Amazing Spider-Man #801

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[joetuss]

Damn, that felt like a Spider-Man comic..wait...DAN SLOTT?! Ok😕👏

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, Dan Slott wrote that awesome She Hulk issue that showed he really gets Spider-Man. I was wondering what happened to that guy.

[joetuss]

You mean the She Hulk issue with the Cats?

[zachbeacon]

I mean the one where Spidey sues JJJ for libel

[joetuss]

Ah, yes...Spider-Man claims JJ hates him because he's Black lol

[shadowpsykie]

awe.... what horrible thing happened? it IS Dan Slott

[akodo_rokku]

Dan Slott's Silver Surfer was adorable and touching. Most of his pre-Spidey work was pretty good. I've always wondered what went wrong with his Spider-Man.

[wizardru]

Honestly, I have heard people complain about Slott for his entire run and while I haven't read more than snippets, I really don't see WHY people seem to dislike him so much. Some of the more unpopular elements trace back to when he took over and was forced to sell the bitter pill of OMD, but that was years back. Slott seems to have a fairly solid and uncharacteristically long run (by modern standards), allowing him to go where he wanted to.

I'm not saying people are/were wrong to dislike him, but I just don't see this incredibly bad run that some folks view it as, compared to the vast majority of Mark Millar's work, for example.

[zachbeacon]

Because people associate him with BND and there were a ton of bad decisions made around that time. Granted I think this one is unfair since that's mostly editorial's fault.

Because he was one of the weaker writers in the BND collective despite proving that he can write Spider-Man well in his pre-Amazing work.

Because Carlie Cooper is the least interesting of the potential BND love interests and is certainly not worth replacing MJ.

Because people thought the "Peter Parker; captain of industry" stuff breaks the character and makes him a copy of Tony Stark. For the record, I don't actually agree with this one but I do see it brought up a lot.

Because people tend to dislike the big crossovers. Personally I thought they were a mixed bag.

Because any run as long as his will naturally lead to claims that he overstayed his welcome.

I'm sure there are other reasons.

[cyberghostface]

I actually thought he was one of the better BND writers at the time. Most of the awful stuff I remember came from the others. And his villain Mr. Negative was probably the only memorable new character to be introduced.

[zachbeacon]

Slott was the only one that seemed to make much effort with new villains. Most of the other writers only gave us one or two new villains and most of them were terrible (Marc Guggenheim gave us such memorable characters as "the Green Goblin but female" and "Kraven the Hunter but female"). Slott created Mister Negative and Overdrive; those two should be considered successful if only because other writers actually wanted to use them. Granted he also gave us Screwball, Paperdoll, and Jackpot.

(I'm fine with Screwball myself but I know how fandom in general feels about her. Jackpot OTOH was a giant slap in the face.)

There were certainly worse writers (considering how good Back to the Future and his Batman work were, Bob Gale was particularly disappointing), but early on in BND Slott seemed less interested in telling good stories than in reminding readers that everything is different now.

Mark Waid was probably the first BND writer to have a truly great idea (JJJ as mayor). I'd rate Waid, Fred Van Lente, Joe Kelly, and returning masters J. M. DeMatteis and Roger Stern above Slott.

[cyberghostface]

The main reason I think is because of OMD/BND. There was a LOT of bad blood between the fans and Marvel at the time and the enforced status quo for the titles at the time was pretty awful.

For example a lot of people think he hates the Spider-Marriage and MJ when that's completely out of his hands. He couldn't bring the marriage back even if he wanted to.

[liliaeth]

For me the answer's always been simple. I hated Slott, because he turned Spider-Man into a total loser. An irresponsible asshole who failed at pretty much everything he did, and one that I could no longer respect.

[starwolf_oakley]

Part of "Peter Parker: Failure!" could be that "illusion of change" Stan Lee has talked about.

https://www.peterdavid.net/2012/12/24/the-illusion-of-change/

Since I like speculating about Peter Parker's psychology, I've wondered if he thinks he deserves to be happy since he feels so much guilt over Ben Parker's death. He isn't suicidal over it (Thanks, "The Other!") but maybe self destructive.

[starwolf_oakley]

Was Dan Slott's run as long as David Michelinie's? Michelinie's was from 1987 to 1994.

Stories like this COULD tie into how the Spider-Marriage can't work. Peter can't be with Mary Jane or Carlie or anyone because then innocent people would die. Even MJ was (oddly?) mature about it in ASM #797. "The world needs Spider-Man. I get that!"

[cyberghostface]

He completely took over in 2011 with Big Time but he was part of the rotating shift as far back as 2008.