Rank Recent Eras of Spider-Man

[JTait]

So, with Superior having recently wrapped up I thought that it would be interesting to compare the most recent eras of Spider-Mans history, and see if there is a consensus on which have been the most successful. I found it pretty difficult to separate a few of them myself, but nonetheless my ranking (with comments) is below. From worst to best.

The Reboot - Well documented as a mess from start to finish, the reboot era saw several subplots go nowhere, did away with Mary-Jane in confusing fashion and unsuccesfully attempted to revamp Spider-Man's iconic origin. Howard Mackie was clearly burned out on writing Spider-Man, and his attempts to keep Peter young were ill advised at best. Most of Spidey's classic villains were used, but their appearances were unmemorable. It wasn't all bad though, the Green Goblin story towards end of his run was good and his attempts to return Venom to his villainous roots were gallant, if not entirely satisfactory. John Romita Jr's art was great throughout, but unfortunately John Byrne's efforts looked very rushed and below par. Paul Jenkins fantastic run began during this era, but couldn't do much to rescue a truly wretched period for the Spider-titles.

'Big Time' - This run promised a lot, and this is possibly why I found it a bit of a let down. I've never found team-up stories particularly interesting, and they were used heavily here - although I do like Spidey being placed at the centre of the Marvel Universe, I often feel like it shifts the focus away from his supporting cast and excellent stable of villains. The more 'epic' stories largely fell flat to me, hampered by overly silly plots. Peter's job at Horizon was very well implemented though, and introduced several of the better new characters seen in the modern era. I did enjoy Slott's take on the Phil Urich Hobgoblin, and feel like more could have been done with him - although the stories featuring him were among the highlights of this era. The art, mostly from Ramos, Caselli and Martin was excellent and consistent in tone too, with none of the jarring shifts that slightly marred some parts of the Brand New Day era.

Superior Spider-Man (I have read up to just before Goblin Nation, so can't fully judge this era) - A highly interesting idea, and Slott mostly did a good job of telling it, although I will always view it more as a interesting curiosity than a fantastic run in its own right. There are few real low points, and Slott has great fun with Otto's characterization. His relationship with Ana Maria is one of the more successful romances seen in a Spider-Man title too. Ultimately though I find the light hearted tone of Slott's writing slightly at odds with what should have been a bleaker, dark tale. The art is solid throughout, but rarely excellent. The team up books are as good as they have ever been in this era, and do a great job of adding depth to Otto's time as Spider-Man.

Brand New Day - Probably the most controversial Spider-Man run of all time, it's a shame that the furore over One More Day marred what was ultimately a pretty good time for ASM, featuring a couple of my favourite Spider-Man stories. The 'Brain Trust' system certainly had its pitfalls, but the likes of Waid, Slott, Wells and Van Lente (along others) proved themselves to be highly capable Spider-Man writers, and the art was consistently fresh and exciting. I really admire the use of artists like Azaceta and Ramos whose style doesn't seem like an immediately obvious fit for Spider-Man - a lot of people seem to disagree but I think it made for some really interesting looking stories. With the use of more conventional Spider-Man artists too - the likes of Martin and Romita for example - I think that this probably the best period of Spider-Man's history for artistic talent. I liked the idea of holding off on Spidey's classic rogues gallery initially, and while there were some misfires (Most notably Freak) it was great to see some new villains introduced, several of whom I hope are used in years to come. Paper Doll and Screwball stand out as highlights. The revamp of Spidey's rogues gallery was certainly mixed, but I enjoyed the majority of the Gauntlet, although it did unfortunately fizzle out with the underwhelming and poorly judged 'Grim Hunt'. As with much of the run, the attempts to introduce new supporting characters varied in quality, but were largely disappointing.

