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
I'll bet not even the cavemen who invented the first wheel didn't spin the first wheel as often as this run has.
Sounds like something I heard (sorry if it sounds redundant): they wanted The Spider Who Gobs to stick around way longer, but they had to rework it because of Gang War.
Curious observation: Nauck is apparently an artist and a writer. Hoping against hope here, but maybe he's being tasked to write the stuff Wells can't? Like tidying up the Peter/MJ/Paul stuff once and for all?
We don't know officially, but the current speculation is that it'll last 60 issues.
Did he seriously think nobody would notice or what?
Either Wells and Lowe are in "I can do whatever the f*ck I want" mode or Tom Brevoort can't protect them anymore, so they're just setting everything on fire just because.
Someone compared this to the Rosenberg run on X-Men just before Hickman cleaned house and made the franchise respectable again with the Krakoan Age and honestly, I'm also noticing that. The Wells-Lowe run was already badly written and poorly handled, but as Gang War drew near and especially once Ultimate Spider-Man debuted and began kicking the main series' ass, the run has seemingly descended into full "just keep the boat chugging until the big cleanout is over and it's not our problem anymore".
You know, I've said that the Spider who gobbles was a wasted idea, but now Wells is doing it AGAIN!? Damn it, even as the only one who likes the Green Goblin in this thread, this is a stupid retread.
But I'm going to be controversial and say this has potential since the Spider who Gobbles was like, the only good part of this run.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 13th 2024 at 12:29:06 AM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"A short scene from the upcoming second issue of Spectacular Spider-Men, with Josh Keaton again as Peter and Zeno Robinson as Miles.
Yeah that's what I'm getting at, but Peter actually gets to be competent and not job to other villains so others can bail him out.
I think him burying Kraven alive was the only clean win he got.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"So, at the risk of starting chaos...
If the current Spider-editorial team was replaced by, say, Jordan White and the X-office team that signed off on the radical changes of the Krakoa era...
What should they do?
Assuming that everything that happened, happened. Retcons and patches may be an option, but no "we're just going to ignore that storyline".
So the starting point is the Wells-era status quo. Where do you go from there?
Make Mary Jane the main villain of the next run. Like, the decision to keep Peter single isn't just to editorial but a company wide decision since he's their mascot.
So if they are willing to make Beast into comic book Henry Kissinger, then might as well make Mary Jane the big bad of the next run to get sales.
Like, you could even do some twisted relationship drama but filtered in a superhero-supervillain context.
Bonus points if Felicia gets to play moral support during this trying time as to tease shippers.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"An "event" maxi-series in which Peter and MJ foil Mephisto once and for all, get married again, are expecting a new kid, and the overall plot points of the Post-OMD era are all tied off, culminating in Peter deciding to retire to focus on rebuilding his family. Kaine takes over as Spider-Man and the series goes in batshit new directions as a horror comic that plays up the supernatural, frightening, and ninja-like aspects of Spider-Man, following Kaine as he leads an organization akin to Mangaverse-style "Spider Clan" and/or SpOck's Spiderlings with various Spiders, heroes, and supporting cast members as his support staff.
If we're talking how we would radically restructure the Spider-Office, here's how I would wing it:
- Prologue miniseries a la House/Powers of X: Basically undoing OMD once and for all. One side tells us about Peter deciding to get into the root of why he and MJ always have a hard time staying together. The other side tells us about what lengths Mephisto went to keep Peter and MJ separate…and reveal that Norman didn't kill Peter and MJ's baby, but sold it to Mephisto. At the end, Peter beats up Mephisto.
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Esssntially the Spidey version of Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's Superman run.
- Rebrand Miles' book as Miles Morales, The Spectacular Spider-Man. That one's been doing, so no notes, just keep it up.
- Give Ben his own ongoing as the white man Spidey executives think fans want, call it either The Sensational Spider-Man or The Avenging Spider-Man, because why not make him the go-to Spider-Man for the Avengers? Gives him something unique to do from Peter's thing.
- The Amazing Mary Jane: Acts as a Fully Absorbed Finale for the last MJ series that got cut short.
