Controversial Spider-Man Opinions

[Revolutionary_Jack]

What I meant is that there was no lead-up to Peter's death. If anything, the Ultimate comics were initially leading up to the opposite. They referenced multiple times prior to Peter's last story arc that their version of Peter would grow up to be the greatest hero in Earth-1610.

The decision to kill him off and bring in Miles was made in response to the Donald Glover controversy with Sony.

Glover's reaction was part of it. But the other big thing was Obama's election. Marvel felt that if America could accept a black President, then it was time for a black Spider-Man, and felt that would get them first on the ground floor (which it did) to put out the first major Affirmative Action Legacy and there's nothing quite like "Spider-Man is Black" to grab headlines and news (which it got). It got them over DC in a big way (especially since DC under Geoff Johns was shooting itself in the shoot by throwing away the amazing buildup Green Lantern John Stewart got from the cartoons).

It's not true that Ultimate Peter's death didn't have any lead-up. It was a 7 issue Story Arc. The Death of Spider-Man arc also overlapped with some stuff that happened in the New Ultimates comics. So it was a co-ordinated event with a lot of planning and consideration, planned more than a year in advance. Bendis said he came up with Miles Morales first and then decided to kill off Ultimate Peter. He said that he realized that if you had to think of a working class New York teenagesuperhero in the 21st Century, then it's quite likely that character would be black. So Miles Morales wasn't last minute. Bendis came up with Miles and then decided to start wrapping up a series of subplots in Ultimate Spider-Man. The stuff about Ultimate Peter becoming the big hero, Jonah offering to sponsor Peter, Ultimate Peter and Ultimate MJ getting back after he broke off with Ultimate Gwen...all that was done to set up a tragedy, to give Peter a series of wins so that when he dies it feels that much more painful because both readers and cast get a sense of what was lost. Is that manipulative? Yes. Did it work? It did.

The death of Ultimate Peter bothered me and affected me at the time...I had quit reading ASM after OMD, but I still read USM. I felt bad about it, but I accepted it later and I liked Miles right away.

Looking back, the thing about Ultimate Peter is that he was a version of Peter who was never intended to grow up. he was never going to actually graduate high school and become the fully mature version of Spider-Man from the comics. That was editorially mandated. By the time Bendis was writing him, Post-Ultimatum, there really wasn't too many places you could take that version of Peter and his cast. I've read every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, both Peter and Miles, Pre-SW'2015, so I know where I speak. Killing Peter and making him the equivalent of the teenage rock god who died too young wasn't too bad. (And anyway, Bendis brought him back later aged up and gave him a happy ending). Ultimate Peter was a great version of the character, and what made him work (and I am not sure Bendis intended this) was that he came off as more mature and saner than the many "adults" like Ultimate Fury, Ultimate Cap, Ultimate Tony and others. That was more because of how Millar concieved his characters than anything.

[TheRay]

I think I prefer Peter building the web shooters himself.

[Matt Parker]

I think I prefer Peter building the web shooters himself.

This is probably a popular opinion. Maybe I am biased, though. I despise the organic webbing.

[Matt Parker]

Some of my thoughts:

Tobey McGuire wasn't such a good Spider-man after all. He lacked the charisma in both the costume and the role of Peter Parker.

Maguire is the most overrated actor in a superhero franchise and he is far from definitive in my opinion. He's a solid actor and does a good enough job in those movies but there is plenty of room for improvement.

[WebLurker]

Controversial opinions, well:

Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man is superior to the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on all fronts.

The Sam Raimi movies are better then the Mark Webb ones and Spider-Man 3 is better then it's given credit for.

Miles Morales was a pretty weak character in his original comics and the Spider-Verse movie fixed that.

Gwen Stacy in the original ASM comics was very weak and uninteresting character who only became iconic because she died (until the franchise retroactively shored up her character).

[Snoop Dogg]

web wings are fucking awesome, i want my spider-man with his goddamn web wings as god ditko intended. without them? get the **** off the page, ya wall crawlin weasel

[federicodettofred]

I'm late, but I honestly think that Superior Spider-Man is the best story-arc in the last 10 years.

