Comics Marvel NOW: Spider-Man Renew Your Vows

[UltimateWebhead]

Issue #11 is out today! And it looks like I forgot to post the preview pages, oops! So, here you go on those:

 

[Ben_Reilly]

Interview with the new creative team, writer Jody Houser and artist Nick Roche.

https://news.marvel.com/comics/72303/amazing-spider-man-renew-vows-parker-family-values/

Honestly, kind of pumped, now. Then again, hearing the creators on a book getting excited about it always gets me feeling that way. When a creative team is just amped for what they are doing, and not making excuses for it (unlike some other comics and stories), then it shows in the final product.

Here's hoping!!

I don't know. I feel like that interview just, well... is a slap in the face of each and every Spider-Girl fan out there.

 

[shinlyle]

I don't know. I feel like that interview just, well... is a slap in the face of each and every Spider-Girl fan out there.

Not as bad a slap in the face as Dan Slott killing off the Peter Parker from Spider-Girl, then changing Mayday's costume to the classic costume, before abandoning her and her universe.

As a Spider-Girl fan, that hurt me worse.
This is something new and different, that could have been done as an alternative to Brand New Day/Current continuity.
Personally, I just look for good stories, which the core title has been lacking since Superior ended, in my opinion.

 

[Ben_Reilly]

Core title has been lacking since Sins Past.

 

[shinlyle]

Core title has been lacking since Sins Past.

True. I enjoyed Back in Black, though. I think I enjoyed Slott's run from Big Time to Spider-Island, and then again with Superior. Everything else has been kind of forgettable. Although I will say we have had some memorable artists on the book throughout all of this. Deodato (hate he had to draw Sins Past), Marcos Martin (AMAZING), Ryan Stegman, Steve McNiven (Why start him on BND?!), and several others.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

I really enjoyed issue 11. Not gonna do a full review but it was solid. It's interesting to me how Ryan Stegman who is primarily an artist, does a better job of writing Spider-Man than Slott. I guess if you just know the character well enough the writing part probably comes a bit easier.

I also picked up these variant covers for issue 11 from JSC.

 

[shinlyle]

Okay, just got caught up on Renew Your Vows.
Love this book. Something about stepping back into this world feels like seeing an old friend for the first time in forever. Peter and MJ with their little girl, references to Harry (who is still DEAD in this world) and his tragic end, Liz not being a megalomaniac (looking at you, Slott), and just seeing the mama bear/papa bear dynamic placed on my favorite comic couple.

Good times. Watching Peter and MJ both tracking down Annie and getting there too late...looks like we'll get one awesome conclusion. Apparently, Stegman can write as well as he draws.

This should totally be the core book. I looked at picking up the newest issue of ASM for the Legacy thing....but I just couldn't. Slott telling us all it will be new and different under the same writer who promised us "new and different" the last time...no thanks.

I love Dan's past works, but I'm just not digging his Spidey, especially when compared to this book, which gives me exactly the Spidey I've been waiting for.

 

[Shockdingo]

I've been slowly catching up and I caught today's issue. It was good and as usual had heart.

Spoiler

-Was nice seeing the X-men again

-Thought the resolution to the symbiote problem happened really fast, but we're at the end and heading for a time skip, so I can live with it

-I'm gonna miss Annie May as a kid. I feel that angle of a kid growing up as a super hero is undermined in this day and age, we've got lots of teen super heroes, so that was something I felt could have been explored for more arcs.

-The resolution with Normie was pretty sweet, end of the day, this kid is damaged and needed a friend, needed someone.

-Goblin Mech was kind of crazy-cool, would make a fun video game boss

-Annie's new costume looks good, but I kinda feel it should have more than a domino mask, glad that all three are still heroes after the timeskip, was worried Pete permanently lost his powers after the Reagent tech incident

All in all I love this book and will miss Stegman & Conway, but I'll give the new writers a shot. I love this book and miss Pete & MJ adventures, so it's still a winning concept.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

Okay, just got caught up on Renew Your Vows.
Love this book. Something about stepping back into this world feels like seeing an old friend for the first time in forever. Peter and MJ with their little girl, references to Harry (who is still DEAD in this world) and his tragic end, Liz not being a megalomaniac (looking at you, Slott), and just seeing the mama bear/papa bear dynamic placed on my favorite comic couple.

