Is ASM leaving anyone else cold lately?

[Sacred Knight]

Things will pick up when Gwen comes back.

[MikaelNovasun]

Things will pick up when Gwen comes back.

If you are referring to "Dead No More", my money is on Doc Ock. Slott seems to love the character.

[Gotham]

AS a person who just started reading comics 3 months ago and started from Brand new day and continuing all the way to the current ASM, I hate the new incarnation of Spidey!

[John Ossie]

Things will pick up when Gwen comes back.

LOL Wait and see I guess LOL.

If you are referring to "Dead No More", my money is on Doc Ock. Slott seems to love the character.

He does. Sometimes I feel like he loves Doc Ock more than Peter Parker.

[Braun Rodman]

I'm enjoying the pace and the energy of the book, though I feel like the soap opera aspect of spider-man and most of his supporting characters has been lost. this could be for good and bad. Personally I miss it but I think it'll pick back up when all this 007 CEO stuff catches up to Pete, which you know, it's gotta Parker luck and all

[RD!]

I liked this latest issue the most so far but it's still not too impressive

I think Ock will be coming back to life. There's no point to bringing Gwen back with a Spider-Gwen who can travel worlds at will.

[Phantom Roxas]

He does. Sometimes I feel like he loves Doc Ock more than Peter Parker.

Considering how people still want more Superior, I think he tried to share that particular preference with the audience.

[ViewtifulJC]

Re-reading everything from BND forward, Slott's craft has just gotten worse, or I fear he doesn't have Steve Wacker to shape up his stories anymore. His action scenes aren't exciting anymore. His pacing is all over the place and yet it feels like nothing happens. His exposition has gotten sloppy, his dialog has deteriorated. His skill at sastfying comic book story structure has seemingly vanished. There's nothing in the past two years of SS/ASM has even approached his solid-but-sturdy stories like the pre-Spider Island two-parter with Wraith/AntiVenom/Mr. Negative and the post-Spider Island Vulture two parter, much less his peaks on Spider-Island, Paparazzi, and Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid. The book hasn't been this creatively vacant and listless since the late years of JMS', hundreds of issues and nearly a decade ago.

[John Ossie]

Considering how people still want more Superior, I think he tried to share that particular preference with the audience.

Yeah...Maybe Slott should do Superior while someone else has a crack at ASM?

[Phantom Roxas]

Yeah...Maybe Slott should do Superior while someone else has a crack at ASM?

While I'd rather Superior stay good and buried, that is probably the only way that comes to mind to actually give Peter a good chance of being written by someone… competent. Among other things.

[Prof. Warren]

Re-reading everything from BND forward, Slott's craft has just gotten worse, or I fear he doesn't have Steve Wacker to shape up his stories anymore. His action scenes aren't exciting anymore. His pacing is all over the place and yet it feels like nothing happens. His exposition has gotten sloppy, his dialog has deteriorated. His skill at sastfying comic book story structure has seemingly vanished. There's nothing in the past two years of SS/ASM has even approached his solid-but-sturdy stories like the pre-Spider Island two-parter with Wraith/AntiVenom/Mr. Negative and the post-Spider Island Vulture two parter, much less his peaks on Spider-Island, Paparazzi, and Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid. The book hasn't been this creatively vacant and listless since the late years of JMS', hundreds of issues and nearly a decade ago.

You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but it's worth noting that at any point in Slott's run - including the 'peaks' you cite - he's been roundly criticized by a segment of the fanbase. It's what fans do: bitch incessantly. And when a writer has been on a book for as long as Slott has, the complaints always become "they have been good since....", while ignoring the fact that fans were already clamoring for the writer's departure well before the point where someone is now claiming that they were firing on all cylinders. Writing Spider-Man, or any high-profile character, is a thankless job. Fans are always telling you what a terrible job you're doing, demanding that you leave the book, and then as soon as your successor starts, the cycle begins anew with fans crying for the previous writer's return - usually with the statement "at least he wasn't as bad as the new guy!"

(on a side note, it's hilarious that fans are now saying that the book just isn't up to snuff without Wacker around to 'shape' Slott's stories as fans were calling for Wacker's head throughout his run as Spidey editor)

Personally, I think Slott is as good and as energized on ASM as he ever has been, clearly reveling in the possibilities of Peter's new status, and I imagine that things are only going to get bigger and crazier from here. It's far from being creatively vacant and listless and to describe it as such is a lazy, kneejerk, wholly unwarranted dismissal of what is shaping up to be a tremendous new era for Spidey.

