Recently, writer Nick Spencer completed his three year stint on The AmazingSpider-Man with issue 875.
Naturally, Spidey fans from all corners of the internet have been giving their thoughts on Spencer’s conclusion, whether or not it stuck the landing and if his run was a success as a whole. Personally speaking, while I did have some rather unsatisfied feelings regarding how Mr. Spencer (or perhaps editorial) ultimately decided to bring his story to a close, I would call his run a rousing success overall. It definitely wasn’t perfect and had an undeniably disappointing conclusion, but all in all, I think that Nick Spencer’s Spider-Man is easily the best our web-slinger has been in at least a decade (make of that what you will). Considering the less than stellar material that Spencer was left with when he was handed the reigns, I’d say he did a truly remarkable job with the character and his mythos, delivering stories of true quality that had been lacking for quite some time. From Spider-Man’s epic feud with the mysterious Kindred (minus that damn ending), to Peter Parker’s long overdue reconciliation with a certain redhead, to stellar characterizations of fan-favorites like The Black Cat, Norman Osborn, Kraven The Hunter and many more, Nick Spencer’s stint on the altruistic arachnid is not one that I will soon forget…for the right reasons.
But with such praise directed towards Mr. Spencer’s work, what were his best stories? The true high points of his writing escapades into the world of Peter Benjamin Parker? While this run had no shortage of memorable arcs, I decided to narrow them down into what I felt were his five strongest.
05.) Heist
Admittedly, this might seem like a somewhat odd choice to some of you, as the central plot surrounding the Thieves’ Guild isn’t really anything to write home about. Instead, what truly makes this seemingly inconsequential arc rise to the top of the pack is the superb and much needed characterizations of its two leading ladies: Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane Watson.
I’ll be entirely blunt here: Mary Jane and Felicia had been written horribly for almost a decade straight before this point. From Felicia being portrayed as a bloodthirsty psychopath hellbent on revenge for something she even acknowledges wasn’t Spider-Man’s fault…
…to Mary Jane acting uncharacteristically cold and callous towards Peter’s double life…
…it really felt as though these two had been ruined beyond repair. But shockingly, in the span of three issues, Nick Spencer manages to single-handedly repair what had been broken for so long.
The Black Cat’s hear to heart conversation with Spider-Man at the arc’s conclusion is very sweet and almost explains her absurd behavior for the past several years.
Mary Jane’s inclusion in a superhero support group probably should have been a massive eye-roller, but Spencer uses it to highlight the character’s inner strength and remind everybody why she is the true love of Peter Parker’s life.
While there are technically better overall stories in Spencer’s run, this is the one that ultimately won me over to his side and gave me confidence in the book’s direction…something I have not had in over a decade. Heist shows that Spencer truly understands these characters, what makes them great and why they are popular in the first place. For that alone, it earns a spot on this list.
04.) Lifetime Achievement
Ever since Spider-Man unexpectedly unmasked to J. Jonah Jameson of all people, fans could only imagine where this turn of events would lead to. Would the heated rivalry between the two improve? Would it get worse? Nick Spencer ended up taking the best route possible here: all of Jonah’s past sins during his career-long anti-Spidey crusade coming back to haunt him.
In an effort to redeem his former libelous days, Jonah becomes a passionately vocal Spider-Man advocate, which does not bode well with certain parties who possess their own personal grudges against the wall-crawler. Here, Spencer expertly explores Jonah’s character growth by contrasting the man he is now to the one he was then.
In the past, Jonah’s vendetta against the webhead came off as one-note at times, so it was great to see some actual development. He may be on Spidey’s side now, but he still has a lot to answer and make up for. Lifetime Achievement manages the impressive feat of moving the characters forward while honoring and respecting the histories that made them who they are.
03.) Last Remains
This is where the long-gestating Kindred plotline finally comes to a head. No longer content with working from the shadows, Kindred, revealed to be the damned soul of Harry Osborn, finally attacks the wall-crawler directly and the results are not pretty.
What follows is quite possibly the worst beating the webbed-wonder has ever taken as Kindred repeatedly kills and resurrects our hero in order to teach him what true pain is.
