Amazing Spider-Man in the 2000s

Apr 13

Apr 13 Amazing Spider-Man in the 2000s

The 2000s was an odd decade for Amazing Spider-Man. It had some really great stories while also marred with a great deal of controversy. While not anywhere nearly as bad as a lot of the decade before it, the Amazing Spider-Man of the 2000s certainly made a lot of very polarizing decisions.

In the year 2000, the title was still being worked on by Roger Stern and John Byrne and well, things were already off to a rough start. Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13 was the first attempt at trying to undo Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane with the stalker story ending with Mary Jane seemingly being killed in a plane crash. Instead of “liberating” Peter as they intended, it pretty much reduced to Peter refusing to accept that Mary Jane was dead and evade anyone who tried to pursue a romance with him, particularly Jill Stacy, whom it appeared the writers were trying to pigeon-hole as a surrogate Gwen Stacy. The other problem with the series was that stories were often bridged between this title and its sister book Peter Parker: Spider-Man, forcing readers to read both books in order to understand what was going on from issue to issue, not that the stories made a whole lot of sense.

Things got more confusing after the abrupt departure of John Byrne after issue #18. With Byrne gone so were some of the elements he introduced to the title following the franchise relaunch. Peter lost his job at TriCorp (not that he did much work there), also gone was the Chapter One retcon of Spider-Man’s origins.

Erik Larsen was brought back for issue #’s 19 through 21 and it’s not that great. Far to cartoonish. Howard Mackie did the best with what he had but his stories also kind of fell flat. On a positive, he brought back Venom in and made him an interesting threat after various writers (particularly Larry Hama) basically killed anything interesting about the character in various Venom limited series in the decade before. Mackie also wrapped up his plotline about Senator Stewart Ward, who was up to something shady. The explanation almost makes no sense. It’s far too complicated to explain here but needless to say, it’s a confusing mess. I don’t think that’s entirely Mackie’s fault since the character was a collaboration between him and John Bryne. With Bryne’s departure from the title, I think Mackie was left holding the ball. Bryne was the kind of guy who liked to have lots of plot threads going on at one time, which didn’t seem to be Mackie’s strong suit with this run on Spider-Man. I think that he’s too harshly criticized for his work here, particularly on SpiderFan.org which is exceptionally critical of Mackie’s work (they’re definitely written by someone by a butthurt fan that takes creative decisions they don’t like as a personal insult) Other than a passingly decent Green Goblin story-arc, Mackie ended his run wrapping up the whole Mary Jane/Stalker storyline which had been all but forgotten until issue #29. Mackie wraps it up by revealing Mary Jane is alive all along and the stalker is some mutant who mentally linked with Peter Parker and was trying to steal his life. It’s a strange twist to the character who was originally presented as just a normal guy with a lot of resources, but whatever, I guess? The 2001 Amazing Spider-Man Annual had Peter and Mary Jane’s reunion end abruptly as Mary Jane needs some time to deal with being the prisoner of her obsessed stalker for months on end, setting things up for the next creative team to take over.

After Mackie’s departure, Amazing Spider-Man was handed over to J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr. Straczynski, at the time, was riding high from his successful run on the television series Babylon 5 and was getting back into the world of comics. Straczynski’s run wasn’t without controversy either. The first six issues had Spider-Man battling a new foe named Morlun who hunts individuals that are animal totems. JMS also introduced the concept that Peter Parker’s spider-powers may have come from mystical sources as opposed to scientific ones. This was a controversial move and a lot of fans hated it. In retrospect, I think it was less changing the status quo and more deconstructing Spider-Man and looking at his powers from a different angle. As much as this was controversial at the time, it’s funny how much fans change over a decade since the majority of the mystical aspects of Spider-Man’s powers were the bedrock of the popular Spider-Verse storyline of the 2010s and fans at that shit up and asked for seconds.

