So what the hell else happened to me?

[anarky]

So, judging from comments all over the net, it's confirmed that Peter Parker is no longer Spider-Man? I can't find the actual story (and don't really care to look, honestly).

If the big heroes didn't get replaced by new guys with the same names regularly, this shtick might still be interesting. Hell, DC just replaced their entire universe with fill-ins a year ago.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

They ("they" being Marvel, Wacker, Slott, etc) are being cagey about whether it's Peter because they don't want to reveal what happens in Amazing 700.

I have to say I'm not nearly as excited about Superior #1 as I would have been about Amazing 701.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

So Dan Slott started getting death threats from fans because of the events of ASM 700.
Putting aside the retardedness of being offended by what happens to a fictional character,

How can anybody who's been reading comics for more than a year not realize this is a temporary stunt and Amazing will be back in about a year?
Remember when Captain America died and Bucky took over?
Remember when Johnny Storm died and the Fantastic Four stopped and became FF?
Remember when Batman died and Nightwing took over?
Remember when Spidey was a clone and Ben Reilly took over?

Remember when [Name of Any Super Hero Ever] died...AND THEN CAME BACK?!?

Your bumbling naive anger is misplaced, you numbskull. I think you're in the wrong hobby.

[Tom Foolery]

The unexpected success of Superior Spider-Man has caused Marvel to go overboard.

Avenging Spider-Man is becoming Superior Spider-Man Team Up.

And we're also getting the excessively wordy Superior Spider-Man's Deadly and Lethal Foes of Spider-Man.

No doubt Superior Scarlet Spider, Superior Avengers, and Superior Spidey's Superior Pal Venom are in the works as well.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I figure anarky would get a kick out of this. Scroll down to the comments.

My second idea was Tony Stark vs Jim Beam.

[anarky]

You, sir, deserve a Nobel Prize for that comment.

[anarky]

I cannot believe no one has dusted off ol' Skip. It's not a matter of introducing a wrinkle into Spidey's past that doesn't belong. The wrinkle is there. Own it.

Swear to God, if I were in charge of Spider-Man, Skip would somehow get the Venom suit, so then he'd know Peter's secret identity. The stories you could tell with a villain who has overpowered Spider-Man since he was a little boy are endless. Perhaps disturbing, but still endless.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I randomly picked the next long box worth of reading...and it's the Spider-Man box. Well, one of them. Yeah, I have so many unread Spidey comics they're in TWO longboxes. This is the second one, so it's got some other 'S' books towards the end, ending with Superboy and Supergirl. Most of the Spidey books are mini series and oneshots, the longer ongoings being in box one.

Anyhoooo....I started with Spider-Man:Chapter One. In 1999, Bob Harras had had so much success rebooting Cap, Iron Man, FF, and Avengers TWICE in one year, he decided the other books mainly Thor, Hulk, and the Spidey titles could also use new #1s. Harras is a huge fan of first issues. It's all he's got in his bag. So, the current crop of Spidey books; Amazing, Spectacular, Sensational, and Peter Parker all ended. And got replaced with two rebooted Amazing and PPSM. He ALSO engages John Byrne(who was famous for revamping flagship characters' origins) with this 12 issue maxi series. It went back and fixed Spidey's origin and first years worth of stories including his first dust ups with most of his rogues. Fixed, because apparently Stan Lee and Steve Ditko sucked at their jobs. I blame Harras. I'm sure Byrne was just doing what he was hired to do. So now, Spidey's and Doc Ock's origin are the same origin. Electro got a new costume not seen before or since. Chameleon was an agent of Dr. Doom or something. What I mean is, it's a lot of unnecessary reboot baggage. Fruck you, Bob Harras.

