#cb cebulski

In lieu of recent news.

During that time we have had:

The equivalent of 6 runs on Amazing Spider-Man, if one counts Brand New Day and the Beyond era as runs unto themselves.

Several runs in sister titles like Avenging Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, etc

Over 300 issues of ASM, even if one discounts Superior, which Marvel themselves do not

All of this is frankly MORE than enough ‘field testing’ for us to look back with the benefit of hindsight and draw some conclusions. And those conclusions are rather damning.

Whilst it was objectively bad, Superior Spider-Man is the most remembered and referenced and (undeservedly) well received period of time in the post-OMD era. This means the ‘highlight’ (if you want to call that vile story such a thing) is a time period that Peter Parker wasn’t even the main character of the narrative

We have literally had TWO eras where Peter Parker is not even the main character of Spider-Man. Superior, and Beyond

Dan Slott’s run invested time in redressing mistakes perpetuated during Brand new Day, and Nick Spencer’s run spent A LOT of time repairing damage done in BND and Slott’s run.

In the entire 60+ year history of Spider-Man who have been the writer’s with the most ‘prestige’ attached to their name in the wider culture, not specifically within the comic book industry? Who has the ‘star power’ in other words? Kevin Smith for a mini-series in the early-mid 2000s that was just 6 issues (his 2020s Spider-Man work will be happening when his star has fallen into disgrace) and J. Michael Straczynski. In other words, despite the claims that an unmarried Spider-Man will attract more ‘high profile talent’, none of the talent who has worked on 616 Spidey since 2007 has ever had a profile remotely as prestigious as the person who was writing Spidey pre-OMD and wanted to write him married. And again, the second highest profile guy was also writing him pre-OMD.

The ‘high profile talent’ Spidey attracted frankly was front loaded and obviously hired to offset the fallout from OMD. Spider-Man even during BND, saw an exodus of ‘Big Name Creators’ with Slott hanging on until the end of BND and then getting his solo run. Since then it took over 10 years for Joe Kelly to return to the title and in the interim the Spider-Man office got so desperate they hired a fill-in writer from the 2000s, Zeb Wells, to take over ASM. So, actually Spider-Man has had MORE trouble attracting talent long-term post-OMD than pre-OMD. Whilst this is to an extent a problem in the mainstream industry, it is particularly acute with Spider-Man.

The highest profile writers to have worked on Spider-Man in the 2020s have been JMS for a non-canon one shot (in which he was married) and Jonathan Hickman in a non-canon ongoing (in which he is married with kids and this is the centrepiece of its promotion).

All those creators who worked on BND who said they would prefer to write an unmarried Spider-Man proved themselves summarily unqualified to write for Spider-Man in the first place. They got to write the Spider-Man they wanted and did so via nuclear levels of mischaracterisation, character assassination, plot holes, a disrespect for consistency, a disrespect for the readers time/money/intelligence and tired tropes. They claimed everyone deserved the Spider-Man they grew up with but they never even wrote the Spider-Man they grew up with.

Looking back at the actual best Spider-Man creators of the pre-OMD era (1962-2007) it is striking that ONLY Roger Stern and Marv Wolfman were staunchly anti-marriage. Stern delivered arguably the most consistently great Spider-Man run of all time, whilst Wolfman was a lot more contentious but did lots of good stuff. Gerry Conway might be included in that trio but he has massively vacillated his views on the subject. What I am saying is, the overwhelming majority of people who were accepting or supportive of Spider-Man being married delivered solid-all time great stories. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of people who were opposed to a married Spider-Man delivered at best mediocre stories but more often than not bad stories. I say bad, what I mean is the top 20 WORST Spider-Man stories to have ever been made were largely made by people who are of the anti-marriage camp and largely made after One More Day.

In fact, even if we use the anti-marriage camp’s golden boy, Roger Stern, his best work, whilst awesome, is not on the same level as quality as certain stories delivered by pro-marriage creators. Be honest, removing your own subjective enjoyment from the discussion, on a purely literary level, is the Kid Who Collects Spider-Man or Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut even remotely close to the same quality level as Kraven’s Last Hunt, which actively utilises Spider-Man’s marital status? No.

Even removing the subject of Spider-Man’s marital status or continuity, 2007-2025 Spider-Man has largely been creatively inconsistent, by which I mean disastrous. These would be the WORST Spider-Man stories of all time all on their own regardless of OMD setting us up for them. Character assassination is rife. Disdain for the customers is a regular occurrence.

Jim Mahfood Wha...Huh? #01 Pg 04 (2005) by Jim Mahfood

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