All of this culminates in a demented dinner sequence (Harry is really good at those, isn’t he?) with Spidey and his allies.
But the true guest of honor? The love of Peter Parker’s life.
The tension throughout the story builds and builds as both the characters and the readers are kept in the dark of what Harry’s true endgame is and how he intends to reach it. Kindred is a truly unnerving, sinister and unpredictable presence who demands your full attention on every page.
While I was let down with how the Kindred saga ultimately wrapped up, there’s no denying just how engrossing, intense and at times horrifying Last Remains was.
02.) Sins Rising
The return of Stan Carter a.k.a. The Sin-Eater was an obvious choice that I’m surprised hadn’t been attempted in the past. However, the direction that Nick Spencer decided to take the character was anything but obvious. Instead of a delusional serial killer targeting “sinners”, Carter is now a supernatural being who literally removes the evil from people’s souls.
And his next target? None other than Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin!
Convinced that there is some sort of secret, sinister agenda at play, Spidey ends up fighting to save the man he hates most in the world from The Sin-Eater.
The insane premise alone makes this worth a read, but the execution itself is just as good. Nick Spencer does a great job making you question The Sin-Eater’s motives and if he might actually be in the right. After all, if he isn’t killing criminals but instantly reforming them instead, what’s the problem? Despite these seemingly noble goals, Spencer never lets you lose sight of how unstable Stan Carter truly is and that he likely can’t be trusted.
But as usual, it’s Stormin’ Norman who really steals the show here. Despite working with Spider-Man, he’s still the same deplorable, back-stabbing scumbag that we all know and love.
All of this serves to make Sins Rising one of the most engrossing stories from Spencer’s Spider-Man run.
01.) Hunted
This might be a controversial choice as Hunted was not a particularly popular story on the podcast, but I absolutely loved it. Awhile back, I even named it the single best Spider-Man story of the 2010s and I stand by that.
For starters, I really like Kraven’s characterization as a worn-down hunter with no purpose left in life who only wants to die on his own terms. Not only is it a good direction for the character, it’s a clever commentary on how mishandled Kraven has been since his unnecessary resurrection back in 2010.
Not only that, but the main premise with him setting up an elaborate “hunting resort” where every animal-themed villain is hunted down by business moguls controlling killer robots is so delightfully over the top that it makes for an incredibly entertaining read.
This also allows for some terrific action sequences, along with some really strong material for The Black Cat and The Lizard/Curt Connors who are both trying to protect the young Billy Connors.
This all culminates in a highly satisfying confrontation with Kraven The Hunter, as he realizes what he must do in order to achieve his objective.
With exciting action, strong character moments, a great premise and a satisfying conclusion, I really don’t see what’s not to like about Hunted. Nick Spencer had a lot of standout stories during his time with Spidey, but this still remains the highlight of his tenure.
So what do you think? Agree? Disagree? What were some of your favorite stories that Nick Spencer provided? Let me know in the comments below!
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@Adam Tomlinson I agree that those issues were really good.
@Sthenurus I loved the moments between Robbie Robertson and Tombstone in “King’s Ransom”, but the rest of the story wasn’t that great in my opinion.
“Chameleon Conspiracy” was actually one of my least favorite stories from Nick Spencer’s run. I really didn’t care about Teressa Parker’s origins, The Chameleon himself barely did anything throughout the entire arc and Ned Leeds’s resurrection just left me cold and indifferent. The more I think about “Chameleon Conspiracy”, the more I think it might have been Spencer’s weakest outing on the title.
@Patrick Mocella I understand the complaints about the pacing of those stories (I share them), but I was still invested and gripped throughout both of them. Plus, like most comic arcs, I think they flow much better when you read the trades.
@Aqu@ I can understand the complaints of the slow pace for “Sins Rising” and “Last Remains”. For the latter in particular, the issues were sometimes too short and didn’t progress the story enough, which was frustrating–particularly if you were reading the individual issues as they were released like I did.