Good times. Watching Peter and MJ both tracking down Annie and getting there too late...looks like we'll get one awesome conclusion. Apparently, Stegman can write as well as he draws.

This should totally be the core book. I looked at picking up the newest issue of ASM for the Legacy thing....but I just couldn't. Slott telling us all it will be new and different under the same writer who promised us "new and different" the last time...no thanks.

I love Dan's past works, but I'm just not digging his Spidey, especially when compared to this book, which gives me exactly the Spidey I've been waiting for.

As far as I can tell, new and different in Slott's eyes or even Marvel's eyes means nothing more than just a new coat of paint. Which doesn't make the car new, it just makes it shinier. No substance, it's all flash.

I haven't read issue 12 yet but I agree with everything you said regarding RYV. It's great seeing Peter act like he should and not as an inept, incapable, emotional 15 year old.

 

[shinlyle]

As far as I can tell, new and different in Slott's eyes or even Marvel's eyes means nothing more than just a new coat of paint. Which doesn't make the car new, it just makes it shinier. No substance, it's all flash.

I haven't read issue 12 yet but I agree with everything you said regarding RYV. It's great seeing Peter act like he should and not as an inept, incapable, emotional 15 year old.

Haven't read issue 12 yet, either. Hoping to pick it up in the next week or two. Watching Peter be responsible and grown-up is kind of what I've been missing since they made him a hapless millenial/perpetual man-boy. Just...cannot enjoy that but SO much.

Yeah, I think Dan started off with good intentions, and Peter working at Horizon was awesome for a time, but when he formed Parker Industries and did all the globe-trotting....I lost interest quickly. I get that Miles was supposed to feel Peter's NY perch, but, as much as I like Miles, he's not Peter. I mean NO disrespect to the character, at all.

 

[shinlyle]

Red the last issue of the pre-time jump. Not bad...but VERY rushed. It really felt like they were trying to tie up all the bows a little too swiftly.
That being said, it was still good. I'll be back for the legacy stuff, and I hope the new team can keep me on board.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

Here's the preview for issue #13. IMO, the art is a noticeable step down from either Stegman or Stockman. Still gonna give writer Jody Houser and artist Nick Roche a fair chance. RYV is still the only spider book worth a damn.

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2017/11/16/marvel-preview-amazing-spider-man-renew-your-vows-13/

 

[Ben_Reilly]

Here's the preview for issue #13. IMO, the art is a noticeable step down from either Stegman or Stockman. Still gonna give writer Jody Houser and artist Nick Roche a fair chance. RYV is still the only spider book worth a damn.

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2017/11/16/marvel-preview-amazing-spider-man-renew-your-vows-13/

Ben Reilly is a really good book now.
Spectacular has had two damned good issues just now.

 

[shinlyle]

I'll keep reading. I really wish they would just make this the main continuity! Also, I see we're heading to Peter being unmasked....AGAIN...over is Spectacular, so I don't know what will happen after that.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

Issue 13 out today!

Also got confirmation via Twitter that Nate Stockman will be doing the art for issue 16.

Here's the cover by Ryan Stegman:

 

[Shockdingo]

Anyone else check out the issue by the new team? I finally got a chance to read it today and felt good about it. Still charming and always nice to see Pete and MJ in love.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

Anyone else check out the issue by the new team? I finally got a chance to read it today and felt good about it. Still charming and always nice to see Pete and MJ in love.

I read it. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it. Sure it's great seeing Peter with MJ and daughter but that's about where it ends.

Some of the dialogue was bad. I don't like how Jody Houser has turned Peter into the 'goofy dad.' I get that he cares for Annie and that of course any teenager would be in dullsville around their 'lame' parents but that's not an excuse for this silly trope. Peter and Annie, well, I was hoping for a different type of relationship with them outside of the costumes. It's really a turn off seeing Peter acting like an OTT fool.

And don't get me started on the art...it was awful. Some of Nick Roche's art is, okay. Like Spider-Man or the villains look ok but when he draws people it's just crap. Their faces look so stupid--it's the way he draws their expressions. They just look so awkward. The symmetry is off in many cases with uneven eyes. The other features sometimes look equally bad--noses are too big and odd looking and lips in many cases don't look like human mouths. Imo, he was a wrong choice for this book.

