Spider-Man is a pop culture icon.
That isn’t a wild statement. Spider-Man is a name as famous as Mickey Mouse and it’s all down to his likeability. Hell, he’s 3 out of 4 members of the Talk Nerdy Team’s favourite hero (I am a Daredevil man, myself). And if there’s one thing we love more than 1 Spider-Man it’s multiple Spider-Mans (is that a thing? I am making it a thing). Look at the success of No Way Home…a movie that made a tonne of money and trended everywhere during a pandemic. Whilst there are MANY iterations of Spider-Man that we enjoy, there are 2 that are easily the most popular; Miles Morales and Peter Parker.
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The two webheads are so popular that when you pop these guys together, they make bank. It’s a guarantee. Marvel’s Playstation 5 game bringing them together was a massive hit. In the movies we’ve had 2 successful Spider-Verse films and in the comics the guys have made the top sales with titles like Spider-Verse, Spider-Geddon and so forth. However, what’s unusual is that no one had thought to give these 2 their own standalone film or comic…well the latter was true until March of 2024 when Marvel finally realised they were sitting on gold.
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Think about it. A monthly edition of a comic where your 2 favourite Spider-Mans (it’s sticking) work together. 32 pages of thwips and quips from 2 of the best to do it, the idea is foolproof, right?
And it seemed to be true. Issue 1 was ranked 4th in comic book sales of that month. But immediately sales dwindled. By the time we were at issue 4, it wasn’t even breaking the top 50. So what was wrong? Was it the creative team?
Marvel knew that if you are going to have the 2 big Spider-Mans (honestly this is trending), you need two industry superstars: Greg Weisman, known for writing the beloved animated Spectacular Spider-Man animated series and creating Gargoyles, and one of the definitive AMAZING SPIDER-MAN artists, Spidey legend Humberto Ramos! And the concept? Miles and Peter decide they are going to meet every Wednesday, out of uniform, to have a coffee and work on their social lives. Of course, this regularly gets interrupted, and responsibility means that both of them end up swinging through the city together. It’s grounded, it will show off their humanity, their great chemistry, there’s a chance for real comedy and real drama, and obviously you can fulfil loads of people’s fantasies, seeing them team up to stop threats in and around the city. Again, what isn’t there to like about this?
And it seemed to be true. Issue 1 was ranked 4th in comic book sales of that month. But immediately sales dwindled. By the time we were at issue 4, it wasn’t even breaking the top 50. So what was wrong? Was it the creative team?
Marvel knew that if you are going to have the 2 big Spider-Mans (honestly this is trending), you need two industry superstars: Greg Weisman, known for writing the beloved animated Spectacular Spider-Man animated series and creating Gargoyles, and one of the definitive AMAZING SPIDER-MAN artists, Spidey legend Humberto Ramos! And the concept? Miles and Peter decide they are going to meet every Wednesday, out of uniform, to have a coffee and work on their social lives. Of course, this regularly gets interrupted, and responsibility means that both of them end up swinging through the city together. It’s grounded, it will show off their humanity, their great chemistry, there’s a chance for real comedy and real drama, and obviously you can fulfil loads of people’s fantasies, seeing them team up to stop threats in and around the city. Again, what isn’t there to like about this?
On paper so far this should have worked, so why 15 issues later was this cancelled. Well, there may be multiple factors at play. One major one is…there are already a load of great Spider-Man comics running right now. You have ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’, a spin-off of the current ‘Marvel Ultimates’ run that, in all honestly, is so good I am totally forgiving them bringing back an Ultimate universe after literally annihilating the last one, and recently made headlines at comic cons as it clarified that it would be going on hiatus during the main crossover event of all the Ultimate Universe comics, as people were worried it was getting cancelled. ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ is obviously never going to stop running and is on a course to hit its 1000th legacy issue and with seasoned Spider-Man writer Joe Kelly at the helm, it’s obviously on a lot of people’s pull lists. Miles’s comic, ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ has had its ups and downs but it still shifts units and in all honesty, I now believe that if there were any concerns in its sales and reach, Marvel would prioritize it as much as they would Peter at this point. Then there is Spider-Boy, Ghost Spider, All new Venom and a Carnage comic to contend with. Keeping the continuity of Peter and Mile’s stories was obviously imperative but hard too because at the time of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MEN being published, both are in periods of flux with the biggest being Peter as he is dating someone (not MJ) and they are at this point where they are not exclusive but it is serious. This must have been a nightmare for the Weisman as talking about his relationship issues in the coffee shop plays into the whole point of the setup of this comic but he really had to watch what he wrote so it wasn’t technically incorrect at the time of going to print (this is especially noticeable in the final issues).
Okay, I have established that the spider based comics already seem quite substantial, so if you’re going to do this you need to make sure you knock it out the park every week…which this comic sadly didn’t do either.
