Comic Book / The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski)

aka: JMS Spider Man

Spider-Man, created in the Silver Age by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko has been written by various writers over the years. One of them was J. Michael Straczynski, who wrote over seventy issues of our favorite wall-crawler's adventures. His run was one of the most acclaimed by critics, controversial among fans and... screwed by Executive Meddling in the history of Marvel Comics publishing, despite the fact that Joe Quesada promised JMS very large creative freedom at the beginning.

This run, along with Ultimate Spider-Man, helped remake Spider-Man into one of the flagship characters of Marvel Comics in the early 2000s after the confusing and turbulent storylines of the mid-to-late '90s. Until confusing and turbulent storylines overtook the title again... Roughly about half of the complete run was a retool of the traditional Spider-Man mythos and character dynamics, the other half being ever more outlandish crossover events between other titles and gigantic wrestling matches between "new and edgy" plot developments and the status quo of earlier.

Notable concepts brought about during the JMS run include Spider-Man's (and many of his rogues') animal motifs having potential supernatural origins, Spider-Man as a permanent and visible member of the Avengers (really a case of Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers title bleeding over), organic web-shooters (to link up with the Sam Raimi films), "Iron Spider", and the public reveal of Spider-Man being Peter Parker.

Followed by One More Day and Brand New Day. Elements of this run also featured throughout The Amazing Spider-Man (2018). Also in 2002, JMS and the team won an Eisner Award for Best Serialised Story in honour of #30-35, “Coming Home”.

Notable storylines created during this run includes:

• Sins Past
• The Other
• Back in Black

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JMS' Spider-Man provides examples of the following tropes:

In General

• Animal-Themed Superbeing: One of the more notable additions to JMS' Spider-Man is the addition of possible supernatural influences on the very odd coincidence that Spidey and a lot of his enemies are themed after animals.
• Character Development: All Parkers grew a lot as individuals throughout the run. Peter and Mary Jane got back together and became a stable couple, and Aunt May began supporting Peter's actions as Spider-Man upon finding out his secret identity. However, these developments were erased after Joe Quesada mandated it all to be retconned away in One More Day.
• Characterization Marches On: JMS based his version of Aunt May on the more intelligent, sensible May glimpsed in stories by writers like Roger Stern and J.M. De Matteis, along with the fiery May seen in the Ultimate title. He also quietly let the "goofy old gal" characterization brought back by the Byrne run lapse into the past.
• Shared Fate Ultimatum: "Back in Black" has Peter Parker tell the Kingpin that he will come to finish him off on the day that Aunt May dies.
• Very Special Episode: Some issues interrupt the main plot to address real world problems that were especially relevant at the time. One story has Peter try to help one of his students who has a junkie brother and turns out they're both homeless (and in a subversion to the way the trope is usually played this issue opens with a longer story arc and the girl is one of the central characters of it). Also, there is a special issue about 9/11.

Vol. 2

• And I Must Scream: Charlie Weiderman's fate in The Amazing Spider-Man #518, when Spider-Man is forced to harden the liquid Vibranium skinsuit he's wearing, immobilizing him forever, although doctors are able to penetrate the suit enough to take care of Charlie's bodily needs, keeping him alive. The Amazing Spider-Man #582 mentions that he was eventually freed.
• Bad Future: During the Happy Birthday story arc, while Peter is unstuck in time, he sees a possible future where his future self has been prosecuted by police (strongly hinting that he killed somebody) and shot to death while fighting policemen.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man #508, the Great Weaver chose Peter to be its avatar because of his inner rage against the world for being put down upon and bullied all his life.
  Great Weaver: You were chosen for your rage. Who could be a better hunter than one who had been prey? Someone who would be driven to fight back against the dark forces sent by the world, who would never stop, even though they were bigger and more and perhaps even stronger than he was. Because having once been prey, he would never allow himself to become such again. Would never surrender. Would take death before submission.
• The Butler Did It: In The Amazing Spider-Man #522, Spider-Man pauses while searching the closet of a HYDRA agent to deliver this line to an empty room, on the grounds that he's waited his whole life to say it.

