This thread's for the Spider-Man comics and spin-offs, whether they're decades old or brand new.
- Apart from the main Marvel Universe titles, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man "What If?" stories, crossovers, guest appearances in other books, Alternate Universe tales and things like Marvel's manga adaptations are all on-topic here.
- Spider-Man 'family' books are on-topic (as are their own crossovers, guest appearances etc.) - e.g. Spider-Man 2099, Miles Morales, Spider-Woman, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, Carnage, Black Cat, Red Goblin and Spider-Verse.
- Characters and comics that originated in Spider-Man but are no longer directly connected to the spider-franchise (e.g. Punisher, Silver Sable) are not on-topic, unless you're discussing historical connections and crossovers. If in doubt, check before you write a long post. If this isn't the right place, there's a more general Marvel Comics thread
which covers them.
Technically, Marvel's Infinity Comics (and their predecessors, Infinite Comics) are webcomics, not comic books, but it's fine to talk about their Spider-Man stories here.
Discussions that are only about Spider-Man adaptations in other media (films, video games etc.) are off-topic, but discussing the differences between the adaptations and the original comics is fine - as long as spoilers for the adaptations are tagged.
Please follow the spoiler policy rules - tag spoilers for the latest issues, for any previews or content leaks, and for off-topic comics. When including spoiler tags, try to write so that tropers can make an informed decision before viewing them (e.g. which series and issue will they spoil?).
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
Mostly yes. And certain stories and character beats don't have the same impact with Spider-man in high school. Weisman's Spectacular is a good example. That had a high school Spider-Man. Weisman of course had plans to send him to college. But the problem is that he adapts the Master Planner story while Peter is in high school and not on the first day of college which is how Ditko did it and envisioned it. The Master Planner Saga is Peter growing up and becoming an adult superhero and not a teenage Spider-Man. It's basically his valedictory speech.
The result is that the Master Planner bit in Spectacular doesn't remotely have the same impact. I mean it's a thrill I guess to see a classic moment realized but a good chunk of what defined it is gone. Homecoming has even less than Spectacular...replacing Peter's real relationships with Ben and May and substituting it with a fake one with Tony "A-weapons-manufacturer-reforming-at-40-is-more-believable-than-a-poor-teenager-making-his-costume" Stark. That whole "nothing without the suit" is pure hot garbage. Peter has superpowers from a bite with a radioactive/genetic altered Spider-Man. He will always be something without his suit while Tony Stark will never be anything without daddy's money. So that scene has no emotion to it at all. All you have is Tom Holland doing his best to sell that with absolutely nothing given to him on a character level.
As I said, Spider-Man's a dynamic character. If you pluck bits and pieces from different points in space of Spider-Man's continuity without accounting for the character's age in time, you end up losing the emotional richness of what made it work. Adaptation isn't easy.
The Head of the Hydra
"Tony Stark will never be anything without daddy's money."
And with that one statement alone, you've shown you know JACK SHIT about Iron Man.
Like that is such an unbelievable bullshit thing to say that I don't know whether to cry or laugh.
Edited by slimcoder on Aug 13th 2019 at 6:16:47 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
MJ: Not particularly.
Tony Stark: Y'have a mean dad?
MJ: Yeah.
Tony Stark: Me too. He was soooo mad at the world. And my general existence wasn't helping him get over it. He sees you standing there and instead of seeing legacy...all he sees are missed opportunities. @#$% you, Howard.
MJ (pause): I left home the second I could.
Tony Stark: So did I.
MJ: Yeah, but you did with a big duffel bag full of cash.
Mary Jane (backed by Bendis) says as much.
Tony Stark wouldn't be everything he is (Iron Man) just because of Stark money, but would any of that be possible without it, I doubt it? That also applies to Bruce Wayne too. Batman is nothing without his trust fund.
Edited by Revolutionary_Jack on Aug 13th 2019 at 6:26:48 AM
The Head of the Hydra
And that's insinuating that Bendis' word means anything especially on the matters of characterization, something he has a bit of an issue with.
Even then I recall Tony started his own company when he lost access to Stark Industries for whatever reason & said company quickly became just as successful. He's one of the smartest men on the planet for a reason. He doesn't need his dad's fucking money, he can earn his own & already has.
Edited by slimcoder on Aug 13th 2019 at 6:31:19 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Tony Stark wouldn't be everything he is (Iron Man) just because of Stark money, but would any of that be possible without it, I doubt it? That also applies to Bruce Wayne too. Batman is nothing without his trust fund.
Tony got an amazing education, resources, networking and others handed down to him by Howard Stark. Does that negate Tony getting out of the cave with a box of scraps? No. But between Reed Richards being a middle-class kid who earned all he did with merit, Victor von Doom being a Romani peasant who made himself a powerful scientist-mage, and Peter Parker being a working-class kid who was a care-giver to his Aunt who got himself to college on scholarship, or Mary Jane coming from nothing and without a college degree earning a career for herself without superpowers and backing...I know which is more impressive.
Rich people tend to get second chances to succeed based on pre-existing capital, prestige, history and so on. Such comeback stories are itself as many economists and others point out, problematic and distorted.
Edited by Revolutionary_Jack on Aug 13th 2019 at 6:34:07 AM
Funny but not helpful
Give it a rest already
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And every time someone disagrees with you, you come in here with some super long post about how, noooo, wait actually they are wrong and you are objectively right. Even though your arguing over an opinion, therefore there is there is no "objectively" anything. And your evidence is...not really evidence at all. All it's doing is making me not want to come into this thread anymore.
