Comic Books Comic Book • Page 442

Yes, had never heard of him before he was announced as being Spiderman. Not familiar with any of these but appreciate the explanation!

My knowledge of Spidey was Peter and I read since of the series where Otto was Spidey but that's it. I plan to check out the Zeb Wells series when it launches

 

Ben Reilly already lost his soul once. Breaking him again because, by editor Nick Lowe’s printed admission, they don’t know what to do with him? Honestly pretty lazy, imo. Evil shadow selves can be fun (see: Stryfe), but I’d do that with someone else before Ben.

I’ll admit that Ben is trickier to make work as an ongoing part of Spidey’s neighborhood than Miles, but not that hard. There’s one painfully obvious choice Marvel could make but refuses to that’d help everything else fall neatly into place:

Let Peter and MJ be married! (And, I dunno, maybe even give them a kid!?)

It’s so easy: Peter is the Spidey of ASM, married to MJ, eventually with an infant child. He’s a teacher again, working at the school Miles attends. Miles has his own monthly book that feels like an old school teenage Spidey book. And, Ben has a monthly book that has the young adult bachelor soap opera vibes.

 

Honestly, they could also just move him to another part of the country like they did to Kaine, but that would require too much creative thought. I mean, they'd have to give him a supporting cast and rogues gallery of his own, and why do that when you can just grasp at the fumes of the last 40-50 years?

 

So I just got a Marvel Unlimited trial and... The app is garbage haha. Does anyone else randomly get a loading wheel that won't go away when flipping between pages? It happens like every 2 issues I read and I have to close and reopen the app. Super annoying.

 

It's been really bad since the big overhaul that they did recently. I don't think I've run into that quite that often though.

 

Is it accurate that "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" and "Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man" are the only Miles volumes before the Ultimate universe was merged with 616? Surprised to only find 41 issues on Marvel Unlimited

 

Yep.

If you wanna be a completionist, there’s also the first Spider-Men mini that takes place during UCSM, the Cataclysm event (which I’ve never gotten around to reading) & Ultimate Spider-Man #200 between volumes (don’t know if they count it as an issue of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man), and the All-New Ultimates series that ran alongside MMUSM.

Oh, and I guess you could include the All-New X-Men arc “The Ultimate Adventure,” written by Bendis, in the middle of MMUSM.

 

The past couple years, there’s been one comic that clearly stood above the rest for me. Last year, it was The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V & Filipe Andrade; the year before, it was The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. Premature hype can bite you in the butt, but I have a feeling this will be that comic for 2022.

Zoe Thorogood is just… so good.

 

Got marvel unlimited and came across Civil War 2 and reading it for the first time since it released. I forgot how fuggin weird the alll-new all-different era was with team compositions. Venom, Thing, and Kitty Pryde with the Guardians. Torch and Beast in the InHumans. And general blatant forced focus on InHumans in general. Ultimates we’re still a team, and A-force. OG X-men running around.

What a weird era. Maybe in detached from the current Marvel going ons but I feel like the only thing happening is Krakoa.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this has already been answered in here, but anyone have recommended readings for 616 Spider-Man? Really enjoying Marvel Unlimited, and while I've read Ultimate Spider-Man several times, I haven't read a ton of ASM issues and really want to dive in now.

Is Brand New Day a good place to start?

 

The nerd in me just blacked out for a minute.

 

Haha there's just so much that I don't necessarily want to go all the way back to the 60s, so I'm not sure of the most accessible place to start for a more modern 616 Spider-Man.

I also hear Spider-Man Blue is great... Maybe I'll dive into that one, too.

 

Yeah, Spider-Man Blue was great stuff. Really touching.

 

I do strongly recommend you go through some classic ASM on Unlimited at some point and can point you towards some highs worth checking out. Romita, Conway, Andru, Stern, Romita Jr, DeFalco, Frenz, Michelinie, McFarlane, Larsen, Bagley… lots of good stuff in the 60s-90s.

