The Best of Spider-Man in 2023
Plus we deliver our "State of the Spidey" address!
Hi, we are Dapper Dan Gvozden and Mischievous Mark Ginocchio, co-hosts of the Amazing Spider-Talk podcast. With each newsletter we hope to give you greater access into our thoughts on the world of Spider-Man! This time we are talking a look at our thoughts on everything that impacted the world of Spider-Man in the year…
Additionally, on our podcast we are detailing the complicated history and events of the original “Gang War” storyline from the ‘80s, as well as reviewing all the latest Spider-Man comics. But, if you want to keep up with our thoughts on all things Spider-Man, the best way to do so is to subscribe to this Substack!
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Our Favorite Spider-Man Comics of 2023
To kick off the new year we thought we’d look back at all the various Spider-Man comics of 2023, including all the B-Titles and Annuals, to write about our picks for the best Spider-Man comic release this year. We hope you enjoy our picks and let us know yours in the comments below!
Dan’s Pick: Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #33
Listen to/watch our podcast review of this issue.
I think we’ve all known for some time that eventually the stars would align and the artwork of Patrick Gleason would be paired up with a Spider-Man story that fully took advantage of his iconic-sensibilities. As a fan of his, all the way back to his Superman comics in the DC Rebirth era, his debut in Spider-Man comics in an outright terrible 2099 story left me with such anticipation for the moment that finally arrived this year: Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #33.
If you’ve read it, you know that the story is a dramatic inversion of the classic “Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline whose title tells the whole tale: “Spidey’s First Hunt”. Spider-Man, in an attempt to save Norman Osborn from becoming the Green Goblin again, absorbed the sins of the Green Goblin and unlocked the worst version of himself imaginable. This story acts as the ultimate release of all of Peter’s repressed emotions in the wake of losing Mary Jane at the end of the “Dead Language” story. Spider-Man has eaten his emotions for so long, knowing that the responsible thing to do is to not lash out with anger and resentment when things don’t go his way. But years of bottling up emotions allows for the ugliest of outbursts when the cap is finally removed.
This might be cathartic for the reader except that Zeb Wells smartly tells the story from the new clone of Kraven’s point of view as he is hunted by Spider-Man. Hardly the antagonist, this Kraven seeks to remove himself from the legacy of failure that ended his “father”’s life. He’s not an innocent actor, but his goals are fairly noble. If he can prove himself worthy of standing up to Spider-Man’s greatest enemy and make him face his own sins and prove himself the victor he can end his father’s quest to prove himself superior to all other beings. So, when all of the built-up anger that Spider-Man has towards the world and Kraven’s “father” are unleashed all at once it becomes a terrifying ordeal and one that could potentially tip the hunter back into the realm of villainy.
Patrick Gleason illustrates the whole thing as a dramatic game of cat-and-mouse where Spider-Man, in his black suit again, springs from the shadows in dramatic poses, lightning dramatically crashing behind him. Gleason reworks several of Mike Zeck’s original covers and imagery from “Kraven’s Last Hunt” for this inverted story. His Peter is terrifying, screaming dramatically under his mask, drowning the page in inks, attacking from the edges of the page as Kraven runs in abject terror. It’s perfectly paced madness, complete with dark humor, vertically sliced panels, horrifying rat-men, and Joe Caramanga’s letters accentuating Peter’s maniacal laughter and Kraven’s conflicted inner thoughts as his fear takes over.
The ending of this comic is an all-timer. Spider-Man buries Kraven alive and throws a rifle down into the grave. “Here’s this. In case you want to skip to the end.” Brutal.
This was a comic that shocked me, thrilled me, made me laugh (the punch to Vermin’s face!) and cemented Gleason’s legacy on this book. I could gush and gush about the intricacies I haven’t laid out here, but that’s what our podcast review was for. But, I was especially appreciative of Wells’ approach to this issue and how the story resolved itself in the end; Mary Jane holds Peter in her arms and forgives him for lashing out with his feelings both at her and Paul, as she knows the “real” Peter. I was specifically glad he didn’t repeat the approach of showing readers a dark Peter who retreats inward, as has been done in several other dark periods (“The Spider” comes to mind), but one who weaponizes his emotions towards others, as he was known to do before his fateful lesson from Uncle Ben. I think it is incredible that 60 years from the publishing of Amazing Spider-Man #1 there are still Spider-Man comics that can catch me off-guard with something totally different and yet, entirely in-character.
