The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) (Comic Book)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asm2015001cov.png

The longest run of Spider-Man by any writer in its history branching off from Brand New Day, saw Dan Slott, who had been contributing to the previous era's "Webhead" brain trust since 2008, emerge as the sole writer starting in 2010. Dan Slott's helm as writer has seen the franchise achieve several critically and commercially well-received story arcs. The creation of several popular spin-off titles has also resulted in the comic line effectively evolving into becoming a "Spider-Family." Slott ended his run with one last story arc — "Go Down Swinging" — in 2018, succeeded by The Amazing Spider-Man (2018).

Several notable changes that Slott has introduced into the mythos include Peter finally transitioning from being a photographer into being a full-blown scientist, first working for Horizon Labs and then later, after the Superior Spider-Man incident, working as the owner of Parker Industries, Black Cat's return to villain-hood as the new "Queenpin of Crime", several large stakes events that had Peter fight for not only the safety of New York, but the multiverse itself, and the Spider-Family becoming solidified both in universe and in Marvel proper as a sustainable pillar to the comics.

Notable storylines created during this run include:

This run has also produced a number of spin-off titles, and characters as well as AU versions such as:

Scarlet Spider ^noteStarring Kaine
Silk
The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows
Venom ^noteStarring Flash Thompson
Web Warriors ^note

Dan Slott's Spider-Man provides examples of following tropes:

open/close all folders

In General

Arc Welding: Tiberius Stone, a villain from Frank Tieri's Iron Man run, reappeared and was revealed to be the father of Tyler Stone and thus the grandfather of Miguel O'Hara.
Big Bad: With Norman Osborn Out of Focus for much of the first run, Doc Ock ends up stepping back up as Spider-Man's Arch-Enemy. This does a strange switch in that come Dying Wish, the arc following Ends of the Earth, has Ock enact his true swan song plot: using a small Octobot to swap minds with Spidey, achieving his final victory over his mortal enemy by ''becoming'' him, leaving Peter to die in his own cancer-ridden body. While Peter (reluctantly) has the Sinister Six break him out of Ryker's Island to attempt to reverse this, he actually ends up failing and does die, but not before using his memories to provoke a Heel Realization in Octavius, inspiring the villain to carry on as Spider-Man, and actually dies. From then on, Otto resolves to both honor and one-up Peter by becoming a "Superior Spider-Man", taking a practical and ruthless approach to crime fighting.
Book Ends: Slott's first storyline, Big Time, started with Phil Urich murdering Hobgoblin (in this case Roderick Kingsley's brother). His final storyline, Go Down Swinging, starts with Norman Osborn murdering Phil.
Continuity Porn: Many minor supporting characters make a surprise appearance, especially in issue #655, No One Dies. In issue #795, Loki mentions still owing Peter a favour and Peter vaguely recalls "making a deal with someone like Loki, then losing something very important", both plot points from the JMS run on the book (and, infamously, One More Day). Slott did this deliberately to create a cohesive impression that somehow every Spider-Man story post-OMD still happened, even if the context was altered.
Failure Hero: A reoccurring trend saw Peter unable to prevent the deaths of past members of the supporting cast; Billy Connors, Marla Jameson, Silver Sable. By the end, they were all clearly taking a toll on him.
Kafka Komedy: A lot of the humor of the series often came at the expense of Peter Parker. He had a tendency to face hardships and embarrass himself, often as a result of his poor decisions.
Long Runner: Slott's run with the title lasted for close to a decade, and that's not counting his tenure as one of the rotating writers during Brand New Day. He even jokingly mentioned that had he known that Brian Bendis was leaving for DC sooner than he did, he would have stuck with the title even longer so that he could break Bendis' record for longest run with the character.
Status Quo Is God: Quite the victim of this. It seems that any shocking developments Slott presented was destined to be undone in favor of going back to basics once more. Superior Spider-Man? Doc Ock's mind is erased and Peter Parker is given back his body. Parker Industries? Self-destructed and Peter is back to being an everyman who's going to go back to working for the Daily Bugle once more. Felicia Hardy becomes a criminal mastermind trying to end Spider-Man? Not only does she eventually lose her entire criminal empire, she later makes peace with Spidey and is convinced to return to her roots as a thief with a heart of gold. Norman Osborn regaining his sanity? He would later work to lose it once more to bring back the Green Goblin.
Take That, Audience!: Slott has a habit of insulting the more critical fans of his run.
The Hero Dies: Believe it or not, at the midpoint of the run, Peter actually dies in Doc Ock's sickly body in a failed attempt to reclaim his body from Octavius after the villain switched their minds via an Octobot during Dying Wish. However, Peter ensures he won't leave the world without a successor by actually convincing Otto to change his ways by having Ock experience memories of his entire life, to which the villain does vow to his dying foe to carry on as Spider-Man, before Peter succumbs to his wounds. However, Parker's soul still remained in his body and tried to influence Otto, knowing that despite his promise, a former supervillain's idea of doing good doesn't align with his own moral code, as Otto is far more prone to brutality than Peter typically allowed. His influence becomes so frequent, to the point when Otto was actually doing unquestionable good: performing brain surgery on a little girl with a tumor, Peter desperately tries to hide his presence, preventing Otto from scanning her brain in fear he will use it on himself. This turns out to be true as Otto does enact this, finding out Peter still lived within him. Refusing to give Peter his life back, they battle in their minds as Spider-Man, but using the fact Peter almost let someone die to protect himself to demoralize him, Otto pummels him and this time tries to finish him off by deleting his consciousness in revenge, seemingly killing Peter for good. However, Peter still grips on and by Goblin Nation, the final arc of Superior Spider-Man, Peter finally manages to convince Octavius to give him his body back as he has ultimately failed in his tenure as Spider-Man, and Otto admits that no one else is worthy of the name but Peter himself, expelling his own mind.

