Comics McFarlane's take on Spidey

[Ash J. Williams]

I'm wondering what y'all thought of McFarlane's take on the comics. I read Spider-Man #1, volume 1 today and Todd just wrote it so intellingently and his artwork was quite superb. Anyone have that comic? I got it in August at a Toy Show in San Jose -- mainly cuz it's a collector's item.

Yeah, that's the cover I got.

So anyways, what did you guys think the issues McFarlane worked on? Any opinions on some really great issues?

 

[Kraven]

I liked his artwork, but I never got around to read how he writes. His artwork was very good though.

 

[imdaly]

Spidey looked great.

People looked really wierd, eyes too big.

Wayyyy too many webs.

 

[Rez]

My favourite Spiderman artist, ever.

Torment is great.

Some of his writing was spot on, some wasn't. On the whole, flipping amazing.

 

[Dangerous]

I'm wondering what y'all thought of McFarlane's take on the comics. I read Spider-Man #1, volume 1 today and Todd just wrote it so intellingently and his artwork was quite superb. Anyone have that comic? I got it in August at a Toy Show in San Jose -- mainly cuz it's a collector's item.

So anyways, what did you guys think the issues McFarlane worked on? Any opinions on some really great issues?

I wouldn’t really call his writing particularly intelligent, if anything it was pretty simplistic compared to other writers. He was just mainly interested in darker themed SM stories, which was cool.
Personally he is my second favourite SM artist ever behind John Romita and before Humberto Ramos in 3rd, and I loved the sinister direction he was taking SM in- stuff like Hobgoblin brainwashing kids and the Sub City arc.

It also would have been nice to see what influence he would have had over the development of Venom. Marvel and Todd just didn’t see eye to eye w/ their vision for Spider-man.
As an artist he was superb, a visionary. As a writer he had some great ideas and themes but the execution was a little immature and lacking. I think his stories would have worked better if he developed plots himself and then a more accomplished writer fleshed out the scripts.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

todd macfarlanes venom was great.

 

[crivelliman]

McF's Venom and Lizard are fantastic. Some of his stuff, in retrospect upon looking at some of it now, is just awful. Disproportionate, sloppy... The Spider-Man image and the city looked great. The webs were cool. Everybody else? Blah. His Green Goblin was just terrible. Torment was great, but you might notice a lot of it takes place in the shadows. While a cool visual and great for that story, when you see his other work in things other than Venom or Torment, you can see why.

Also, that Spider-Man #1 cover was re-used by Todd at least two other times. Once on Spawn #8, and another time in Spider-Man #13. Twelve issues after #1, he used the exact same pose and background but changed the costume. Even still, it made some sense. Maybe it was a "throwback." But then you look at Spawn #8, and his hands and figners are where he's supposed to be gripping webbing and they're just poses for his hands and it just looks ridiculous. Compare the three issues. Some thought it was cool when they noticed. I thought it was lazy.

 

[Dangerous]

I’m gonna go w/ saying it was cool to see the famous pose reused by Todd.
IT was after all a landmark cover so why not reuse it as a nod to SM#1.
Apart from the covers you mentioned the same pose was also used on an issue of Gen 13,
tho finding that cover on the net is proving more difficult than I originally thought.

Also his style was not supposed to be realistic or anatomically correct.
A lot of people look back at his Spidey stuff and say- ‘Yeah it was great but a lot of it looked off.’
It was supposed to be disproportionate, that was his style exaggerated reality.
His figures were intended to be anatomically unrealistic.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I liked his run on the Spider-Man title. It was a lot darker, especially during the time period when it came out. The story arcs that he did were really nothing to write home about but they weren't horrible by any means. I especially liked the Wolverine team up and the Wendigo story arc. Pretty good stuff there.

 

[Cullen]

I thought McFarlane was good when I first read his "Spider-man" run back in the day, but now... I don't care for any of it. None of it lingers, except maybe "Torment." His art does nothing for me, either. I think there are much better Spider-man writers and artists out there.

(There are also worse Spider-man writers and artists, too...)