Since your current interest is modern stuff, though…

Start with the miniseries Spider-Man: Blue, and then go straight to the ASM run by J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita Jr., which starts with vol. 2 #30. JRJR’s last issue on art is #508 (in the 50s it returns to classic numbering starting with #500), which is also where you wanna jump off; the next issue is the infamous “Sins Past” shit show, and Avengers & Civil War stuff comes shortly afterwards.

Aspects of that JMS/JRJR ASM are very of its time, imo, but so is early Bendis/Bagley USM, so if you love that, this should feel pretty comfortable to you. It’s some of the absolute best adult Peter stuff at its best.

The “Back in Black” era between Civil War & One More Day has some great stuff, but honestly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea skipping straight from ASM #508 to #546: “Brand New Day.” Conceptually, I hate the reboot, particularly the marriage erasure. But, if you read it without context and just take it at face value, there’s a lot of great short arcs with fantastic artists like Marcos Martin & Chris Bachalo. Throughout Brand New Day and The Gauntlet, I gotta begrudgingly admit that it’s good Spidey comics overall, lol.

After that… it becomes very uneven and mostly not fun for me, lol. Some Dan Slott stuff is worth reading eventually, but like “Back in Black,” it’s not a bad idea to fast forward… and definitely pretend the Nick Spencer run never happened…

And jump into the recently concluded (in print issues) “Beyond” era starring Ben Reilly, and then the upcoming relaunch by Zeb Wells & JRJR.

 

Oh, and after that big Brand New Day/The Gauntlet era but before the Beyond era, Spectacular Spider-Man by Chip Zdarsky is good. Early issues are a little overly wordy at times, but as a whole, it’s probably in the Top 3 longer 616 Peter Parker runs of the 21st century thus far.

 

Thank you so much, I'm stoked to have all that info! Will definitely take all of this into consideration for my read through. Can't decide if I want to read Miles' run in the Ultimate universe first, I'm overwhelmed with all of the options I have in Marvel Unlimited lol

 

lol. Maybe keep the Peter train rolling w/ JMS/JRJR while you’re still feeling that character from Andrew Garfield’s return, and then read Miles closer to Across the Spider-Verse? Sometimes it’s best to just ride that wave.

 

Really enjoying Hope Larson's Batgirl so far. Glad Alysia is still in it.

 

I'm on part 5 of Sins Past in my ASM read through and God I hate it

EDIT

Damn it I forgot that's the one that @Tim warned me about lmao I should have listened!

 

I sure did, and you sure as heck should have!

For what it’s worth, the aimless Nick Spencer run that I also recommend you skip (mostly just ‘cause it’s a big waste of time) ends with a convoluted retcon that finally gets rid of that.

I’m hoping you didn’t accidentally start with what I said to skip? lol. How was the JMS/JRJR ASM for you? If you did read up to that point, you must’ve really cruised through those issues.

 

Haha yep I already cruised through them, I've had some free time recently. I really enjoyed them! The Ezekiel storyline was pretty interesting and I like Peter as a teacher. The art was fantastic, too.

Great to hear it was retconned. Hopefully the same will happen for Peter and MJ's marriage, eventually.

 

I would love love LOVE this, but I can’t see it happening any time soon.

The Spencer run began by referencing One More Day and played with marriage stuff throughout its nearly a hundred issues (including various special issues)… but ended without changing anything. All it did is reveal that Mephisto will never let them get married because, if they do, their daughter Mayday is destined to defeat his hell-on-earth or whatever. And then Spencer left Marvel for Substack, and it seems like Peter & MJ are gonna get separated again in an upcoming ASM issue.

The original One More Day was a Joe Quesada thing, and this still might be his fault, but it really feels like Disney corporate also doesn’t want their Spidey brand to include a marriage. Feel like it’d take something big in movies or whatever in, like, a decade, plus some corporate shuffling, for them to even consider a married 616 Peter.

 

Rafael on Batman is a dream

 

He’s cool, but the bigger dream imo is the writer. Cannot believe the two flagship Bat-books are being written by Chip Zdarsky & Ram V in 2022.

(Plus, that G. Willow Wilson solo Poison Ivy miniseries! Which will probably be the only DC series I buy as floppies this year.)