[Ikari]

I pretty much don't like any of the Spider-Man films. First two Raimi films were average at best, third was actively bad. Maguire was too serious for the role and Dunst was really bad Mary-Jane. Webb films, I don't remember much of them really, I think first one was okay, I liked Emma Stone as Gwen. And Garfield was better Spidey than Maguire. MCU version I really don't even consider a Spider-Man at all. Peter Parker being a flunkey to Tony Stark of all people, dependent from toys made by Stark, it's not Spider-Man. I hate it. Which is a shame because I think Holland does good job with the character otherwise.

[FFJamie94]

I have a soft spot for Sins Past (it was one of the first comics I read when I first started collecting 616 spider-man).

The way Ditko draws Spider-man is superior to Romita.

[CrimsonEchidna]

Only thing I will say about the Venom Blast is at this point, it's treated as just an electrical power rather than the Insta-Win taser that Bendis had it be so it's kind of a redundant complaint. You see as much in the Ahmed run that is currently happening and in the game. And while the power has expanded upon what Bendis original used it for, more and more villains like Rhino and Scorpion have completely no-sold it, so it's kind of whatever.

[WebSlingWonder]

Controversial opinions, well:

Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man is superior to the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on all fronts.

The Sam Raimi movies are better then the Mark Webb ones and Spider-Man 3 is better then it's given credit for.

Miles Morales was a pretty weak character in his original comics and the Spider-Verse movie fixed that.

Gwen Stacy in the original ASM comics was very weak and uninteresting character who only became iconic because she died (until the franchise retroactively shored up her character).

Well, sir, these aren't controversial: they're facts!!
(Sarcasm, but yeah, I agree with all of these!)

[Grapeweasel]

The problem with Gwen Stacy is if you pushed every Marvel female character off a bridge in 1973 you wouldn't have missed any of them.......

[PCN24454]

The problem with Gwen Stacy is if you pushed every Marvel female character off a bridge in 1973 you wouldn't have missed any of them.......

Even MJ wouldn't be missed.

[FFJamie94]

Controversial opinions, well:

Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man is superior to the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on all fronts.

The Sam Raimi movies are better then the Mark Webb ones and Spider-Man 3 is better then it's given credit for.

Miles Morales was a pretty weak character in his original comics and the Spider-Verse movie fixed that.

Gwen Stacy in the original ASM comics was very weak and uninteresting character who only became iconic because she died (until the franchise retroactively shored up her character).

I disagree slightly with the first one. I love ultimate spider-man, but it’s decompressed story telling really stops it from being great. Stan/ditko got so much more done in 41 issues than bendis did in 100 issues, and asm 10-33 in my opinion is one of the best runs in any comic.

Hell yeah on the rain I films, I feel like there’s a better cut of spider-man 3 out there as I firmly believe it’s a great movie with a poor movie attached to it.

I’ve not read enough of Miles or seen Into the Spider-verse to formulate a decent opinion.

Yeah, Gwen is very one note, but that’s because I feel Stan was very poor at writing Women.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Even MJ wouldn't be missed.

Mary Jane won the Alley Fan Awards for Best Supporting Character in 1967 and was already popular enough to make brief cameos in other titles at the time (which Gwen never got to do) and had appeared in the 1967 cartoon series (when Gwen never did).

So that's not the case. More importantly Gerry Conway who wrote the story was never on board with it.

Yeah, Gwen is very one note, but that’s because I feel Stan was very poor at writing Women.

That's true enough. Gwen isn't all that different from Karen Page, Daredevil's love interest in the Silver Age, or Susan Storm. The best female character that Stan ever created and wrote was Mary Jane Watson and that was by accident rather than design.

Karen Page was written out of the Daredevil books once they spun enough yarns with her, and then a decade or so later, Frank Miller brought her back in a big way in BORN AGAIN (the greatest single love story in Marvel canon), though Miller's re-invention of Karen probably did go too far in a lot of respects.

Anyway, that's an example of what could have happened with Gwen had she not been killed off back then.