My envy as a Spider-Man fan over the quality of the best comic book story of the last decade led me to ponder the best Spider-Man stories, especially when considering the wisdom of recent changes.

Peter Parker’s probably the best character in comics. Excellent writers (Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern, JM Dematteis, Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Jenkins, Dan Slott, Peter David, etc) have worked with some of the most talented artists the medium has ever seen (Steve Ditko, John Romita‑ either one, Todd Mcfarlane, Mark Bagley, Ross Andru, Gil Kane, etc) to produce their best work on the character in a few of the greatest comic book stories ever. Given the quality of the character, I’m still left with one question: Why aren’t there more great Spider‑Man stories? Why don’t we have any Spider‑Man stories produced in the last generation as acclaimed as the absolute best of Batman?

The pre “One More Day” Spider‑Man books were good, but could have been better, especially when compared to Captain America or All‑Star Superman. It’s odd that the best Spider‑Man stories haven’t been topped in 20+ years, which is a damn shame given the quality of the best books produced today. In the last twenty years, I don’t think anyone has done a Spider‑Man story as good as Amazing Fantasy #15, or the Master‑Planner three parter. This is disappointing.

I hoped that a good relaunch should eventually result in stories better than “The Night Gwen Stacy Died,” “Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut," "The Kid Who Collected Spider‑Man" and the supposedly outdated Lee/ Ditko tales. It hasn't quite happened yet (despite the awesomeness of some of the post-OMD stories) but I remain optimistic. Perhaps I overrate the classics, or it could just be a matter of the old great Spider‑Man stories being better than any pre-Miller Batman stories I’m aware of, but I haven’t seen any Spider‑Man stories published in my lifetime which are arguably better than The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One or The Killing Joke, even if Kraven’s Last Hunt (which came out more than twenty years ago) and Bendis’s first year on Ultimate Spider‑Man (not exactly the adventures of a married Spider‑Man) come somewhat close.

This isn’t a problem with other superhero franchises. The acknowledged best Superman stories were written after Roger Stern left Amazing Spider‑Man including “For the Man Who Has Everything,” The Man For All Seasons, All‑Star Superman, Kingdom Come, John Byrne’s Supergirl saga, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” and “What’s so Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?” The usual Top Five Batman stories list includes material published since Stern left ASM (Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, the Killing Joke, the Long Halloween, Arkham Asylum.) Captain America has Earth X, The Winter Soldier arc and The Ultimates, in addition to his excellent appearance in Daredevil: Born Again. The Avengers have both volumes of The Ultimates, Ultron Unlimited and the Avengers Forever mini‑series.

While pondering the question of why Spider‑Man hasn’t had an All‑Star Superman a few years ago, I  came to the conclusion that even though Spider‑Man has been married in the comics, the majority of great recent Spider‑Man stories feature a single Spider‑Man, either existing in worlds in which Peter and MJ weren't married, as Untold Tales, or during the periods in which Peter and MJ were briefly separated or MJ was believed dead. If it’s not just an odd coincidence, or a matter of less opportunities to tell stories with a single Spider‑Man resulting in better writers getting the chance to tell those stories, you’re left with one of two possibilities. Either better writers are drawn to stories with a single Spider‑Man, or Peter Parker being single allows the writers to tell better stories. If either is true, I reasoned that erasing the marriage should increase the percentage of upcoming acclaimed Spider‑Man stories.

Examples of great recent pre-OMD stories (in the years before One More Day) with an unmarried Peter Parker include the best of Ultimate Spider‑Man, the first two Spider‑Man Movies, most of Spider‑Man: Blue (with the exception of the last three pages), the first four issues of Dan Slott’s Spider‑Man/ Human Torch mini series, Darwyn Cooke's Valentines Day Tangled Web, Lee Weeks’ Death and Destiny mini series, Joe Kelly’s prom story in Webspinners, Negative Exposure, Dematteis and John Romita Sr’s “The Kiss” and even Kaare Andrew’s alternate future tale Reign.  Going back a few years, you could add Busiek’s Amazing Fantasy mini‑series and the best of Untold Tales of Spider‑Man to the list.

