His first stab at Amazing Spider-Man with John Romita JR was killer. The whole "spider totem" concept was innovative and well-done. After that, he's just tanked...!

He's responsible for the storyline where we learn that Gwen Stacy had sex with Norman Osborne and had KIDS with him. WTF?!

His FF was mediocre; his biggest contribution was that he made Ben Grimm rich. That was interesting for all of 2 issues.

His Dr. Strange storyline was barely tolerable. Compare it against Brian K Vaughn's latest Dr. Strange story, "The Oath" and you'll see a startling difference in talent.

Now JMS has Aunt May getting shot, and Peter can't figure out how to pay her bills. How horribly contrived and EASY. Then, oh this is the kicker...THEN in this week's issue, Peter goes to a rooftop overhang where he had CONVENIENTLY webbed his old black costume, in case he ever needed it. It's suspended by webbing. Webbing that dissolves after a few hours. It's feasibly been YEARS.

ArrrrrrrGGGGhhhh!

I can't believe this guy gets so much respect. He's involved in the Marvel retreats and is considered one of their A-List talents. The best thing he's written was Rising Stars, and that was tainted by HUGE delays in shipping due to his ongoing disputes with Top Cow.

I can't believe that I'm about an issue away from dropping The Amazing Spider-Man.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought about this while reading this week's issue. And if that wasn't bad enough, the reason for him donning the black costume again was because he wasn't taking anymore shit? Nevermind that he's been wearing it in his other books for a couple of months now. And they're not exactly "dark"...

Let's face it, Marvel's a mess. It seems there are no editors or editing over there anymore.

Then again, i'm about 14 years past Brevoort's expiration date for Marvel's readers...

I think JMS told one of the most incredible stories ever in B5, but I have never been a big fan of his comic work. He has written things I've enjoyed - Rising Stars and Supreme Power, but when I see his name on a book it doesn't make me want to give it a try.

Never read any of his Marvel work other than Supreme Power, which I like, but I can't speak on the rest.

Didn't read Rising Stars, either.

Midnight Nation (also featuring Gary Frank's artwork), however, was absolutely fantastic! If you've never read that one, you should seriously consider picking up the trade paperback.

I think that JMS's biggest liability as a writer is his inability to self-censor bad storytelling choices.

He tends to "run" with ideas he gets regardless of how dumb or awkward they might be. (Particularly apparent during the fourth and fifth season of Babylon 5; Gwen Stacy, etc.)

JMS' problem is his sheer hubris. It takes a special kind of narcissism to include references to your OWN PREVIOUS WORKS and how great they are in your work.

According to various interviews (sadly the one I had bookmarked at http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.co...7451826808.htm has been taken down), JMS had always intended Peter to be the father of the children, but editorial nixed the idea and as a result he went with Norman. I think given the change he did a pretty damn good job, but arguments about Sins Past will always rage on.

I'll agree at this point his run has certainly fizzled out and fortunately he seems to know too (he's leaving the book). Just to continue making excuses for him: He does have three feature film scripts in various stages of preproduction and EVERY writer was forced to follow the editorial mandates of Civil War so I'm not sure this last bit of his run can be blamed on HIS poor plotting.

My question is... "What took you so long?"

Two issues into Sins Past, I realized that ASM was a lost cause. Since Waid left Fantastic Four at about the same time, I just decided to stop buying Marvel altogether.

Yeah, you may be right. It's the completist/optimist in me. It's not as bad as the Clone Storyline in the 90s...I even bought most of those. So I guess I'm just coming to the realization that if a book starts to blow, I should jump ship until things get better.

I have been getting better at this. I recently dropped Green Lantern and after issue 2 of the new Flash, I quit that one also.

Overally, I can't completely give up Marvel. I'm not at that point yet. Daredevil, Captain America, Thunderbolts, and several others are all good books.

I guess with the reputation of JMS, I've been expecting MORE. I'm almost cashing in my chips here.

Funny you should mention this. I've seen him at a lecture panel at Comic Con, and while he did some self-defacing comments, overall, I felt that he definitely had an inflated view of himself and his story telling techniques.