Vol. 2

Demand Overload: In-Universe. In The Amazing Spider-Man #533, when Spider-Man publicly revealed his secret identity, the Internet broke down because too many people were trying to do a name search on "Peter Parker" simultaneously.
Dramatic Dislocation: In The Amazing Spider-Man #575, Spider-Man does this in order to put a dislocated jaw back into place after battling Hammerhead. Proportionate strength of a spider + metal garbage bin = ow.
Freak Lab Accident: How Andy Maguire, soon-to-be Alpha, got his powers in a parallel to Spidey.
Gretzky Has the Ball: The Amazing Spider-Man #583 used this as part of Spot the Impostor involving Barack Obama, of all people. It all starts with trouble at the Presidential Inauguration — namely, two Obamas showing up, each claiming to be the real one. Spidey swings in and points out that Obama played basketball in college, leading to a Secret Service agent suggesting a three-point shootout to determine the real president. The fake Obama who is actually the Chameleon in disguise begins sweating and stammers something like "even if we did find a basketball field, where will we find an umpire at this hour?" Sadly, this means that the world's first three-point shootout between a supervillain and a U.S. president has yet to happen. Ironically, two of the three officials for a college basketball game are called umpires (the third, the crew chief, is the only referee), but even rabid fans of the sport often don't know this, unless they have officiated themselves.
Heroic BSoD: Peter undergoes one after the death of Marla Jameson in The Amazing Spider-Man #654. In his stressed induced unconsciousness, he's surrounded by everyone he's known who has died since taking the mantle.
The Hero Dies: Peter himself, in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, thanks to getting stuck in Doctor Octopus' dying body. He gets better.
Killed Off for Real:
- In The Amazing Spider-Man #654, Marla Jameson is killed by the Spider-Slayer while shoving Jonah Jameson out of the way of his attack.
- It was believed following Dying Wish that the same could be said for Peter himself.
Mythology Gag: The civilian name of Alpha, Spider-Man's sidekick/protege introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #692? Andrew Maguire.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In The Amazing Spider-Man #693, While Spidey rescues Alpha from The Jackal, he at one point tries to encourage Alpha to free himself. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of telling Andy that he'd lose his powers if The Jackal managed to drain them from him, prompting Andy/Alpha to break free and state that he would rather die than lose his powers and go back to being a powerless nobody like Jackal's failed clones. It's after this incident that he emancipates himself from his parents, strikes out with the family lawyer for greater fame and profit, and also becomes even more conceited than he already was. Not quite the result Peter had hoped for.
"Not So Different" Remark: In regards to Alpha, MJ points out to Peter their similarities. Deep down, Peter knew that if it weren't for the tragedy of losing Uncle Ben, he'd probably be doing exactly the same things Alpha was doing then.
Shoo Out the New Guy: Alpha certainly seems to come off as this. Andy has many parallels to Peter, with the major differences being he was an average, underachieving nobody^note before he got his powers and after he got them, he never really learned to be responsible with them like Peter had, using them to become famous. He was even given a bit of hype before his appearance and became Spidey's sidekick only to be promptly de-powered by Spidey himself after one mistake too many in the third issue he appeared in, seemingly dropping off the face of the earth. In fact, one of the fuels for his rashness was an in-universe comment on his fansite calling him The Poochie!
Took a Level in Badass:
- The entire point of The Gauntlet story arc was this, giving each of Spidey's classic villains a revisit and making them more dangerous than they had been before.
- The Origin of the Species arc gives one to Spidey after he almost loses it when he's tricked by the Chameleon to think Lily Hollister's baby was killed while he was trying to protect the baby from villains trying to sell it to Octopus. He then starts to hunt all the villains in town to avenge the baby and find the one responsible.
Thousand-Yard Stare: Alpha, immediately after Spider-Man de-powers him.
Tropical Epilogue: During The Gauntlet arc, Mysterio's ultimate goal when he takes over the Maggia is to grab as much money as he can, and "buy an island in the tropics where I can sit under palm trees and drink things out of coconuts".
Unsound Effect: In The Amazing Spider-Man #618, A battle with Mysterio gave us "Groing". For a groin shot. Also counts as a Crowning Moment Of Funny.
With Great Power Comes Great Perks: Unlike Peter, Alpha plays this trope straight, much to Peter's regret (and slight envy).