One time there was a disproportionate amount of great Spider‑Man stories was when when Mary Jane was believed dead, or immediately after she moved to California, as long as Howard Mackie wasn't writing. During that period, you had Paul Jenkins's first two standalone issues, The Revenge of the Green Goblin crossover (even Mackie's issue of that was exceptional), Jenkins's Robot Master and euthanasia storyline, his Fusion three‑parter, Straczynski’s first nine issues of Amazing Spider‑Man (with Morlun, and Aunt May learning Spider‑Man’s identity) and "Heroes Don't Cry" and the Ultimate Punisher three‑parter.

There were some excellent and beloved Spider‑Man stories since the 1998 relaunch featuring a Peter Parker married to Mary Jane, but there just weren’t as many of them. The list would include Jenkins’s last issue of Spectacular Spider‑Man, his Chameleon three‑parter in Webspinners, the fifth issue of Spider‑Man/ Human Torch, the last three pages of Spider‑Man: Blue, the Sensational Spider‑Man annual, Straczynski’s “Happy Birthday” and “Book of Ezekiel” three‑parters, Sins Past (some people loved it so I’ll include it), Mark Millar’s twelve issue stint on Marvel Knights Spider‑Man, the best of Spider‑Girl (I’d argue that the best of Ultimate Spider‑Man more than makes up for this one), the Civil War tie‑in of Amazing Spider‑Man, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider‑Man Vulture storyline, “My Science Teacher is Spider‑Man,” and Beland’s Web of Romance one‑shot. And that’s pretty much it.

While there are readers who believe that the stories listed are amongst the worst in comic book history, most of the stories I listed are fairly popular. Opinions could differ, but it's difficult to deny the success and popularity of Ultimate Spider‑Man, Spider‑Man 2 or JMS's first nine issues of Amazing Spider‑Man amongst general Spider‑Man readers. At the same time, I’ve yet to hear anyone make a convincing case for a Spider‑Man tale being as acclaimed as The Dark Knight Returns. This isn't me just defending random Spider‑Man stories I happen to like. It's a trend I notice amongst many of the most successful and acclaimed Spider‑Man stories, stories which I happen to enjoy.

As Peter and Mary Jane are married in the regular comics, there are more stories featuring that status quo, so a greater percentage of pre-OMD great Spider-Man stories should be from that period. It’s significant if there seem to be more great stories in which they are single. Spider‑Man: Blue, one story which made both lists, exemplifies the possibility that the marriage represents an ending, not a plot that can go somewhere exciting. It features Peter reminiscing about his relationship with Gwen Stacy, and ends with him happily married to Mary Jane, presumably forever. It works for a single TPB, but not for a never‑ending serial.

Some of the stories that I've mentioned don't have romantic tension, but there are other things the marriage removed. A few came from a period when Mary Jane had essentially left Peter, bringing their relationship to an uncertain place- right after Mackie's last arc. While Peter wasn't really romantically interested in anyone else at the time, there was more tension in those stories because he lacked a supportive wife to go home to when a story arc was done.

There is the question of how much any change to the status quo would contribute to good stories, and the comparison has been made between Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane and his job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle. This doesn’t work as well since the latter has been a big part of many of the best Spider‑Man stories ever, even if it was just the scrapbook of Jonah’s retractions in “The Kid Who Collects Spider‑Man.” Peter Parker working for the Daily Bugle doesn't limit the stories you can tell with him and opens up new stories, with the Bugle providing the perfect excuse to put Peter Parker in situations in which Spider‑Man is needed. His usual position as a freelance photographer also meant that he didn’t have job security, which kept the Bugle from bringing stability to his status quo. Post-OMD, he has been blacklisted from any photography positions. Presumably his marriage was more stable.

There were certainly clunkers with the single Spider‑Man, but they compare rather favorably to the worst of married Spider‑Man: "Peter Parker No More!" "Live and Let Die," the worst of the Clone Saga and post‑reboot Howard Mackie. There have been fantastic Spider‑Man writers since the marriage (JM Dematteis, Paul Jenkins, and Mark Millar immediately come to mind) so the question of why we haven’t seen Spider‑Man’s Killing Joke is not a matter of the past creative teams not being good enough. Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane and the way it limits the writers is one of the reasons the books simply weren't as good as they could be.

<<PREVIOUS NEXT >>

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's twelve-issue run of All-Star Superman is probably the best comic book of the last decade. It's when I discovered that The Dark Knight Returns can be surpassed. It made me realize I prefer Superman to Batman. And I'm kinda jealous that there isn't yet an equivalent Spider-Man story.

