Way back in 1962, the world was introduced to Spider-Man in the pages of AMAZING FANTASY #15. Now, Peter Parker has become one of the most iconic and recognizable heroes in comic books. Not only does he have a huge movie coming out here in the U.S., but this week, Spidey also stepped back into his costume and kicked off an all new volume. To celebrate Dan Slott's new run, we wanted to reflect on the wall crawler's long history of writers. 10 names were added to the poll (plus an "other" option), and it turns out the winner has done much of his Parker writing with an alternate universe version of the web-slinger. Ladies and gentlemen, the Comic Vine community has selected Brian Michael Bendis as its favorite Spider-Man writer!
Yes, Bendis worked with 616 Spider-Man on more than a handful of occasions (hilarious banter about underwear in NEW AVENGERS immediately comes to mind), but being able to completely reinvent such a classic tale is a commendable feat. Tackling such a well-known story is no easy task, yet Bendis managed to do so successfully and eventually turn it into his own engrossing world. Not only has it thrived and been full of excitement over the years, but it's also undergone some massive changes to help make it feel even more unique. It's funny: Spider-Man has decades upon decades of great history in the 616 universe, yet at the end of the day, it's the 1610 version of Spider-Man that has apparently left the strongest impact on Comic Viners. Let's see why one of them gave their vote to Bendis.
Viner Post for Brian Michael Bendis is by spiderrmonkey2099
"I voted Bendis because he's written so much Spidey, and all that I've read of it (I'm still in the Parker years of his USM run, but I'm close to the end of that) is consistently some of the best writing for Spidey that I've read. He breathed new life into the character with his reimagined Spider-Man and Spidey universe. Bendis' run on USM will probably go down as one of the all-time greats, like Stan Lee's run on the character or Claremont's run on X-Men.
Stan Lee would be a close second. I'm generally not a huge fan of Silver Age comics, but Stan Lee's Spidey run is simply amazing (pun intended).
Third would be JMS simply because of his first one or two story arcs on the title. The Morlun saga and the issues where Aunt May discovers Peter's secret are among the best Spidey issues I've ever read. From what I hear, the quality of the stories decline as his run goes on, but I can't really comment on that as I haven't had a chance to finish his run yet.
Then, to round out my top 5, I would say David Michelinie and Peter David. Michelinie wrote several of my favorite Spidey tales (and some of the first I ever collected), including some memorable bouts with the symbiotes, Lizard, and even Ultron. And Peter David is on my list because of Spider-Man 2099. Such a great look at what a future Spidey might look like. I know he also had a run on Spectacular Spider-Man, which includes popular story arc The Death of Jean DeWolfe, but unfortunately I've not had a chance to read any of that run yet (hopefully soon though...)."
Here's the complete poll results.
- Brian Michael Bendis 29%
- Dan Slott 28%
- Stan Lee & Steve Ditko 23%
- J. Michael Straczynski 14%
- J.M. Dematteis 3%
- David Michelinie 2%
- Gerry Conway 2%
- Peter David 2%
- Roger Stern 2%
- Tom DeFalco 1%
- Other (Specify below) 1%
Since Bendis has been declared the winner, let's take some extra time to celebrate his work with Spider-Man. So, go ahead and share with us your favorite bit of Spidey banter that Bendis wrote below. See you next Tuesday for an all-new question, Viners!