Comics Todd McFarlane's amazing run on the Spider-Man comics.

[Bullseye]

No doubt that McFarlane's work on Amazing Spider-Man was great and his series simply titled Spider-Man was a good read. At that time sales were very good for both Amazing with Erik Larsen as the artist and McFarlane working on his Spidey series.

McFarlane's changes for Spidey during his run on Amazing:

• Introduced Venom into Spidey's world. Venom is considered one of Spidey's greatest villains along with The Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.
• Revolutionized Spider-Man's webing. Before McFarlane's new vision of Spider-Man's webing; Spidey's web's just look like nets when using his Web-shooters.
• Changes to Spider-Man's costume included large eyes and making the character more of a Spider.
• A return of the classic red and blue costume in the issue Venom first appeared.

I really enjoyed McFarlane's vision of Spider-Man and made Spider-Man a favorite superhero of mine again.

 

[Rez]

As did I. Overall, he is my favourite Spiderman artist, and Torment is one of my top favourite stories.

 

[ragingdemon155]

Torment was one of the worse written Spider-man stories I've ever read. The art was fantastic though and EXTREMELY detailed. Todd is one of the greatest artists of all time but as a writer....he left much to be desired.

 

[Popo 85]

I didn't like how he drew MJ, but I liked some of the other pictures I've seen of his. I've never read a story he's worked on though (and I call myself a Spidey fan ) but my friend has the TPB of Venom's first appearance. I'll ask him if I can read it.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

His Spidey looked good, but overall those books made little sense.

 

[Symbiotica]

I dunno, a few years back I posted a poll asking whether or not people here liked McFarlane and would welcome his return to Marvel [hypothetical question only, I know that is not going to happen], and I remember being shocked at about 75% of respondants responding with total vitriol about both him personally and his artwork.

I will agree that McFarlane is capable of brilliant concepts, but he seems quite unpopular with the rank and file.

 

[Dangerous]

My second fave pencils

 

[shinlyle]

I loved Todd's run on ASM....a very great run. He did some great things....and I will always cherish every issue of that run that I own.

His run on "Spider-Man", however, was one of the worst written Spidey runs of that era. His artwork sold the book.

I loved his art, but any man who walks away from comics to form an empire and then doesn't bother drawing any of his creations (or anything else, for that matter) when it was his art that got him there.....I have no use for him now.

For what it's worth, I'd rather have Erik Larsen back on Spidey any day.

 

[OtepApe]

I liked McFarlane's run, the guy was an extraordinary talent at penciling and he did wonders for Spidey when he was drawing him. As a writer, he wasn't as prolific at that then he was at penciling, and I really feel he should have just stuck to that. It's a damn shame what happens to some of the greats of this industry and McFarlane is just another casualty of his ego.

 

[shinlyle]

I liked McFarlane's run, the guy was an extraordinary talent at penciling and he did wonders for Spidey when he was drawing him. As a writer, he wasn't as prolific at that then he was at penciling, and I really feel he should have just stuck to that. It's a damn shame what happens to some of the greats of this industry and McFarlane is just another casualty of his ego.

Yup...McFarlane's ego almost trumps JMS's....of course, even McFarlane's ego wasn't big enough to make him try and rewrite Spider-Man's origin....so JMS's ego is still bigger.

 

[OtepApe]

Yup...McFarlane's ego almost trumps JMS's....of course, even McFarlane's ego wasn't big enough to make him try and rewrite Spider-Man's origin....so JMS's ego is still bigger.

Well yeah, you have a point there. The key thing for me is I still have respect for McFarlane cause he did change things but generally for the better regarding the way people started to draw Spidey, he influenced a lot of guys. JMS is changing Spidey because he probably doesn't have other stories or ideas he can do with this version of Spidey. Changing Spidey to how he see fits, it makes it easier for him to write Spidey, and that I don't have respect for.

 

[POWdER-man]

Todd's artwork was always my favorite. You might not like his personality or the person himself but you can't deny that he changed Spider-Man's appearance for the better.

 

[shinlyle]

Don't get me wrong, I love his artwork. He's probably my favorite Spidey artist ever...tied with Erik Larsen. Still...can't bring myself to like the guy.

 

[deathshead2]

I dont like his art really his spawn comic makes me want to dig out my eyes, its so bad.

 

[MACH]

I dont like his art really his spawn comic makes me want to dig out my eyes, its so bad.

I really don’t understand how you can say that. His art is fantastic! Even on the most boring character ever created, Spawn!

His art on Spider-Man was truly magnificent!

