What was the WORST era for Spider-man

[Vixx]

Gotta go with Sins Past

The custodians of a flagship book literally reached back in time, shit all over a seminal story and trashed a beloved characters rep, produced a half assed follow up, then dropped it. Leaving us wondering why? Know it's not the worse, but it's my Han shot first I hadn't read a SM book in ages, grabbed that one off the rack when snowed at Denver airport ... Opened it to Normans O face. That's literally the first panel I'd seen in 10 years....

Second would be all that spider baby crap that lead up to ditching the marriage ...Peter and MJ together was kind of something that brightened even the really bad stories ... Nothing they've come up with sense made that appear to be a good idea

Third is clone saga of maximum carnage .. I give them some credit - Ben and some of the pieces were good, just overall it dragged on and down

[DieHard200904]

Gotta go with Sins Past

The custodians of a flagship book literally reached back in time, shit all over a seminal story and trashed a beloved characters rep, produced a half assed follow up, then dropped it. Leaving us wondering why? Know it's not the worse, but it's my Han shot first I hadn't read a SM book in ages, grabbed that one off the rack when snowed at Denver airport ... Opened it to Normans O face. That's literally the first panel I'd seen in 10 years....

Second would be all that spider baby crap that lead up to ditching the marriage ...Peter and MJ together was kind of something that brightened even the really bad stories ... Nothing they've come up with sense made that appear to be a good idea

Third is clone saga of maximum carnage .. I give them some credit - Ben and some of the pieces were good, just overall it dragged on and down

Some days I wonder if sins Past was a warm up for OMD, because if they can take a dump on a dead gf, they can screw over a marriage too.

If by Spider-baby you mean Mayday,MC2, and Spider-Girl, I think that was something that Marvel felt could stand on its own at a point

[DieHard200904]

Why isn't sins past listed? That is hands down the worst spider man story period it's so terrible that I'd rather read the clone saga the other and or even one more day it was just so wrong on so many levels.

At least with the clone saga and the other and even one more day as bad and terrible as one more day was it at least made sense where with the sins past story of the Gwen and Norman affair didn't and it was just so wrong on so many levels and it didn't even have a reason for even existing.

I don't think in terms of continuity, that Sins Past made much sense. Even then, I get the hunch it was a warm up for destroying the marriage in OMD.

[Prof. Warren]

Clone Saga, hands down.

Yeah, there's simply no competition. That said, there are plenty of fans who have a special affection for this era.

No matter what era of Spidey you might hate, there's always a group of fans who love it. And vice versa, of course.

[Vixx]

Some days I wonder if sins Past was a warm up for OMD, because if they can take a dump on a dead gf, they can screw over a marriage too.

If by Spider-baby you mean Mayday,MC2, and Spider-Girl, I think that was something that Marvel felt could stand on its own at a point

I was thinking of MJ being pregnant, that woman puts something in her coffee, gives induced birth, Norman and his lodge of waterbuffalos run off with something to Europe and were kind of left wondering what happened.

I liked the renew your vows and standalones ... They were kind of like see? Do you like this? You can't have it ... But we wanted you to know it's possible to create...

Sins and OMD were like the one two punch ... They lost a bit of potency over time, but are a far cry from what this book at its core is all about. The clone saga was bad on multiple levels ... Because it was drawn out forever and got silly while trying hard to be serious...and kicked off a beginning of lack luster stories that really put a wall between new and old. Sins was actually constructed pretty well .. The story and premise just didn't fit the book

They've dug in on it - which makes no sense.

Little bit of me Hopes part of his Faustian deal was tied up in Sins - so when they finally address it they address all of it... Not holding my breath lol

It's like finding out Norman was Peters biological dad or something ...

[WebLurker]

This CBR article was not too kind to the Superior Spider-Man era.

[Metamorphosis]

Sins was actually constructed pretty well .. The story and premise just didn't fit the book

This is kind of the double-sided coin of the JMS era--smart, expertly-written comic stories with some great dialogue and outstanding characterization for the most part, but some pretty awful concepts (Sins Past, The Other, Peter unmasks, and Queseda's-mandated OMD).

5. The late-'80s stuff, post-Hobgoblin but pre-Venom. Very awkward time period.
4. Clone Saga. It had its share of good points, but the bad far outweighs it.
3. Parker Industries CEO. It's just not fun. Whereas Superior was a LOT of fun ... *sigh*
2. Brand New Day. It took a LONG time for Peter's post-OMD status quo to settle into something consistent (and I'd argue it never truly did).
1. Byrne's Chapter One reboot/Mackie's attempts to make it work. Just TERRIBLE.

But the late 80's, post-Hobby pre-Venom era gave us MJ finally accepting Peter's proposal and them being married! And then Kraven's Last Hunt!

If anything, it was the sheer amount of fill-in issues on all the titles that seemed disconnected from what was going on in the overall narrative that really hurt this time period.

[Scott Taylor]

Some days I wonder if sins Past was a warm up for OMD, because if they can take a dump on a dead gf, they can screw over a marriage too.

Sins Past was connected with OMD, in that the plan by JMS was always to have Sins Past be temporary and undone by OMD. Because OMD was changed from how it was originally conceived, it no longer had the opportunity to also get rid of Sins Past.

