Comics Post your favourite Spider-Man story arc.

[Captivated]

See, I actually beg to differ. I believe reading it when it first came out would add to the overrall feeling of it.

Well, that was kinda my point... It would have been MORE shocking and upsetting, to a level that I don't know how many would have thought it a "good" thing or move at the time.

Maybe that's why it isn't my hands down favorite because I only read it for the first time a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, I love the story. But I really think that's a story that needs to be read WITHOUT knowing the outcome before hand.

Unlike stories like Kraven's Last Hunt and so on...where the beauty of the story is how it's paced and put together....instead of a "shocking" cliffhanger.

Well, of course the HUGE shock of the heroine DYING isn't there... but I don't know if I would call that the beauty of the story. The agony of Spider-Man... knowing how much each loss he suffers impacts him... is what got me. And much of the significance of the story is what happens next.

Since I don't care for major characters that I have grown attached to being killed off (I was more into the melodrama when I was younger), I'll ditch a serial if I know the writers get their kicks by bringing characters close JUST so it will tear everyone up when they kill them off.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Most of my favorite stories have already been mentioned.

Web of Death needs a little more love, one of my favorite storylines from the Clone Saga.

Spectacular Spider-Man # 200, definitely a GREAT goodbye issue for Harry Osborn. If you've never read this, well, you're seriously missing out on some fantastic Spider-Man storytelling. I remember picking up this issue off of the shelf at the comic shop, as it caught my eye simply because of the shiny cover. Heh. Ironic part is that these shiny covers would become too many, and eventually hated by me.

It's tough for me to list some of the very, very early work of Amazing Spider-Man. While the plots were great, a lot of the dialogue was some of the cheesiest crap that I've ever encountered in my life, heh.

But ASM # 33 is a classic.

And ASM # 39 and # 40 where Osborn figures out Peter's identity and has him tied up in that warehouse, definitely a classic storyline. And that's what defines Goblin and Spider-Man, at least to me. Yeah, GG killed Gwen...but those issues are what made Goblin.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

captivated, from what i understand, though a shock at the time, most people saw the night gwen stacy died as the great story it was. it added to the tragedy and drama of spider-man. straight afterwards you had the death of the green goblin and that classic scene with pete laying into MJ and her shutting the door, staying to console him. it was a golden time

 

[The Joker]

ASM #31-33: The Master Planner trilogy. Sheer greatness.
ASM #53-56: Classic Doc Ock arc, in which he foils the army, steals a deadly weapon, trashes Aunt May's house, and brain washes Spidey into becoming his criminal partner.
ASM #88-90: The death of Captain Stacy.
ASM #121-122: Death of Gwen Stacy.
SSM #73-79: Doc Ock tries to blow up New York just to prove he's the most dangerous man alive, and beats Black Cat to the edge of death in the process. Spidey is so freaked out by Ock that he says good bye to all his friends and family because he believes he won't survive his impending battle with Ock.
ASM #334-339: Return of the Sinister Six.
Spider-Man Blue.
Death of Harry Osborn.

 

[Kraven]

captivated, from what i understand, though a shock at the time, most people saw the night gwen stacy died as the great story it was. it added to the tragedy and drama of spider-man. straight afterwards you had the death of the green goblin and that classic scene with pete laying into MJ and her shutting the door, staying to console him. it was a golden time

Actually, I read something that Gerry Conway wrote saying that many fans hated it. It eventually caused Stan Lee to come to Conway and tell him that Gwen had to come back to the pages of ASM somehow, which caused the whole Clone Saga. I think it was at the beginning of the Clone Genesis trade, I'll have to dig it up later.

 

[Kevin]

oh. sometimes fans need to stop. they dont like anything that happens to one of their favorite characters at one point

 

[Arcturus]

Anything with Venom.

 

[ricardolopez]

Hey jayr727, which one is 'A Death in the Family' AMS vol. 2 44-47?

 

[Gamma Burst]

Kraven's Last Hunt
Sine Eater

 

[Dr.Dude]

I'm going to to go with a somewhat more obscure, vastly underrated story here.... Spectacular Spider-Man #186-188, "Funeral Arrangements."

 

[Norman Osborn]

I'm just guessing, but I think most people here, who name the story in their top ten, read it for the first time well AFTER it actually happened. I think that perspective helps the story. If I had just read it as a current story... I probably would have been so incredulous and MAD I might have even quit reading for awhile.

When I started reading SM comics, I got all the Essentials and devoured them. (So much fun.) When I got to ASM 120, even though I knew what was coming, it was still very sad... And I missed the lighter tone of the stories, because it got kinda grim and depressing after that. I can see now, it was a pivotal story... made history and all that... but I don't really care to read it over and over.

Anyone read it for the first time when it happened?

Actually I read it when it first came out...I was about 6 or 7 years old and I remember it as if it were just yesterday.....what I remember most, believe it or not, was how badly I felt for Pete and how much I hated the Green Goblin for what he did (no doubt why I love the character as much as I do now).......

....but I wasn't angry, affected??..yes!!... but not angry...