I'd call it the Amazing New Day. (Because it does the alphabetized thing Activision did to make it so they get noticed more than Atari because Activision alphabetically comes before Atari. Here, "Amazing New Day" is alphabetically first from "Brand New Day".)
My thoughts on Spider-People:
I doubt he'll ever be back but I really liked the redeemed Elliot Tolliver!Superior-Spider-Man, and I vaguely had the idea of doing some kind of big story where Peter goes up against Mephisto and wins with the result that One More Day is reversed, Ben gets a factory reset and "Elliot" exists separately from Octavius.
In the new status quo, Peter would be allowed to be older and somewhat more mature (so more like Peter B. Parker or the new Ultimate!Peter).
I was also imagining a team of some combination of Ben, Kaine, and/or Elliot that would be called (depending on the pairing) Superior Spider-Men or Scarlet Spider-Men.
I also had the idea of some kind of West Coast Thunderbolts team on which one of the anti-heroic Spider-Men would be a member along with some other fallen heroes/reformed villains.
Alternatively, maybe Ben could be the Supernatural Spider-Man and have occult detective adventures with Rek-Rap
Edited by Hodor2 on Apr 13th 2024 at 9:15:04 AM
In terms of a big Spider-Man shake-up, honestly, I wouldn't.
I maintain that Amazing Spider-Man should always strive to be as new-reader-friendly as it can. For the X-Men, their complexity has become part of the franchise's DNA, there's no real getting away from it. But Spider-Man works best when he's easy to pick up and read. (I feel like that's also the best approach to take with Miles, as an aside.)
ASM should be handled in such a way that a 13-year-old can pick it up as their first comic, and still follow what's going on.
There can be a second Peter Parker title that is aimed more at long-term readers, able to dive deep into the minutiae of continuity if needed, and going darker than ASM can.
Regardless, I wouldn't do a Hox/Pox style reinvention of Spider-Man. I also wouldn't revisit One More Day. Truthfully, I would just leave OMD in the past, not dwelt upon, not retconned, not mentioned. If a new editorial team is OK with Peter and MJ getting married, then they get married. If they're not OK with a marriage, then whatever, no marriage.
Though as I've said before, if editorial is serious about Peter and MJ not getting married again, I do think the franchise would benefit from the introduction of a new long-term love interest for Peter. Something that lasts a good 5 years, with a love interest who is as big a dork as Peter, and shares his terrible sense of humour. Instead of making her some cool or badass girl, make her weird and adorable and just plain fun. Not snarky, but fun.
I feel like a big part of why MJ was so popular as Peter's love interest was because she was regularly fun, and had really cute interactions with Peter. The same went for Felicia. A lot of the post-OMD love interests failed to catch on because they were taken too seriously. They didn't joke with Peter, they snarked at him and treated him like they were better than he was.
Anyway, yeah, my point is, Spider-Man does not need a Hox/Pox-style overhaul. It needs to be accessible and entertaining.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.They'll do stupid gimmick storylines because that's what they want. They want Spider-Man to be eternally unchanging as a twenty-something guy because that's his corporate brand.
That's why you get gimmick stories like Peter getting brain swapped with Doc Ock, Parker Industries, Paul, Peter working for Oscorp, Peter working for Horizon.
The Illusion of change, as they say. Except they aren't even doing a good job of it because we all know the usual song and dance.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"![]()
The thing is, I don't know that a major status quo shift is actually necessary to get Spider-Man back on track. What's needed is just the right stories being told in the right ways.
Spider-Man isn't the X-Men, and shouldn't really be treated the same way. ASM should be treated for what it always was - a gateway into Marvel comics. A book that any kid can pick up and enjoy. Because they know who Spider-Man is, and they know what he's about. He's the dude who tries to always do what's right, who never gives up, who saves the day with a quip and a thwip. So the key to Spider-Man stories that readers will enjoy is to stay true to those things.
You don't need to do a Hox/Pox-style reinvention to get to good, fresh Spider-Man stories. You just need a creative team with fresh ideas.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.Trying to apply X formula to the rest of Marvel tends to just make things worse
Forever liveblogging the Avengers

He thought his run has been basically static noises and some moments of rage and failed to identify what was what?
Wake me up at your own risk.