  "You see, Inspector? I was right! The butler did it!"
  I am so nine years old.
  Nine and a half come July.
  Stop that.

• Cannot Spit It Out: This is talked about when May finds out that Peter is Spider-Man and talks to him about it in The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #38. She specifically points out that she's a big girl and won't just keel over, and that she will be worried, but he has her blessing.
  May Parker: What did you think would happen if I found out, Peter? Did you think I would just keel over and die?
• Canon Discontinuity: The 9/11 issue, as it happens in the middle of a different story and is never mentioned again. Justified in that Marvel wanted to address the disaster, and for obvious reasons could not have planned the issue to fit into the current storyline.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Morwen, First Sorceress of Chaos. She actually wanted to ally herself with Peter, rather than Loki, because the former has a chaotic character, while the latter wants to control others.
• Clothing Damage: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #31, Morlun mops the floor with Peter during their first battle, and his costume is ripped up more and more during each altercation, to the point that it's almost completely in tatters near the end revealing nasty shots of Peter's broken, bloodied, burned, and bruised body, making it look like this time around he's finally met his match. After he finally figures out a way to defeat Morlun, Peter changes to a new, undamaged costume for their rematch.
• Combat Cue Stick: During the Other story arc, Mary-Jane uses a pool cue to fight off a Loony Fan who had been stalking her.
• Cool Old Guy: Ezekiel. Right after they meet, Peter compares him to Uncle Ben.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Luke Carlyle seems to be a little bit of a deconstruction as he found out that being one is too much effort and trouble and decided that becoming a typical supervillain is much easier.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Digger was trying to convince Spider-Man that the gangster he was protecting was trying to do this to him. Spidey, fortunately, is in a completely different mindset.
  Spider-Man: Spider.
• Costume Copycat: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #43, Luke Carlyle steals Doctor Octopus's technology and builds himself a new, improved Octopus suit.
• Crazy-Prepared: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #54, Peter Parker once explained to his wife Mary-Jane that one of the things in the super-hero community that no one talks about is the fact that everyone is observing each other in case they find themselves having to take down another hero. He said that he could for example stop the Hulk, but it would mean killing him.
• Crystal-Ball Scheduling: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #43-45, Peter and Aunt May visit the set of an upcoming Amazing Lobster-Man movie that Mary Jane is working on. Parts of the movie reflect his life even in aspects that the filmmakers presumably couldn't have known about, such as the movie's hero getting his powers after being bitten by a radioactive lobster — and even more so when it's changed to him getting his powers from being The Chosen One of a Lobster-God, reflecting the change JMS had just made to Spidey's own origin.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the Back In Black storyline, when Aunt May is shot and nearly killed, Peter loses it big time and tracks down the responsible party. When it turns out to be the Kingpin, Peter effortlessly and quite savagely beats the living shit out of him, then informs the battered, broken Kingpin that if May dies, so will he.
• Did the Earth Move for You, Too?: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50, Peter and MJ reconcile, and whilst they're holding each other Doctor Doom (who was being attacked at the airport they were in) moves from underneath the rubble, prompting MJ to ask "Did the ground just move?" and Peter to respond "It always does".
• Divine Parentage: Tess Black is the daughter of the Norse god Loki and a human woman, something she is unaware of.
• Doing in the Scientist: Ezekiel tries to do this by suggesting it wasn't the radiation that gave Peter his powers, but a totemic spider-god called the Great Weaver, and that the spider that bit Peter would've given him his powers radiation or no radiation.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Spider-Man defeats Morlun the first time, his servant, Dex, shoots him to death as revenge for bad treatment.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In The Amazing Spider-Man #522, Wolverine makes an inappropriate comment about Mary Jane. Spider-Man responds by punching the mutant through a window made of indestructible glass. After recovering, Logan grumbles that Parker can’t take a joke.
