The Amazing Spider-Man has long been one of the bestselling superhero comics of all time. An argument can be made that The Amazing Spider-Man is the most important Marvel comic in history, the place where the Marvel method of creating characters was perfected. Many of the greatest creators in the history of the comic medium have worked on the books, and it’s spent the equivalent of years at the top of the sales charts. However, something has been rotten in Denmark with The Amazing Spider-Man for a long time. Marvel’s decisions with the title have made it, at times, paradoxically, the bestselling comic and also the most maligned. For years, fans of The Amazing Spider-Man have had issues the book, all while continuing to buy it every month. And then The Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 2) happened, and all of that changed.
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The Amazing Spider-Man is in an especially bad place right now. The Ultimate Spider-Man has completely stolen its thunder, and DC’s Absolute line of books have taken over the sales charts. An especially unpopular run of the book has just ended, and there’s a new era of The Amazing Spider-Man, from an acclaimed Spider-Man writer — Joe Kelly — and one of Marvel’s most beloved artists — Pepe Larraz. The Amazing Spider-Man #1 is even pretty good. However, fans still have a reticence to embrace the book. So, the question is — will The Amazing Spider-Man get out of its slump?
Marvel Has Buried The Amazing Spider-Man and Its Fans for Years
It all started with “One More Day”. Then-Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada, along with Tom Brevoort, decided that Spider-Man being married and growing as a character was a bad thing. Everyone has a opinion on whether this was the right way to go, but even if you like the idea of Spider-Man losing his marriage and forever being written like it’s the late 70s, you can’t deny this was the beginning of the schism within the Spider-Man fandom. While most people immediately jump to talking about the just-ended Zeb Wells run of The Amazing Spider-Man when they talk about the Spider-Man fandom’s negativity, this has been going on for over a decade now. Fans used to say the same thing about Dan Slott’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, constantly blaming Slott for every single problem the book had, even ones that weren’t his fault. The Amazing Spider-Man has long been everyone’s favorite book to complain about while still buying it. The Spider-Man fandom has been rebelling for ages, with the only cessation being Nick Spencer’s run, which seemed like it was going to undo “One More Day”. Wells’s run — which many fans felt was deeply disrespectful to Spider-Man and Peter Parker as a character (also Ms. Marvel, but that’s a whole other story) — torpedoed what little goodwill Spencer’s run had left over after that run didn’t undo “One More Day”.
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The Amazing Spider-Man currently is a pretty good book. After years of not reading any solo 616 Spider-Man, many (myself included) enjoyed seeing the character again. One of the best parts about the book is that it basically ignores the biggest problem many have with modern Spider-Man — keeping Mary Jane around in a vain attempt to keep people who want the marriage on the hook. The Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t remind you of the controversy surrounding one of Marvel’s worst character choices of all time, and just tells great Spider-Man stories. The Amazing Spider-Man is as good a book as it can be expected to be at this point. Can that change in quality change the perception of the book? Fans have had years of The Amazing Spider-Man as the “worst” book of them all, so can one book fix that?
The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Current Run Could Change the Book’s Perception but It’s Going to Take a Lot
The Amazing Spider-Man has had a really tough time of things since the end of the “Brand New Day” publishing initiative. It seems like the moment that Marvel announced Slott — who had become a fan favorite writer with She-Hulk and G.L.A. — the knives came out. Slott’s run has plenty of problems, like any comic run, but it also has some really great Spider-Man stories. The Spencer run had a much better perception, but then Marvel’s choice not to undo “One More Day” at the end of it soured the fans again. Wells’s run is as close to objectively bad as you can get in a Spider-Man comic, making Peter Parker look like a fool constantly in his own comic. Current writer Joe Kelly took over the book before the relaunch, and fan perception of it got better. The newest volume of the book is very good.
A lot of Spider-Man fans feel burnt out by Marvel right now and that makes so much sense. Marvel ignored and marginalized the fandom for years, with Spider-Man group editor Nick Lowe actively antagonizing fans online any time any complaints come up. It’s easy for Spider-Man fans to not trust The Amazing Spider-Man at all. Add in the fact that The Ultimate Spider-Man is giving fans perfect Spider-Man stories, and most fans don’t even need to read The Amazing Spider-Man anymore. So, the only way that The Amazing Spider-Man is going to overcome the stigma of being, well, The Amazing Spider-Man is for the current run to be straight up amazing. There is always a chance for a book to breakthrough the negativity — The Amazing Spider-Man was able to somewhat do it during Spencer’s run — but it’s going to take a lot to get Spider-Man fans back into The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s going to have be flawless, because any mistakes are going to be jumped on like red meat by hungry dogs.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
