Thread Drift: Bring back the Spectacular Spider-Man style B-title

[ViewtifulJC]

Here's a suggestion: Bring back the Spectacular Spider-Man style B-title. Snyder's Batman isn't the only one in town. You can one book, the flagship one, that jumps from one six-part epic chraaaaazy set piece driven event to another, that forgoes character and logic for splash page shock value and empty-headed/hearted spectacle, where Peter is a genius company owner who routinely gets his body taken over by supervillians or put in the middle of a giant cosmic event involving mythical totems and talking fighting pigs wearing his costume.

And then there's another Peter book, one's who grounded in the street level heroics of the book's best runs, like Lee/Ditko, Lee/Romita, Stern/Romita, DeFalco/Frenz, etc. Tight 1-3 issue stories, romantic interests, soapy subplots that build over various issues, "normal" sized villains like the Vulture or Hobgoblin, Peter with everyday problems.

Apparently Dan Slott has lost any interest in telling "normal" Spider-Man stories anymore, so maybe we should have an alternate fix for that.

[Darthfury78]

Apparently Dan Slott has lost any interest in telling "normal" Spider-Man stories anymore, so maybe we should have an alternate fix for that.

Like Avenging Spider-man or Spider-Man Team-up series? Besides that I never understood why the original Marvel Team-Up was not used as a concept of using Spidey's best team-up partners unto the regular Spider-Man titles like the Black Widow, Tigra, Captain Britain, and The She-Hulk. The characters that got used the most in that series could have been brought over into Spider-man's satellite series or ASM. A huge missed opportunity there; especially the Black Widow, Tigra and Captain Britain.

[shgs]

I think the reason they don't have the back-up Peter Parker book is because they are pushing Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen and Silk, and Spider 2099 too I suppose. They're obviously thinking in terms of the Spider Brand rather than Peter Parker Brand, which doesn't necessarily make as much sense as it does with the X-Books or Avengers Books but I do think there's only so many street level/spider powers books people can handle. As it stands I am interested enough in the three spider ladies that I can forgo more Peter Parker for now. It will be interesting to see how much all the spiders bump into each other, you'd have thought there's only so much space in Manhattan...

Oh there's also Spider-Man and the X-Men, which isn't terrible but it would be nice to see Spider-Man interacting with the adult X-Men and not just the joke kids going forwards...

[Darthfury78]

Oh there's also Spider-Man and the X-Men, which isn't terrible but it would be nice to see Spider-Man interacting with the adult X-Men and not just the joke kids going forwards...

What might have been cool to see is for Spider-Man working alongside X-Force, as well as working with Psylocke on their team-up adventures.

[Darthfury78]

Here's another suggestion: Bring back the Spectacular Spider-Man style B-title. Snyder's Batman isn't the only one in town. You can one book, the flagship one, that jumps from one six-part epic chraaaaazy set piece driven event to another, that forgoes character and logic for splash page shock value and empty-headed/hearted spectacle, where Peter is a genius company owner who routinely gets his body taken over by supervillians or put in the middle of a giant cosmic event involving mythical totems and talking fighting pigs wearing his costume.

And then there's another Peter book, one's who grounded in the street level heroics of the book's best runs, like Lee/Ditko, Lee/Romita, Stern/Romita, DeFalco/Frenz, etc. Tight 1-3 issue stories, romantic interests, soapy subplots that build over various issues, "normal" sized villains like the Vulture or Hobgoblin, Peter with everyday problems.

Apparently Dan Slott has lost any interest in telling "normal" Spider-Man stories anymore, so maybe we should have an alternate fix for that.

I think that if Slott really wanted to, he could have added other Marvel characters into Spider-Man world(superhero or non-super hero), it might have made things interesting. But he once told me that he's only interested in Spider-man and his world and not contempt with using any other characters outside of that realm. It's ironic to see other solo titles like Captain America and Iron Man using characters from the Marvel Universe, but not Spider-Man? It might have kept the creative juices flowing. Especially Peter Parker working with Dr. Veronica Chase at Horizon Labs...

[shgs]

What might have been cool to see is for Spider-Man working alongside X-Force, as well as working with Psylocke on their team-up adventures.

Ha, I somehow can't see Peter Parker fraternising with a mutant hit squad. Perhaps if SpOck returns, but then he doesn't really have a connection to the X-Men. Obviously he could interact with Betty (or any of the others) at the JGS or on a normal X-Men mission.

[Braun Rodman]

Ha, I somehow can't see Peter Parker fraternising with a mutant hit squad. Perhaps if SpOck returns, but then he doesn't really have a connection to the X-Men. Obviously he could interact with Betty (or any of the others) at the JGS or on a normal X-Men mission.

haha yeah Faith lasted longer in the Unity Squad (Valiant Universe) than spidey would in X-Force, Pete would take a look at that crew and split

[MajorHoy]

I think the reason they don't have the back-up Peter Parker book is because they are pushing Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen and Silk, and Spider 2099 too I suppose. They're obviously thinking in terms of the Spider Brand rather than Peter Parker Brand, which doesn't necessarily make as much sense as it does with the X-Books or Avengers Books but I do think there's only so many street level/spider powers books people can handle. As it stands I am interested enough in the three spider ladies that I can forgo more Peter Parker for now. It will be interesting to see how much all the spiders bump into each other, you'd have thought there's only so much space in Manhattan...

