Are the 80s the best Spider-Man decade?

[Rincewind]

I think I would have to say the best decade for Spider-Man is the 80s. It breaks down as follows:

60s: Debut, Stan was at his best working with strong artists like Ditko and Romita. The majority of memorable villains and supporting characters are introduced. Spidey has only 1 title with some guest appearances. The drawbacks are that Stan’s dialogue doesn’t age that well and there is not much material to choose from outside the main title.

70s: Spidey becomes more ubiquitous with Marvel Team Up and Spectacular Spider-Man ongoing titles. There is also the children’s title Spidey Super Stories. Stan steps back from writing, so we get runs from Conway, Lein, and Wolfman. Stories get darker with the deaths of George Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Norman Osborn. Villains such as Morbius and Hammerhead are introduced. Supporting characters Punisher and Black Cat first appear. The weaknesses are stories become darker, Peter mopes a lot even as Spidey, and there are many forgettable stories, especially in the ancillary titles.

80s: A lot of well regarded runs in this decade. Stern, Defalco, Michelinie on Amazing, Mantlo and PAD on Spectacular, DeMatties on MTU, and Michelinie on Web. Villains introduced include Hobgoblin and Venom. Peter and MJ married. Conway returned on Web and SSM. We got classic stories like Kid Who Collects Spider-Man and Kraven’s Last Hunt. The black costume is introduced. Romita Jr., Frenz, and McFarlane are on art. MTU ends and becomes Web. Drawbacks include the editorial mess-ups that resulted in Defalco/Frenz fired from Amazing, the muddled conclusion to the Hobgoblin story, the rush into the marriage with minimal buildup, and creative teams in a flux that necessitated a lot of fill in/inventory stories interrupting the ongoing stories.

90s: A fourth title is added as McFarlance starts writing. Larsen and Bagley join as artist. DeMatties writes Spectacular, then replaces Michelinie on Amazing. Mackie begins writing the character. Ancillary titles come and go as Web turns into Sensational, Untold Tales and the quarterly Unlimited and Team Up all begin and end. The decade ends with the Amazing and PP:SM are relaunched. Drawbacks include the poor reception to Mcfarlane’s writing, forgettable runs like Kavavaugh, the Clone Saga taking over the main titles for two and a half years with its bloated stories, never ending mysteries, and editorial driven directions. The titles took a big hit after the Clone saga, struggling to regain its audience. This culminated in the relaunch that was not well received. My choice for the worst decade of Spider-Man.

00s: Mackie ends his run. Jenkins writes some nice stories, JMS rejunenates the title. Decent runs by Millar, PAD, and Aguirre-Sacasa. JMS ends his run with the controversial One More Day that ends the marriage. The ancillary titles are cancelled as Amazing goes to 3 times monthly with rotating writers. Brand New Day resets the status quo, bringing back supporting character and introducing new villains.
If you’re a marriage fan, then OMD and subsequent stories are the worst ever with Spidey ruined as a character. If you’re not a marriage fan, then BND revitalized the character and title. Drawbacks include the end of Mackie’s lackluster relaunch, and if you loved the marriage, OMD and everything after.

10s: Slott goes from rotating writer to sole writer (with periodic assists from Gage). Ancillary titles are slowly brought back. Big Time allows Peter professional success. Superior Spider-Man begins amid howls of anger and ends winning over most of the readers. Peter comes back as the head of his own company. Drawbacks are if you are a marriage fan, you still hate everything since OMD.

Overall I’d put the 80s up as the best decade. There were multiple writers who had classic runs. There were classic storylines. Exciting new villains were introduced. There were some weaknesses, but the successes vastly outweighed them.

Next I’d put the 60s due to fact that Stan and Steve/John created great stories and characters with few, if any, missteps or poor stories in there. The only reason it’s not top is dated dialogue and low amount of material.

00s-10s are next. This is more subjective since I have enjoyed the title since Brand New Day and going forward, while marriage fans would probably put this at the bottom.

70s: Not actively bad, but it did get gloomy, and it felt like the writers were just copying Stan instead of putting their own voice on the character.

90s: The worst decade. There was still good material coming out, but you had to go to the ancillary titles like Untold Tales or Team Up for a lot of them. The Clone Saga could have been good, if it had been planned better and not stretched out. But it was abysmally planned and stretched out for far too long.

[Mister Mets]

My ranking...

