The Downfall of Spider-Man Comics | From One More Day To Paul

What was the best era for Spider-Man? Stan Lee's first Spider-Man run? Dan Slott's a decade-long run, overlapping with Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man movies? 80s Symbiote Suit era? 2020's Venom 3, Madame Web and Zeb Well's Spider-Man? (definitely not) Personally, I would pick the 2000s, the beginning of the 21st century, as the golden age for our beloved web-slinger.

2000s

In the year 2000, we got the first issue of fan favourite Spider-Man run, "Ultimate Spider-Man" by Michael Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley. Also, we got the greatest modern Spider-Man run (debatable) by J. Michael Straczynski from 2001 to 2007 through ASM and various titles. Not only that, just a year later, we got our first Hollywood live-action Spider-Man movie, "Spider-Man" by Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire, in 2002, with its following sequels in 2005 and 2007. Not only did we get the two best modern Spider-Man runs and the first Spider-Man movie series, we also got the best Spider-Man cartoon series that has been sadly cancelled, "Spectacular Spider-Man".

The sales were skyrocketing. Every single Spider-Man title in a comic shop was sold out. Spider-Man was a massive hit again after his first debut in the 60s. He was THE superhero. He represented MARVEL and everybody loved him. So...what happened?

One More Day

If you're a Spider-Man fan or a comic book fan in general, you've definitely heard of the infamous "One More Day." (OMD for short) Even if you didn't, it's fine, because I will to explain what exactly happened. What did it do? Why does it get so much hate? Who was behind all this?

"One More Day" was a four-part story arc in 2007 supposedly written by J Michael Straczynski. "Wait, Straczynski? JMS?  Isn't that the one you praised about how he wrote the best modern Spider-Man run?" Yes, you're right. That's him. In my opinion, he created the best web slinger's run with some of the WORST story arcs, like "Sins Past" and "One More Day." However, in his defence, it wasn't his fault. Joe Quesada, who was the editor for MARVEL at that time was the one behind One More Day. What's surprising is that JMS actually wanted his name off of it.

Deal With The Devil?

Yes, you read that correctly. Spider-Man, the most hopeful and heartwarming hero and the role model of all the kids in the world, makes a deal with a literal devil, Mephisto. So, a quick recap: after what happened in "Civil War," everything started to fall apart. The Avengers split up, and they're fighting each other, so, Peter's no longer an Avenger, Aunt May and MJ are now in danger ever since Peter revealed his identity, and then Aunt May got shot and is barely alive.

So, basically, Spider-Man somehow meets Mephisto, and he suggests an offer. He says he will erase Peter and MJ's marriage in exchange for saving Aunt May's life. Spider-Man would never accept a deal from the devil, right? He would definitely find some other way, like he always does, right? He'll probably ask for Doctor Strange, or The Avengers, or Fantastic Four, or X-Men, or The Illuminati or even Deadpool's help, right? No? Because he has a lot of friends and allies who are capable of saving an old lady to help him out? No.

2/10 (the art was pretty good)

2010s

Moving on, let's talk about the next main Spider-Man run. Dan Slott started with an arc called "Brand New Day," which is a soft reboot after OMD because MARVEL wants you to forget about MJ and have Peter a different life from the old comics and attract new readers. And from 2010, when he came back to the title ASM with Big Time, Dan definitely did that. Peter dates people other than MJ, he gets new villains, his body "gets taken by his body by Doc Ock," all of NY citizens become Spider-Mans, he becomes a CEO of his own industry, and most importantly, he meets all of other Spider-people from other dimensions.

His run still gets some hate, and some love here and there, but the general opinion is that it was pretty mediocre, except for a few stories. The main reasons for the hate are breaking up Peter and MJ, and Peter being an irresponsible man-child. If you didn't know yet, Peter and MJ are one of the most loved couples in MARVEL comic books. The fans love them together, but for some reason, modern MARVEL editors and writers don't like them. Not to mention that, Peter owns his own industry, "Parker Industry," which is really out of his character. Yes, he fights supervillains all over the multiverse for a street-level superhero, but owning a business is something for Batman or Ironman. 

Ironically, MARVEL keeps Spider-Man from growing up and maturing and makes him into a literal joke. He's a man-child with nothing figured out in his life. I don't know why, but MARVEL thinks the only way to make him relatable is by making him a broke teenager. We can relate to a grown man with a job and a wife and kids, as long as he acts like a real human being with flaws, just like us. I don't know why MARVEL can't seem to understand this. De-aging him won't increase the sales, man.

I will not get too deep into "Superior Spider-Man" because it's very controversial and it's a story for another day. Generally, I don't really like Dan Slott or his run on Spidey. His work is either love it or hate it, but I think I'm on the "hate it" side. After Superior Spider-Man, Spider-Verse and All New All Different Spider-Man, Dan continued to make more forgettable and mediocre stories and some shit here and there. I haven't read every one of them, but it's really hard to convince myself to read any more of Dan Slott. Honestly, the only story arc that has stood out to me was "Go Down Swinging," the finale of Dan Slott's run starring Norman Osborn as Carnage, which is a pretty bad idea, but I liked it. I mean, this doesn't scream "the greatest Spider-Man comic book of all time ever," but it was fun, and it was definitely the best out of Dan Slott IMO. Overall, it's not horrible, but it's just so forgettable. I wanna forget everything i read after every issue.