• Elaborate Underground Base: In The Amazing Spider-Man #522, after finding the secret Hydra base, Peter wonders how Hydra can build one of these in New York while it's taken the city three extra months to finish a subway extension.
• Embarrassing Cover Up:
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #38, this is revealed to have happened accidentally to Spider-Man, which had kept Aunt May from guessing Peter's real secret. She'd had the feeling that he was hiding something, and noticed that he seemed to be a bit awkward around girls, so she thought that he might be gay.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #43, Aunt May uses this to help Peter get past the TSA agents at the airport by implying that his web shooters were gynecological equipment. She started explaining how they worked and the agents couldn't pack them back up fast enough.
• Enemy Mine: Spidey and Octopus during a fight with Carlyle.
  Spider-Man: Wait, you are helping me?
  Doctor Octopus: No. Hurting him.
• Enlightened Antagonist: Ezekiel Sims is a sort of a spiritual mentor to Spider-Man who teaches him that his superhero powers have a mystical rather than a sci-fi origin, coming from a totemic spider deity called the Great Weaver and a mystic force called the Web of Life (he has similar powers himself). However, it turns out that he also has a dark secret: he acquired these powers through an illegitimate magic ritual because he just wanted to be superhuman, and when an otherworldy being known as the Gatekeeper comes to kill him for that, he tries to sacrifice Peter to the Gatekeeper instead in order to survive. Nonetheless, he has a last-moment change of heart and gives up his own life to let Peter live.
• Even Nerds Have Standards: In high school, Charlie Weiderman was such a big nerd that even Peter once picked on him (though motivated largely by a desire to keep his bullies' attention focused on their new target and away from him for once).
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Ezekiel is essentially this. Whereas Spider-Man used his powers to help others and fight evil, he rejected his task and used his powers for selfish purposes. Ultimately he realizes this and sacrifices himself to save Spider-Man.
  • Charlie Weiderman is what Peter might have become if he hadn't had Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Both were highly intelligent but physically unimpressive kids who were bullied a lot, and both dreamed of one day getting back at their tormentors. But Peter had strong moral guidance from his parental figures to instill in him his sense of responsibility; while Charlie had little support from parents who were implied to be uninvolved and sometimes abusive, and always fell back on blaming others for his problems and actions, which persisted into adulthood.
• French Cuisine Is Haughty: There is a minor running gag of Peter and MJ repeating visiting a French restaurant and Peter getting aggravated with the snooty waiter.
• French Jerk: Peter Parker has a couple of run-ins with an obnoxious French waiter.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Morlun has almost no real backstory to speak of, and his exact nature was never revealed during the run. Morlun's personality was pretty bland as well since he really only wanted to "eat" Spidey and stated that it wasn't personal. For some unfathomable reason, this was the first time a villain had ever made Spider-Man angry, even when guys like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus had kidnapped, murdered or otherwise threatened his loved ones. It was not until Spider-Verse that his backstory, personality, and motivation were established.
• Heel Realization: Ezekiel when he tries to sacrifice Spider-Man to save himself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ezekiel sacrifices his life to save Peter from the Gatekeeper.
• Last Stand: In The Amazing Spider-Man #500, Peter witnesses an alternate self make a last stand against the police in a Bad Future.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Spider-Man in his final battle with Morlun. He was perfectly skilled before, but there he finally drops the jokes to focus on teaching Morlun a lesson.
• Implacable Man: Morlun — he's basically Spidey's Pyramid Head in the first story.
  Spider-Man: I hit him with everything I've got. He keeps coming. I hit him with everything I can find. He keeps coming.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #55, Peter had a job as a high school science teacher. This exchange followed after he met a particularly troublesome student:
  Melissa Coolridge: Sheesh! Forget it. I wouldn't expect an old nerd like you to understand.
