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.
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- 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.
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Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
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Its Mephisto actually
Well unironically yeah, the writers have been pushing Mephisto as Spider-Man's Big Bad since he's responsible for a lot of pain in Peter's life, including everything Norman and Otto did.
I fucking hate it though, since the Wells run is basically playing Norman selling his son's soul for SYMPATHY.
When even the Gold Goblin series had him taking ownership of that.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I feel more charitable about Slott’s run after Wells and Spencer
Don’t agree with a lot of creative decisions Slott made but he was writing Spider-Man for so long he was bound to go to some bonkers places to try to keep things fresh
Forever liveblogging the AvengersWell Dan Slott knows he has to play ball with Editorial and keep up the illusion of change with lots of gimmicks like Spider-Man getting swapped with Doc Ock, running his own company, ETC.
It's really telling his best work on Spider-Man was Renew Your Vows.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I think Slott is a perfectly fine writer, but he’s also a suck-up to editorial who will always play to their whims and ghost-writing because he’s a “don’t rock the boat” kind of employee and that’s the only kind of writer who lasts on Spider-Editorial nowadays due to the way people like Quesada, Lowe, and Cebulski bully anybody who doesn’t lay down and take it off the book. And his personality and relations with fans online is just awful and makes him look like an egotistical prick at times.
But in terms of pure quality as a writer, he’s far from the worst and has a lot of good stories under his belt, especially when he’s got Christos Gage reining in his weaker qualities. He’s also far from the best, though. He IS probably one of the best writers to handle Spider-Man’s main book since OMD, but that’s a bar so low that it’s in the pits of Hell, and his work would be MUCH better if he wasn’t having to constantly appease editorial.
Now that superior is an Iconic era, I guess, it’s going to be harder for Ock to be The archnemesis if he just keeps having periods where he’s an anti hero that Peter just ignores
Like Venom
Once Venom started protecting a homeless community in San Francisco (or was it LA?) it was hard for him to still be one of Spider-Man’s big three villains because now they’re basically coworkers that dislike each other moderately
Forever liveblogging the Avengers![]()
The other era where Ock had a claim to the arch enemy crown was post death of Gwen Stacy and pre-finale of the 2nd Clone Saga.
He was overshadowed by Venom during his villain days though, and Hobgoblin.
It is pretty amusing that modern stories do the whole rivalry thing with Otto and Norman with the latter being Always Someone Better to Otto that originated in Spectacular.
They literally first met decades after their debut, in Marvel Knights, and it was because Doc Ock was brainwashed into fighting Green Goblin by the police.
Yeah that was weird.
It's funny that ALL THREE of Spider-Man's greatest villains have had an extended period where they're allies to Peter.
Hell, Norman is basically the MJ in his life thanks to Wells, without the romantic stuff.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Dec 3rd 2023 at 8:00:39 PM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Mary Jane.
Like just go crazy at this point, since Editorial knows they can get away with any stupid idea since Spider-Man comics sell.
Besides, there's already an evil red head running around that looks like Mary Jane.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!""Happy Charles noises"
Well Ultimate Kingpin does have a stake to being Ultimate Peter Parker's arch enemy besides Ultimate Norman.
Since Otto and Venom aren't nearly as presistant. Well okay, Otto was behind the Clone Saga there.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"My only thought is that Kingsley Hobgoblin is usually too smart to want to be an archnemesis
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI mean, he didn't want to make things personal with Spider-Man, but anyone who tries to succeed Norman as a Goblin themed villain is def going to come across Spider-Man.
Plus the Hobgoblin was pretty prominant in a lot of stories in the 70s and 80s. It was a decades long mystery on who he was after all.
Mostly because the writers behind the scenes fucked up.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I hope we get a part 3 for Petra/Princess Spinstress' story. It left off on a pretty big cliffhanger with Merry James Watson becoming Venom.
The Protomen enhanced my life.The funny part is that he's a composite character of MJ and Peter Parker. (Also gives me Orpheus from Hadestown vibes.)
The Protomen enhanced my life.Well let's see.
His 3 main villains are GG, Ock and Venom.
Peter has worn Venom a few times, and Venom is his dark mirror. Ock has literally been Peter once. And Osborn is good whenever Peter is bad.
The only way "Peter's worst villain is himself" could be more literal is if Paul really does turn out to be a future Peter.
#IceBearForPresident