80s (#1)....It had a few of the most impressive runs (Stern ASM, DeFalco ASM, Peter David Spectacular Spider-Man, Michelinie/ McFarlane Amazing Spider-Man, Mantlo's second Spectacular Spider-Man) as well as some of the best standalone stories (Kraven's Last Hunt, Spider-Man VS Wolverine)
2000s....Ultimate Spider-Man was just incredible. In addition you had JMS/ Romita Jr's Amazing Spider-Man, Jenkins/ Buckingham's Peter Parker Spider-Man, and Millar's Marvel Knights Spider-Man. There have been better eras since but I did like One More Day. And we got plenty of good standalone stories (Blue, Spider-Man/ Human Torch, best of Tangled Web.)
1960s... This was not a decade with high quantity, even though the batting average is hard to beat. One of the best runs ever (Lee/ Ditko) was followed by another of the best runs ever (Lee/ Romita)
1970s... This decade included a good chunk of Stan Lee's run (from about #83 on), as well as Conway and the generally solid Wein. It ended well with Wolfman's Burglar saga. There may have been some dreck in the satellite books.
1990s...It wasn't all bad, but it does include the two worst eras of the book (The Clone Saga, The Mackie relaunch) and the heights (Untold Tales, DeMatteis Spectacular) are less impressive than in other decades.

It's a cheap answer, but I wouldn't want to rate the current decade since the work is too recent to get a sense of staying power. It's also largely defined by two lengthy ongoing runs (Slott on Amazing/ Superior Spider-Man, Bendis on Miles Morales) which we may have higher impressions of when we see more of the payoff to current material. It's probably guaranteed to be higher than the 70s as far as I'm concerned, and probably not going to exceed the 2000s.

[Johnatellodi]

The "2000 era" is my personal favorite.

I just adore Ultimate Spider-Man and I'm quite nostalgic of JrJr's Spider-Man art from that time.

The 60's books are the touchstone, with all due respect. Stan has a gift for creating characters and the Ditko/Romita art is the stuff of legend.
The 80's were also fantastic for all the reasons listed eloquently above, but no one got inside Peter's head like Brian Michael Bendis. He really made Spider-Man feel "three dimensional" to me, which gave the stories gravitas. I truly miss that version of Peter Parker and wish he was still around in the books today.

[WebLurker]

The "2000 era" is my personal favorite.

I just adore Ultimate Spider-Man...

Hear, hear.

...and I'm quite nostalgic of JrJr's Spider-Man art from that time.

Who's that?

[boots]

Hear, hear.



Who's that?

john romita jr, though i don't think he touched the ultimate title

[WebLurker]

john romita jr, though i don't think he touched the ultimate title

Okay, I have heard of him. I think you're right that he never did Ultimate.

[Metamorphosis]

Okay, I have heard of him. I think you're right that he never did Ultimate.

JR Jr. did ASM with JMS.

[Scott Taylor]

It's a cheap answer, but I wouldn't want to rate the current decade since the work is too recent to get a sense of staying power. It's also largely defined by two lengthy ongoing runs (Slott on Amazing/ Superior Spider-Man, Bendis on Miles Morales) which we may have higher impressions of when we see more of the payoff. It's probably guaranteed to be higher than the 70s as far as I'm concerned, and probably not going to exceed the 2000s.

In terms of staying power, its hard to argue against the Lee/Ditko era being the best era for that. Moreso than any other Marvel hero, there is just something magical about Spider-Man's original run. The FF's original run with Lee and Kirby is arguably as good or better, but for me it is a close second to Spider-Man.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

The "2000 era" is my personal favorite.

I just adore Ultimate Spider-Man and I'm quite nostalgic of JrJr's Spider-Man art from that time.

The 60's books are the touchstone, with all due respect. Stan has a gift for creating characters and the Ditko/Romita art is the stuff of legend.
The 80's were also fantastic for all the reasons listed eloquently above, but no one got inside Peter's head like Brian Michael Bendis. He really made Spider-Man feel "three dimensional" to me, which gave the stories gravitas. I truly miss that version of Peter Parker and wish he was still around in the books today.

I was so caught up thinking about 616 Spider-Man that I totally spaced USM. I guess that makes the current decade my least favorite.

[Grim Ghost]

I liked the fire lord story -for what it was ...

It was kind of a day in the life type story with a perfect series of events that lead to an outcome that was one in a million; he wS Buster Douglas in that one, and we got to watch .. Even if the dialogue a bit corny.