 

[USMC]

Never have liked McFarlane. I think his drawing skills suck donkey balls... couldn't wait for him to get off of Spider-Man, he was a horrible artist. Thank god he doesn't draw anymore.

"Toment" was an OK read, but nothing fantastic. Everything else Spidey related he's written sucks as bad as his art does.

It's almost as painful as looking at Manga.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Never have liked McFarlane. I think his drawing skills suck donkey balls... couldn't wait for him to get off of Spider-Man, he was a horrible artist. Thank god he doesn't draw anymore.

"Toment" was an OK read, but nothing fantastic. Everything else Spidey related he's written sucks as bad as his art does.

It's almost as painful as looking at Manga.

I'd like to see you draw better than him.

 

[wolvie2020]

McFarlane was great. He visually created the modern Spidey. I find it weird how it's now cool to say he sucks 'cause a) He's a complete tool, b) he's the best selling Spider-Man artist ever.

His storytelling was a bit off at the start of his solo title, (bad pacing, and dialogue,) but he got much better as he went on. IMO, it wasn't until Spawn that he began to really get a grasp on really good storytelling.

McFarlane really had a big effect on me, I've got all his Spidey stories.

He didn't have a lasting impact characterwise, but visually, he changed Spidey forever... That's pretty much undebatable

 

[SpideyInATree]

McFarlane was great. He visually created the modern Spidey. I find it weird how it's now cool to say he sucks 'cause a) He's a complete tool, b) he's the best selling Spider-Man artist ever.

His storytelling was a bit off at the start of his solo title, (bad pacing, and dialogue,) but he got much better as he went on. IMO, it wasn't until Spawn that he began to really get a grasp on really good storytelling.

McFarlane really had a big effect on me, I've got all his Spidey stories.

He didn't have a lasting impact characterwise, but visually, he changed Spidey forever... That's pretty much undebatable

I think you may be right about people judging his artwork on the basis that he's not really a nice guy in real life. And, I agree, his work changed the way many artists have drawn Spider-Man, even to this day. Without McFarlene we wouldn't have had artists like Erik Larsen, Mark Bagley, etc. It paved the way for those guys.

And I liked McFarlane's art on Spider-Man, but I think his best work was on Spawn, hands down. And he is a tool, haha. If you ever read the letters section of recent Spawn issues people ask him when he's going back to drawing and he's just such an ass about it, like he's completely bogged down with making his action figures.

If he went back to art on his own title it'd probably double in sales, I bet on it. But he'd rather have Spawn fade into obscurity because he's all like, "I don't draw anymore".

 

[iloveclones]

I always loved his art, but I thought his writing was very "beginner-ish". I can still remember laughing everytime he wrote "RISE ABOVE IT ALL" in the least subtle way he could over, and over, and over. It felt to me like a tenth-grade writing assignment.

I think if he would've continued drawing, he would've gotten better and better, but I don't know if he even makes my top five of Spidey artists.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I always loved his art, but I thought his writing was very "beginner-ish". I can still remember laughing everytime he wrote "RISE ABOVE IT ALL" in the least subtle way he could over, and over, and over. It felt to me like a tenth-grade writing assignment.

I think if he would've continued drawing, he would've gotten better and better, but I don't know if he even makes my top five of Spidey artists.

Hahaha, he did go massively overboard with the Rise Above It All. I was, I believe 13 when I read that arc so it didn't really register at the overuse of it. I was more captivated by the artwork than anything. But about 8 to 9 years later when I happened to reread them I was like, "Damn, dude, I get it...he's rising above it. Did you have to remind us every freakin' panel?!"

 

[iloveclones]

In one of the comics, he did the same thing with a sound effect. "DOOM" I think it was. I got eye strain from all the eyeball rolling back then.

 

[Dangerous]

I always loved the Sub City arc, totally creepy and it looked great.

 

[shinlyle]

His art on Spidey was fantastic. Everything he did on ASM and SM was pure magic. He was one of the first artists to deviate from the standard Spidey look, and it worked. He really opened the doro for Larsen, Bagley, and the rest of the artists who came after him.