In a Newsarama interview, Grant Morrison explained his approach to the series, clarifying an earlier statement that the title would be his take on the Superman books if Crisis of Infinite Earths had never happened. I admit that writing this piece would be slightly easier for me if Morrison hadn't let on  how his position on the matter is more nuanced than he had initially described it.

When I introduced the series in an interview online, I suggested that All Star Superman could be read as the adventures of the ‘original’ Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman, returning after 20 plus years of adventures we never got to see because we were watching John Byrne‘s New Superman on the other channel. If ‘Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?’ and the Byrne reboot had never happened, where would that guy be now? 

This was more to provide a sense, probably limited and ill-considered, of what the tone of the book might be like. I never intended All Star Superman as a direct continuation of the Weisinger or Julius Schwartz-era Superman stories. The idea was always to create another new version of Superman using all my favorite elements of past stories, not something ‘Age’ specific.  

I didn’t collect Superman comics until the ‘70s and I’m not interested enough in pastiche or nostalgia to spend 6 years of my life playing post-modern games with Superman. All Star isn’t written, drawn or colored to look or read like a Silver Age comic book.  

All Star Superman is not intended as arch commentary on continuity or how trends in storytelling have changed over the decades. It’s not retro or meta or anything other than its own simple self; a piece of drawing and writing that is intended by its makers to capture the spirit of its subject to the best of their capabilities, wisdom and talent.  

Which is to say, we wanted our Superman story be about life, not about comics or superheroes, current events or politics. It’s about how it feels, specifically to be a man...in our dreams! Hopefully that means our 12 issues are also capable of wide interpretation. 

So as much as we may have used a few recognizable Silver Age elements like Van-Zee and Sylv(i)a and the Bottle City of Kandor, the ensemble Daily Planet cast embodies all the generations of Superman. Perry White is from 1940, Steve Lombard is from the Schwartz-era ‘70s, Ron Troupe - the only black man in Metropolis - appeared in 1991. Cat Grant is from 1987. And so on.  

P.R.O.J.E.C.T. refers back to Jack Kirby’s DNA Project from his ‘70s Jimmy Olsen stories, as well as to The Cadmus Project from ’90s Superboy and Superman stories. Doomsday is ‘90s. Kal Kent, Solaris and the Infant Universe of Qwewq all come from my own work on Superman in the same decade. Pa Kent’s heart attack is from ‘Superman the Movie‘. We didn’t use Brainiac because he’d been the big bad in Earth 2 but if we had, we’d have used Brainiac’s Kryptonian origin from the animated series and so on.  

I also used quite a few elements of John Byrne’s approach. Byrne made a lot of good decisions when he rebooted the whole franchise in 1986 and I wanted to incorporate as much as I could of those too..  

Our Superman in All Star was never Superboy, for instance. All Star Superman landed on Earth as a normal, if slightly stronger and fitter infant, and only began to manifest powers in adolescence when he’d finally soaked up enough yellow solar radiation to trigger his metamorphosis. 

The Byrne logic seemed to me a better way to explain how his powers had developed across the decades, from the skyscraper leaps of the early days to the speed-of-light space flight of the high Silver Age. And more importantly, it made the Superman myth more poignant - the story of a farm boy who turned into an alien as he reached adolescence. I felt that was something that really enriched Superman. He grew away from his home, his family, his adopted species as he became Superman. His teenage years are a record of his transformation from normal boy to super-being. 

As you say, there are more than just Silver Age influences in the book. Basically we tried to create a perfect synthesis of every Superman era. So much so, that it should just be taken as representative of an ‘age’ all its own. 

In the end, however, I do think that the Silver Age type stories, with their focus on human problems and foibles, have a much wider appeal than a lot of the work which followed. They’re more like fables or folk tales than the later ‘comic book superhero’ stories of Superman when he became just another colorful costume in the crowd...and perhaps that’s why All Star seemed to resemble those books more than it does a typical modern Marvel or DC comic. It was our intention to present a more universal, mainstream Superman.

As long as you choose to ignore OMD, BND is a good read. As far as I'm concerned, I read it as if we got only the illusion of change since 1985. So no problem. 

OMD poses some moral problems that should be adressed later, but no matter how crappy the Joe Q stuff was, or the fact that this EIC made all he could to make a reboot inavoidable during the last 7 years, that change nothing to the quality of the new stories.  You can read Dan Slott's BND as if it was the Marv Wolfman or the Roger Stern Spider-man with 2008 refs. It works. 