Next up Spider-Man's Tangled Web. A 22 issue ongoing from 2001. It was meant to be kinda what LotDK was for Batman. Short stories by different creators. The first ten issues were multiparters, but the last dozen were primarily single issue stories. Some were better than others.
The first 3-parter was by Ennis and John McCrea.
Then a standalone by Rucka and Eduardo Risso.
Then a 2 parter featuring the Rhino.
Another 3 parter by Bruce Jones and Lee Weeks.
Then single stories by Kaare Andrews, Darwyn Cooke, Zeb Wells, Brian Azzarello, Paul Pope, Ted McKeever, Jim Mahfood, and others.
Azarello's was particularly good as it told the story of Crusher Hogan's money woes that led him and his small wrestling circuit to offering to wrestle fans. And the fateful opponent that shows up on the final page.

Then we have Astonishing Spidey and Wolverine. A six issue buddy cop series from Jason Aaron and Andy Kubert. Or Adam. One of them. I only read the last two issues because I had the first four before. The whole thing involves time travelling diamonds and the Mojoverse and Peter and Logan getting stuck in the Savage Land circa 1Million BC and the Wild West for several years. Eh. Not bad.

Spider-Man/Black Cat. From 2002 a six issue mini by Kevin Smith and the Dodsons. Except it only got to issue three and a cliffhanger ending where Felicia Hardy is getting abused. Then Smith got busy with other stuff. Like making sure his druggie buddy had a movie career or whatever. So they didn't finish the series until 2006. Terry Dodson draws a delightful Felicia Hardy. The story is meh. I feel sorry for the poor bastards who waited 4 years to get closure.

Spider-Man:Breakout! In the very first issue of New Avengers(circa 2005), there was a mass SuperVillain breakout on The Raft. This 5 issue mini spun out of that as two groups of villains, the U-Foes, and a bunch of mind controllers led by Crossfire are starting a turf war in NYC looking for a former guard at the Vault who done them all wrong. Spidey and the Avengers have to stop them. Pretty good read by Tony Bedard and Manuel Garcia.

[anarky]

Chapter One was as good as you could expect it to be. I did rather like streamlining the number of nuclear explosions in New York City so it was one blast that created Sandman and Doc Ock, even if we didn't see them at the same time. And, regardless of any of the baggage he brings along, John Byrne is a phenomenal artist, so it's worth reading for the pretty pics alone.

[Tom Foolery]

I liked the fact Chapter One pointed out that Betty Brant was dating a sixteen year old.

And speaking of Venom and Black Cat. I seem to remember Felicia Hardy used to date Flash Thompson at one point. Now that he's Venom, have they had Black Cat guest in his book yet? Might make for an interesting story butting heads with his ex.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Back with some more Spidey goodness! Unfortunately, while I have the majority of these Spidey miniseries, I'm missing a single issue out of several of them. And more often than not, it's the final issue, so I have no idea how many of these end.

Spider-Man:Clone Saga. Heh. A 6 issue mini released in 2009. Marvel basically owned up to the original Clone Saga turning into a hot mess. So DeFalco and Mackie wrote this short, concise series about how the story could've been. It's got Peter, Ben, Kaine, the Jackal, MJs pregnancy, and that's about it. All the other crap is dropped. I'm missing the last issue(as previously stated). I will say this is some of Todd Nauck's best artwork ever. And I'm a huge fan of his slightly cartoony style ever since Young Justice. I'll forgive Marvel for apologizing for the Clone Saga by asking readers to plop down another $25 because I only spent a buck on it. Not bad.

Daily Bugle. 3 issue mini from 1997, smack in the middle of the Harras years. Follows different Bugle reporters tracking different stories until...OHMIGAWD you'll never believe it!! ALL the stories are connected in the end! And it was an uncolored B/W series to make it I dunno edgy or some shit. Weak.

S-M: Funeral for an Octopus. Only have the 3rd issue of this 3 issue mini from 1995. Spun out of one of the many many subplots of the Clone Saga. Obviously Doc Ock did not stay dead. Peter ruminating about Otto's "Legacy" on the final page is all kinds of ironic in light of current events.