His stories,on the other hand, were really kind of silly. They lacked imagination, and they dumped Spidey in this totally different world. It didn't even feel liek Spidey. In ASM, he was fighting Dr. Doom, and the Tri-Sentinel, and Venom, but in Spider-Man, he was being manipulated by voodoo, then he was fighting Hobgoblin (who I don't think he even hit the entire 2 issues) then he managed to not fiht anyone in the whole "Perceptions" arc, and then he hit Morbius twice in issues 13-14. He managed to do nothing to the Juggernaut in issue 16 aside frm web his eyeholes. The stories pretty much just featured Spidey posing in trees and swinging on buildings and looking cool for fifteen issues. That's about it. With McFarlane's art, that was okay, but it was jsut an empty read.

Yeah, not everyone likes his artwork, and some people say he sucks nowadays, but let me print a bible-truth right now:

If Todd McFarlane did a Spider-man book next week, which featured nothing but Peter in his classic red & blues, swinging around New York fighting third-rate muggers and talking to himself, everyone of us would buy it up so fast it would make the clerks' heads spin. Also, it would be about a million times better than the current take on Spidey.

 

[Dangerous]

Yeah, not everyone likes his artwork, and some people say he sucks nowadays, but let me print a bible-truth right now:

If Todd McFarlane did a Spider-man book next week, which featured nothing but Peter in his classic red & blues, swinging around New York fighting third-rate muggers and talking to himself, everyone of us would buy it up so fast it would make the clerks' heads spin. Also, it would be about a million times better than the current take on Spidey.

True dat,
Such a shame for us the fans, that the man is so stubborn and has zilch interest in ever giving anything back. Why does he have to be like this? Is he not grateful towards the opportunities Spider-man gave his career?
Ultimately it was us that got him on the way to where he is today.
If only he could give a little back just to say thanx and do a 6 issue arc, it would me many a fan boys wet dream.
I wonder, if Marvel were prepared to pay him insane money, would he do it?

 

[SpideyInATree]

True dat,
Such a shame for us the fans, that the man is so stubborn and has zilch interest in ever giving anything back. Why does he have to be like this? Is he not grateful towards the opportunities Spider-man gave his career?
Ultimately it was us that got him on the way to where he is today.
If only he could give a little back just to say thanx and do a 6 issue arc, it would me many a fan boys wet dream.
I wonder, if Marvel were prepared to pay him insane money, would he do it?

I doubt no amount of money could get him to go back and draw for Marvel, and I don't think Marvel would even give him that money. They've got artists today that make people go, "Todd who?".

His Spider-Man work gave him his breakthrough but it was Spawn and his action figures that gave him the success that keeps him going today. Even though Spawn sucks beyond all belief now he still makes some of the best figures on the shelves.

 

[shinlyle]

True dat,
Such a shame for us the fans, that the man is so stubborn and has zilch interest in ever giving anything back. Why does he have to be like this? Is he not grateful towards the opportunities Spider-man gave his career?
Ultimately it was us that got him on the way to where he is today.
If only he could give a little back just to say thanx and do a 6 issue arc, it would me many a fan boys wet dream.
I wonder, if Marvel were prepared to pay him insane money, would he do it?

To an extent, I understand why he doesn't come back to Spidey.

People will look at his stuff and say "his old stuf fwas better", which is the bane of every artist, hearing those words...

That, or maybe he feels he has contributed all he want to contribute to the character, and he has nothing left in him for Spider-Man. The only thing worse than seeing McFarlane turn his back on Spidey, would be seeing him rehashing old crap or having him take it too far, the way that JMS has.

Still, it would be cool to se ehim draw Spidey again. It's a shame he doesn't want to, but I guess we'll all just have to hold out hope that maybe we'll see some project by him in the distant future.

 

[Dangerous]

Yeah, heck I'd be happy to just see him draw a comic again! heheheh

 

[shinlyle]

Yeah, heck I'd be happy to just see him draw a comic again! heheheh

Amen. He doesn't draw anything...and that's just a misuse of his gifts, IMHO.

Still, it's his thing...

 

[SpideyInATree]

He recently drew the cover to Spawn # 150