And yet . . . DC still has Batman as a headliner in multiple titles as well as Dick Grayson and Batgirl headlining successful solo books. Former Robin Red Hood also is in a separate title, though the numbers aren't quite as impressive.

Having more than one title with Peter wouldn't have to take the focus away from the Spider-ladies. In fact, their solo books could occasionally crossover with the Slott-less Spider-Man title every now and then. And if they brought back Marvel Team-Up with Peter's Spider-Man as the headliner, they could occasionally throw in issues / arcs where Spider-Woman and/or the other ladies take the place of Peter's Spider-Man as a lead character teaming up with others.

[cyberhubbs]

As ironically exaggerated as the OP is, I at least agree that a second title could be interesting. Or do the .1s, it's still Amazing, and you can switch up the writers without them having to make a full commitment to a run.

[JGC]

I would love for this title to come back and feature the original title logo:



My choice to write it: Jason Aaron

[Mister Mets]

And yet . . . DC still has Batman as a headliner in multiple titles as well as Dick Grayson and Batgirl headlining successful solo books. Former Robin Red Hood also is in a separate title, though the numbers aren't quite as impressive.

Having more than one title with Peter wouldn't have to take the focus away from the Spider-ladies. In fact, their solo books could occasionally crossover with the Slott-less Spider-Man title every now and then. And if they brought back Marvel Team-Up with Peter's Spider-Man as the headliner, they could occasionally throw in issues / arcs where Spider-Woman and/or the other ladies take the place of Peter's Spider-Man as a lead character teaming up with others.

I don't think satellite books work for Spidey in the current publishing environment.

Logistics are difficult with story lengths varying from single issue to seven issues. A story that begins in the B-title in May might end in November, which raises odd questions about how to incorporate major developments in Amazing Spider-Man in September (or vice versa.)

The focus on Batman's private life was generally not as significant as the focus on Peter's private life. And he has two flagship titles: Detective Comics and Batman, so it's generally something readers have been conditioned to expect from the very beginning.

[JBatmanFan05]

Here's a suggestion: Bring back the Spectacular Spider-Man style B-title. . .
...one's who grounded in the street level heroics of the book's best runs, like Lee/Ditko, Lee/Romita, Stern/Romita, DeFalco/Frenz, etc. Tight 1-3 issue stories, romantic interests, soapy subplots that build over various issues, "normal" sized villains like the Vulture or Hobgoblin, Peter with everyday problems.

Apparently Dan Slott has lost any interest in telling "normal" Spider-Man stories anymore, so maybe we should have an alternate fix for that.

Yes, yes, yes.

They need a Spidey book again that is deliberately less ambitious, and just aims for telling quality classic Spidey street level stories against his more traditional rogues. Yes, short arcs mostly. Soapy but very very gradual subplots. Continuity light (except for the soapy subplots). A title you can jump in and out of pretty easily (but of course you don't want to).

[Darthfury78]

I don't think satellite books work for Spidey in the current publishing environment.

Logistics are difficult with story lengths varying from single issue to seven issues. A story that begins in the B-title in May might end in November, which raises odd questions about how to incorporate major developments in Amazing Spider-Man in September (or vice versa.)

The focus on Batman's private life was generally not as significant as the focus on Peter's private life. And he has two flagship titles: Detective Comics and Batman, so it's generally something readers have been conditioned to expect from the very beginning.

Personally, I think that the Spider-Man satellite books could work if the stories are stand alone and not incorporated into ASM, which would all those stories to take place at any given time, and without the pointless need to do a crossover. The satellite books could work as it own mini series that would allow a guest writer to do a Spider-Man story or a Team-Up adventure.

So far, having just one ASM series under one writer on a bi-weekly basis is more than enough to burn them out and make the quality of the stories a hit or a miss. Slott might have been able to produce a whole lot better stories with ASM was on a monthly basis. Although there are writers who could handle a bi-weekly comic series more so than others.

[CrazyOldHermit]

It sounds like you want a change of direction in Amazing rather than a secondary Spidey book.

The Amazing/Spectacular thing worked back in the day because the extra real estate was used to cover a wider range of material. Plotlines could run separately in both books but issues from one series would often follow issues from the other, weaving between the two books. That allowed Peter's story to be told in more detail, with the two books covering different parts of his life without slowing the monthly progression down. Since Amazing is released twice a month Spectacular is obsolete.

[MajorHoy]

It sounds like you want a change of direction in Amazing rather than a secondary Spidey book.

The Amazing/Spectacular thing worked back in the day because the extra real estate was used to cover a wider range of material. Plotlines could run separately in both books but issues from one series would often follow issues from the other, weaving between the two books. That allowed Peter's story to be told in more detail, with the two books covering different parts of his life without slowing the monthly progression down. Since Amazing is released twice a month Spectacular is obsolete.

Not really . . . back in the day, there were several monthly Spider-Man titles (remember when we had Amazing, Spectacular, Web of, and adjectiveless-Spider-Man, not to mention the quarterly Unlimited?), so he doesn't have to be limited to just two issues a month.

It just depends on how they're handled.