Mark’s Pick: Amazing Spider-Man - Gang War: First Strike #1
Listen to/watch our podcast review of this issue on Patreon.
People who have been following my musings in audio and written form long enough know that despite the fact that comic books are primarily a visual medium, story and character is what ultimately moves the needle for me in terms of personal enjoyment. Despite its oversized format, and several subplots that are seeded with varying levels of success, Gang War: First Strike #1 was far and away the most enjoyable Spider-Man comic of 2023 for me because it featured such a riveting story with dramatic character moments.
It’s worth saying that going into this comic, I was not expecting to arrive at this conclusion. While the foundation for the Spider-Office’s latest mega-event “Gang War,” was far more fundamentally established, compared to, say “Dark Web” earlier in the year, I have been burned far too many times by the editorial hands of the Spider-Office in recent years regarding event comics. I’m sure some of that is just the nature of the industry — in this era of outrage culture, it’s rare to hear that someone loves any kind of superhero comic event, Spider-Man or otherwise. But the promotion of “Gang War” just seemed like it was going to be a story about a bunch of big loud stuff happening, some of it I care about, but most of it I didn’t. And heck, this story STILL may end up being that … there are several chapters left. However First Strike dialed my interest up to 11 immediately with a couple of crucial character choices that added real stakes to the story.
The most obvious example is the subplot involving the attempted assassination of Peter’s roommate and friend, Randy Robertson, who also happens to be the son of one of ASM’s best developed supporting cast members, Joe “Robbie” Robertson. The sequence where Spider-Man sheepishly tries to apologize to Robbie while both are standing besides the mortally wounded Randy is one of those examples of a creative team just having trust in the history and power of their characters. Robbie’s monologue to Spider-Man both feels raw and authentic, while containing subtext about Spidey’s big secret that we’ve never truly confirmed Robbie knows, but let’s face it, he knows. It’s a moment that’s simultaneously quiet and potent. I struggle to think of a better sequence between two characters in a Spider-Man comic in quite some time.
There are other good tidbits throughout this storyline. Janice Lincoln, played mostly as a bit of a sightgag in books like Superior Foes of Spider-Man and ASM (vol. 5), really comes into her own over the course of this story, setting the stage for more interesting things to come in the first two proper issues of “Gang War.” There’s also a great sequence between Peter and Miles Morales that, sadly may not feel “earned” in terms of what’s actually been communicated between the characters in the comics the past few years, but its metatextual nature regarding Peter’s “neglect” of Miles despite the fact that he should be acting more like a mentor and father figure, spoke loud and clear to fans who have been pining for some kind of quality interaction between these two Spider-Men. With the news that a new team-up series starring Peter and Miles is coming out this year, I’m hopeful that this exchange is the first piece of a much needed course correction for these two.
I’ll probably catch heat for picking a comic that kicks off an event that’s only about 33% complete at the time of this year-end review, but I’m willing to stand by this choice regardless of how the rest of “Gang War” shakes out. A formative life lesson for me is “first impressions are lasting impressions” and this one-shot opener has moments that are going to stay with me as a fan of this character and medium for years to come.
A Discussion of the “State of Spidey” in 2023
Before we begin our coverage of “The Year of Spider-Man” in 2024. We thought it would be wise to look back on 2023 and all that it had to offer in regards to Spider-Man. The following is a discussion of our overall impressions on the year and what we are looking forward to in 2024.