Edited by alliterator on Aug 13th 2019 at 7:27:36 AM
I am sorry if you feel that way. Not my intent. Just because I type long posts that doesn't mean I think I am objectively right. I am just giving what I think is a list of my reasons is all.
Anyway, let's discuss something else...
Having recently read "Maybe Next Year" (PP:SM vol. 2 #33) and "The Longest Hindred Yards" (ASM #153), I'm interested in what people's favorite single-issue Spidey stories are, and why. Like, "Next Year" is probably mine because it adds a lot to Peter's relationship with Uncle Ben, and helps to inform Peter's Determinator tendencies.
I mean, I still have to read some of the more well-discussed ones like "The Gift" (ASM #400) or "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" (ASM #248).
Funny but not helpful
I’ve been catching up on Spencer’s Spider-Man
I love the jokes and MJ and Peter being together and all that
The arc plot with New Mystery Villain That Knows All About Peter is irritating me with the mystery and also coming in and dunking on established villains
I’m reading it on unlimited so I’m going to be six months behind even when I catch up but is it going to get better?
I just finished the arc where Peter and Spider-Man get divorced
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Spencer's Spider-Man is pretty consistent. I'd say. HUNTED though is a big issue, not only the main issues but the tie in ".HU" issues.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Favorite single issues (in no particular order):
— ASM #14 — "The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin". It's a great introduction, and still probably my favorite Goblin story, and it's just a wild comic book with all the stuff you need. Spidey goes to California for a Hollywood dream, gets ambushed by Goblin and Enforcers, gets trapped in a cave with the Hulk, who just happened to be there.
— ASM #87 — Peter reveals his identity to the gang. Probably Lee's best character work on Peter's psychology. If you want to understand Peter as a character I think this issue can tell you a great deal.
— ASM #246 — "The Daydreamers" by Roger Stern, which is his own personal favorite, and also my personal favorite of his stuff. A series of Eisner-esque vignettes on the characters and psychology of Felicia, Jonah, Mary Jane, and Peter.
— Untold Tales of Spider-Man #16 — Technically the first 616 Spider-Man comic I ever read. And it still holds up pretty well.
— Spectacular Spider-Man #21. Vol.2 — "Read 'Em and Weep" by Paul Jenkins (confusingly he has another issue with the same title published under Peter Parker Spider-Man). Another reason why Kingpin as a villain isn't fit to shine Spidey's shoes.
— Spectacular Spider-Man #5. Vol 4 — "My Dinner with Jonah" by Chip Zdarsky. Best Jonah issue, ever. Certainly a defining one for both characters.
— Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 — "The Wedding". The behind the scenes stuff has at times overwhelmed the issue itself. And it's flawed in parts, but otherwise this is a great issue and emotionally it just works.
— Sensational Spider-Man" Annual #1 — "To Have and to Hold". Matt Fraction's only Spider-Man issue and it's a masterpiece.
Edited by Revolutionary_Jack on Aug 13th 2019 at 8:00:48 AM
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
Huh. I've spent so much time jokingly shitting on Tony that I totally forgot about this.
One Strip! One Strip!
x4 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6 vol. 2, "The Legend of Spider-bite", is another really heartwarming "The Kid who Collected Spider-Man" type one-off.
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 13th 2019 at 11:09:31 AM
The Kingpin Brainwasher storyline is really weird to read nowadays since Norman Osborn helps save Captain Stacy and Gwen in the storyline and there's a hugely dramatic scene where Gwen almost dies but Peter saves her just in time.
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Wasn't it retconned that Gwen slept with Norman (somehow) as a result of that storyline?
Funny but not helpful
Spider-Man doesn’t even wear shoes. He wears sock booties
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310, the finale to Chip Zdarsky's run. Everything great about Spider-Man in one issue.
I think that storyline being behind that is a fan theory, first proposed by MadGoblin.
Apparently they were originally going to be Peter's kids but the idea was nixed because it made him too old.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Aug 13th 2019 at 8:17:11 AM
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Funny but not helpful
And like many a bad idea, after the first iteration of the idea was vetoed, JMS tried to keep the idea alive by making it worse and more palatable to the bosses
A similar thing happened with Avengers 200 where the initial idea was vetoed because it was too similar to another recent story so they tried to keep the idea around by changing it for the worst
Writers can get attached to bad ideas and make compromises to keep them, not realizing that in their effort to keep their baby alive, they’ve made a monster
Edited by Bocaj on Aug 13th 2019 at 11:20:41 AM
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
You know in Marvel Comics #1000, JMS is set to revisit Sins' Past.
There are other short comics in that too like Conway is going to do a short comic about Gwen and Mary Jane's friendship.
The Head of the Hydra
Ya know Spider-Gwen's reaction to Sin's Past could be amusing, in a Cringe Comedy sorta way.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Funny but not helpful
Oh JMS, why?
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Does Spider-Gwen have any beef with her world's Norman Osborn? Her enemies are Matt Murderdock and the Bodega Bandit. It would be creepy regardless.
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
I'm guessing she won't much care for it.
And I'm morbidly curious to see what JMS will do with his revisit of Sins Past.
Perhaps he's learned his lesson and will make something better?
One Strip! One Strip!
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 13th 2019 at 8:51:57 AM