JM Dematteis didnt just do Kraven’s Last Hunt, he also did a Spectacular Spiderman run that was quite possibly the best run of Spiderman comics in the 90s. You owe it to yourself to give it a shot.
Yeah JM Dematteis kinda got shafted bad on this list, particularly when the Clone Saga was the fault of marketing staff who had more creative say of the Clone Saga than the writers themselves.
Yeah, I’ve really gotta take issue with your Number 3 worst, for several reasons. -Why give J Michael Straczynski a pass for One More Day and Sins Past because of editorial mandate, when that’s equally if not more the case for the Clone Saga? It was the Marvel higher ups and marketing geniuses who told the writers to milk the Clone Saga until it was completely dry, long at the expense of storytelling quality. Furthermore, while the “editorial mandate” thing is definitely true for One More Day, I’m pretty sure it’s not for Sins Past; that was all JMS. -If the good parts of JMS’s run are enough to excuse him, why not the good product from those writers? JM DeMatteis in particular: not just Kraven’s Last Hunt, but what about The Best of Enemies, with the final battle with and death of Harry Osborn? -Why is Howard Mackie counted separately and lower on your list, while not only was he also part of the Clone Saga, but he was also one of the worst parts of it? The “Life of Reilly” blog is full of anecdotes from Glenn Greenberg talking about how flaky Howard was with continuity and details. He was also the guy given the dubious task of sticking the landing on the whole saga with the Norman Osborn reveal, the same issue which killed off Peter and Mary Jane’s baby. Not exactly a classic! Why separate Mackie from the rest of the Clone Saga writers, especially when he has nowhere near a Kraven’s Last Hunt to redeem him?
I agree wholeheartedly about your #1 pick for writer and artist duo as the ones and only Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I grew up on this team as a child of the 1960's. One of the best story arcs ever was the Master Planner which started in issue #31 through #33. Just an amazing story and fantastic art. Let's not forget many of Spider-Man's arch enemies came from that era and their first appearances were wonderful. Doc Ock, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven, Vulture, Green Goblin, Lizard, Molten Man, Ringmaster were all wonderful characters. Even When John Romita took over after Ditko we had the Kingpin, Shocker, Prowler and more. BTW, If you have a copy of ASM #50, please feel free to read my childhood letter to the editor on the left page, bottom left. Stan called me Joey! I also loves the Back in Black story arc where Peter did beat the sweat outta Kinpin while in jail surrounded by inmates. So many great stories and art work. Todd's brief run was fun and I did enjoy his art work as well. Thanks for posting as this brought back memories now that I'm an OG. Best to all and make mine Marvel!
I was reading Spider-Man in the 90s and 2000s. This year, I've been reading from the beginning, including all the letters. I often wonder about those people that were writing in during the 60s and 70s; if they're still around and how long they stuck with the comics. It was nice to run across one of you fine folks in a random TH-cam comment section. I hope you're doing well these many years later.
I didn't hate the Beyond Corporation concept. I thought the idea of having a slew of writers would be problematic, as it was. You answered my initial question, at least in part. I know some of the top writers got a little "editorial grace." How many of the bottom writers do you think had real interference issues?
I applaud you for getting through all of asm in as short of a time as you did, but neglecting other spidey titles limits the list Matteis would be on the better side if you read spectacular Peter david would also be in competition as well as bendis and zdarsky
100 % agree with your list. Specially the top worst. I remembering buying 20 isues of Howard Mackie and it was so boring to read. His writing is legendary boring. I like Dan Slot, but his work didnt work for me
I have a lot to say, first, JMS was awesome, sins past and one more day were horrible, but there was also back in black, and the first half of his run was probably one of the best spider-man runs ever. He really matured the characters, and he wrote the best version of aunt may. Dan Slott wrote spider-man: big time, which was really good. JMD is a great writer, outside of the clone saga, he wrote some amazing stories other than Kraven's last hunt.