[Rob London]

Yeah, there's simply no competition. That said, there are plenty of fans who have a special affection for this era.

No matter what era of Spidey you might hate, there's always a group of fans who love it. And vice versa, of course.

I will say I've never met anyone who loves the Mackie/Byrne reboot era. That's my pick for the worst.

[Rincewind]

This CBR article was not too kind to the Superior Spider-Man era.

Yeah, I has some major disagreements with that article. How can anyone not like the Amalgam comics?

[DieHard200904]

I was thinking of MJ being pregnant, that woman puts something in her coffee, gives induced birth, Norman and his lodge of waterbuffalos run off with something to Europe and were kind of left wondering what happened.

I liked the renew your vows and standalones ... They were kind of like see? Do you like this? You can't have it ... But we wanted you to know it's possible to create...

Sins and OMD were like the one two punch ... They lost a bit of potency over time, but are a far cry from what this book at its core is all about. The clone saga was bad on multiple levels ... Because it was drawn out forever and got silly while trying hard to be serious...and kicked off a beginning of lack luster stories that really put a wall between new and old. Sins was actually constructed pretty well .. The story and premise just didn't fit the book

They've dug in on it - which makes no sense.

Little bit of me Hopes part of his Faustian deal was tied up in Sins - so when they finally address it they address all of it... Not holding my breath lol

It's like finding out Norman was Peters biological dad or something ...

Ah, yes, the multiverse is endless. But 616 is a bitch to Peter Parker, and always will be. I agree in terms of an era though, Clone Saga overall was pretty bad. Kaine was a character that caught some interest from me, because he was kind of not Spider-Man during the clone saga, guy with blades sticking out of him and wrapped up in blue preservation bodysuit so he wouldn't continue to rapidly age, degenerate, and die. But Scarlet Spider Kaine has been okay. Just that thrill of having someone who isn't as morally sound as the central character spurned some interest.

Overall, The Clone Saga always rings to me as a note of how when you turn a character too serious and too dark for too long, the story gets pretty dang stupid. (Maximum Cloneage was a big WTH)

[Carabas]

Mystic Spider-totem stuff and Iron Spider-man of the Avengers: these are the same period; JMS's Amazing Spider-Man run.

Anyway, voted for other: Brandnew Day.

[Vixx]

Ah, yes, the multiverse is endless. But 616 is a bitch to Peter Parker, and always will be. I agree in terms of an era though, Clone Saga overall was pretty bad. Kaine was a character that caught some interest from me, because he was kind of not Spider-Man during the clone saga, guy with blades sticking out of him and wrapped up in blue preservation bodysuit so he wouldn't continue to rapidly age, degenerate, and die. But Scarlet Spider Kaine has been okay. Just that thrill of having someone who isn't as morally sound as the central character spurned some interest.

Overall, The Clone Saga always rings to me as a note of how when you turn a character too serious and too dark for too long, the story gets pretty dang stupid. (Maximum Cloneage was a big WTH)

The three wtfs from the clone saga for me ... (Well 4 if you count getting Stromm-o-cop and Norman restored - their sense on the roof was like if the old guys from the muppet show went mma on each other)

1. Judas Traveller - he was kind of this Jesus meets Dr Strange thing floating around for a while - totally out of place.

Agree with your Kaine assessment .. He looked like a xmen whose mutant power was showing up in the wrong book and channeling daddy issues into a superpower.

2. Gwen Clone shot with a rifle ( may have come later, attached in my mind ... But they in the era of hippies, spider buggies and May the reanimated corpse - a better story was the grave site good bye ... It's like when you are a kid and stumble upon a piece of Halloween candy when your mom makes you clean your room mid day on a weekend)

3. Tracking down the Gwen Clone living with Miles ( there were pics of kids on the wall, the student/teacher thing was always a bit off (even in Texas) but the whole bridge thing again, him turning to Alia seltzer and such was just ... So serious and so Bad. Bad enough that no matter how many times they try and clean clone stuff up , retcon, re-edit... It won't go away... Which is sad because they really had a good run with a solid pulse on the series for a lot of the 80s (some was shit). Took them ages - with flashes of brilliance (asm400) - to crawl out of the hole ... And in some ways they still haven't.

If you plotted clone stories and cleaning them up as a percentage of ASM stories by issue ... I bet they would out number the classic villans and stuff freely associated with Spider-Man; but ...it's generally not a genre folks connect to the book - like xmen = mutant or inhuman = legal loophole (no breach of contract)

[John Aston]

While I'm not enjoying Peter Parker as a CEO, it's not the era but my disliking of how Peter Parker is handling being a CEO. So, I guess I'm enjoying it if it's eliciting an emotion.

Judging by my collection, when the Spider Totem crap hit, I bailed.

I was out of Spider-Man before the Clone Saga hit so I can't judge it from personal experience.

[BlitheringToot]

But the late 80's, post-Hobby pre-Venom era gave us MJ finally accepting Peter's proposal and them being married! And then Kraven's Last Hunt!

I can't believe I forgot Kraven's Last Hunt. I officially retract #5.

That being said, although I loved Peter and MJ getting married, I didn't particularly enjoy the actual issues. Once they got past the awkward few "honeymoon" issues it got great.