I'm sad by this because RYV started off so great. Those initial few arcs were gold with Conway and Stegman at the helm and I'm afraid we're not gonna get back to that again. Still though, as bad as this issue was, it's still better than ASM.

 

[Shockdingo]

Phew, been a long time, am I still the only one reading?

Don't have time for a major review, but did dig this issue and overall still am enjoying the book. The feel is different, but still liking the family dynamic.

 

[Poppy]

Phew, been a long time, am I still the only one reading?

Don't have time for a major review, but did dig this issue and overall still am enjoying the book. The feel is different, but still liking the family dynamic.

I recently finishd the first volume 1 and I loved it. Peter and MJ were written well, it was funny and I love some of the artists. This is definitely my favorite Marvel book right now. I need to buy vol.2 asap.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

After issue 16, I'm officially done with this series. Houser is a decent writer but nowhere near the level of Conway. I'd say even artist Stegman did a better job when he was handling the writing duties. And the art has taken a serious turn for the worse. Compared to Stegman, Roche's art is so off putting. Even this last issue with Stockman doing the pencils he turned in his weakest effort I've seen from him. Very disheartening considering how well the series started. And I don't think I'm alone as sales for RYV have dipped below 20k. It won't be long before this is cancelled but imo that's not a bad thing as the status quo in this book should be in ASM--Peter and MJ reunited. I give this last issue of RYV a solid D and I've already cancelled my sub.

 

[michaelcard]

Ah, man, he's really gonna be pretty

 

[UltimateWebhead]

If you want yet another inside look at how Marvel is really screwing things up, check this out.

Here's Gerry Conway's account of his reasoning for leaving RYV...this a paraphrase/quote of him from his recent interview on Spider-Talk.

"There was this weird thing where the book was selling, but it had dropped off in sales. From the initial first issue. As had most of Marvel’s books by that point, but this had dropped off fairly dramatically. It had gone from a very high first issue sale where they had multiple covers and it had dropped down 20% or 30% so they were concerned about it.

And they looked and they saw that the variant cover with MJ as Venom had sold the best of all the covers. So they wanted to suddenly have Mary Jane become Venom that was what they wanted to do for the book.

And I was like ‘What? That’s not the book I signed up for’ I had signed up for a book about parents raising a small kid and the focus was going to be on the family and the small kid.

And they started questioning while we were still writing and producing issue six the whole direction of the book. And I was not interested in changing the direction of the book so early in the process. You know I figured let’s give it a year or two. We’re not talking about a book that wasn’t selling well enough to continue. We’re talking about a book that wasn’t selling well enough to make everybody else feel like it was the number one title that it should be in their minds.

But Marvel as a whole was going through a sales slump so it was just a weird situation. And I felt the reaction was too reactive to the marketplace and then we got sucked up into the Venomverse storyline where everything had to be tied to Venom and I just didn’t want to have to keep changing storylines to respond to marketing ideas that to me were less important than just developing a good series that people would find and embrace hopefully on its own terms.

I felt the people I left were in a bad situation where the marketing end of things were pushing them in directions that editorially they probably didn’t want to go.

I think Nick (Lowe)’s interest was in doing a book about this family and that was the book we were going to do.

But I’m at the point now where I just want to write the stories that I want to write. I want to tell the stories that I can be invested in as much as anyone else."

So...I guess we're back to the marketing jack-asses running the show

I think it already speaks pretty clear to a diminishing fan base and slumping sales what happens when you choose style over substance.

 

[Shockdingo]

Augh...! That sucks! Conway sounded like he was in it for the long haul until this happened...this explains too much.

 

[Captivated]

So... I see a few familiar names around here, even though I think I've been gone for years. Unexpected.

I quit comics when they broke up MJ and Peter. Done. Dead to me.

But not long ago I saw this graphic novel: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Renew-Your-Dan-Slott/dp/0785198865

It was the first book I bought since they killed off the marriage. Love it, of course. But I assumed it was a one time thing.

So what is THIS? Is there a continuing title with MJ and Peter together? Is it any good?

 

[Spidey_62]

Wow. Terrible. They never learn, do they?

@Captivated Welcome back! Yeah, it's an ongoing now. Looking at Gerry's comments for why he abruptly left, I'm befuddled. The book sort of dropped off and feels directionless now, skipped ahead 8 years and their kid is in high school now but it's still hanging in there. The first 7 issues were really good.