Fans of Babylon 5 were excited to hear, in early 2001, that J. Michael Straczynski would be taking over the writing duties for Amazing Spider-man, the flagship title for Marvel’s flagship character. I didn’t particularly care. It was Spider-man, and I was pretty sure it was impossible to screw up the character beyond help - Howard Mackie had just recovered from the dreaded clone saga. And, let’s be honest, nothing that bad could ever happen again, right?

Could it?

J. Michael Straczynski, or JMS as I will call him from here on out, is a pretty good writer. I will admit that. He did great stuff with Babylon 5, I guess. But some people shouldn’t touch some characters, and JMS and Spider-man was a disaster.

Around 2000, Marvel was still using Spider-man to tell stories. Believe it or not, Marvel used to be about storytelling. But all the while, Spider-man was uniquely relateable to the character he had been when Romita or Ditko had been working on him. Howard Mackie’s Spider-man was the embodiment of this. He was witty, he took pictures for the Bugle, he battled Green Goblin, and he lived in May’s house, with Mary Jane, the love of his life. 

 What was truly great about Mackie’s run was the way he was able to keep the running theme of Spidey’s books - first It giveth, then it taketh away - and let it play with Spidey’s sense of responsibility in new and interesting ways. During “Identity crisis,” Spidey was essentially barred from being Spider-man by the law, as he was wanted for a crime he didn’t commit. So, he came up with a few new costumes, and some new identities.

Spider-man from 1998 to 200 was a testament to the triumph of the average person. Everyday people living everyday lives did extraordinary things in the Spider-man books during this time period.

The run came to an end following Mary Jane being recovered from a kidnapping, and, subsequently separating from Peter. The story oozed editorial mandate, and his run ended on an incredibly low note, which seems to be a running theme.

Briefly afterwards, they handed Spider-man to JMS, who, after a few years of sagging sales, “needed to be saved.” Wizard magazine wrote articles about how JMS had reminded us Spider-man was “the coolest character in comics.” This did, of course, coincide with a blockbuster movie franchise taking root, but it was widely accepted JMS had more to do with it.

His first books focused around a concept he called the “spider-totem.” JMS constructed a story in which the spider, whose power-giving ability stemmed not from radiation, chose Peter to carry on the totem. The radiation killed the spider, which chose Peter because it sensed his understanding of power and responsibility.

Notice simply that Spider-man is then no longer an everyday person. He is chosen by the powers that be to maintain an amazing gift. Notice there was no editorial mandate there.

JMS took a lot of time dealing with Aunt May and Mary Jane. He saw them as the quintessential supporting characters for Spidey - the two that cause Spidey to keep going, his moral compass; his sense of responsibility stemmed from these two women, and we see that in the way the characters interacted in JMS’ work.

JMS distorted these relationships, particularly the one Peter had with Aunt May - he had Peter have to tell her his fricking identity. That’s no editorial mandate.

Unfortunately, he also did some really silly stuff. Spider-man got really, really serious as soon as JMS took it over. The snark Spidey was famous for left almost completely rather quickly. For awhile, the only place to get his snark was New Avengers, since Bendis was writing it. (For the record, Bendis should just write every Marvel book. And he could. He’s basically the new Stan Lee.) Dialogue by JMS hurt to read. He attacked everything from some forced perspective he viewed as unique, in a way the character didn’t stretch far enough to allow.

And then there was a lot of other stupid stuff that JMS tried to do. For instance, he decided to retcon the relationship between Gwen Stacey and Norman Osborn, so that they had had an affair in Paris resulting in goblin-children, who thought their father was Peter Parker and tried to kill him.

Note: See the comments for more on this arc, titled “Sins of the Past”

Overall, the tone shifted in Amazing Spider-man, and it turned out to be for the worse. Marvel lost sight of the character. They tried doing things like having him demask. They forgot what the core of the character had been in the Romita days, or the days of Ditko. It wasn’t light anymore. Spider-man would do things like stop to pray. Aunt May found out about Peter’s double life. They even fucking killed him once.

Now, they want to make the book lighter. Peter blunders occasionally. The dialogue is a bit funnier. And JMS doesn’t really have much say in what’s going on. They’ve basically forced the character out of his hands. Brand New Day is good for one thing - the last seven years of spidey stories are gone. Seven years after JMS came into Marvel swinging, they undid everything he’d done.

First It giveth.