The first part of JMS’s run had some highs and lows. On the one hand, he tried to make Peter Parker more relatable by having him get a job at his old high school as a teacher. Unfortunately, this premise, while heavily featured for the first 20 or so issues, fizzled out as editorial demands dictated where Spider-Man’s stories were going. Another great aspect was Aunt May finally learning that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, which added a whole new dimension to the character. No longer was Aunt May the one-note character who doted over Peter with one foot in the grave. JMS made Aunt May a three-dimensional character who was whip-smart, and capable of handling Peter’s double life on her own terms. On the other hand, I feel that JMS dropped the ball on Mary Jane. When Mackie left the character, she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which you would expect given her experiences. However, when JMS was writing her, he dropped the whole traumatic experience and made Mary Jane’s separation all about her trying to find herself as she felt that her life was all about being Spider-Man’s wife. While Straczynski raised some interesting concerns that Mary Jane had been Peter’s wife, in the end, he makes them get back together and Mary Jane goes back to doing what she always does, sacrificing her wants to be Peter’s support. I mean, he tried to make Mary Jane her own woman by having subplots involving her getting into theater, but this didn’t last very long. As for the foes that Spider-Man fought at first, they were disproportionately mystical in origin as JMS went through his arc about Spider-Man maybe having mystical powers. Another odd moment during the JMS run is the involvement of Doctor Strange, who appears, speaks of events that had not yet been depicted and editorial leaves you to believe that there was going to be a Doctor Strange limited series to explain it all. That limited series, whatever it was intended to be, was never published. The only thing that JMS wrote about Doctor Strange, was a reimagined origin in a miniseries titled Strange.

Anyway, after issue #58, the title was relaunched with the title resuming its legacy numbering as Amazing Spider-Man had reached its 500th issue. It ends up an up note where, thanks to Doctor Strange, Peter has five minutes to talk to the spirit of his Uncle Ben. Ben tells Peter that he has nothing to regret regarding Ben’s death and tells him that he’s proud of him. You’d think after a moment like this we wouldn’t be beaten over the head about Spider-Man blames himself for Uncle Ben’s death, but you’d be wrong. In issues #506-508, JMS wrapped up his “mystic” arc by revealing that Ezekiel — the man who has been trying to convince Spider-Man that his powers are magical — was really just grooming Peter for a sacrifice to the mystical beings that gave Ezekiel his own spider-powers. Kind of a dick move. This isn’t the end of the mysticism but we’ll get onto that in a moment.

For Amazing Spider-Man #509-514, JMS was joined by artist Mike Deodato, Jr. They went with a more conventional Spider-Man story this time around but still pushed hard on a controversial move. The arc, titled Sins Past, reveals that Gwen Stacy had an affair with Norman Osborn that birthed twins prior to her murder at the hands of the Green Goblin. Now, these children (who are rapidly aging) have resurfaced and, thinking that Peter is their father, are trying to kill Spider-Man and his family. A lot of people don’t like this because it paints Gwen Stacy in a bad light. Me, I like the storyline, because the idea of Gwen Stacy makes her a more believable character. When writers wrote her Gwen back in the 60s and 70s they presented her like a lilly-white one-dimensional woman. All she existed for was to be an extra character to hate on Spider-Man while unconditionally loving Peter Parker. It’s was the kind of hack one beat romance that was prominent in romance comics of that era. Since then, writers have always revered Gwen Stacy as this infallible character to the point that is nauseating. Her invocation is just about as redundant as Peter always bringing up saintly Uncle Ben. The whole point about the characters in Spider-Man’s life is that they should all have human flaws and be relatable. Adding the infidelity angle puts Gwen back on the board as a flawed person, just like anyone else. She’s made mistakes in her life. I don’t think her affair with Norman Osborn diminishes her unless you’re a slut-shaming jerk off.

This was followed by some ho-hum stories. Skin Deep was an arc that ran from Amazing Spider-Man #515-518 which is basically a nerdy Molten Man character. It seems heavily influenced by school shootings that were — at the time — still somewhat uncommon and reinforced the (incorrect) notion that all shooters were nerds that were bullied into going on a shooting rampage. Issue #519 is when JMS really started acknowledging that Spider-Man was a member of the New Avengers, although his story arc about Peter’s membership on this team was kind of meh. It is a six-issue arc about the New Avengers fighting Hydra agents that are modeled after members of the original Avengers. It’s not that great a story. However, it does return Hydra to its original terrorist roots and it also sets up a romance between Aunt May and Edwin Jarvis. Unfortunately, this romance is made moot when it’s later revealed that “Jarvis” was actually a Skrull spy during the Secret Invasion event. But hey, now we know Aunt May fucked an alien, so that’s cool?