S-M/Doc Ock: Negative Exposure. 5 issue mini from 2003 by BK Vaughan and Staz Johnson. A rival photographer is jealous Peter gets the front page all the time and Otto uses that to his advantage. Good stuff. Sadly, missing the last issue for now.

S-M/Doc Ock: Out of Reach. Another Doc Ock mini from 2004. Hmmm...lots of Ock-sposure back then. You'd think Otto was in a movie or something. Anyway, Otto finds an apprentice to take under his wing that mirrors both Peter and Otto's youth growning up. Not great, but not bad. The kid has the potential to show up again as a villain.

Spidey/Fantastic Four. The 2007 series by Jeff Parker and the late Mike Weiringo. The highlight here is Ringo's art. The story is about some aliens possessing everyone on Earth and kinda weak.

Spidey/Fantastic Four. The 2010 follow up to the Spidey/X-Men series by Chris Gage and Mario Alberti(or maybe the X-Men series was the follow up to this. I forget). Anyway, it follows Spidey teaming up with the First Fam at various points in their careers. The first issue is early in the Lee/Kirby era. The second is just after Spidey got rid of the Symbiote. The third issue is during the Hulk/Wolverine/Ghost Rider/Spidey era of the FF. And the final issue is in modern times. I also appreciated that they tied up the Kristoff Vernard plot as he ends up being the "villain" of the series. Good stuff by Gage and Alberti. Also, Spidey has now made out with HALF the Fantastic Four.

Spider-Man: Fever. A 3 isse mini from 2010 by Brendan McCarthy. Doc Strange opens a magic tome and events transpire that cause Spidey's soul to get sucked into a weird magic dimension full of spider-demons and other psychedelic crap. Missing the last issue, but other than having a completist mentality, not eager to finish it. A resounding meh.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Oho! More Spidey books!

Spider-Man: The Final Adventure. Hardly. One of many subpar money grabs from the Clone Saga era. This one had spiffy foil covers and promised to be Pete's "final" outing as Spidey. He and MJ moved to Oregon and Peter got a flesh eating virus(nope, not joking) and ends up fighting some badguys before he develops a cure that also erases his Spidey powers.

S-M: Friends and Enemies. only have one issue of this 4 parter from 1995 costarring Darkhawk, Nova, and Speedball. Didn't read it, but the badguys are called the Metahumes! Ha. It looks awful.

S-M: Get Kraven. A 6 isse mini from 2002 starring One of Kraven The Hunter's sons who is a semi good guy. He moves out to Hollywood to be a Producer. It wants to be a satire of Hollywood, but it just comes off like the writer is bitter. Missing the last issue. eventually during the Grim Hunt story arc this son either died or got turned into a stupid dog. I don't know which Kraven offspring is which.

S-M India. A 4 issue mini from 2005. Pavitr Prabhakar is a nerdy kid from a small Indian village living with his Uncle Bhim and Aunt Maya. He's friends with Meera Jain at school. A wizard(or something) gives him Spider powers so he can fight the evil industrialist Nalin Oberoi who stole a mystical amulet from his village. Interesting reimagining of the classic tale.

S-M Legend of the Spider Clan. Only have one issue of this 5 part mini from 2003 which looks like some kind of manga inspired series.

S-M The Mutant Agenda. Already mentioned by Diabolical elsewhere. This was a 3 part series that "crossed" with the Spidey Newspaper strip back in the 90s. It had a 0 issue that was essentially blank pages that you could paste the newspaper strips into after you cut them out of the local paper.

Peter Parker. A 5 issue series from 2010 that reprinted a Digital First web series by Bob Gale and Pat Oliffe. Pretty good stuff.

S-M: Power of Terror only have 2 of the 4 issues from this 1995 mini costarring Deathlok, Punisher and armored Daredevil. So I haven't read it yet.

