

[Frontier]

Greg Weisman returns to Spider-Man! The Spectacular Spider-Men this go-around!

There was so much time-jumping I thought I was reading a Christopher Priest comic but then I realized how many episodes of his shows Weisman structured like this and it all made sense.

This feels like a comic that should've probably come out around the ANAD era when Miles was first introduced as Spider-Man, so suddenly Peter being all "let's hang out in our civilian identities and talk shop" would make more sense not coming after years of them barely being involved in each others' lives until there was a video game of them together that probably helped this comic exist.

"You are a child." Well, it's been a pretty frequent comment that Miles is less annoying and a little more mature than Peter at times (even though Peter is, like, 10 years older than him), but at least the writing for Peter here is 10x more on-point than in ASM right now.

Weisman writing Miles as a bit of a playa. I wonder if he's basing his characterization of Miles off Bendis' ANAD run.

So did this version of Kenny not actually got to high school with Peter? I'm not sure if they've been clear on that.

Hulk Jackal was a lot like the Jackal from the 2017 Spider-Man cartoon.

You know it's a Greg Weisman comic because he's the most invested in letting you know Sha Shan and Mr. Warren exist.

Sha Shan really still has complicated feelings towards Flash. She was expecting to see him with Peter, so...does she know he's alive or did she miss that he died? Wait, did Flash explicitly have a funeral? I forget.

"Paul?" - Okay, Weisman knew exactly what he was doing there.

I like how they depicted it that Peter seems like he doesn't have everything together and tries too hard, especially compared to his more put together counterpart, but that his effort eventually pays off with Kenny finally remembering his name and his order.

So Miles webs up Peter's mouth because he thinks Peter blabbed his name in the field but Miles does it and...nothing? Bit of a double-standard, no? Also I would've thought Miles Warren might've come up in a talk with Gwen.

Speaking of the name thing...they address the impracticality of it here, but I still think it's dumb for two characters with the exact same codename to be hanging out and fighting crime together side-by-side.

Oh look, it's Cedric, this friend of Miles' we've never seen before and obviously only exists to give Miles some emotional connection to this book when it's predominantly featuring people relevant to Peter.

I thought Weisman was seeding a bunch of random sub-plots but I'm guessing the FUN thing is giving people what they dream about and it's using them in the process.

[primenumber101]

Read it. It was okay. Though I agree with that there is a pacing issue with flashbacks and sub-plots that obviously setting off for future issues.

It's the same issue I had with Weisman's revived Young Justice show where there is too much sub-plots and characters in one season that basically have no other relations to one another and interferes with pacing of the show.

[GamerSlyRatchet]

I had fun with this issue. It's got its flaws and I'll get them out of the way first: I don't mind Peter being more light-hearted, but he came off a bit too immature at times. While I like how off-putting some of the cuts are, they do convolute this issue, especially when it's already in media res AND jumping back and forth. It's an issue Weisman also had in his recent Young Justice tie-in and his Gargoyles comics thankfully lack. Finally, some of Ramos's faces can be a bit awkward.

I like how accessible this issue is, partly because it creates its own hub and supporting cast. Some people may recognize Kenny Kong or Sha-Shan, but there's also some deep pulls. You don't need to read anything else to get into it. I like the idea of the Peter/Miles dynamic, even if it needs some ironing out. And while it's also seeding some ongoing plots, I also appreciate the more light-hearted approach to the book. There's some nice Easter eggs here, like the Paul joke and Matt's song from W.I.T.C.H.

I'll also praise Humberto Ramos's art work, which gave the comic a very energetic and dynamic vibe. I especially like how the Jackal beast was defeated. Wasn't Kraven in Spectacular Spider-Man beaten in a similar way?

Speaking of the show, it was cute how they gave Raymond Warren the middle name "Aaron". It's based on Weisman and Cook misremembering Warren's name and calling him Aaron in the show. I guess Weisman sort-of canonized it back into the comics.

So did this version of Kenny not actually got to high school with Peter? I'm not sure if they've been clear on that.

Kenny's younger. He showed up as an ESU student in Starbrand & Nightmask alongside Shelly and Cedric. Sha-Shan was also in that book though she was brought back earlier when Flash Thompson was going to physical therapy.

[Factor]

Pretty fun issue. The timeline gets a bit confusing. Did 12 weeks really pass between their first meeting at the cafe and Jackal’s attack? The way the supporting cast was introduced made it seem like much less time.
Also, I think they should have waited a bit to introduce everyone. It felt like a series of coincidences to meet so many people you know in one day (?). Yet many didn’t really serve a purpose for this issue’s plot. It would have felt more natural to have them appear more organically when it made sense to the story.
But these are minor nitpicks. I had fun reading the issue and I love the set-up and overall energy. This will be the only 616 Spider book I follow.

[Coop]

Didn't really love the time skipping here. Felt random and not particularly interesting.

This was okay. Peter comes off as essentially a giant cringe loser in a way that's not as funny as like a Peter B. Parker. Seems like a fluff book so I don't see myself continuing with it. Not into the art either.

I expected to enjoy this one more but it just didn't work for me

[Frontier]

Didn't really love the time skipping here. Felt random and not particularly interesting.

This was okay. Peter comes off as essentially a giant cringe loser in a way that's not as funny as like a Peter B. Parker. Seems like a fluff book so I don't see myself continuing with it. Not into the art either.

I expected to enjoy this one more but it just didn't work for me

I think it's meant to appear that way at first glance but we see his efforts with Kenny eventually paid off, kind of validating his methods...plus he was pretty on-point as Spider-Man.

[CrimsonEchidna]

I think it's meant to appear that way at first glance but we see his efforts with Kenny eventually paid off, kind of validating his methods...plus he was pretty on-point as Spider-Man.

Yeah if the punchline was Kenny couldn't stand Peter then there'd be a point but there actually was a payoff to Peter's persistence.

[Trapgodthanos]

Finally read the issue and it was fun. I agree witht the sentiments of others that the flashback scenes were jarring, Weisman did this alot in spectacular spider-man where he intercut an action scene with a flashback but I don't think it works as well in a comic.
It's cool to see miles and peter getting a joined supporting cast and I'm interested to see how it develops.
Humberto Ramos is my definitive spider-man artist(we'll peter artist anyway) so I loved the art in this issue.
I like that Weisman made a new character for miles so the supporting cast wasn't so peter focused.
Overall I'll stleast give this an arc to see if I'll keep following it

[Coop]

I think it's meant to appear that way at first glance but we see his efforts with Kenny eventually paid off, kind of validating his methods...plus he was pretty on-point as Spider-Man.

The payoff didn't make the scenes preceding it work any better to me. As the reader, regardless of if the characters reacted positively I still found that dialogue cringy and awful

[Jman27]

Was put off by the meanwhile scenes like Juliet and Anna, the play or the court scene I’m going to assume all those other characters will show up later or maybe future victims of the new jackal monster

[Frontier]

The payoff didn't make the scenes preceding it work any better to me. As the reader, regardless of if the characters reacted positively I still found that dialogue cringy and awful

I feel like I've seen way worse .