That being said, I was still captivated from start to finish throughout both arcs and I was consistently left chomping at the bit for the next issue. Pacing problems aside, that’s a sign of good storytelling and I have to commend Nick Spencer for that. Up until that point, it had been a *long* time since I was genuinely excited for the next Spider-Man issue.
Now admittedly, I wasn’t really a fan of the final reveal at the end of Spencer’s run with Kindred being Gabriel and Sarah. It felt unnecessary, convoluted and almost as though Spencer changed his mind at the last minute. It all came off as some last-ditch attempt to retcon “Sins Past”, which felt unneeded since that story is hardly ever even brought up. I still liked the Kindred Saga as a whole, but I understand some people’s disappointment with it. Ultimately, I thought that the build up with “Sins Rising” and “Last Remains” was better than the final payoff.
As for the 2099 arc, it certainly wasn’t my favorite, but I didn’t think it was anywhere near as bad as some people (the podcast included) made it out to be. Nick Spencer’s worst is still miles better than Dan Slott’s worst in my opinion.
As others have said, the pacing of Sins Rising and ESPECIALLY Last Remains knocks them out of contention for me, but Heist was definitely incredible and I agree that Hunted was exactly what I want from a Kraven story.
I mostly agree with your list except for sin rising
/Last remain. As Aqu@ said the pacing is too glacial to be considered good.
Id say the opening act was great. King ransom and chameleon conspiracy also deserve a shoot out.
But it’s strange to see that the bulk of his best story are from his first year on ASM. It feels like Spencer blew is strength at the very beginning and then went on to barely make it to the finish line.
Ive been thinking about this, so good article, it got me thinking.
I think Spencer was better at individual issues that arcs. The real stand outs are issue 1, the issue we’re Peter used the clairvoyant so he wouldn’t miss his date with MJ, but was then so tired he slept through it, and the issue where Peter was late getting MJ to the airport.
Those really stand out.
First let me say that to truly do something like this, I should re-read the whole series. What follows is based on what I remember from reading single issues, so I could be forgetting something.
Right now I feel Spencer’s run has been little better than mediocre, so it’s hard to do a top 5 list. I can agree completely on Hunted being n° 1 and maybe to Last Remains being good, but the latter had no real ending, bleeding instead in following issues, so that already is a problem (especially considering the already long premise).
While I agree Sins Rising had an interesting idea with the “sin cleaner”, I cannot agree on the execution: I’ll always remember it for its sloooow pace, reading issue after issue where nothing was really happening, besides characters going in circle.
I agree Spencer did a good thing in trying to explain the bad characterization of Felicia, and I think we got the best we could, because it didn’t involve something ridiculously contrived or complicated in full comics fashion, like an alien mind-controlling tapeworm who also happen to house the mind of the long lost brother of Gwen Stacy, who wants to get revenge on Spider-man because reasons… It made Felicia react as a real human being facing the psychological consequences of a memory-swipe. Simple, but effective.
That said, a single moment is not enough to make a forgettable arc relevantly good for me.
I feel Lifetime Achievement is on par with any other Spencer’s story. It’s good he tried to make use of the new status quo and he wrote Jonah ok, but… As someone who is finally reading all of Spider-man issues from the beginning (I am now a couple of issues before ASM 50), reading in the panel you posted that Foswell was one of JJJ’s best friends… Well, certainly it didn’t seem that way.
It’s true that Jameson’s character itself has been changed from the selfish, self-centered, unscrupulous man he was originally and that even Peter’s characterization changed a bit after Ditko left… You know, I’m becoming one of those who think an endless serialization isn’t good! xD
Anyway, what do you think of the 2099 arc? I felt it was the worst story Spencer wrote.
At least we can all agree Spencer’s run had some of the most beatiful covers in all ASM history, am I right?
@Adam Tomlinson “Back to Basics” came very, very close to making my list. However, the character moments in “Heist” ended up edging it out.
Good list. Definitely agree with Hunted, Heist and Lifetime Achievement.
Though my favourite Nick Spencer stories was his first, Back to Basics. I like how he explored the two “versions” of Spider-Man and how both are true. Some fans like him as the try-hard joker offers prefer the reflective emotional side, but you need both for a good Spider-Man story.