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
Ned being "the one true Hobgoblin" is kind of a hilarious thing to claim, given he was never supposed to be Hobgoblin to begin with.
I can get behind the rest of the stuff though.
While we're talking about "what I'd do if I wrote Spider-Man", I think I've mentioned on here before that me and my best friend have a pitch for a Spidey run we made years ago and keep around. It's basically Serial Experiments Lain but with Spider-Man, and goes really hard on horror and deconstruction, basically depicting Spidey and his rogues and supporting cast all being driven steadily insane and physically destroyed by the constant retcon bullshit.
I think here's what I would do with Spider-Man.
First, give him a new love interest. Probably a civilian. Someone who's fun and kinda silly and plays off Peter's own sense of humour, rather than being dry and belittling Peter. Let her be someone he can relax around. Let the relationship start as casual dating and progress into something serious, and give it at least 5 years. If editorial isn't going to have Peter and MJ get back together permanently, that's fine, but give him something long-term and emotionally healthy. Some readers will never accept her because she's not MJ, but most will be willing to accept her, if she's not written as being "better" than Peter. (Hell, make her fun enough, and supportive enough of Peter, and even some of the people who hate any non-MJ love interest will come around on her.)
Second, find that balance between his victories and defeats. One major thing from the classic days is that, for the most part, when things were going well for Peter, they were going poorly for Spidey, and vice versa. So bring that back. Rather than him having a shitty time in both identities, let things go up and down for each and both. Sometimes, sure, things are going poorly for both identities. That should be followed by things going well for both identities, then a downturn for one identity, then an upturn for that one and a downturn for the other, and so on.
Third, try to keep the book relatively family-friendly. Don't go too dark, at least not too often. Amazing Spider-Man should not be the book where you expect to see horror or gore or shit like that. You can have other Spider-Man books for that. ASM should have a more classic superhero comic vibe, meaning something that the average parent wouldn't have a problem with, say, a 10-year-old reading. Make the book appropriate for 10-year-olds, even if it's not actually aimed at them. Adults will still be fine with that. The creators should be making the book for themselves, telling stories they want to read, it's just a matter of how they tell the stories. Part of that also means not dredging too deep into obscure continuity. Keep it reasonably easy for a new reader to pick it up and say, "Ah, OK, I understand what's going on here, the relationships between these characters is communicated in a clear and concise manner."
Fourth, one cannot underestimate the value of having a consistent artist. A writer and artist team is an incredible thing. You can have fill-in artists for one-shot or two-part stories, but the bulk of the series should have a single artist helping to define it. Also, pay them more. They deserve it, comic artists are frigging wizards and deserve to be compensated.
Fifth, you need an issue with the Fabulous Frog-Man.
And finally, Carthage must be destroyed.
So those are some of my ideas for what should be done with Amazing Spider-Man.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 is back and it's very much a direct continuation of Peter David's original 2099 series.
Liked it, but not sure how much of that's nostalgia for the original take on Miguel.
It's also got a guest appearance by Jake Gallows, Punisher 2099. Which seems to ignore the Continuity Snarl that either had him escaped to space or killed by Herod's forces. So he now gets stabbed through the brain by a symbiote-enhanced Kron Stone instead.
I would have Peter worked in the FEAST, where he could help people as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
Honestly, if OMD ever retconned, I would say instead of erasing the BND continuity, just have both Peter and MJ acknowledged the mistake they made, keep living to make up for the all the time they have lost to one another.
Over in asm sandman is now going by William baker again and trying to be good, he turned himself in a is wearing an inhibitor collar. He does freak out when Peter tells him he is friends with spider-man who worries about him, but he gains control of himself from the flint side of him and tells Peter to warn spider-man that Otto and the six are up to stuff
With sliding timescale, you can eventually hand wave all the BND stuff as a weird year where Peter and MJ had a trial separation over something or other
Maybe suggest by a couples counselor who will turn out to be Mysterio.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYup.
Eight Months Later.
Gonna be a bear to deal with when the sliding timescale hits it. Then again, most explicit mentions of time passing get ignored anyway when the slide hits them
Forever liveblogging the AvengersLatest Carnage issue creates some tension between the symbiote and Cletus. They kinda already killed off the Extremebiote Cletus, but I wonder if this will lead up to a confrontation between the 2? Carnage wants apotheosis, and spent a long time trying to deliberately become the God of Butchers. Cletus infamously hates planning, turning on his own allies and becoming extra violent to his enemies when they suggest there's some pattern or method to his slaughter.
#IceBearForPresidentDouble post. Caught this video
about Peter's patrol route. Kinda sad.
I wanted to properly embed it, but I couldn't figure out how for some reason. That's super annoying.
One Strip! One Strip!
The good news is, that's why none of his enemies have managed to beat him up.
Because nobody beats up Spiderman as much as Spiderman does.

If I was a Spider-Man writer, I'd do the following:
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Mar 12th 2024 at 6:12:59 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.