Dan: As the 60th anniversary of the debut of Amazing Spider-Man #1, 2023 seemed primed to be one of the biggest years in the history of Spider-Man’s publishing line and preeminence on the world’s stage as the most relevant and iconic superhero. As the father of a toddler, it is impossible to ignore how saturated the world of children is with the image of Spider-Man. It seems like every other child is wearing a shirt, backpack, hat, shoes, or some other piece of merchandise emblazoned with his immediately recognizable costume. The year was also full of giant Spider-Man releases between the box-office shattering hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and the video game juggernaut Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. As a year, the closest similarity that I can think of is 2018, which saw the release of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #1, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the video game Marvel’s Spider-Man. With each year between then and now, it feels like you can’t go a month without some major announcement about how the character will continue to dominate our pop culture. And yet, for the comic book line, I think 2023 was a bit of a mixed year, with some serious highs and some incredible lows. Mark, what are some of your overall impressions about “The Year of Spider-Man” in 2023?
Mark: This has legitimately been a wild ride of a year in terms of the comics in that it kicked off with a major thud with the ending of the disappointing “Dark Web” storyline and then seemed to accelerate into something … quite bizarre in terms of the state of Spider-Man fandom as it relates to the “Dead Language” arc. Dan, I don’t want to dwell too much on the social media of it all, but I really do think it became a defining story for Spider-Man comics in 2023, especially when two weeks before Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #26 dropped it was leaked (artwork and all) that long-time ASM comrade-in-arms Kamala Khan was going to be killed off by Wayeb’ at the conclusion of “Dead Language” (after the Spider-Office seemed to be rage-baiting readers into thinking Mary Jane would be killed off). After what had started out as such a promising storyline (despite some of the louder voices of Twitter/X and Reddit disagreeing with us), both the leak and ultimately the actual execution of the comic really seemed to sour what could have been an upper pantheon arc in ASM history. Instead, we were left debating things like “is Marvel racist?”, “how involved was editorial?” and “how is this going to connect to a movie coming out in November that basically was a bomb that no one saw anyway?”
Dan, obviously we made our thoughts clear about ASM (vol. 6) #26 during our review — to paraphrase the immortal Pete Campbell, “not great, Dan!" However, all of this happened and the calendar still hadn’t turned to June and there was a lot 2023 left. How do you feel Spider-Man, both as a comic and an IP recovered following the ending of “Dead Language?”
Dan: Language continues to fail me in regards to properly expressing my thoughts on the finales to “Dead Language” and “Dark Web”. The whiplash felt especially strong on the former given that I almost listed Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #23, an earlier entry in that story, as my favorite Spider-Man comic of the year. I guess we shouldn’t be particularly surprised because outside of “Go Down Swinging” I can’t think of an event story in Amazing Spider-Man that has stuck the landing since “Spider-Island”.
That said, after a disappointing run of comics, Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 6) #14-20 and #26 which soured, but didn’t ruin the stories of the previous issues, Zeb Wells and his collaborators have been on a serious upswing in year two of their run. As a result, I feel many of the voices that dominated the conversation around “Dead Language” have mostly quieted and sales numbers on the title have continued to creep up. But, truly, I can only speak to my own experience with the title, which is to say that I’ve greatly enjoyed the past few months of Amazing Spider-Man as many of Zeb Wells’ stories and thematic ideas have started to coalesce, particularly in this current “Gang War” story. For so long we’ve highlighted the thematic ideas of generational trauma, living in the shadow of past sins, and living up to responsibility and I think this past year has started to lay out the runway for Wells to land a lot of those ideas. Is it the greatest run since Roger Stern? No. But there is a care to the storytelling and the character arc for Spider-Man that has become slowly more evident.
We’ve detailed our thoughts on individual issues on the podcast and hopefully highlighted some of the overall trends, but were there any notable trends that you’ve witnessed on the title now that Zeb Wells’ solo-writing run is deep into year two?