Whilst I found this comic funny as hell and heart wrenching in parts, there were 2 story points that were real head scratchers. The first was the entire “ARCADIUM” story. After a few issues we learn that both Spider-Mans (See? You read that one just fine) and some of the collective cast (ooooh maybe there are 3 story points, more on that later) are trapped in a computer-generated world. Not only has this story been done to death but this was unnecessarily complex to follow and wasn’t what the comic advertised to us in the adverts or set up. We wanted to see Miles and Peter bounce off each other in the coffee shop and then bounce off each other fighting crime, yet this just escalates so quickly that it’s no longer what it began as.
Okay, I have established that the spider based comics already seem quite substantial, so if you’re going to do this you need to make sure you knock it out the park every week…which this comic sadly didn’t do either.
Whilst I found this comic funny as hell and heart wrenching in parts, there were 2 story points that were real head scratchers. The first was the entire “ARCADIUM” story. After a few issues we learn that both Spider-Mans (See? You read that one just fine) and some of the collective cast (ooooh maybe there are 3 story points, more on that later) are trapped in a computer-generated world. Not only has this story been done to death but this was unnecessarily complex to follow and wasn’t what the comic advertised to us in the adverts or set up. We wanted to see Miles and Peter bounce off each other in the coffee shop and then bounce off each other fighting crime, yet this just escalates so quickly that it’s no longer what it began as.
Literally the only picture I can find of ELEMENTARY online right now and it hardly makes her look exciting
Next was elementary, my dear reader. Or should I say ‘Elementary’ because from the ashes of the “ARCADIUM” story we get a new character with new powers and new social complexities…who isn’t a Spider-Man so…why should I care? Don’t get me wrong this wasn’t a comic killer for me, but it became glaringly obvious, month to month, that Peter and Miles were the background characters in their own comic as ‘Elementary’ took up most of the story each issue. Again, this wasn’t what we were advertised, and a lot of people just dropped off. Talk even began that ‘Elementary’ was forced in by higher ups in creative however, at the time of typing this I can find no evidence of this other than Reddit Hear Say.
At the end of the day, we want to read about Miles and Peter, if we can’t get it here, we will buy their main run comics instead. It’s annoying because ‘Elementary’s story is actually quite interesting and unpredictable but when you take into account the rest of the cast in this comic, for the last 7 issues the comic was solely about her. Yeah…that cast…
I have never seen such a large group of non-powered people immediately introduced into a main run superhero comic before. This was the entire cast of issue 1:
At the end of the day, we want to read about Miles and Peter, if we can’t get it here, we will buy their main run comics instead. It’s annoying because ‘Elementary’s story is actually quite interesting and unpredictable but when you take into account the rest of the cast in this comic, for the last 7 issues the comic was solely about her. Yeah…that cast…
I have never seen such a large group of non-powered people immediately introduced into a main run superhero comic before. This was the entire cast of issue 1:
This seemed crazy! As long as they’re all important to the story moving forward, right? Again, whilst some are more prevalent than others, they mostly come in to help move the story forward, and once their purpose is served, they disappear until, like Skeletor, we meet again and of course I have forgotten who the hell they are when they do. During the “ARCADIUM” story, the pages bounced between these characters so many times that, even then, Miles and Peter sort of felt like secondary characters in their own comic.
Don’t get me wrong, when this was announced as being cancelled I was still sad as this comic genuinely made me laugh out loud and as much as it had become ‘ELEMENTARY with Miles and Peter’, I still very much looked forward to it. Its energy, artwork and unpredictability were a joy to my eyes every month. Weisman even put that into his final issue, having ‘Elementary’ make a full mental health recovery instead of the paint by numbers heel turn (watch wrestling, people) on the Spider-Mans and showing that stories you thought were all tied up were actually still in flux, before finally showing that the entire cast, Miles and Peter included, were being transported away with the coffee shop. Leaving hope that someone will come take the reigns on this project in the future and carry it on under better circumstances. And I hope they do as it’s a great idea. Next time though, creative need to just keep it simple, like all the previous crossovers with Miles and Peter that have been successful in video games and cinema, and make sure that the product is just that about that. Miles and Peter.
Email [email protected] or tweet at us @talknerdyuk
By Jay Burdett @ProJub on Twitter
Don’t get me wrong, when this was announced as being cancelled I was still sad as this comic genuinely made me laugh out loud and as much as it had become ‘ELEMENTARY with Miles and Peter’, I still very much looked forward to it. Its energy, artwork and unpredictability were a joy to my eyes every month. Weisman even put that into his final issue, having ‘Elementary’ make a full mental health recovery instead of the paint by numbers heel turn (watch wrestling, people) on the Spider-Mans and showing that stories you thought were all tied up were actually still in flux, before finally showing that the entire cast, Miles and Peter included, were being transported away with the coffee shop. Leaving hope that someone will come take the reigns on this project in the future and carry it on under better circumstances. And I hope they do as it’s a great idea. Next time though, creative need to just keep it simple, like all the previous crossovers with Miles and Peter that have been successful in video games and cinema, and make sure that the product is just that about that. Miles and Peter.
Email [email protected] or tweet at us @talknerdyuk
By Jay Burdett @ProJub on Twitter