JMS - This is a run that I think looks a lot better in hindsight. JMS is technically the best writer to have worked regularly on Spider-Man in recent years, possibly in his entire history, and he nails the characters that matter - Peter, MJ and Aunt May. Spider-Man's classic rogues and supporting cast were definitely underused though, and JMS's attempts to create his own villains were not particularly memorable, with a couple of exceptions. The mystical elements, and alternative Spider-Man origin explored by JMS were not popular at the time (if memory serves) - I agree that it was overdone, and not really suited to Spider-Man's character, but initially it was fresh and welcome. Even JMS's worst stories were largely readable, but his run definitely fizzled out post #500 and he seemed badly affected by editorial interference in this period.The satellite titles were mostly inconsequential, but Paul Jenkins' run on PPSM was fantastic in places, and overall I probably enjoyed it more than JMS's work on ASM. John Romita Jr has never been an artist who has wowed me, but this is probably his strongest work on the Spider-Man titles in my eyes, and Mike Deadoto was a capable replacement. The likes of Mark Buckingham and Ramos on the satellite titles were highlights too (for vastly differing reasons)

Pre-Reboot - Probably not a popular choice as my favourite era, but I loved this brief spell that followed the conclusion of the Clone Saga. Each of the four series' had a unique tone, and apart from Sensational they all felt of equal importance. JM Dematteis, Tom Defalco and Howard Mackie were all at the top of their respective games here, and were generally accompanied by decent art from the likes of Steve Skroce, Romita Jr and an early Luke Ross. I do remember a frustrating number of fill in issues here. It didn't all work, but Peter's 'Identity Crisis', the Spider-Hunt, Osborn taking over the Bugle, Kraven's apparent return and Electro's defeat of Spidey were all great fun, and this era was probably the setting of Osborn's high point as a character since his return. Peter and MJ's relationship was written very well throughout, something of a rarity during their married years unfortunately. Several subplots were juggled effectively, although resolving them proved to be a frustrating issue and lots seemed to fizzle out, or bleed over into reboot purgatory. It's a shame that this era ended with the awful 'Final Chapter', and I'm convinced that this is the reason that it is remembered less fondly than it should be.

I wrote this all out in go, so forgive any errors, inaccuracies or typos. I'm curious to hear comments, or other people's thoughts. I'm yet to finish Superior Spider-Man, or delve into the relaunched ASM so I'd appreciate spoilers being kept to a minimum. Thanks!

[Metamorphosis]

I'll play:

Reboot Era: as I had left comics before the 90's clone saga ended, I had to piece together this run long after the fact, mostly the last few years. It's a lot easier to read knowing that most of what Mackie / Byrne tried to do didn't stick. Awful stuff like Captain Power mixed with the Mary Jane plane explosion. I do like Byrne's art a lot of the time, and I was surprised how much I ended up liking Mattie Franklin. Talk about an era where crap seemed to fall through the cracks, as they gave rushed explanations to long-running plots (the worst of which the reveal that the Green Goblin hanging around Norman was nothing more than a 'genetic construct'). Not a great era, but almost so bad it's good. 4/10

Big Time - Big Time was a big mixed bag for me. Slott seemed to take on old story ideas, like Peter going to work at Tricorp in the Mackie reboot era, and do them properly, or at least see them through better. I hated his version of Hobgoblin in Phil Urich--and why Daniel Kingsley ended up being the one in the suit that was beheaded was never explained. Other villains, like Scorpion who had some great development in Thunderbolts, Slott boringly regressed. And I didn't care for all the Agent Venom stuff--Spidey lost another great villain that way.

'No One Dies' was certainly the early height of this era, and Slott's writing in general. After that, his run turned into guest stars galore and it felt like Spidey was sharing the spotlight too much--right into the Ends of The Earth story which was overloaded with Avengers. And while I really dislike Ramos' art most of the time, Caselli did some excellent work and Camuncoli came into his own on his issues. 6/10

Superior - never finished it, so I won't comment any further except to say it was really not for me, I really disliked what I read of it, and I like Slott even less as a Spider-man writer because of it.