Issues #525-528 were part of a 12 part arc called The Other. It featured the return of Morlun and Spider-Man getting new powers. Earlier in Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) Spider-Man was given organic web-shooters to put him on par with the Spider-Man movies that were being released in theaters. The Other took things a step further by making Spider-Man more spidery. Now any part of his body could cling to anything, he had enhanced sight, enhanced healing, and — most bizarrely — stingers that pop out of his wrists. With Civil War event on the horizon, Spider-Man became chummy with Tony Stark and was given a new suit of spider-armor that had all sorts of Stark tech in it. The changes kept coming with issues #532-538 which saw Peter side with the Superhuman Registration Act, publicly reveal his identity, then defect to join Captain America’s anti-registration side becoming an outlaw. This all culminated with Aunt May getting shot by an assassin hired by the Kingpin. The follow-up, Back in Black story arc which ran until Amazing Spider-Man #543 had Spider-Man struggle to get May the medical help she needs, while also getting revenge against the Kingpin.

However, with all of these changes, it soon came down from editorial that it was time to hit the reset button and return Spider-Man to his status quo. On top of that, it was also decided that Spider-Man’s marriage had to go. This led to the storyline titled One More Day, which ran in all the Spider-Man titles at the time, as well as issues #544 and 545 of Amazing Spider-Man. Editorial interference was so heavy in this story. In hindsight, undoing Peter’s marriage was actually a smart move and did breathe new life into the character —as intended — however, the execution of the story was downright fucking stupid. In order to save Aunt May’s life, Peter makes a deal with Mephisto. In return, Mephisto erases Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage for existence so that the couple never got married but were still together all over the years.

It was really dumb. It was also excessive and overthought when a simple divorce would have worked better. Having their marriage not exist was just such a pointless exercise since they weren’t changing anything else other than superficial statements identifying the character’s marital status in older stories. In fact, a lot of the logistics weren’t explained in any certain terms until Joe Quesada sat down and wrote One Moment in Time two years after One More Day. All of Spider-Man’s extra powers were gone, Aunt May was back on her own two feet, and Peter Parker was made an irresponsible teen again even though at this point (in Marvel Time) he’s pushing 30. People were pretty harsh about it, but looking back at it now, it actually fits. We’re living in a time when a lot of young people in the 20s and 30s are moving back home because they can’t afford to live on their own. Young people are waiting until they’re older before they get married. Peter Parker was 25 when he married Mary Jane, and while that might have been normal in the 1980s when that story was written, it wasn’t so common in the later 2000s and it certainly isn’t the case anymore. So it wasn’t just making Peter Parker relatable to younger readers, it was also to make him more like someone his age living in today is really like.

It was just the execution that was terrible. But I digress.

In taking things back to basics, Marvel editorial hired a designated team of Spider-Man writers and artists to initiate a massive coordinated effort. Part of the Brand New Day initiative saw all other Spider-Man titles getting canceled and Amazing Spider-Man being put out three times a week. This was unprecedented at the time, but amazingly the crazy bastards managed to pull it off. Amazing Spider-Man was put out three times a month from issue #545 to 647, that’s three years worth of publications. The series featured a rotation of writers including Dan Slott, Bob Gale, Marc Guggenheim, Fred Van Lente, and Zeb Wells. They were later joined by Mark Waid, Joe Kelly, and Roger Stern. Artists during this run included Chris Bachalo, Phil Jimenez, Mike McKone, John Romita, Jr., Marcos Martin, and Barry Kitson.