  Peter Parker: Old?!
  Melissa Coolridge: I see you didn't argue with the nerd part.
  Peter Parker: Old?!
• Large Ham: Lampshaded in The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50, in which Doctor Doom expresses displeasure at being escorted through the public terminal of an airport due to mechanical difficulties (amusingly, the guard turns out to be Captain America undercover.):
  Doom: Typical shoddy American workmanship. Such incompetence would not be permitted in the Latveria of — DOCTOR DOOM.
  Guard: How do you do that?
  Doom: Do what?
  Guard: Speak in all capitals like that?
  Doom: Silence, minion.
• Legacy of the Chosen: Ezekiel Sims is a previous bearer of the Spider-Totem, who teaches Spider-Man that his powers don't exactly work the way Peter thought they did and warns him that Morlun is hunting him for them.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The cover for The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #36 is completely black, with white lettering and no artwork. It was about the September 11th attacks.
• Mistaken for Gay: When Aunt May discovers the truth about her nephew's super-hero identity she admits that for the longest time due to his sometimes odd behavior and natural sensitivity she thought he was gay.
• Mob-Boss Suit Fitting: Used for humor. Morlun is introduced with lots of grim foreshadowing about how evil and powerful he is. That's exactly what the narrative captions are talking about, while the art shows him having a suit fitted. Morlun's dialogue, though, is focused on whether or not the new outfit makes his butt look big.
• Modesty Bedsheet: When Peter and Mary Jane make love for the first time after reconciling, they're show lying in bed post-coital under a bedsheet up to their waist, with MJ lying on her stomach with Toplessness from the Back.
• Moment Killer: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50, Peter and MJ finally attempt to reconcile despite complications like attempting to fly to each others' homes at the same time without calling first. Luckily, they bump into each other after a storm forces both their flights to make an emergency stop in Denver. It's all very dramatic and emotional, and just as they sit down to talk, Peter finds himself utterly speechless with a Deer in the Headlights expression on his face despite MJ questioning the life of a superhero's significant other... because GOD-DAMNED DOCTOR DOOM JUST WALKED INTO THE LOUNGE. Which of course precedes an attempt on the dictator's life.
• More than Just a Teacher: Early on in the run, Peter starts work as a science teacher at a New York public school. Amongst the issues he must deal with as Spider-Man are thwarting a school shooting, tracking down kidnapped kids, and discovering that one of his students is a dangerous and murderous mutant (who instantly realises that Mr. Parker and Spider-Man are the same person because they have the same voice) ^note  Other material states that Peter normally tries to make himself sound different when he's Spider-Man, combined with his mask also changing his voice a bit . Another awkward episode for him is when the kids learn that he is famous for taking pictures of Spider-Man and they are more interested in that than listening to his lesson.
  • When he reveals his secret identity, it becomes even harder for him to be an effective teacher, as students are naturally more interested in his adventures while parents and fellow teachers are terrified of the attention he'll bring from supervillains and criminals seeking payback.
• Muggle in Mage Custody: The supernatural creature Morlun enslaves ordinary humans, making them do his bidding and take care of mundane arrangements for him, in a similar fashion as Renfield did for Dracula. His latest human is a mysterious man called Dex who manages to break free thanks to Spidey.
• Myth Arc: invoked The search for answers about Spider-Man's powers, the "Spider-Totem", and the battle against Morlun. Sadly Executive Meddling resulted in the whole idea being screwed. At least until Araña/Spider-Girl's comic series tied into it, with the titular character working for a company founded by Ezekiel Sims and joining a cult worshipping the Spider-Totems, and Spider-Island brought back the Queen and Web of Life. It comes back with a vengeance in Spider-Verse, where Morlun's family and the Spider-Totems are central parts of the story.