BND - I probably read 95% of the BND issues--I missed the early arcs by Guggenheim involving Menace. Gotta say, they really really tried to get Spider-man back to the pre-marriage era level of youthfulness and such. It's just that the whole run seemed to have the spectre of OMD looming over it, a large chunk of which they didn't explain until 70 issues later. That said, we got some new voices and new talent on Spider-man--Fred Van Lente being my favorite writer out of the bunch--as well as a ridiculous amount of brilliant artistic talent. Spidey had largely never looked better that consistently, despite the shifts in tone with the creative team shifts. Really, this was a better era than people give it credit for. 7/10

JMS - I missed JMS' run as it was coming out. I just finished reading through it the last few years. I thought a lot of it was pretty damn good--Peter as a teacher certainly suited the character, and JMS played it to the hilt. I was a bit bored by the Dr Strange mystical stuff after awhile. The totem stuff with Ezekial I thought was pretty damn well executed--JMS had the brains to say, well maybe it happened this way and maybe it didn't. JMS also wrote Mary Jane and Aunt May perfectly. How nice it is to read a writer that actually gets the Peter / Mary Jane relationship and writes it to a T. JMS' was really the last pure run in 616 Spidey history before the reset of OMD. JR Jr's and Deodato's art is excellent throughout. 8/10

Pre-reboot - this is where I have some of the most gaps in my collection and Spidey knowledge. The Identity Crisis story is a highlight, and DeMatteis' work on Spectacular, what I read of it, is top-notch as usual. I didn't care so much for a lot of DeFalco's ASM and the Black Tarantula stuff, but he had some good issues otherwise. This whole era just comes off so fun and mostly light, sandwiched as it is between the end of the 90's clone saga and the Final Chapter. 6/10

[Mister Mets]

Not going to bother with the current era, since we're half an year into it.

It's made a bit easier by crossovers which ensure that some eras are easily demarcated.

From best to worst...

The "A" eras.

Enter JMS) JMS's run can be split pretty neatly. This section covers his work with John Romita Jr, when the series was mostly self-contained. Meanwhile, Jenkins was doing some of his work on Peter Parker Spider-Man, and Tangled Web had some interesting stuff. Came out just when I was starting to read good comics elsewhere.

The Big Time) Amazing Spider-Man #648-700. Started really well, and had Spider Island. The worst was not bad at all.

Superior Spider-Man) A fun departure. One of the most entertaining mega-arcs ever.

The "B" eras.

Brand New Day) Amazing Spider-Man #546-647. Marked by the thrice-monthly schedule and rotating writers. Generally solid comic books with some true standouts (Unscheduled Stop, Shed, Gauntlet: Rhino) but some problems with issue to issue continuity.

New Avengers) The arrival of Mike Deodato to Amazing Spider-Man coincided with Millar's run on Marvel Knights Spider-Man and the Spectacular Spider-Man tie-in to Disassembled. The main change was that Spider-Man got more involved with the rest of the Marvel Universe, paving the way for One More Day. Had some of the worst regarded Spider-Man stories ever, but some real gems as well.

The Harry Osborn Saga) I realized that Dematteis kicked off his Spectacular Spider-Man run with Sal Buscema (July 1991) at around the same time Bagley became the official artist on Amazing Spider-Man (September 1991) and Terry Kavanagh became the writer on Web of Spider-Man (June 1991, quickly followed by Busiek and Mackie.) Spider-Man is the least neat but this is around when Mcfarlane stopped with the TPB length stories, and the book essentially became an anthology. This is likely the "era" where I've missed the most material, so it could go up a lot if I suddenly learn that particular stories in the satellite books were better than I expected.

Intermediate Era) This was the two years between the Clone Saga and the Mackie relaunch. Marked by a lot of crossovers, and solid but unremarkable runs.

The Rest

The Mackie/ Byrne Relaunch) Chapter One, and Howard Mackie's run on Amazing Spider-Man. Did include some good stuff with Webspinners, and Jenkins's first issues of Peter Parker Spider-Man, as well as some awful material.

Pre-Clone Saga) This would be the period from Spider-Man Unlimited #1 (the beginning of Maximum Carnage) up until the Clone Saga. Has some of the worst moments in the Spider-Man comics, notably Peter Parker No More.

The Clone Saga) I read almost every issue of the Clone Saga. There was some good stuff, but it was generally a mess.