Brand New Day didn’t just hit the reset button on Spider-Man, but also took the character into different directions and opened up new storytelling avenues that were otherwise impossible to tell after the constraints put on the character over the years and I’m not talking about Peter Parker being single again. While some of the ideas were kind of hack at first — such as Harry Osborn’s miraculous resurrection, and the introduction of a new hero named Jackpot whose who reason de etre was being a red herring — the series also did some good things. It introduced a new crew of villains that were more Spider-Man’s type — after years of fighting supernatural foes when JMS wrote the title — as well as adding a new supporting cast. Although the dissolution of Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage felt like a forced affair, the later developments in Brand New Day seemed less force, at least in hindsight. If you look around and read reviews and opinion pieces about Brand New Day around the time it came out, people were still very angry over One More Day that their critiques of the subsequent storylines are jaundiced. Particularly over at Spiderfan.org whose reviewers blow a gasket and write some overly whiney pieces whenever a creative team does something counter to what they feel Spider-Man should be.

A thrice monthly release schedule also allowed for b-plots that had a longer run time on the title, such as a plot involves a mayoral race for the new mayor of New York City, which results in J. Jonah Jameson becoming the mayor of New York and the ongoing investigation into the spider-tracer killings. Some of the best villains of this decade came out of the Brand New Day era, such as Mister Negative (Amazing Spider-Man #545-548), and the Menace (Amazing Spider-Man #550-551) to name a few. Some of the more iconic storylines are Marc Guggenheims “Kraven’s First Hunt” that ran from Amazing Spider-Man #565-567 which introduced Kraven the Huner’s daughter Ana Kravinoff as the new Kraven. New Ways to Die was a five-part story by Dan Slott that ran from Amazing Spider-Man #568-573 that featured Eddie Brock becoming an Anti-Venom.

As kind of a follow up to the 9/11 issue, Amazing Spider-Man #574 was a salute to American soldiers who were participating in the Iraq War. In that story, we learn that Flash Thompson had reenlisted into the military and was fighting in Iraq where a momentary act of heroism led to Thomspon losing his legs, a change that will impact the Flash Thompson character for years to come. Issues #584-588 was another long-running story, titled “Character Assassination” (another Guggenheim story) that wrapped up a number of on-going plot lines, including the secret identity of the Menace. Another fantastic story is Amazing Spider-Man #602-605 which features the Chameleon taking over Peter Parker’s life for a day. The story, written by Van Lente, takes the idea of the Chameleon to the next level by delving deeper into the process the Chameleon goes through when hijacking someone’s life. It’s a look into the character that hadn’t been explored before. Lastly, there is the introduction of Jay Jameson, the father of J. Jonah Jameson. Who feels kind of shoe-horned as an excuse for Aunt May suddenly getting married in Amazing Spider-Man #600. Given May’s past track record with husbands and boyfriends, I can tell you this one doesn’t have a happy ending either but we won’t see that until the following decade.

Another interesting direction was the creative team’s take on older characters, such as the reinvention of the Spot in Amazing Spider-Man #589, and Spider-Man and the Black Cat rekindling their old romance in Amazing Spider-Man #606-607. While issue #608-609 dips its toe into one of the most notorious chapters of Spider-History — the Clone Saga— giving an often forgotten storyline a decent shake, however, they won’t do the Clone Saga any justice until the following decade.

My only criticism about Brand New Day was the slow rollout of answers explaining all the changes that happened post Amazing Spider-Man #545. For example, how Harry Osborn survived Spectacular Spider-Man #200 isn’t revealed until issues 581-582, and why Peter and Mary Jane wasn’t explained until 605 and even then it’s treated as an afterthought. A more satisfying explanation isn’t given until the One Moment in Time story arc that didn’t get published until 2010 (more on that when we examine Amazing Spider-Man in the 2010s). However, looking back on things in hindsight, I think that by not explaining everything right away it gave the writers a chance to prove that Spider-Man was still worth reading post-Brand New Day. Which even the heaviest retractors of the time (I admit I was one of them) eventually grew to accept the changes. Surprise-surprise, the intent of Brand New Day — to go back to basics but also allow the book to go in new directions — did exactly what it set out to do. Unfortunately, since fanboys are still entitled shitheels, they didn’t really learn the lesson as you’ll notice similar freakouts whenever there are big changes (see Captain America being outed as a Nazi pre-Secret Empire, Secret Wars 2015, and just about every other major change Marvel has made over the last 10 years) The moral, fanboys, is to shut the fuck up and give the writers a chance to do their thing.