• Mythology Gag: In The Amazing Spider-Man #517, Peter heads to the theater where Mary Jane is rehearsing a play to warn her that she could be under attack, only to be kept out by an usher while the rehearsal is still going on, similar to a scene where Peter wasn't allowed into a play after it had started in Spider-Man 2. As a bonus, the usher is drawn to look like Bruce Campbell.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: During the infamous "Sin Past" arc, Peter states that a sure way to piss him off is to insult Gwen Stacy. Ironically, the story is reviled precisely because it tried to change this, retconning that Gwen cheated on Peter and slept with her future killer.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Reed Richards used his device to stop Mindless Ones, he allowed Dormamu to escape from his prison.
• Noble Demon: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #50, after Spidey has saved Doctor Doom from an assassination attempt, he tells Spider-Man that he will repay him for saving his life one day. When Spidey rejected the offer, Doom stated that he immediately repaid the debt by not killing Spidey for his ingratitude.
• Nobody Poops: Averted, the first thing Peter does coming back home after defeating Morlun is to go to the bathroom. In another story, we see him coming out of the bathroom while pulling his pants on.
• No-Dialogue Episode: Back in February 2002, Marvel did "'Nuff Said Month". The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #39 sees Peter, Mary Jane, and Aunt May trying to live their normal lives, but still struggling with the recent changes to them.
• Odd Friendship: The short-lived (2-issue) team-up of Spider-Man and Loki went a lot like this. Loki wants to save one of his mortal offspring from the Chaos Sorceress possessing her. Spider-Man wants to save the world from that sorceress (and get her to stop hitting on him). They work together. Awesomeness ensues. On Loki's end, complaining that Spider-Man isn't giving him enough respect as a god and wondering why mortals are all so weird. On Spider-Man's, wondering what working with a mostly-evil guy like Loki means and buying chili dogs to share with Loki.
• One-Winged Angel: When Morlun goes to Stark Tower to finish Peter off and breaks Mary Jane's arm when she tries to stop him, Peter wakes up, partially transforms into Man-Spider, and kills him.
• Parting-Words Regret: During the course of Peter and May's talk after May discovers that he is Spider-Man, May tells him that the night his Uncle Ben was killed, she and he had been fighting - not over anything major, just one of any number of small, inconsequential disagreements that happen over the course of a long marriage, and nothing they weren't going to easily make up over. But Ben had stepped outside to clear his head... and the reconciliation would never happen. Peter, she explains, isn't the only one who's been carrying guilt since that fateful night.
• Radiation-Immune Mutants: Spider-Man defeats Morlun by exposing himself to radiation that he's immune to after being bitten by a radioactive spider, meaning that Morlun just absorbs deadly radiation instead of Spidey's powers.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Spider-Man delivered one to Doctor Doom. Doom responds by saying that Spidey still lives only because Doom owes him his life.
• Respected by the Respected: When Peter was slowly dying and the heroes were desperately looking for a way to save him, King T'Challa, the Black Panther, brought him to Wakanda to see what could be done. They couldn't find anything, so T'Challa's last resort was to allow Peter to consume the Heart-Shaped Herb. T'Challa considered Peter worthy of it, and described him as a "Warrior with the Soul of a King".
• Rocky Roll Call: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #45, Luke Carlyle takes a group of people, including Aunt May and Mary Jane, hostage:
  Off-screen voice: Leave that woman alone!
  Mary Jane: Thank God... Pe—
  (Doc Ock enters)
  Mary Jane: —ter?
  Aunt May: Otto?
  Doctor Octopus: May?
  Aunt May: Otto...? Otto Octavius?
  Luke Carlyle: "Brad! Janet! Doctor Scott!"
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: When Spider-Man was being flown to Las Vegas via the private jet of a crime boss, Mr. Forelli, a scantily clad stewardess started making veiled offers to Spider-Man. Spider-Man reacts by sealing his seat away from the rest of the passenger compartment with curtains made out of his webbing, muttering, "Just slide the food through the webs and no one gets hurt."
• Self-Deprecation: One issue has two guards arguing that Babylon 5 sucks because you have to watch the last season for the previous ones to make sense.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In The Amazing Spider-Man #500, Spider-Man travels back in time to stop Mr. Fantastic from accidentally freeing Dormammu.
• Sexy Silhouette: This happens in The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #57, when Mary Jane drops her robe to join Peter in bed.