[Metamorphosis]

Pre-Clone Saga[/B]) This would be the period from Spider-Man Unlimited #1 (the beginning of Maximum Carnage) up until the Clone Saga. Has some of the worst moments in the Spider-Man comics, notably Peter Parker No More.

When was the last time you read those issues? Because if you read up to them chronologically, you could see where Peter would be pretty fed up with his personal life, after the robot parents stuff. If nothing else, DeMatteis wrote the ASM issues solidly, even though Peter comes off a little too self-pitying.

[Mister Mets]

When was the last time you read those issues? Because if you read up to them chronologically, you could see where Peter would be pretty fed up with his personal life, after the robot parents stuff. If nothing else, DeMatteis wrote the ASM issues solidly, even though Peter comes off a little too self-pitying.

I read it a few years ago when I also read the vast majority of the Clone Saga.

The Dematteis story wasn't that bad.

Web of Spider-Man however had Facade. And I wasn't a fan of what was going on in Spider-Man (which happened to be the first Spider-Man comics I ever picked up.)

[Xenon]

Ranking seems to me to be about putting them in order, sooooooo

I will follow Mets' example and split up JMS. But I won't go as far back as he did. From BEST to WORST

1) JMS/JRJR: There are only two flaws with this era. The mystic totem stuff, for one, and the flimsy rationale for Mary Jane to be off in California, which undermines the relationship building done in the run. But the second wasn't exactly his fault (Mackie wrote that terrible Annual), and the first JMS wisely did try to hedge his bets with a bit, as most people forget. Outside of those two things, this part of the run is basically perfect for me. The characters, the writing, the villains (even if non-traditional, were still cool). Love it.

2) Pre-Reboot/Post Clone Saga (or as I like to call it The Forgotten Era): I really really like this era, and when I started reading I didn't even know it existed. The impression I got from reading Life of Reilly was that it basically went Clone Saga -> Reboot. But there is that two year gap where four books are being published monthly....and they're really pretty good. There's a chameleon story I liked, and Identity Crisis is a lot like the Captain Universe period...way better than it has any right to be. And they even made me enjoy the Norman stories even though he was nothing like his previous version and should have been dead. Of course, it ends poorly with the Gathering of Five story, but...yeah..that's the end.

3) Brand New Day. honestly I think there's a pretty big gap between 2 and 3, but BND was...surprisingly enjoyable. I despise OMD and everything it stood for, but I did enjoy the majority of these stories. I liked the whole Menace/Mayoral Race mega-arc, I liked the Chameleon arc for the most part, I liked a lot of what's in between too. New Ways to Die was great until the last issue. he Carlie stuff ranges from annoying to terrible, and the varying writers meant that the character lacked consistency and varied in quality. Sometimes you were lucky and got Guggenheim, sometimes you got Kelly, and sometimes you were unlucky and got Slott. And sometimes you were REALLY unlucky and got Gale. I mean, really, that kind of noticeable quality wave I hadn't seen since the pre-clone saga stuff when you had another situation with both good (DeMatteis) and bad (Kavanaugh). The thing with BND is that even the best stories were only like 80% of what they should be because of the continuity snarl that OMD created and the relationship nonsense that resulted from it.

4) Big Time - I shock myself by putting this above the second half of JMS, but, well, I think this is the right call. Big Time was never better than its first arcs, but like Mets said, it was never REALLY that bad. Dying Wish is the worst story of the bunch, but compared to the "worst" of the runs below it, it's not that bad. The problem is that it's never really that great, either. Beyond "Big Time", Spider-Slayer, and Spider-Island are the only ones I would say I liked, with most of the rest being disappointing or below average (because something can still be ok and be disappointing). Too many team-ups in this run as well, I counted it out years ago, but almost half the run features some other hero in addition to Spider-Man, giving it a very Marvel Team-up feel. The biggest problem, though, is just that Slott does a poor job writing the character of Peter Parker, writing him as an idiot 12 y/o instead of a genius 20 something. It plagues most of his writing and just kills it for me.