There's a lot in his background that I want to like about the guy, but this may just be another GLARING example of how some of these Hollywood types have no place in comic literature.

I read the first few issues of Midnight Nation, and I believe there were some significant shipping delays here. The story took a while to get going, but maybe the trade would hold up better than the monthlies. I guess I'm just a bit gunshy about investing in another JMS property that may dissapoint.

I think JMS is great when he's working with his own creations. The problem arises when he works on stuff that's already been established. He wants to come on a book and totally revamp it, when the character has had years (or in some cases decades) of previously established history.

Take JMS off all Marvel properties and let him do a book on Icon

I also feel that way about JMS, let him tell his own stories, and get him off books with a lot of continuity and other constraints.

Pfeh. I thought the Spider Totem stuff was stupid, and nothing I've seen since has changed my mind on JMS.

I do believe you make a very valid and agreeable point there.

I thought Rising Stars was good, but still suffered from the same flaws all his works do. JMS' writing in general is very, very pretentious and self-important. He can outline storylines very well and generate very original ideas, but when it comes to the actual script he's seriously lacking. The only other writer I can think of more arrogant than JMS is Brad Meltzer.

i ve been collecting all things spider-man for nearly 20 years.

i havent had time to read more then a handful of books since jms took over.
i took a look into an issue a few weeks ago and it happened to be the one were peter picks his black costume off the building with the webbing on it.

i really couldnt un derstand what was going on because webs only last a few hours.
i was certai i missed something, but if i had that wouldnt matter because he hid this costume years before i stopped reading and before his new abilities,.

anyway the black costume still being webbed up is completely ridiculous, as is the entire built in webshooters that i just found out about i the new marvel handbook featuring spider-man.

i'll never stop buying spider-man but jeeze catching up on reading to get to this point is gonna be messed up.

Or how 'bout his whole reason for the black suit being his "dark" attitude in AMS and him cracking jokes and yucking it up with Sandman in FNSM..

FNSM needs to be labeled as an alternate universe Spidey, or a kids Spidey or something, because outside of The Other and Pete's identity being revealed, it has had nothing to do with regular Spider-Man continuity. The extremely lame Uncle Ben from the alternate timeline has not made an appearance in any of the other books (thank god), and now we're supposed to believe (as you mentioned) that in the midst of being in a "dark" mood and trying to find who shot May, he also has time to swing around and crack jokes with Sandman.

FNSM has consistently been disappointing, which is a sad thing considering how I used to worship at the altar of Peter David.

That's funny because I hated the spider totem deal. Kind of reminded me of the speed force in the Flash in fact. In other words, the concept of a hero getting his powers from some greater force... it's been done.

Is this JMS's fault or Peter David's fault? It's pretty clear that one story takes place before the other, maybe there is some small resolution after the current Amazing arc?

I think JMS definitely fizzled out three or four arcs into Amazing, but a lot of the complaints laid on him should be pointed towards his editors as well. They should have caught the wrong maiden name for May and the fact that the word boxes and the art in regards to the webbed up black suit don't jive.

A few years ago I read an interview with JMS, in which he stated that when he was first starting out, he asked Harlan Ellison for advice on how to become a great writer. Ellison supposedly told him, "Stop writing crap!" (Hmm. I guess it's just that easy!) It sounds as if JMS believes he's done just that.

That's great...! Ellison has an even more bloated ego than JMS! Who knew that was even possible!

Of course, Ellison has cause for an ego.

I firmly believe JMS' biggest problem is nobody edits him because he's a "TV big shot." He has had some good stuff (notably the first 20 issues or so of his Spider-Man run) but I feel like nobody ever tells him "y'know, this idea kinda sucks" (i.e. the Gwen Stacy's kids storyline, too much spider-mysticism, "The Other," his FF run). I've held on to reading Amazing Spider-Man during his run as I've pretty much read it unbroken since 1983 or so, but it's been hard going lately. I'll be really glad when he moves on.

Has anyone come to the conclusion that outside of Brubaker on Marvel books, that Marvel Adventures are the best titles they have?