Zeb Wells is normally a good writer. I'm starting to think Spider-man can't be written well today. If it were it could just be given the derivative tag you sorta gave it already and then he's way too much of an established character to take real chances with.
This is actually a near perfect ranking. I would actually not entirely blame those writers on the clone saga. It was editorial and marketing meddling that screwed it up. It was supposed to be a three to six month arc across all the then current series that was ballooned out to two years to compete with Knightfall at DC.
Nah Zeb Wells Spider-Man comics are genuinely the worst things ever after One More Day. Atleast Nick Spencer tries to make Peter grow up and be happy with MJ. Wells dosen't even do that, he and editorial just make Peters life feel more miserable and don't want Peter to develop or grow as a character. As for Dan Slott he was also bad. The only good thing about him was superior Spider-Man the rest were shit like Spider Boy??? Bringing Ben Reilly to life and killing him of more than 30 times??? That was just bullshit.
Again with the Peter and MJ being married its been almost 20 years get ever it! would I prefer them being together? yes. but I'm not going to cry about it for 20 years this part of the Spidey fanbase is just creepy. Also Tod is not the most influential Spidey Artist its Mark Bagley! Other than that good list
JM Dematteis didnt just do Kraven’s Last Hunt, he also did a Spectacular Spiderman run that was quite possibly the best run of Spiderman comics in the 90s. You owe it to yourself to give it a shot.
I agree. It’s really great.
Yep, I remember the Spectacular Spiderman run. Awesome memories.
Yeah JM Dematteis kinda got shafted bad on this list, particularly when the Clone Saga was the fault of marketing staff who had more creative say of the Clone Saga than the writers themselves.
I really love the STRACZYNSKI run. There was never a better aunt May !!!!
Please give J.M. DeMatteis another chance. He wrote more of Spider-Man than just bits of the Clone Saga
Yeah, I’ve really gotta take issue with your Number 3 worst, for several reasons.
-Why give J Michael Straczynski a pass for One More Day and Sins Past because of editorial mandate, when that’s equally if not more the case for the Clone Saga? It was the Marvel higher ups and marketing geniuses who told the writers to milk the Clone Saga until it was completely dry, long at the expense of storytelling quality. Furthermore, while the “editorial mandate” thing is definitely true for One More Day, I’m pretty sure it’s not for Sins Past; that was all JMS.
-If the good parts of JMS’s run are enough to excuse him, why not the good product from those writers? JM DeMatteis in particular: not just Kraven’s Last Hunt, but what about The Best of Enemies, with the final battle with and death of Harry Osborn?
-Why is Howard Mackie counted separately and lower on your list, while not only was he also part of the Clone Saga, but he was also one of the worst parts of it? The “Life of Reilly” blog is full of anecdotes from Glenn Greenberg talking about how flaky Howard was with continuity and details. He was also the guy given the dubious task of sticking the landing on the whole saga with the Norman Osborn reveal, the same issue which killed off Peter and Mary Jane’s baby. Not exactly a classic! Why separate Mackie from the rest of the Clone Saga writers, especially when he has nowhere near a Kraven’s Last Hunt to redeem him?
Thanks for the vid.
I love Gerry Conway. Very nice guy.
The black suit came after Roger Stern's run.
I agree wholeheartedly about your #1 pick for writer and artist duo as the ones and only Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I grew up on this team as a child of the 1960's. One of the best story arcs ever was the Master Planner which started in issue #31 through #33. Just an amazing story and fantastic art.
Let's not forget many of Spider-Man's arch enemies came from that era and their first appearances were wonderful. Doc Ock, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven, Vulture, Green Goblin, Lizard, Molten Man, Ringmaster were all wonderful characters. Even When John Romita took over after Ditko we had the Kingpin, Shocker, Prowler and more. BTW, If you have a copy of ASM #50, please feel free to read my childhood letter to the editor on the left page, bottom left. Stan called me Joey! I also loves the Back in Black story arc where Peter did beat the sweat outta Kinpin while in jail surrounded by inmates. So many great stories and art work. Todd's brief run was fun and I did enjoy his art work as well. Thanks for posting as this brought back memories now that I'm an OG. Best to all and make mine Marvel!
