Latour is a not a very good writer, so the series from him comes out as mediocre to boring. He's terrible at writing teenagers/young adults, which is very bad problem when the protagonist and her friends are in that age group ("Yo Gwen, who's the fed?" still sticks out because no one speaks like that). That's why the most interesting characters of the series where all the middle aged guys (George Stacy, Matt Murdock, Frank Castle, and the little we saw of Ben Parker).
That said, it had personality. It was a series that new exactly what it was and had it's own identity, much helped by Rodriguez artwork. It knew what would make it stand out from the rest of the Spider-Man line.
Mc Guire's series, on the other hand, is objectively better written. She's a better writer than Latour, and by God, a huge improvement regarding teenagers/ya. But she decided to go into more generic superhero fare. The more "traditional" artwork on the series, although good (who doesn't like Miyasawa), completely erased the personality the book had. Now that she's moving into 616 the series has completely lost anything that made it stand out in the first place.
So you have a mediocre series but that knew how to stand out and a better written series but that it's devoid of personality.
I think it's been tellingly obvious for a while
Ghost Spider is Gwen Stacy, and for all her fanfare, Gwen Stacy remains an uninteresting character
The Spider-Man thread covers all Spider-related characters.
Ultimate Secret Wars
I find it so hard to create threads on TV Tropes because there seem to be so many weird rules and restrictions. In another subforum I created a thread asking a general question (about the medium), and it got moved to a totally different subforum because apparently the first one doesn't allow threads that aren't about a specific series. And now apparently there can't be a Ghost Spider thread because discussion of any Spider person has to take place in the general spider thread. Maybe I'll just go back to lurking.
Edited by Neveratall on Sep 6th 2019 at 9:04:41 AM
I enjoyed the annual, though i felt like of the issues in the Ghost-Spider annual retread stuff from the 617 arc.
I did like that they referenced that she doesn't like the Punisher and Matt Murdock of her world when fighting Arcade bots of Punisher and Daredevil.
And I'm still not sold on her being in the 616 more regularly, half the fun of Latour's run was her world and the differences in it.
I looked to see if there were already threads on this, and I didn't see any. Does anyone read the series Spider-Gwen, recently re-titled as Ghost-Spider? https://www.marvel.com/characters/spider-woman-gwen-stacy
I've read it off and on for a while. There are definitely interesting concepts there. The costume is pretty good. The idea of an alternate reality where Gwen Stacy is not only alive but a Spider person is neat. Even stuff like making Peter the Lizard (and him subsequently tragically dying) and Matt Murdock being the Kingpin are interesting ideas. There's a lot of potential there.
But I feel that the writing (and in some cases the art) leaves something to be desired. Its not bad exactly, just kind of mediocre. The comic decided to make Gwen jumping between different realities (including the regular marvel universe) a regular feature, which almost seemed to defeat the purpose of setting it in an alternate reality. The plots also also tend to be kind of meandering and poorly paced. I guess what it comes down to is that the writing could be better. That might sound a little negative, but I'm just explaining what I like and don't like about this series.
But that's just my opinion. What do other people think? Agree, disagree? Do people like this series the way it is, or feel it needs to change? Yes, I'm aware that the new renamed series will feature at least one big change, for better or worse.
Edited by Neveratall on Sep 6th 2019 at 5:19:44 AM