5) JMS Part 2 - Unlike many people I liked the Molten Man II story. Unfortunately I liked little else here. The stuff leading up to and including Civil war just wasn't that interesting to me, as I just don't care for Spider-Man's involvement in the rest of the Marvel U. Also the worst Spider-Man story of all time and the SECOND worst Spider-Man story of all time is a part of this run. So....yeah. Gets this high merely because Spider-Man is so well written that the characters just make it entertaining even when the plots are not. Honestly though, I just couldn't put Sins Past higher than this. UGGGGGGGGH.

6) Reboot - There's nothing terribly offensive about the reboot. It's just....dull. The thing is this era is largely dominated by Mary Jane's "death" and the aftermath, and Mackie just fumbled that whole issue, wasting what could have been an interesting story arc. You only really FEEL her "death" in the last issue right before she comes back (the one where Peter opens the trunk with her things in it). Also he wrote that terrible Annual after she came back. So there IS something offensive about this run. Really though, just kind of boring.

7) Superior - I've only read ~6 issues, so my opinion could change, but thus far it belongs on the bottom of the list. Primarily because it's a Spider-Man comic without Spider-Man in it. Only his murderer. Thus far my biggest problem is the lack of internal consistency. Ock has turned his whole life around and is dedicated to being a superhero....but feels no remorse or regret for what he's done. He seems to waffle between full-on villain and full-on hero with no subtlety or nuance to the read. He never feels bad or second guesses himself, and his accomplishments later on in the series come too easily, trivializing both what he's done and demeaning Peter Parker because if they were so easy why didn't he just do it before. Also Superior Spider-Man #2. Because that book belongs on every single Top 10 Worst Spider-Man comics list from here on out.

[Xenon]

When was the last time you read those issues? Because if you read up to them chronologically, you could see where Peter would be pretty fed up with his personal life, after the robot parents stuff. If nothing else, DeMatteis wrote the ASM issues solidly, even though Peter comes off a little too self-pitying.

The problem with the DeMatteis issues is that at the end of every one it seems like Peter has finally gotten over the stage he's in, only for the next issue of whatever book for him to be right back in it. Like, the issues themselves are pretty good, but if they weren't going to make him get over it, they end up being kind of annoying.

Also this is the era where the quality really is like a sin wave. Two good authors....two not so good.

[JTait]

7) Superior - I've only read ~6 issues, so my opinion could change, but thus far it belongs on the bottom of the list. Primarily because it's a Spider-Man comic without Spider-Man in it. Only his murderer. Thus far my biggest problem is the lack of internal consistency. Ock has turned his whole life around and is dedicated to being a superhero....but feels no remorse or regret for what he's done. He seems to waffle between full-on villain and full-on hero with no subtlety or nuance to the read. He never feels bad or second guesses himself, and his accomplishments later on in the series come too easily, trivializing both what he's done and demeaning Peter Parker because if they were so easy why didn't he just do it before.

I felt that this was dealt with quite well in Superior Spider-Man Team Up. I'd recommend checking it out, it's a decent series from what I've read. The issues of Avenging Spider-Man with Ock as Spider-Man were pretty good too.

[exile001]

Following the examples above, I'll also spilt some runs. I’m just going to go back as far as the Byrne/Mackie reboot and listed in order of best to worst.

The great:

The Big Time – The era that made a true Spider-man fan again, desperate for the next issue to arrive. I picked up the first TPB after years away (thanks, BND), as I saw Hobgoblin on the cover. I’ll admit, I swore thinking that Roderick was dead (again), and I did find the new Hobgoblin a bit forced, especially the mirroring of Peter’s life, but I was hooked again. You know why? Because Spider-man was FUN again.

This era gave us some great Black Cat, Spider-Island, the return of the Jackal (yep, I’m the fan), Ends of the Earth (one of my all-time favourite Spider-man stories), No one dies, a re-vamped Scorpion and Spider-Slayer, a re-tooled Sinister Six, Peter Parker: super-scientist, Hobgoblin vs Hobgoblin, Kingpin as a Spider-man enemy again, Peter back with the Fantastic Four, and more.