...heck ask my Mom who Gwen Stacy is?...she'll tell you....she remembers...she'll also tell you about the Golden Lab I insisted we name Stacy .........she died too

I was a Spider-man reader before 121.......I was a Spider-man fan after!!

 

[Captivated]

Actually I read it when it first came out...I was about 6 or 7 years old and I remember it as if it were just yesterday.....what I remember most, believe it or not, was how badly I felt for Pete and how much I hated the Green Goblin for what he did (no doubt why I love the character as much as I do now).......

....but I wasn't angry, affected??..yes!!... but not angry...

...heck ask my Mom who Gwen Stacy is?...she'll tell you....she remembers...she'll also tell you about the Golden Lab I insisted we name Stacy .........she died too

I was a Spider-man reader before 121.......I was a Spider-man fan after!!

Interesting... although you were too young to even think of blaming the WRITERS for the death.

Feeling sorry for Pete was my biggest reaction too...

Funny... I mainly liked Gwen because Peter did and she was so [SIZE=-1]fiercely loyal in her defense of him.[/SIZE] But I still distanced myself from her, knowing what was going to happen.

 

[Kraven]

Here's what Gerry Conway had to say about the fans general opinion of the story...

.......
Let me set the record straight once and for all: killing Gwen Stacy was not my idea. The first person to give the idea was John Romita. And Stan (Lee) agreed.
We did the story. Gwen died, as poignantly as any character in the history of comics. The manner of her death was totally in keeping with Stan's theme of power and responsibility. Spider-Man is a character whose triumphs have always been tainted by unintended tragic consequences.
It was, to say the least, a public relations disaster.
Letters. We got letters. Phone calls. We got phone calls.
Readers hated us. They hated me. They hated Stan. Matters came to a head when Stan was ambushed by a bunch of hecklers at a college lecture a few weeks after the issue was published. How could he kill off Gwen Stacy? they demanded. There were boos, hisses, catcalls, cries for blood. The audience rose as one, demanding revenge.
For whatever reason, Stan decided that killing off Gwen Stacy was a mistake that had to be rectified. He told me he wanted her back. I objected, pointing out that one of Marvel's most hallowed traditions, if not THE most hallowed tradition, was Rule One:
When someone dies in a Marvel comic, they stay dead....

You get the idea. According to Gerry, most people at the time hated the story, and the idea behind it.

Source: Introduction from Spider-Man: Clone Genesis

 

[Kevin]

and this is way i say fans need to stop

 

[SpideyInATree]

Heh. So if the Internet existed during the time Gwen Stacy was killed in Amazing Spider-Man poor Gerry Conway, John Romita, and Stan Lee would have been like the JMS, Brian Bendis, and Joe Quesada of today.

Interesting.

 

[Kevin]

now does anyone see what i mean?

 

[Captivated]

Here's what Gerry Conway had to say about the fans general opinion of the story...

You get the idea. According to Gerry, most people at the time hated the story, and the idea behind it.

Source: Introduction from Spider-Man: Clone Genesis

Thank you. I thought that was the case. My point -- MOST people reading for the first time didn't have it on their top 10 list.

 

[arachnid-guy]

Sins Past.

I also quite liked Sins Remembered.

JOKE!

Clone Saga (In all serious for me I love this arc...I grew up with that- 10 years old. That story got me into love of genetics).

I recently purchased both the Death of Gwen and Harry TPB and love those iconic stories to bits.

And...excuse me ragingdemon...

The Other...I liked the beginning, they did killed it towards the end,...and Pat Lee's art....ugh. But I love Deodato's art...it's what salvaged the book IMO.

Oh and for the record, it's not better than KLH!

 

[freemadison]

I was reading the final Joe Friday segment today and Quesada was joined by Whedon, Loeb, JMS, and Bendis.

http://www.newsarama.com/JoeFridays/JoeFridays52.html

Here's two quotes that are very relevant:

BENDIS: What keeps us moving in that direction is something that Joe said to me a couple of years ago, and it really did strike me. He said that if Stan was still Editor-in-Chief, you wouldn’t even recognize the Marvel Universe today. Nobody mowed over changes and tore through ideas the way they did when the Marvel Universe was first created. He’s right. That inspired me, and Mark, and other people on the call here to go, “Let’s go crazy. Let’s go nuts, because that’s what the Marvel Universe has always been about, and should be about. It shouldn’t be about Valentines.

STRACZYNSKI: One of the points that was broached at the last big retreat we had where we were talking about some of the big changes we wanted to make – someone looked at Ralph Macchio, who, in many ways is the keeper of all things Marvel, and asked, “What would Stan do?” And without hesitation, Ralph said, “Stan would go for it.” Stan had no aversion to tipping over the tables, and that’s what makes Marvel an extraordinary place to work – the sense that you can tip over the tables, and they will stay tipped to one degree or another

Sadly and ironically enough they were talking about the Spider-marriage (which sadly, seems like it's going to be destroyed).

Also, I think if a hated clone saga story like Revelations (which I loved) was treated with respect instead of being completely ignored it would be a much higher regarded story among fans too.

 

[Kevin]

good thing i stopped collecting spidey

 

[Sloth7d]

My favorite story would have to be The gathering of five