I was reading Spider-Man in the 90s and 2000s. This year, I've been reading from the beginning, including all the letters. I often wonder about those people that were writing in during the 60s and 70s; if they're still around and how long they stuck with the comics. It was nice to run across one of you fine folks in a random TH-cam comment section. I hope you're doing well these many years later.
95 might be high slott told some effective stories but overall he was very poor. Id probably put him higher
Can’t believe you’ve read every issue. That’s dope
I didn't hate the Beyond Corporation concept. I thought the idea of having a slew of writers would be problematic, as it was. You answered my initial question, at least in part. I know some of the top writers got a little "editorial grace." How many of the bottom writers do you think had real interference issues?
I applaud you for getting through all of asm in as short of a time as you did, but neglecting other spidey titles limits the list
Matteis would be on the better side if you read spectacular
Peter david would also be in competition as well as bendis and zdarsky
Awesome list…loved it!!!
100 % agree with your list.
Specially the top worst. I remembering buying 20 isues of Howard Mackie and it was so boring to read. His writing is legendary boring.
I like Dan Slot, but his work didnt work for me
I have a lot to say, first, JMS was awesome, sins past and one more day were horrible, but there was also back in black, and the first half of his run was probably one of the best spider-man runs ever. He really matured the characters, and he wrote the best version of aunt may.
Dan Slott wrote spider-man: big time, which was really good.
JMD is a great writer, outside of the clone saga, he wrote some amazing stories other than Kraven's last hunt.
Zeb Wells is normally a good writer. I'm starting to think Spider-man can't be written well today. If it were it could just be given the derivative tag you sorta gave it already and then he's way too much of an established character to take real chances with.
Is a "good" writer now?
This is actually a near perfect ranking. I would actually not entirely blame those writers on the clone saga. It was editorial and marketing meddling that screwed it up. It was supposed to be a three to six month arc across all the then current series that was ballooned out to two years to compete with Knightfall at DC.
Amazing Video! I love rankings and lists. I couldn't agree more about the new stuff being garbage.
I think this video was made just a little too early.
Because of Paul 😂
Sin Eater was the only good thing about the Spencer run
Any writer that doesn’t treat Peter like a punching bag.
What is spiderman?
JM Tomatoes 👍🏽
Dan Slott is a GOAT, in my opinion. Nick Spencer is also worse than Wells.
Spenser was uneventful, safe, and boring.
Wells was teenage fanfiction
Nah Zeb Wells Spider-Man comics are genuinely the worst things ever after One More Day.
Atleast Nick Spencer tries to make Peter grow up and be happy with MJ. Wells dosen't even do that, he and editorial just make Peters life feel more miserable and don't want Peter to develop or grow as a character.
As for Dan Slott he was also bad. The only good thing about him was superior Spider-Man the rest were shit like Spider Boy??? Bringing Ben Reilly to life and killing him of more than 30 times??? That was just bullshit.
Again with the Peter and MJ being married its been almost 20 years get ever it! would I prefer them being together? yes. but I'm not going to cry about it for 20 years this part of the Spidey fanbase is just creepy. Also Tod is not the most influential Spidey Artist its Mark Bagley! Other than that good list
J.M.D’s run wasn’t that good that’s true, but I love the amazing Spider-Man #400 !!!! One of the most emotional storylines ever ❤️
yeah, and then they went and ruined it.
His best Spidey work and run is in spectacular
Conway was the GOAT for killing Gwen lmao 😂
You said one person quit collecting because of the writer. I quit collecting ASM because of Bagley’s artwork. Terrible!