The illusion of change works best if the readers don't know how the story is going to end, or where the characters are going to end up. One of the things that worked about One More Day is that it muddied the water about whether Peter and MJ will end up together. That provides a lot of flexibility in the future, in both the regular Spider-Man comics, and other renditions of the story.

For example, the first issue of the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Spider-Man had Peter Parker fooling around with Gwen Stacy. This did upset some readers who liked a book where Peter and MJ were a couple, especially after the events of One More Day. But it represented an advantage of getting rid of the spider-marriage in the 616 universe: the ending of the story (or this facet of it) was no longer certain. It wasn't entirely clear whether Peter and MJ would rekindle their relationship in the Ultimate comics.

This means you don't know how the new Spider-man movies are going to end. If in an upcoming film, an actress playing the Black Cat has incredible chemistry with whoever's playing Peter Parker, the Director will be better able to take advantage of that, now that no one will be able to argue that the "real" (and by this I mean, the 616 Spider-Man whose adventures have been published since Amazing Fantasy #15) is happily married in the latest Amazing Spider-Man issue, so it wouldn't be clear that the Movie Peter Parker will get back together with Movie MJ eventually.

While the illusion of change approach works well with a flexible status quo, it doesn't really accommodate a stable state of affairs. That represented one of the problems with the spider-marriage.

Marriage removed tension from the series, because readers knew that the relationship will survive conflicts. It also produced stability, as it was difficult to repeatedly convince readers that Peter may not have a loving supportive wife to go home to.

If “growth”isn’t an option but you want to keep the marriage, this means that the comics would have to deal with an eternally childless married couple in their late twenties. If Peter and Mary Jane have a child or find Baby May, that kid’s age will have to remain the same, which makes Peter’s adventures seem more inconsequential, although The Simpsons and Family Guy have conditioned readers to not ask questions about why cartoon babies don’t get older. There are a few problems with these approaches, beginning with the way it seems to freeze the status quo, as you know that no matter what happens Peter will eventually be comfortable in his house with his beautiful and supportive wife.

A writer can't end a story with a married Peter Parker miserable and alone, wondering if that's ever going to change, without doing something bad to Mary Jane. And most of Spider Man’s problems are somehow less significant when he had a beautiful, loving, understanding and supportive wife who he can really confide in. This limited the drama and made him seem like a jerk any time he complained about his life. It also limited the directions the writers can take the story in.

As there will be at least three issues of Spider Man a month for the foreseeable future, I don't think the marriage is the best status quo to keep all those books interesting and compelling in the years and decades to come. Fans of the marriage will maintain that any problems with making that status quo indefinitely compelling are purely the fault of the writer, leading to the “good writers” argument. A perpetually childless couple eternally in their late 20s will become uninteresting faster than a single guy eternally in his late 20s, due to the greater variety of the latter. Peter's life shouldn’t always be miserable, but it's far more interesting when it's not stable.

Given how strong Peter and MJ's relationship has been and the iconic status of both characters, it was difficult for writers to create problems in the relationship without making one (or both) seem unlikable. Mary Jane has the patience of a saint, so Peter can't really be pissed at her, unless she were to do astoundingly stupid, and probably uncharacteristic. Peter Parker's unreliable because of his day job, where he has objectively saved more than ten thousand people. At the same time, Mary Jane should know by now what she's been getting into, so she can't really be mad at the guy considering all the lives he saves. It is possible to give them conflicts, and make both sympathetic. But it's difficult. And it's something that has to be repeated every now and then.

A counter-argument is that not allowing marriage is also a stabilizing force, but there's more variety with that edict. Peter dealing with the aftermath of a kiss from his best friend's girl (whom he considers to be ridiculously attractive) is different from Peter dealing with the aftermath of a one-night stand with his roommate, which is different from Peter having a friends & benefits relationship with an ex who doesn't really love him, which is different from Peter slowly beginning a relationship with someone in his social circle. And so far, this involves four different romantic interests.

In terms of stability, the spider-marriage was equivalent to restricting Peter to one residence (one house in New York City) or one job (a particular employer) in a permanent manner. There can be significant conflict, but the writers would be greatly handicapped. That said, there's no rule saying that he always has to be a photographer. JMS made him a High School Science teacher, followed by a job with Tony Stark. Guggenheim gave him a low-paying job in a comic book store. Zeb Wells had him take a taxi-driving exam. Mark Waid blacklisted him.