Can somebody get me up-to-date on Spider-Man?

[ThePeterNetwork]

It all started back at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure where I purchased the Amazing Spider-Man Essentials Vol. 1 TPB (It was either that or a fairly decent Spidey TPB). I made a poor choice because not only was the book in black & white (Yeah yeah, I know, I could have bought Marvel Masterworks), but it was of Spidey's very early years. You know, when Peter Parker was working for that tyrant J. Jonah Jameson?

Call me crazy, but I just can't get into a comic book where the star is given a hard time by a tertiary character with an unpleasant demeanor. I'm sensitive like that. It's why I couldn't bring myself to watching Spider-Man 2. I know what you're probably going to say. "Jameson doesn't really care about Spider-Man. He only prints those negative headlines just to sell his papers." Sounds like a pretty shallow and greedy reason to hate, if you ask me, and I'm sure you all can think of other reasons why Jameson isn't entirely the living embodiment of Snidely Whiplash.

But wait, to further the complication, I've been informed that Peter Parker no longer works for the Daily Bugle, but is in fact a science teacher (or substitute science teacher, I forget which). So I'm all like, "Huh?" And what's the deal with a villain plucking out Spidey's eye?

So if someone can tell me what's going on with Spider-Man currently, and what TPB's they could recommend, preferably those where Jameson is non-existent... :cool:

[Jon T]

I'll leave it to others to post some far more concise descriptions of the more recent Spider-Man stories than I'm capable of summarizing, although considering just how decompressed many stories are these days, it wouldn't take long! I will however say this; in the last few years, Spider-Man's classic supporting cast of characters has been downplayed to the point of almost non-existence.

One result of this is that your favorite character ;) J.J. Jameson hasn't really had a sizable presence in any of the major, longer TPB-friendly story-arcs aside from the Marvel Knights initial 12-part story by Mark Millar. So basically you could pick up any modern Spider-Man story and be assured of either very limited to no involvement of Spidey's former boss!

[Stu]

My advice is to stick to the earlier stuff, regardless of whether you like Jameson or not. The current books suck, to be blunt. For some asinine reason, none of Spider-Man's supporting cast really get up to much, his rouges gallery are rarely seen and he spends most of his time doing not much of anything in The Avengers tower.

Personally, the Spidey books are in the worst state they've been in for a good long while, and with the exception of Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, it doesn't seem to be looking up much either. The people in charge don't really seem to know how to make the character work. Giving him retarded new powers and a crap new costume certainly isn't the anwser.

[Jon T]

My advice is to stick to the earlier stuff, regardless of whether you like Jameson or not. The current books suck, to be blunt. For some asinine reason, none of Spider-Man's supporting cast really get up to much, his rouges gallery are rarely seen and he spends most of his time doing not much of anything in The Avengers tower.

Personally, the Spidey books are in the worst state they've been in for a good long while, and with the exception of Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, it doesn't seem to be looking up much either. The people in charge don't really seem to know how to make the character work. Giving him retarded new powers and a crap new costume certainly isn't the anwser.

Well yeah, I guess that's the kind of thing I was hinting at... Thanks for saving me the typing time Stu! As a matter of fact I was watching the Stan Lee/Kevin Smith DVD the other day, and one of the things Lee points out as a factor of Spidey's success is the family of characters that (once upon a time) surrounded him.

Even since becoming a teacher (the last I recall that fact being remembered was in Marvel Team-Up), Peter never even got a new cast of regular human characters to interact with.

You'd think with stories that consume an ever-increasing amount of pages these days that some other characters apart from MJ, Aunt May and latterly the New Avengers would have noteworthy appearances. Put simply, Spider-Man stories these days bear little resemblance to the gradually-evolving character and world we've seen over the last few decades, with the absolute nadir just having to be the bloated "The Other" story.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

The Essentials are GREAT books for reading. I can't afford the Masterworks and I don't mind black and white at all. You really get to see the skill in Ditko's inking in the black and white reprints.

What I hate most is the change in tone. Spider-Man is now bloated with repetitive talking scenes sandwiching bursts of confounding gore and violence. In the 60s, Spider-Man stories were lighthearted, but convoluted webs (sorry) of subplots that still managed to have enough action in them despite everything going o in the background.

Even though Spider-Man is more of an icon in pop culture now than ever before, the comics haven't been relevant since the late 80s, sadly.

[Mynd Hed]

Call me crazy, but I just can't get into a comic book where the star is given a hard time by a tertiary character with an unpleasant demeanor.

No offense intended, but if that's your point of view, maybe you should question whether Spidey is really the sort of character you want to follow. I mean, that HAS been one of his central gimmicks since Day One-- that he's the superhero who still has everyday problems like a mean boss, shortage of cash, trouble with women, etc.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I did think that the early JMS issues were OK, although I didn't think they were as amazing (pardon the pun) as others thought they were. However, if you start with his first one (ASM: Coming Home) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785108068/qid=1138500285/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-2033468-3064038?v=glance&s=books), it's not hard to pick up where Peter is at that point in his life, and JMS pretty much works from there. That's where I started reading them, anyway.

I pretty much stopped after Vol. 4, though. The way it ends is a nice way to kind of close the book on Peter until he gets good again. For most of JMS's run, I found myself alternating between thinking something was really really cool and then getting hit with something that I thought was mawkish, saccharine, or totally unnecessary. Vol. 5 was where the latter stuff really outweighed the former stuff, IMO, and what I've heard since then hasn't gotten me to change my mind.

I'll also add that Gravity by Sean McKeever and Mike Norton (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785117989/qid=1138500658/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2033468-3064038?v=glance&s=books) is a fine substitute for good old-fashioned Spider-Man teenaged superhero angsty adventure, if that's what you're looking for. It's a fun little book out in digest now, and I think it's greatest strength and its greatest weakness is that it's pretty much Spider-Man updated for more modern times, in some ways even more successful at it than Ultimate Spider-Man is.

-- Ed/Ace

[ThePeterNetwork]

No offense intended, but if that's your point of view, maybe you should question whether Spidey is really the sort of character you want to follow. I mean, that HAS been one of his central gimmicks since Day One-- that he's the superhero who still has everyday problems like a mean boss, shortage of cash, trouble with women, etc.

I think that's something similar to what Jim Salicrup once told me. Whereas Superman's only weaknesses are kryptonite and his feelings towards the citizens he's chosen to protect (he sometimes cares about them too much), his everyday problems aren't much of a concern. I guess that's why Stan Lee put Spidey in that kind of position, to make you feel for the character as well as make him seem real.

It's not so much a point of view as it's more like stirs negative feelings inside me to see someone treated like crap. :sad: