Is JMS's Spider-Man Run Still Worth Reading?

I love me some good Spider-Man comics (who doesn't?). I've read most of Stan Lee's run, which I enjoyed, and I've read the first ultimate collection of Ultimate Spider-Man. In addition to that, I've also read a bit of Roger Stern's run on Spider-Man, which is also great. The same goes for Gerry Conway's run. (Also, I do plan on reading Kraven's Last Hunt and Death of Jean DeWolff eventually.) I read the Spider-Man Civil War story arc because I found it at my local library, and I actually really enjoyed it. So, my question is, in spite of all that One More Day, Sins Past/Sins Remembered, and The Other crap, is JMS's Spider-Man run still worth reading, even though it's been retconned?

I've never liked his run as much some other Spider fans do. It's still a decent read though imo

If you ask me, yes, it does. It's been a good run.

He's kind of a mixed bag but I personally enjoyed it.

"Still worth rea...." OH C'MON!!!....why do i have to confront people like this?....

This is the best Spider-Man run in recent history,YES it IS worth reading.....

OMD isnt his,it's Quesada.....Other is toleratable.And Sin's Past is a filthy but INTERESTING story....(deal with it)

Read Tom DeFalco run,and Michelinie.....you're reading old stuff(so am i),so i'd guess you'll like those.....Peter David's FNSM is awesome too.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^What he said.

I know OMD is Quesada's fault, but it's still included in Straczynski's run. I've read a bit of Michelinie's stuff in my copy of "Spider-Man: Vengeance of Venom," and it's actually pretty good. I especially liked the first appearance of Carnage. That's some good stuff. As for DeFalco, I've read Maximum Carnage, and it's crap, so I don't really have any interest in reading else by that writer--especially The Clone Saga. But, one of these days, I'll check out the Birth of Venom TPB. As for JMS's run, I'll take your word for it and read it.

That's my boy!

Michelinie created Venom & Carnage so......he's preety kneet!

I have mixed feelings about Michelinie, some of it could be pretty good at times but certain things (such as his MJ, and Lifetheft) kind of irritated me to be honest, it probably doesn't help that I'm not that much of a fan of Todd Mcfarlane & Erik Larson's 90s artwork though.

I definitely prefer Tom Defalco, mainly for his early work like Alien Costume (which had some important MJ moments in it as well as a lot of the ideas that later went into Venom), the 2nd Hobgoblin arc "Challenge of.." (though not any of his later ones), and Spider-Man Vs Firelord (generally its a retread of Nothing can Stop the Juggernaut I guess, but Firelord makes for a different kind of battle and Spidey seems to get a lot more desperate here).

If its the hardback "Birth of Venom" trade you're thinking about buying, I've heard some bad things about it (ie that it misses out issues)

I'm not really sure how much blame can be attached to Tom Defalco for the Clone Saga and Maximum Carnage. Personally I don't think these big US comic book crossovers ever really work, you get a bunch of different writers with different ideas and their own thoughts on what they want to do with the character and then force them to make some kind of Frankenstein's monster out of whatever plan Editorial have to increase sales (apparently Defalco was against killing Dr Octopus but was basically told he had to).

I didn't really like how Micheline handled Mary Jane either. He made her obnoxiously whiny, and I feel like her personality got lost. She was even worse in Maximum Carnage (not sure whose fault that was). The whole time, she just kept saying, "Peeeeeter, come home. Even though you're one of the only people who can stop Carnage, my happiness is way more important than the hundreds of innocent people who are getting slaughtered. I'm gonna take smoke break now." I'm a HUGE Mary Jane fan, and her poor characterization in the '90s really irked me.

Also Michelinie's Black Cat always annoyed me. His stories were the main ones with her I was familiar with back in the day, and as a result I really didn't like her much. After reading the earlier stories from Roger Stern and Marv Wolfman I changed my mind.

I think you should give early Tom Defalco a chance, there was a lot of positive Mary Jane scenes in his run.

Also you can't beat Spider-Man forcing the Hobgoblin to stick his hand in a toilet :D

@silent_bomber said:

@ryagan said:

I didn't really like how Micheline handled Mary Jane either. He made her obnoxiously whiny, and I feel like her personality got lost. She was even worse in Maximum Carnage (not sure whose fault that was). The whole time, she just kept saying, "Peeeeeter, come home. Even though you're one of the only people who can stop Carnage, my happiness is way more important than the hundreds of innocent people who are getting slaughtered.

Also Michelinie's Black Cat always annoyed me. His stories were the main ones with her I was familiar with back in the day, and as a result I really didn't like her much. After reading the earlier stories from Roger Stern and Marv Wolfman I changed my mind.

@ryagan said:

" I'm a HUGE Mary Jane fan, and her poor characterization in the '90s really irked me.

I think you should give early Tom Defalco a chance, there was a lot of positive Mary Jane scenes in his run.

Also you can't beat Spider-Man forcing the Hobgoblin to stick his hand in a toilet :D

Sigh. I'll probably have to get one of those Spider-Man collection CD-ROMs and read all this stuff, huh?

Having just re-read through the entire run recently, it may not be the best thing ever, but it still holds up really well and is definitely worth a read.

I worship JMS, I beg my mum to read his run to me every night before bed after an intense praying ritual in front of the shrine I have built in his honor.

The "Coming Home..." stroy arc is one of the strongest Spidey stories ever, introducing the characters of Ezekiel and Morlun, and then Spidey has a bunch of crazy fights with Morlun and you see Peter at his most desperate. There's also "The Conversation", arguably one of the strongest and major moments in the history of Spidey, as well as Aunt May. Even the story called "Sins Past" despite what they did to Gwen, the story itself was strongly written in terms of narrative, and it had its moments. The Other only lost its steam towards the end, but the first half of the story is extremely strong, it's only around the time when Peter is "recovered" when things start to go downhill. "The War at Home", the civil war tie-in is also very strong along with its follow up "Back in Black" which sees Spidey enter a dark place like never before. Even OMD, outside of the whole retcon thing, in terms of narrative of strongly told, JMS did what he could with what he had.

Yes, absolutely yes.

I believe it's the greatest Spider-man comic book run. It's got a lot of things I don't like, but the highs are absolutely fantastic. If you read Spider-man for the soap opera of Peter's life, like I do, it's for you!