[Kevinroc]

You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but it's worth noting that at any point in Slott's run - including the 'peaks' you cite - he's been roundly criticized by a segment of the fanbase. It's what fans do: bitch incessantly. And when a writer has been on a book for as long as Slott has, the complaints always become "they have been good since....", while ignoring the fact that fans were already clamoring for the writer's departure well before the point where someone is now claiming that they were firing on all cylinders. Writing Spider-Man, or any high-profile character, is a thankless job. Fans are always telling you what a terrible job you're doing, demanding that you leave the book, and then as soon as your successor starts, the cycle begins anew with fans crying for the previous writer's return - usually with the statement "at least he wasn't as bad as the new guy!"

(on a side note, it's hilarious that fans are now saying that the book just isn't up to snuff without Wacker around to 'shape' Slott's stories as fans were calling for Wacker's head throughout his run as Spidey editor)

Personally, I think Slott is as good and as energized on ASM as he ever has been, clearly reveling in the possibilities of Peter's new status, and I imagine that things are only going to get bigger and crazier from here. It's far from being creatively vacant and listless and to describe it as such is a lazy, kneejerk, wholly unwarranted dismissal of what is shaping up to be a tremendous new era for Spidey.

Considering the drops that ASM has suffered lately, I don't think this is just online chatter.

[John Ossie]

While I'd rather Superior stay good and buried, that is probably the only way that comes to mind to actually give Peter a good chance of being written by someone… competent. Among other things.

Well from what I'm hearing he's due to be on the book until 2017 at the earliest. Suppose we'll just have to wait and see what actually happens LOL.

[Phantom Roxas]

(on a side note, it's hilarious that fans are now saying that the book just isn't up to snuff without Wacker around to 'shape' Slott's stories as fans were calling for Wacker's head throughout his run as Spidey editor)

Here's the problem. While there's certainly going to be hypocrites among the fanbase, this is inaccurate. ViewtifulJC pointing to Wacker's absence as a downside doesn't point to a hilarious hypocrisy. If anything, it suggests that ViewtifulJC was not part of the crowd that, as you said, "were calling for Wacker's head". An easy response could just be someone thinking that Wacker didn't do a particularly good job of shaping the stories. You're trying to make it sound like there's this one particular voice that goes back and forth, and is never consistent in its criticisms, when it's anything but that. At most, the majority changes its composition. The people rallying for a new writer can embrace that new writer, and talk about what a relief it is for the story to be written by someone other than the previous writer. Or a new segment of the fandom comes up and criticizes the newer writer, and that segment was one who had liked the previous one. What those segments have in common is that they don't like particular writers. But no effort is being made on your point to discuss with those individuals. It's just gathering everyone into a particular majority, so much that you can't even tell apart who is making these criticisms. How can you claim that people "bitch incessantly" when you're not making the effort to distinguish who those criticisms are coming from?

Well from what I'm hearing he's due to be on the book until 2017 at the earliest. Suppose we'll just have to wait and see what actually happens LOL.

Fingers crossed he's gone once the new movie is out.

[frizb]

You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but it's worth noting that at any point in Slott's run - including the 'peaks' you cite - he's been roundly criticized by a segment of the fanbase. It's what fans do: bitch incessantly. And when a writer has been on a book for as long as Slott has, the complaints always become "they have been good since....", while ignoring the fact that fans were already clamoring for the writer's departure well before the point where someone is now claiming that they were firing on all cylinders. Writing Spider-Man, or any high-profile character, is a thankless job. Fans are always telling you what a terrible job you're doing, demanding that you leave the book, and then as soon as your successor starts, the cycle begins anew with fans crying for the previous writer's return - usually with the statement "at least he wasn't as bad as the new guy!"

(on a side note, it's hilarious that fans are now saying that the book just isn't up to snuff without Wacker around to 'shape' Slott's stories as fans were calling for Wacker's head throughout his run as Spidey editor)

Personally, I think Slott is as good and as energized on ASM as he ever has been, clearly reveling in the possibilities of Peter's new status, and I imagine that things are only going to get bigger and crazier from here. It's far from being creatively vacant and listless and to describe it as such is a lazy, kneejerk, wholly unwarranted dismissal of what is shaping up to be a tremendous new era for Spidey.

I agree with all of this. It's funny, if you go back and read some of the old letter pages from classic runs you will still see people complaining about how terrible the book is. Some people just want to see the same tired story over and over and the disgruntled are always louder than the content. Sales-wise, it's still performing great. One spot behind Batman. Only WD #150, SW #9, 4 Star Wars titles and some ANAD #1 issues beat it in January.