And finally, the ONE digital comic I have ever bought. ASM #700. I can’t remember the last time I was that excited about a comic, or indeed, that worried about what was going to happen. I had to buy it the moment it was available. I went in blind, skipping the leaked details that had surfaced and was not disappointed. I was dumb-struck by that ending.

This era also gave us the Venom and Scarlet Spider spin-offs, both of which were very good. I wasn’t such a fan of Avenging Spider-man, but that suffered from losing its writer after an arc.

There were a few negatives, Alpha, Agent Venom (I always liked Eddie’s bag guy Venom), and the Avenger’s Academy issues (not a fan of teacher Peter), but over-all it’s excellent and I’ve re-read it several times.

Superior Spider-Man – I’ve got to quote Mister Mets here: “One of the most entertaining mega-arcs ever.” I really enjoyed the different take on Spider-man and, again, couldn’t wait to read each issue of SpOck’s unpredictable time as Spider-man.

This era also gave us a decent Morbius spin-off, the mostly solid Superior Spider-man Team Up and t he legendary Superior Foes of Spider-man.

The only down side? Superior Carnage. What a mess.

I’m not going to dump on the slightly unsatisfying ending, as we’ll be getting that in Spider-Verse. Spider-man vs SpOck. Can’t wait!

JMS and JRJR era – I loved the totem stuff. It was a really interesting take on the mythos, one that had been hinted at before, and Ezekiel was a fantastic new character. It’s odd that this run feels so grounded, despite having all sorts of monsters and spider-gods. JMS stuck mostly to new creations and usually hit the mark well. His arc reuniting Peter and MJ, and of course the 9-11 issue was handled very well indeed.

And May FINALLY discovered the secret. This whole plotline was handled extremely well. Shame it was ret-conned.

Contrast that with Jenkin’s super OTT PPSM run and there was something for those who weren’t into JMS’s run (I liked both).

Tangled Web was a little hit and miss, but mostly solid.

[exile001]

The Good:

Brand New Day 2nd half – Hey, remember all those established Spider-man enemies you love but haven’t seen for ages. Boom! Some great stuff, including The Gauntlet, Grim Hunt (unnecessary, but still a good story), Origin of Species and Carlie Cooper (yep, I liked her).

The bad stuff, and man was it bad: Peter getting fired by Jonah and blacklisted. ‘Evil’ Aunt May. The treatment of Vin’s sister as a character.

A lot of forgettable stuff, seriously, I re-read the entirety of BND last year and can’t remember much more.

The Weak:

JMS/Deodato – Some good here, I liked the concept of The Other: Evolve or Die, and feel it was the other teams that let it down, same with the Road to and Civil war stuff. Back in Black was pretty exciting, if not great, and Spidey living at Avengers tower with MJ and May was a lot of fun.

Sins Past, though. That’s a pretty big problem in the run. I don’t despise OMD, as many seem to, but even ignoring it’s many issues it’s only an okay story that seems oddly out of place with the rest of the run.

Spectacular Spider-Man was good, I like Jenkins anyway.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man, to me, reads like bad fan fiction. I liken it to Batman’ Hush. Great for new fans, but nothing there for me.

Sensational Spider-man was hit and miss. Mostly tie-ins to other stuff anyway. The Brock issue in hospital was a standout for me.

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-man by Peter David, one of my least favourite runs on spider-man. Horrible writing, horrible art.

The Bad:

Brand New Day Year One – A massive step backwards in Spider-man’s history and so boring, uninspired and frustrating I quit reading Spider-man for years. The only good thing to come from this era was Mister Negative, and they flogged that dead horse way too long.

I don't really have anything positive to say. Some nice art?

The Mackie/ Byrne Relaunch – Just terrible. Horrible plotting, art (mostly) and feel wins my prize for weakest overall period in Spider-man history. I quit reading Spider-man about 6 issues in.

I recently got the trades (extremely cheap, I might add) and read them again. Marvel released three trades, so I got further than with the floppies, but it is still utter garbage. I had thought maybe I remember it being worse than it was. Nope.

Peter came across as utterly pathetic and unlikable, and that should never happen.

