Spider-Verse: Your Final Verdict

[esskay]

It started off fun but by the end it was just awful. Nothing really happened - there was no action.

Now, with all the deaths and everything, you'd think there must have been some action, but no. Every issue's action was 90% people kind of leaping at each other. Flick through the issues and count how many panels feature people (usually groups of people, groups of Spider-people) vaguely leaping at each other. There were a few actual kicks and punches, but not many. For the most part, people just leapt in the air with no obvious intent.

Likewise, the whole situation with all the Spider-people was a great opportunity to have some fun, dynamic panels. When they're together the artist could really go to town with all the different Spider-poses: someone could be hanging upside down in the foreground, another crouching on the floor, another standing straight horizontal on the wall, another in a web hammock, etc. Endless possibilities. Visually it could have been amazing.

Instead, the Spider-folk just stood around. Panel after panel of heroes just kind of standing around chatting. I couldn't believe it, what a waste. They were just stood in a group like they were in an office talking about TV. So boring.

[Mister Mets]

From complaints on this board and two podcasts, I would have expected the final result to be more negative.

[Aruran.]

From complaints on this board and two podcasts, I would have expected the final result to be more negative.

Well isn't this poll about the overall view of Spider-Verse, so that would also include the tie-ins.

I'm pretty sure these results would be more negative if we're just looking at ASM 9-15.

[Xalfrea]

Yeah, that was my intention: Pre-Secret Wars Spider-Verse in its entirety, encompassing AS-M, S-W, Scarlet Spiders, S-M2099, and the various original Spider-Verse books.

Would Edge of Spider-Verse and the various stuff that happened there count too since that's technically part of the event?

[boots]

From complaints on this board and two podcasts, I would have expected the final result to be more negative.

never trust the boards.

[MajorHoy]

From complaints on this board and two podcasts, I would have expected the final result to be more negative.

Well, while there were things that could have been better, considering that the usual Marvel events are awful, this event was much, much better in comparison.

[SuperiorIronman]

I find Amazing 9-15 passable but I wouldn't call spiderverse a success if you only looked at Amazing. The tie-ins are really what make this event work. You could probably read the intro and when the team's break off then read the epilogue and you probably wouldn't miss much in Amazing.

[Mister Mets]

Well isn't this poll about the overall view of Spider-Verse, so that would also include the tie-ins.

I'm pretty sure these results would be more negative if we're just looking at ASM 9-15.

That doesn't seem to be a distinction that the major detractors are making.

[Aruran.]

That doesn't seem to be a distinction that the major detractors are making.

The complaints I see are from the main book and I see a lot of praise for the tie-ins. So I made the assumption everyone is looking at it as a whole versus what Slott wrote only.
Like the Chasing Amazing blog was critical of the main book, but I didn't see it look at the side series. And both Newsarama and CBR were down on ASM and gave praise to the side series.

[Spazzy_D]

From complaints on this board and two podcasts, I would have expected the final result to be more negative.

The vocal minority always skews perceptions on online forums. As it stands right now, we have 50 votes for above average and 15 for below average, so I would say the event itself was very well received.

[R.K.Z]

I find Amazing 9-15 passable but I wouldn't call spiderverse a success if you only looked at Amazing. The tie-ins are really what make this event work. You could probably read the intro and when the team's break off then read the epilogue and you probably wouldn't miss much in Amazing.

This is true. The major stories of note were in the tie-ins (Daily strip preserved in pocket universe in Spider-Verse#1, Renew Your Vows Peter glimpsed in Spider-Verse#2, destruction of cloning batch in Scarlet Spiders, Mayday letting the spiders into the bunker in Team-Up#3, Karn joining the Spiders in the same issue etc), ASM suddenly remembered to get everything moving along in the last two chapters.

[Yvonmukluk]

Spider-Verse (at least the main series) can be summed up with two words: Wasted potential.

The villains were all derivative of Morlun (a divisive villain in his own right), there were so many great character interactions that sadly never happened in the main books (I'd love to see Mayday hanging out with her Uncle Ben, for one thing), the fight scenes tended to be anticlimatic, with Solus taking out Captain Universe & Leopardon, only to get ganked by Kaine who got offhandedly taken out by Morlun, the balance of power basically seemed to switch in the favour of the Spiders at what seems little more than author fiat, outbreaks of plot-induced stupidity (like Peter-the only one who apparently fought Morlun before and won - neglecting to mention his weakness to radiation until Silk stumbled across it by accident, Ezekiel holding back on the Inheritors' gameplan and the significance of Cindy until he was literally dying), and what felt like a disproportionate amount of significance being given to SpOck and Silk (I mean having HIM be the one to motivate Ben instead of Peter felt like utter favouritism). Not to mention the casualties that serve no purpose in the story but inexplicably show up in event comics anyway, to show things are 'serious'. I mean who was advocating for the death of the Amazing Friends? It just felt like shock tactics to me.

The spin-offs felt much better, especially since they seemed to focus on character interaction (Conway's Hobgoblin & Spider-Gwen & Stern's Noir & Six-Arms were particularly good). If only the main book had more in that vein. A more character-based story with a smaller cast (think Spider-Men, or Stern's Captain America Corps, or for a non-comics example, Stephen Moffat's Day of the Doctor-you can always have the army of Spider-Men show up as the cavalry in the last act) would have still worked to celebrate the various elements of the Spider-Man mythos.

It's a shame - Slott wrote a pretty good multi-Spidey story in Shattered Dimensions. I suppose his reach sadly exceeded his grasp, here.

[Mister Mets]

The complaints I see are from the main book and I see a lot of praise for the tie-ins. So I made the assumption everyone is looking at it as a whole versus what Slott wrote only.
Like the Chasing Amazing blog was critical of the main book, but I didn't see it look at the side series. And both Newsarama and CBR were down on ASM and gave praise to the side series.

The side series still wouldn't exist without the main series. But I haven't seen many ASM readers articulate that the story is disappointing unless fans are willing to spend more money on it.

[boots]

Spider-Verse (at least the main series) can be summed up with two words: Wasted potential.

i pretty much agree with all your points as far as my tastes and expectations for a story go (the only difference is that they were deal breakers for you- i still found things to really enjoy throughout the amazing books), though i was fine with the amazing friends thing. i thought it was sad more than shocking. i was more “shocked” by some of the fan outrage.

[hoopsguru]

Feel free to drop in thoughts on any issue or story line.........

I'm just reading Spider Verse (only ASM issues) and to be completely honest, I have no idea WTF is going on . Seems like just a clusterf*ck of characters and mumblejumble thrown together. Sadly this storyline is pushing me to not want to continue ASM (though I still have Renew Vows to read).