Mark: One specific thing creatively I really wanted to highlight is the rise of Ed McGuinness on pencils. Initially posited as a “fill-in” artist for when John Romita Jr. needed to get ahead on some other stories, I feel like McGuinness truly came into his own, especially in the aftermath of “Dead Language.” Like you, I’m not going to compare his work to some of the true industry game-changers like Todd McFarlane, or JRJR, but McGuinness does bring such a unique style and verve to his work, and after maybe some initial hiccups in terms of chemistry (see, “Dark Web”), it feels like Zeb Wells has done an effective job adapting his scripting to McGuinness’s strengths as a visual storyteller. The Doctor Octopus arc that followed “Dead Language” was shockingly strong, and the exact palette cleanser we needed in terms of tone and look and feel, while the Rek-Rap/Repossessor story was silly nonsense, but enjoyable silly nonsense. Between Romita Jr., Patrick Gleason and McGuinness, we have a true A-list roster of artists working on this book right now. You love to see it.
Dan, any other pleasant surprises in the comics you want to discuss?
Dan: I don’t want to take any of the incredible artists who contribute to the world of Spider-Man comics for granted just because they’ve been at it a long time. John Romita Jr. continues to deliver top-class work, proving that raw storytelling prowess transcends time. Marcio Menyz is one of the most ingenious coloring talents to grace modern Spider-Man comics and I know I am thankful for his work with every new issue. I’ll briefly mention Patrick Gleason, I gushed about his work above, but he finally got the right story to showcase his talents.
I think it’s also important to note that, alongside our podcast, Superior Spider-Man turned ten years old this year and launched both a fun one-shot and is in the midst of new story from writer Dan Slott and artist Mark Bagley. We also go the introduction of the newest Spider-character this year in Spider-Boy, and while I don’t particularly understand his role in the world of various Spider-Men I have to admit that the charm of the character is starting to shine through. I remain skeptical about Dan Slott returning to Spider-Man, but even I have to admit that he’s got a bit of his groove back this past year. It does seem like we are heading into a world where we are both getting a double-shipping Amazing Spider-Man and a string of B-Titles that have serious distinctions between them. Eat your heart out Jim Owsley!
For all the criticisms that we lob at editor Nick Lowe and the Spider-Office, they have seriously expanded the line this year with some thrilling B-Titles, alternate Spider-Man stories, Steve Orlando has been crowned the new heir apparent for Spider-Man 2099, and, in my opinion, they finally rebuilt Miles Morales into the comics character he has needed to be for years. Mark, were there any B-Titles that stood out to you this year?
Mark: The Spider-Office is certainly cooking in a way we haven’t seen in several years. In addition to some of the books you shouted out, I think it’s also worth highlighting Alex Paknadel’s Red Goblin series, which was far better than it had any right to be (and when are we going to get those “Red Goblin” residuals Dan?). Towards the end of the calendar year, we got a very satisfying first issue of Spider-Gwen: Smash courtesy of Melissa Flores and Enid Balam — a character that’s truly been struggling to find her footing since her ongoing ended a few years back. I’m still a bit flummoxed by what the long-term plan is for all of our symbiote characters, most notably Venom and Carnage, and the “Gang War” tie-in books haven’t hit on the level that the Spider-Man-led stories have thus far, but then, looking ahead to 2024, there’s an embarassment of riches in terms of Spider-office content: Ultimate Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Men, a new Spider-Punk mini, and more.
The past year was also a banner year for Spider-content outside of the world of comics. While I didn’t personally like it as much as Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse exhibited a level of ambition that went far beyond my wildest dreams as a lifelong fan of this character. And while I’m not a video game guy (unless it’s on a Nintendo platform because I’m perpetually stuck in 1987 as peak video gaming), but I heard it was a big year for Spider-Man on Playstation this year. Dan, what are your thoughts on these other Spider-properties?
Dan: Across the Spider-Verse has grown on me, which is to say that I think it is an excellent movie, visually unmatched, but lacking the true lightning-in-a-bottle spirit of the first film. I feel like we did a good job articulating our thoughts in our podcast review, but if Sony Animation can stick the landing I think we will have the definitive, best, comic book movie trilogy/series that I cannot imagine being surpassed.