Venom biting a chunk out of Sandman was funny, though. Oh damn, that made me remember the appallingly stupid way Sandman was made a villain again. Ugh!

I will never go back and finish this era’s comics. For all I care, JMS may have a panel stating a flying bunny in a Santa hat rescued MJ from the plane explosion, and I’d be fine. I’m guessing that mysterious guy who stalking MJ who definitely died in the car explosion had something to do with it. It was funny, like they were writing two or three different ways to get rid of MJ.

Just out of interest, was this editorially mandated that she had to go, was she supposed to be dead and it was ret-conned, or did the writers just want rid of her for a bit?

[Metamorphosis]

7) Superior - I've only read ~6 issues, so my opinion could change, but thus far it belongs on the bottom of the list. Primarily because it's a Spider-Man comic without Spider-Man in it. Only his murderer. Thus far my biggest problem is the lack of internal consistency. Ock has turned his whole life around and is dedicated to being a superhero....but feels no remorse or regret for what he's done. He seems to waffle between full-on villain and full-on hero with no subtlety or nuance to the read. He never feels bad or second guesses himself, and his accomplishments later on in the series come too easily, trivializing both what he's done and demeaning Peter Parker because if they were so easy why didn't he just do it before. Also Superior Spider-Man #2. Because that book belongs on every single Top 10 Worst Spider-Man comics list from here on out.

It just seems like a story that would be over as soon as SpOck shot someone point blank in the face who was unarmed. It would've been better if he'd taken Massacre away and completely lobotomized him in his lab or something (and it would've been better had Dr Kafka not need to be fridged to motivate SpOck into killing). Instead, the story drags out another 25 issues, making everyone around SpOck look like stupid ineffectual fools.

I thought Yost often wrote SpOck a hell of a lot better over in Avenging. It speaks a lot about the strength of having satellite titles when you have a writer on the main title as problematic as Slott (that is, one who has big splashy ideas that have poor execution).

[Xenon]

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-man by Peter David, one of my least favourite runs on spider-man. Horrible writing, horrible art.

I can't agree that it was horrible, but I must admit that it was disappointing after David's stellar earlier Spider-Man work. I do wonder how much of it was a result of it being a satellite spider title in an era where the main book was so focused on the universe wide event, and where they kept thinking they were about to end the series (remember, OMD was delayed significantly).

I will never go back and finish this era’s comics. For all I care, JMS may have a panel stating a flying bunny in a Santa hat rescued MJ from the plane explosion, and I’d be fine. I’m guessing that mysterious guy who stalking MJ who definitely died in the car explosion had something to do with it. It was funny, like they were writing two or three different ways to get rid of MJ.

Just out of interest, was this editorially mandated that she had to go, was she supposed to be dead and it was ret-conned, or did the writers just want rid of her for a bit?

As I understand it, it was editorially mandated that Mary Jane should die, but the artist and/or writer was opposed to the idea, so that when the plane exploded, he added in a bit in the art where it looks like something is falling out the back of the plane as a back door in case they reversed course.

It just seems like a story that would be over as soon as SpOck shot someone point blank in the face who was unarmed. It would've been better if he'd taken Massacre away and completely lobotomized him in his lab or something (and it would've been better had Dr Kafka not need to be fridged to motivate SpOck into killing). Instead, the story drags out another 25 issues, making everyone around SpOck look like stupid ineffectual fools.

One gripe here, Kafka's death didn't motivate SpOck. He barely acknowledges that she's dead, let alone who she was. It's...well it's just stupid. There was no point to it other than to just point out that Slott remembered a character from the past. And just like the last two he remembered (Marla and Gwen Clone) she ends up dead for it.

But outside of that yes. There are ways to extend the length of time that SpOck stays under the radar, but Slott seems to go for the opposite, immidiately putting him in situations that should get him found out. Either by loved ones (Mary Jane) or Collegues (The Avengers). It's one of the things I just don't understand about him. He doesn't hide the flaws or giant plot holes....he puts them front and center for all to see. And it's completely unnecessary.

