What Would It Take To Make Dan Slott Leave Spider-Man?

15 Comments

1. When you write ongoing series like Spider-Man the worst thing to do is throw out the rule book and go for a free for all mentality.

   Yeah Peter could be a big business inventor with his intelligence. But Batman could probably stop all crime in Gotham with his intelligence and resources and Superman absolutely could end all terrorism and world hunger with his powers.

   And for Batman and Superman those would be new scenarios.

   It doesn’t mean you should actually do it.

   Because if you do you are selling out on the core concepts, appeals and philosophies of the characters and franchises all for basically novelty. Novelty that won’t last.

   Novelty that won’t last either because they will go back to basics eventually or because it becomes the status quo and when that happens the new car smell will wear off and suddenly it becomes very obvious that this is worse than what we had before.

   Which is one thing if you can go down this road and reverse gears with little fall out. But this isn’t Spider-Man gets a new suit or Spider-Man gets cosmic powers or even Spider-man thinks he’s a clone for several months. You cannot reverse gears on this organically without major fall out which is one of the biggest reasons for why it was so asinine to commit to this direction just as it was absolutely idiotic to commit to the unmasking or just about anything involving any character in Civil War.

   Bottomline: Novelty isn’t God. New directions and new scenarios shouldn’t be chased at any expense because some new directions are bad for the character.

2. To be honest I’m enjoying Dan’s run. He’s coming up with scenarios that no other writer has put him in and he’s having Peter finally fulfil his intellectual potential. If he needs to be replaced I wouldn’t mind seeing Dan Abnett (once his DC contract expires) have a crack at it. He has already expressed an interest in doing a Mysterio tale and he has written a wealth of great stories for seminal British comic 2000AD as well as Warhammer 40K novels. A Dan for another Dan. lol!

3. @AJE: You seriously think Greg Weisman and Peter David wouldn’t do better at Spider-Man than Slott?

4. Love ya, BD… but we’ve been here before. Call me when it’s confirmed he’s actually leaving.

5. It’s a risk-vs-reward consideration. Is there more risk involved with putting a new man on ASM? Or more reward? If they were able to hire a hot writer away from DC or Dark Horse, there would be a greater likelihood of reward, so they might do it. Same if they coax some well-regarded sci-fi screenwriter or author to take it on. But the current status quo makes money. Put some hit-and-miss writer on it, and risk goes way up.

6. The current regime will keep Slott on as long as he plays the sycophant to their demands. It mutually benefits both parties. He gets to write ASM, they get whatever they want from him. The same applies to why they retain Bendis. In the meantime, the publishing division of Marvel continues on its almost decade long steep downhill trajectory. I think guys like Stan, DeFalco & even Shooter would lose their sh!t if they ever saw how the characters have been abused time and again by Quesada & his toadies.

7. tnr105: Instead of PAD’s Hulk run, I’d hope people would compare it to the Clone Saga, especially because of Clone Conspiracy. Something about how his run lasted for way too long.

8. I agree with TNR105, Slott has some pretty good ideas, it is the execution, tone and the inability to have a solid payoff. I have stayed away from ASM because of Dan Slott and his poor portrayal of Peter Parker and the cast.

   My fear? He is the next Chris Claremont for Spider-Man. And it was due to his constant tinkering and mediocre writing that had me leave that series as well…and no, I have not returned to that series.

9. It seems low sales won’t do it. The book has dipped into the 50k range and probably will again.

   Marvel really needs to foster some new talent, instead of relying on the same old writers like Bendis, Slott and Waid. They are sorely lacking a Scott Snyder–someone who comes in with a strong vision and can tell coherent and competent stories.

   That said, I can’t believe other Marvel writers aren’t pitching ideas for Spider-Man stories.

10. Huh. We’ll live in a world where Dan Slott has been writer of ASM longer than Obama has been in office.

    This may sound a bit silly to some, but…

    There really should be some sort of ‘term limit’ to how long a writer should be on a certain book… so you can get some fresh blood in, and so that a writer doesn’t overstay their welcome.

    Not just the writers, but those in editorial as well. Quesada, Alonso. Breevort,

    I know Slott says he has said he has notebooks full of ideas; and I WILL concede that he is a great IDEA man. It’s often the execution of his stories, or the pay offs, that tend to fall short for me.

    Whatever I may think of man’s writing, or how he conducts himself online… I wouldn’t wish unemployment on anyone. I wouldn’t mind if he stuck around at Marvel, he’s proved in the past capable of good writing. He just needs to get off of Spidey in particular, imo.

    Years from now people will reflect on the length of Slott’s run, and say that he was to Spidey as PAD was to the Hulk. That saddens me.

11. @Mister Mets- Him wanting to stay is not the same as Marvel not having other plans.

    Again, his tone is considerably different from last year, where it has gone from “I’m on it till they fire me” to “I’ll stay as long as they want me.”

    The former is a statement of certainty. The latter is a more reserved.

    And there is absolutely nothing that shows that Marvel would want to keep him on the book indefinitely. In fact, with all the language of “letting Slott finish his story,” emphasis on the word “Finish” is seems that this is more an indication that they would be OK with wrapping up his run on his terms, not that they want to keep him around forever.

    He’s likely not going to wrap up his run after Clone Conspiracy. But I doubt he’d still be on the book this time next year.

12. I like Slott’s Spider-Man about as much as the next crawlspacer but I’m okay with him continuing to be on the title for the time being. Mostly because I can’t honestly see anyone at Marvel doing any better and almost everything I’ve read recently from Marvel has been way worse than Slott-Spider-Man. I know what I’m getting with Slott at this point and it’s stuff that I can easily ignore and forget but maybe possibly enjoy (a bit) here and there.

13. For a little while, there was some ambiguity about when Slott was leaving. We hadn’t heard much about his plans post-Clone Conspiracy, so it was conceivable that his run was coming to an end with that storyline, or shortly thereafter.

    But now it seems clear that he wants to stay on for a while longer.

    And Marvel’s probably going to let him do it.

14. My thoughts are that shows that this decision isn’t up to him.

    And it’s a far cry from “I’m on the book till they fire me.” This is more “I’ll keep doing it if they let me.”

    And just because he wants to stay doesn’t mean that Marvel wants to keep him around.

    I think the language has become far more magnanimous, allowing Slott to bow out without causing too much trouble for his bosses like his last statement did.

15. ugh, when will this nightmare end.