The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home from The Russian Comic Book Geek · 3:25am Oct 5th, 2023

Not to be confused with the home themed MCU trilogy. A dramatic reading of the first arc of J. Michael Straczynski's ASM run.

Recently separated from MJ, Peter flounders for a direction, happening upon a whole new career path after a visit to his equally year worn high school. Just as suddenly, Spider-Man is approached by Ezekiel Sims, an old man with identical spider-powers. Ezekiel offers the possibility that Peter's powers had nothing to do with science and may in fact stem from the same mysterious "totem" forces his do...and that this makes Peter a target for creatures that prey on those forces, such as the vampiric Morlun. Hunted by a seemingly invincible enemy that can track him anywhere he runs and drain the life out of him with a touch Spider-Man's tenacity is worn away, leaving only Peter Parker's ingenuity.

I have a lot of fond memories of JMS Spidey stuff, the point most fans decided he turned 30 because of the vibe that was a lot better than what had come before. (You could not blame MJ for needing a break from Peter's life given she'd spent most of the '00s up to this point presumed dead in a plane explosion, orchestrated by a stalker who, naturally, turned out to actually be after Peter this whole time.)

For the first time in a long time Spider-Man comics had a sense of direction. Amazing, the controversial totem idea aside, introduced intriguing new concepts such as Peter's teaching career, leading to his attempts to tackle less fantastical social problems, MJ turning to NYC theatre as opposed to modelling and Hollywood, and a change in Peter and Aunt May's relationship that turned her into an actual character in a lot of people's eyes.
Peter also went from a perpetually hangdog cheese ball to a veteran vigilante with a scientific mind and actual, often funny one liners.

Interestingly this characterisation was starting around the same time in the secondary Peter Parker comic, reserved for more slice of life stories under the pen of Paul Jenkins, the book I'm slightly more fond of. With an anthology title Spider-Man's Tangled Web, allowing different comic voices to take turns with the character, the 2000s (read: post the Sam Rami movie, another shot in the arm the character needed) were a time of genuine enthusiasm and experimentation after the quagmire the character had become embroiled in during the 90s. JMS' proposed status quo, a seemingly older, somewhat wiser Peter Parker teaching kids like him, reunited with his actress wife and his aunt in on his greatest secret, arguably a real family for the first time, is still a benchmark of what Spider-Man should be to a lot of people.

And it all started with one of the most reliable Spidey-premises of all: there's a guy you can't just punch, what do?

Which isn't to say JMS' execution was perfect. As you'll be able to tell if you click that video his characters love the sound of their own voice, never short of a speech and delivered in a way that doesn't really feel like something human beings would say. This is the same writer who's big pitch for Marvel social commentary in the 2000s was "What if the Justice League was mostly post 9/11 military, Wonder Woman was a psychopath, and everyone else was just miserable" and actually for DC, Superman: Grounded, where Superman literally walks across all of America and pontificated about it a whole lot. Much as I think Spidey brought out the best in him, it's impossible to read (or in this case hear) these non-stop speeches and not recognise that same writer.

But there is some real magic there, the human kind, not the totemistic, and I can't help smiling at seeing teacher Pete all over again. If you're in the mood for all that but shorter, here's another production from a diffrent fan account of Leo's Tailoring (more accurately "You Want Pants With That?") by vsquid888, where Peter learns the answer to the ultimate question of the Marvel universe: Just where do all the other heroes get their outfits from anyway?