As for Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, I think I am a bit of the odd man out on it as a video gaming experience, while also platinuming it on my PS5. I continue to think that Insomniac has created one of the single most fun characters to control in all of gaming (or two of them, if you count both Spider-Man as entirely different gaming experiences), a giant sandbox to play with him, but has taken almost zero advantage of building interesting levels and scenarios around him. Sure, there are more missions than ever, but the variety has decreased and most of the main story continues the trend of being overly focused on combat that slowly escalates into more complexity. Certainly, that’s part of the appeal of Spider-Man, punching a series of stronger guys, but like… would it kill them to build a level where the floor is lava? How about one in the dark where you need to use your Spider-Sense to progress? Etc. I feel like the systems are there but the imagination is lacking, something I feel like is true of most open-world games save for miracles like Elden Ring.
The story too feels like a redo on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 film that mostly works this time, but takes a lot of the agency out of the hands of the various characters because of the symbiote MacGuffin and their mind control powers. It’s still an excellently crafted tale, but I don't think it carries the punch of both previous titles which were built around genuine rivalries and grudges exploding into superheroic battles with the fate of NYC on the line. This one gets mostly there, and really takes advantage of the new tech to do fabulous things, but hasn’t stuck with me like the others. I hope I can talk in a full spoilercast review on the podcast soon about my full thoughts. I think we are lucky as a fandom to get such wonderful things like Across the Spider-Verse and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, enough that I can nitpick them, because any other fandom would kill for experiences of this quality.
Mark, what do you think of Spider-Man as a brand, comics line, IP, and/or myth as we leave 2023 behind and head into 2024? Is he in good hands? Where does he have to go next?
Mark: I love that question Dan. Honestly, while I acknowledge that things are far from perfect, I do believe the state of the union is strong. As I discussed earlier, from a comics perspective, there is a ton of content in the pipeline that not only adds more volume of Spider-Man, but looks to take a different approach towards the character to address the many ends of fandom. Looking for more Peter/Miles interactions? Spectacular Spider-Men it is. Want to see grown Peter married to Mary Jane? Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man is going to have that covered. Heck, there’s even a miniseries featuring one of the great all-time Spider-Man creators revisiting Spider-Man’s time on Battleworld during Secret Wars. There’s legitimately something for everyone and I can’t think of a time where Marvel has catered its Spider-books to quite so many different tastes and sensibilities.
Regarding the main Amazing Spider-Man title … look, I know Zeb Wells has had some low points, but this is also the most consistently entertaining this book has been since the peak of the Dan Slott era. With a few very notable exceptions, it does feel like Wells is being allowed to cook here on this title and the result is confident storytelling — even if I’m not always 100% sold on the execution. In this day in age of internet/social media culture where it feels like everyone is a critic and likes to yuck other people’s yum, I honestly can’t ask for much more than, “this book entertains me.”
Outside of comics, I still shake my head in amazement at just how much Spider-Man has proliferated all facets of media. We’re now several years removed from the last mainstream Spider-Man live action movie, and yet the character is still going strong (and Sony is still trying to milk 'his “supporting cast” with movies — we’ll see how successful Madame Web ends up being lol). The further and further we get into the depths of this character on Amazing Spider-Talk, the more and more I realized, it’s rarely “perfect” when it comes to Spider-Man. But when I have opportunities to connect and engage with the character across a variety of different media, to me, that is the truest definition of “peak Spider-Man.”
What are your favorite events as a fan of Spider-Man in 2023? Do you have a favorite comic story released from the Spider-Office this year? Sound off in the comments below!
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For me, ATSV was my favorite Spidey project to come out in 2023. Loved, loved, loved it. Similar to you guys, it took a while for me to warm up to this, but after watching it a few more times (including in IMAX), I think I’m on the same wavelength as the movie. You can argue that the first film maybe had a stronger story, but in terms of animation, art-styles and overall spectacle, it was incredible. Another wonderful love letter to the world of Spider-Man. The Miguel O'Hara fanboy in me is very happy.
“It’s a metaphor for capitalism.”
As for 2024, Spectacular Spider-Men is my most-anticipated book of the year. I’ve been hoping for nearly 15 years that Greg Weisman would have another shot at writing Spidey and it’s finally happening. To see him paired with a legend like Humberto Ramos is awe-inspiring and I need it to be March already.
Another excellent newsletter! Nuff said!
Great newsletter guys. Happy New Year!