4/10 (Spider-Verse was a part of inspiration for Into The Spider-Verse and the last arc was good)

Mediocre, Mediocre, and Mediocre?

So, let's see, the worst, mediocre, horrible, mid, mediocre, controversial, okay, controversial, mediocre, pretty bad, mediocre, and good enough? So far, there has been no great modern Spider-Man book. Most of them were either okay or just straight-up garbage. Now, before you get started on "Oh, there are other Spider-Man titles in the 2010s! Like Spectacular, Miles Morales run, Spidey, Marvel Knights, or Avenging Spider-Man!," I have to mention that I will be only talking about Spider-Man's main title, Amazing Spider-Man. (ASM for short) If I don't, it will get way too long and I can't read every single Spider-Man comic book out there. 

So, after that, there was Spencer's run, a few filler arcs and then the terrible, horrible, awful Zeb Wells' run that's thankfully ending this year. Spencer's run, the one started in 2018, in MARVEL's "fresh start era," what did it do? Kinda nothing. It was supposed to be a fresh start, a reboot that fixes everything wrong with the old runs for Peter Parker and the readers to start everything over and the perfect place to jump into Spider-Man comics, but I'm not sure. I don't think this is one of their stronger reboots/relaunches, but I would say it's better than whatever Dan Slott has provided us so far. 

Nick Spencer/Ryan Ottley

The art is by Ryan Ottley, mostly known for Invincible, and it is beautiful, by the way. Just look at this. That's what hooked me into the run in the first place, to be honest. I would have not read the run if it weren't for Ryan's art. I really liked the simple, sleek, edgy, kind of cartoony style. I think this kind of art style fits better with Spider-Man than something like Frank Quietly or Alex Ross. No hate for any of them; I think they are both great artists for what they're worth, but all I'm just saying is I like this art style for Spider-Man more.

If I'm being honest, I haven't really read all issues of the Spencer's run. If I remember correctly, I think I only read the first 10 issues or so. From what I have read, so far, it was good-ish so far. Nothing crazy, but I have to admit seeing Spider-Man and Peter was pretty cool. It still felt like just another Spider-Man run. But, hey, at least MJ and Peter got back together, and it's better than most of Slott's, right? And the majority of Spider-Man fans agreed with me. It was good until the first 20 or 30 issues and it got progressively worse and really bad in the end. Overall, a good run that is slowly getting worse as it goes on.

7.5/10 (extra 2 points for the beautiful art, that's how much I liked it)

F*@&ing Zeb Wells

The current run of our Friendly Neighbourhood, which is ending this December, is Zeb Wells and J. Romita Jr's newest Spider-Man run, which was roasted so badly. The fans absolutely hated it. It was seen as the so poorly written without understanding the character, Spider-Man, himself, so much that, it was even worse than OMD. I'll keep this as short as possible because there are TOO many problems to talk about, and the article is getting too long. I also don't really want to talk about it or even think about it. Here are only a few of the reasons for the hate.

-Pete and MJ broke up AGAIN for an unknown reason after they were about to get married

-Ms. Marvel appears just to die and be brought back in an X-Men book

-Peter asks for Norman Osborn's help, who is a "good" guy

-Peter gets easily beaten up by villains like the Vulture, whom he had easily defeated a lot of times

-Peter beats up Captain America for kinda no reason

-Paul (Just search it up. Actually, don't do it for your own sake.)

-10/10 (even the art was so f*cking ugly, I couldn't even look at it)

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, there have been barely any good comics for Spider-Man, (at least the ASM title) let alone a great run. "One More Day" was easily the worst Spider-Man story arc, and Dan Slott's run was a controversial mixed bag of mid, horrible, mediocre, and okay, with very few exceptions. Nick Spencer's run tried to fix everything, but nothing mind-blowing or eye-catching, and got worse as it went, Zeb Well's one is so terrible that I feel bad for the hate OMD is getting. At least OMD had pretty good art. 

So, after the happenings of the Civil War, there has been the worst Spider-Man comic, possibly one of the top 3 worst Spider-Man runs, that wasted 10 years, and the worst Spider-Man comic book run. Doesn't feel like much, huh? I feel like we got punished with this horrible decade as if MARVEL hates us, their biggest fandom, the Spider-Man readers, the ones getting them paid. Let's wrap this up around here, and hope for the best that the next ASM run will be slightly better.

Forget about Spider-Man and let's look at another successful teenage hero, Robin: 

https://comicsandcomics831.blogspot.com/2024/11/history-of-every-robins-from-dick.html