I thought Yost often wrote SpOck a hell of a lot better over in Avenging. It speaks a lot about the strength of having satellite titles when you have a writer on the main title as problematic as Slott (that is, one who has big splashy ideas that have poor execution).

Because I was still reading Scarlet Spider, it was necessary to read an issue of Superior Team-Up as they had a two part story going on there. Yost's portrayal of SpOck is the only thing that softened my stance on superior from "irredeemably stupid" to "bad idea". Because it's still a bad idea, no way around that, but at least with the Yost version, there's nuance to the character and he comes off as a human being. He still has bad impulses but recognizes they're bad and seeks to control them. He has regrets and shame over what he did in the past. He THINKS.

Slott's version treats being Spider-Man the same way Homer treats the gasoline powered car. One for Me, one for you. One good thing, now one bad thing. One nice thing, one mean thing. It's just not a realistic portrayal of someone who is trying to redeem themself and has turned their life around in such a dramatic manner.

[Mister Mets]

Mackie has mentioned in interviews that Mary Jane was always meant to survive the plane explosion.

I didn't find his comments on that in the interview he did with "Comic Creators on Spider-Man" with Tom Defalco, but there was some other interesting stuff that he had said...
- Both Mackie and Defalco thought that every book had a unique identity during the years between the clone saga and the relaunch. Mackie was street-level. Dematteis was philosophical. Defalco was "Hoo-Haa!" Dezago had an ear for contemporary dialogue.
- Mackie thought that the relaunch wasn't as much fun because he wasn't able to bounce ideas off of great writers.
- Mackie had a preference for villains who were dark versions of the characters fans loved. Venom as the anti Spider-Man and Kaine as the anti Peter Parker.

[BlitheringToot]

The JMS era was my favorite because it was Peter finally being portrayed as a competent-yet-young adult. Aunt May was useful. Pete and MJ worked out their issues. I could have used more classic villains, but overall it was a really enjoyable run.

Superior is my second-favorite. Such glorious trolling. Ended too soon, though, and on an unsatisfying note.

Pre-reboot could be really good or really bad depending on the story. DeMatteis' "Spectacular" was the highlight (although I vastly preferred Buscema's art to Luke Ross'), followed by DeFalco's "Amazing," but Mackie's was solid with excellent art from Romita and, on one occasion, Claudio Castellini. "Sensational" was decent, if goofy at times. Then there was "The Gathering of the Five" ... *shudder*

"Big Time" was a hoot--at least the Hobgoblin stuff was. I didn't really care about Horizon labs, alas. And "Spider-Island" was kinda lame.

The reboot was a lousy idea to begin with. "Chapter One" was awful and didn't produce any worthwhile consequences. The Sinister Six and Venom stories were decent, though. Shoot, I even enjoyed Mackie's Trapster story.

"Brand New Day" was the worst, in my opinion. Character regression at its worst.

[Metamorphosis]

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-man by Peter David, one of my least favourite runs on spider-man. Horrible writing, horrible art.

I just re-read the first TPB of this series last night for the first time, and boy, I couldn't disagree more with that assessment.

PAD just seemed like he was having a ton of fun writing this title. The Mexican wrestler issues were nothing to write home about, but were good for what they were. The centerpiece of this run, "Jumping the Tracks", was a story I once despised. But upon a re-read, it came off very good and very well thought out. In light of Spider-Verse, it's a story that seems almost prescient. I can't wait to read the next trade, which I remember liking very much (the Mysterio and Vulture stories). Despite all the events going on, the stories are still very Peter Parker-centered, and the dialogue is pretty funny overall.

In terms of the art, Weiringo was an acquired taste for me. I don't usually like super-cartoony art such as his or Ramos', but unlike Ramos, Weiringo had a very good grasp of perspective and anatomy. I actually love his art in this series.

The latter half of JMS' run, post Sins Past, with PAD on FNSM and RAS on Sensational, was actually a very good era. You had three extremely gifted writers on 3 titles that were mostly firing on all cylinders, despite the intrusion of mega-arcs like the Other, Civil War and Back in Black.