Spider-Man/Punisher: Family Plot. A 2 issue crossover from when Frank had a ponytail and ran his own Mafia family. Frank's "crime family" is in a turf war with Tombstone and Ben Reilly's Spider-Man gets involved so they send Frank to put a hit on Reilly. Oye. This was when there were 4 EiCs each with their own little fiefdoms at Marvel, so the first issue is from the 'Spidey' office and the last issue is from the 'Edge' office.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Back with the last of the unread Spidey minis.

Spider-Man:Redemption. JM DeMatties and Mike Zeck did this 4 issue mini from 1996 starring Ben Reilly and Kaine. It delved into the histories of the two Parker clones(although at this point in the ongoing Clone narrative, Ben was supposedly the "original"). DeMatties attempts, but given the nature of this very large turd in Spidey's history it's only so so.

Spidey/Red Sonja. A five issue mini from 2007 that was co-published with Dynamite. Kulan Gath takes over part of New York and reverts it to the Hyborean Age. Sonja "posesses" the body of Mary Jane and at firsts fights Spidey, then they team up and defeat Kulan Gath. Mostly the series is an excuse for artist Mel Rubi to draw cheesecake shots of a hot redhead wearing nothing but a chain mail bikini barely covering her downtown bits.

S-M: Reign. The 4 issue mini by Kaare Andrews that was billed as Spidey's Dark Knight Returns. I'm missing the first issue, but the rest of the story isn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. I was confused that if Peter is an old man now, how the hell is JJJameson still running around. Is he like 100 years old in this?

Marvel Selects: Spider-Man At some point in the 90s Marvel sold subscriptions promising a free 12 issue Spidey and/or Fantastic Four series as a gimmick. Neither series lasted 12 issues. They only made it to six. Of which I have 4, but mine are all still in the original shrinkwrap so I didn't read any of them. But I'm pretty sure they're all old reprint books anyway.

S-M: Secret Wars. A 4 issue mini from 2010 that retold/condensed the original Secret Wars saga for the All Ages readers. By Paul Tobin. I only have the first issue, but it's pretty good. The Hulk holding up a mountain to save all the other heroes never gets any less impressive.

S-M: With Great Power... A 5 issue mini from 2008 by Dave Lapham and Tony Harris. Retells Spidey's origin yet again, but mostly focuses on the time after the bite(only briefly shown in flashback) up to the night before Uncle Ben in killed. The time where Peter was becoming a wrestler and minor TV celeb. Started out well enough, but toward the end it changed Peter's motivations to becoming a hero before Uncle Ben's murder. Saving lives and stopping bank robbers as part of his wrestling PR campaign. That didn't sit right with me.

S-M With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. This was a 7 issue mini series that, as far as I can tell, was used to promote Spidey's huge TPB library. All the stories are reprints from every era. Each one seems to have a theme, like pimping Marvel Masterworks or the Creators series like McFarlane. Seems kinda toolish to charge readers $3.99 apiece for what are essentially big ads. I only have a few of them, but I'm glad I only paid pennies for them.

So now I have like 40 Spidey oneshots to plow thru. I'm debating on reading some non-Spidey stuff first so as not to get burned out on the Wallcrawler.

[Tom Foolery]

Two of the three non-Amazing Spidey ongoings ended recently. Superior ended with issue 12 and Friendly Neighborhood ended with issue 14. (Miles’ book is still going).
They are being replaced with Non-Stop Spider-Man and W.E.B. Of Spider-Man. It’s an acronym for Worldwide Engineering Brigade.

Of course, none of these books are actually coming out...they’re just solicited for May.

[jjreason]

The dearth of new comics is allowing me to mine my back issues for reading pleasure. I'm finally in a position to read ASM from first Hobgoblin all the way through the end of volume 1, if I so choose - and I've chosen to get started. Rogern Stern is at the writing table to start & he's got Peter down pat - in doing some research it looks like he got a good warmup writing Spectacular for a couple of years before getting the big job. I'll try & track those issues down at some point.