99% of the time Firelord would rip spideys brain out his pee hole by the spinal column ... This was the 1%, and they never made it out to be more...

Reminded me of the early books where puny Parker beats up the bullies

Best part is it was a couple of issues, then it went back to normal ... It wasn't a 6 issue arc with cross overs with the fate of the world attached.

Pretty much. It ended up being Spidey's best day and Firelord's worst day. Firelord even comments in the story how easy it would be for him to simply fly into space and incinerate NYC. He doesn't because he wants to crush him face to face.

I love the Firelord story. I think a lot of people that hate on it are a little too obsessed with power levels and stuff.

[phantom1592]

60s: Debut, Stan was at his best working with strong artists like Ditko and Romita. The majority of memorable villains and supporting characters are introduced. Spidey has only 1 title with some guest appearances. The drawbacks are that Stan’s dialogue doesn’t age that well and there is not much material to choose from outside the main title.

This is my opinion too... In fact I don't even really consider the 60's when it comes to 'what was best...' because they REALLY don't age well. Stan Lee and Ditko and Kirby and the rest of the classic Silver age gods... really haven't aged well. The artwork is stilted at best and the writing is just... bad.

However while I really don't have the love for the words and layouts of the classics... I absolutely LOVE the designs and origins and stories. They designed and created some of the greatest costumes and characters and backstories that have ever existed... but the actual books of that era are REALLY hard to read now days.

Ultimate Spider-man? I don't really count that either as 'the real spider-man'. There was a time that I Loved that book like no other and felt that Bendis was doing better with Ultimate Peter than anyone else was doing with 'real peter'... but it was still an alternate universe dealing with rehashed stories. Even with the new and creative spins that Bendis put on things... it was still Meeting Gwen for the first time, or The Symbiote saga, or Carnage or Morbius... the same stuff we already read in the regular book and watched on the movies and every incarnation of the cartoon since the 90's... It was fun to read, but it certainly didn't feel original.

Honestly, that was one of my favorite things ABOUT Ultimate was that it felt like a 'back to basics' version of Spider-man.

[Rincewind]

This is my opinion too... In fact I don't even really consider the 60's when it comes to 'what was best...' because they REALLY don't age well. Stan Lee and Ditko and Kirby and the rest of the classic Silver age gods... really haven't aged well. The artwork is stilted at best and the writing is just... bad.

However while I really don't have the love for the words and layouts of the classics... I absolutely LOVE the designs and origins and stories. They designed and created some of the greatest costumes and characters and backstories that have ever existed... but the actual books of that era are REALLY hard to read now days.

Ultimate Spider-man? I don't really count that either as 'the real spider-man'. There was a time that I Loved that book like no other and felt that Bendis was doing better with Ultimate Peter than anyone else was doing with 'real peter'... but it was still an alternate universe dealing with rehashed stories. Even with the new and creative spins that Bendis put on things... it was still Meeting Gwen for the first time, or The Symbiote saga, or Carnage or Morbius... the same stuff we already read in the regular book and watched on the movies and every incarnation of the cartoon since the 90's... It was fun to read, but it certainly didn't feel original.

Honestly, that was one of my favorite things ABOUT Ultimate was that it felt like a 'back to basics' version of Spider-man.

I agree on Ultimate Spider-Man. As much as I enjoy the title and storylines, I always thought of it as an alternate universe take on Peter. In one of the threads I posted that I like post OMD over pre OMD stories. One of the posters used Ultimate as an example of pre OMD story quality. In my mind, it just shows how the main Spider-Man title for that period were at a low point if you have to have Ultimate as an example of good Spidey stories at the time.

[Bor]

Okay, I have heard of him. I think you're right that he never did Ultimate.

You really should check his work out. He is usually considered among the best artists to have worked on Spidey by a lot of fans.
Espescially his work with JMS. His work on the character spans several decades and represent a fairly big part of Spideys history.

[Mister Mets]

In terms of staying power, its hard to argue against the Lee/Ditko era being the best era for that. Moreso than any other Marvel hero, there is just something magical about Spider-Man's original run. The FF's original run with Lee and Kirby is arguably as good or better, but for me it is a close second to Spider-Man.

Yeah, with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, there is a challenge in living up to the original material. I kinda doubt anyone on Batman is looking at themselves in the mirror, and wondering if they can tell stories as well as Bill Finger and Bob Kane.