And to the person that said they don’t like Todd because he "doesn’t draw his own characters anymore" I have to say that’s the most pathetic comment ever. He left Marvel to have creative freedom, not because he wanted to write and draw his own character. He wanted freedom to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t like editors breathing down his neck and telling him what he can and can’t do. That seems fair enough to me.

 

[shinlyle]

I dont like his art really his spawn comic makes me want to dig out my eyes, its so bad.

If your eyes can't tell good artwork any better than that, then you may want to tear your eyes out. They've betrayed you.

 

[The Lizard]

I'll now repost my opinion on McFarlane:

Regarding McFarlane, my opinion is as follows:
His art style, while ranging from cartoonish, distorted and rough to hyper-detailed and dynamic, was indeed revolutionary in the comics world. I personally was just put off by how uneven the art often was, with a great action panel often following a distorted, apparently lazily-done character panel. Todd definitely took risks with Spidey in particular that opened up a whole new style of drawing the web-slinger. His desire to draw and write stories the way he wanted to changed the comics industry as well (some for good, some for bad), and you gotta admit, the man is responsible for some pretty cool action figures!

That being said, I personally have NEVER liked his writing style. "Torment" shows some of the worst of that -- the awkward reocccuring use of the phrase "Rise above it all", the unneccessary self-indulgent narration, and the now familiar McFarlane cliche' where the hero "snaps" and begins screaming and ranting melodramatically at his enemies.

IMO McFarlane deserves about 50% of the praise he's received - the rest is mostly hype.

 

[Themanofbat]

McFarlane's changes for Spidey during his run on Amazing:

• Introduced Venom into Spidey's world. Venom is considered one of Spidey's greatest villains along with The Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.
• Revolutionized Spider-Man's webing. Before McFarlane's new vision of Spider-Man's webing; Spidey's web's just look like nets when using his Web-shooters.
• Changes to Spider-Man's costume included large eyes and making the character more of a Spider.
• A return of the classic red and blue costume in the issue Venom first appeared.

1) David Micheline created Venom. MacFarlane had nothing to do with him other than being the artist in charge of drawing ASM at the time of his first (visual) appearances. I say visual because Eddie Brock/Venom first appeared in Web of #18 with a second appearance in Web of #24 (the former written by Micheline, the latter plotted by Micheline). Perhaps Todd's art may have helped popularize Venom, it was still Micheline's ideas and concepts of Venom that helped make him so popular... to the point of over-appearances and sugar-coating the character.

2) I actually hated what Todd did with Spidey's webbing. The overdetailing of the webbing as well as the over dramatic Spidey poses took away from the background art, which still needs to be solid in order to properly tell a story. When I look at some of the artwork after ASM #300 (when Todd's popular art really took off), a lot of panels have just solid colors in the background with a few minimal lines. While his art may be at times "fantastic", it still can't hold a candle to Ross Andru for "good" storytelling.

3) While Todd's art definitely did make Spider-Man look more "spidery", I would have preferred an emphasis to solid storytelling art to make the stories flow and read better. If I wanted to buy a poster book, I'd buy a poster book. But I buy comics for good art AS WELL as good storytelling.

4) Again, as with point number 1, Todd had nothing to do with the return of the red & blue costume. These were all the ideas of either David Micheline and/or Jim Salicrup (the editor of the Spidey books at the time). All MacFarlane did was draw the book.

 

[wes1406]

he can't draw feet.

 

[shinlyle]

he can't draw feet.

Neither could Micheal Turner, until a few years ago....

 

[Captivated]

• Changes to Spider-Man's costume included large eyes and making the character more of a Spider.

Blah! Hated this move. And for the most part I didn't care for all that much for his art.

 

[Bullseye]

Okay. So McFarlane wasn't soley responsible for creating Venom, but Venom gained a huge fan-base when introduced into the Amazing title.

 

[deathshead2]

I liked venom when he was in the cartoon thats how I think he got a much larger fan-base.

 

[deathshead2]

If your eyes can't tell good artwork any better than that, then you may want to tear your eyes out. They've betrayed you.

I know good art Mike Mignola to me has the best artwork in comics. Mignola>McFarlane

 

[Popo 85]

It's all opinion. Ramos' first stuff on Spidey was my favorite. I love how he drew Green Goblin and MJ. I'm not much a fan of Deodato. His hero poses are cool, and the rest is all solid. I just don't care. McFarlane's always been back and forth to me. Generally, thinking about it, I like it. If I saw a picture he drew, I'd say I didn't like it. Don't ask. I don't know.

But my point is, none of these artists are "better than another" and no one should rip their eyes out because they decieve them.

You know who I want back? Luke Ross. What happened to him?