• Sexy Stewardess: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #51, while doing a favor for an aging crime boss, a stewardess tries to seduce Spider-Man. Since this happened during the period he and Mary-Jane were back together, the results were quite humorous.
  Spider-Man: (from inside a large amount of webbing he's put up to keep the scantily-dressed "attendant" at bay} Just slip the food through the webs and no one gets hurt.
• Shout-Out: Upon meeting the Gatekeeper, Spider-Man references Ghostbusters (1984). JMS, of course, worked on The Real Ghostbusters.
• Stay on the Path: In The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #46, Doctor Strange sends Peter to the Astral Plane to fight a villain, with a warning not to leave the designated path. He strays off after seeing some random giant spider-shaped thingie and accidentally unleashes a spider-eating Wasp spirit named Shathra who makes his life miserable for a while afterward.
• Survival Mantra: When Spidey faces off a few enemies who have proven to be far stronger than he is, he reminds himself that while he is a man, he is also part spider, and spiders are hunters.
• Sympathetic Murderer: The first act of Charlie Weiderman as a supervillain is to kill the Jerk Jock and Alpha Bitch who tormented him back at school. While they certainly didn't deserve to be murdered, it's hard to feel sorry for them.
• Thematic Rogues Gallery: Lampshaded, when Ezekiel pointed out that Spider-Man has many more animal-themed villains than any other superhero. After a few encounters with mystical villains, Ezekiel was trying to use this trope as proof that Peter's powers are magical though it's implied at least some of those mystical enemies were actually after Ezekiel himself.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Spidey was very close to breaking this rule twice, with Morlun and Shathra, however, both times he was spared from making the choice because somebody or something else killed them. He actually killed Digger, but he was a zombie, so it doesn't count.
• Topless From The Back: When Peter and Mary Jane make love for the first time after reconciling, they're shown lying in bed post-coital under a Modesty Bedsheet up to their waist, with MJ lying naked on her stomach.
• Treacherous Advisor: Ezekiel definitely plays this role. In Civil War tie-ins, Iron Man tends that way too.
• The Trickster: It's pointed out during the team-up between Spider-Man and Loki that both of them are different examples of tricksters and explored the differences between them. Particularly since the Totem story arc set Peter up as a kind of successor to Anansi, the spider trickster from African Mythology. Hence the parallel to Loki, the Norse trickster.
• Villains Out Shopping: When Ezekiel tells Peter about Morlun, he talks about what "dark rituals" he's probably using to get ready. We cut to Morlun getting a new suit for two panels.
  Morlun: Does this make my butt look fat?
• We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future: The lack of pockets in Spider-Man's costume is directly addressed. Spider-Man spends some of his time hanging upside down, so conventional pockets wouldn't work (the contents would fall out). Zippers, and flaps secured by Velcro, make too much noise to be practical for a superhero who relies on stealth. A utility belt is the obvious answer, and Spidey has one — but the compartments are all used for web fluid refills, Spider-Tracers, and a flashlight. He still doesn't have a good way to carry a wallet and keys — or a camera (necessary during the periods when he earned a living as a freelance photographer). He kept a small camera attached to his belt as well. Early issues often featured panels showing him webbing it into place before a fight which somehow consistently produced well-framed shots (although JJJ at least once complained about poor composition). Along with every other benefit, he considered the symbiote suit a boon because it could form hammerspace pockets on its surface.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Aunt May jokes about someone making a movie about Spider-Man. Eventually, they go to Los Angeles to visit Mary Jane, who is starring in a movie called "The Amazing Lobster-Man". Production is complicated by the filmmakers' debating whether the title character should be bitten by a radioactive lobster or something more important like a lobster god and by Doctor Octopus.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
  • The Digger has a little bit of it, being shocked by how much the world changed when he was dead.
  • Charlie Weiderman was beaten by his father at home and bullied even more than Peter at school, before getting encased in a Vibranium skinsuit and going on a rampage.

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