***

One of those characters that I think was innately a bad idea. Too many people connected to Peter Parker in some way, at the Bugle or not, got super-powers or costumed identities or both. J. Jonah Jameson's son becomes a "Man-Wolf"? Couldn't it have been someone else, with no connection to a Spider-Man supporting character? 

SPIDER-WOMAN by Mark Gruenwald and Carmine Infantino.

I just re-read this series and I was surprised that Gruenwald only did twelve issues--I remembered it as being longer.  When I first read it, I was 13 or 14 years old and it really hit me in the best possible way.  I live in Los Angeles and it was set in Los Angeles and that made it special; I really understood why so many New Yorkers loved the early days of Marvel when comics were finally set in the real world of New York City.  But it was more than that: just like Spider-Man and his wall-crawling and web-shooting fit the tightly-packed buildings of Manhattan, the flying (gliding) and somewhat weird Spider-Woman was the perfect super-hero for L.A.  Gruenwald and Infantino especially (Infantino started on the series with Marv Wolfman and Gruenwald ended his run with Frank Springer penciling) captured the feel of the city perfectly; even though Infantino got specific details wrong (like the size of the Hollywood sign or putting actual cages in the L.A. Zoo), it's still my favorite Infantino work.  Besides the art, the stories really fit this town of mine as well.  Guest-stars (and love interests?) the Shroud and Werewolf by Night were also perfect.

I lived through the abrupt shift of direction the series went through with the arrival of Michael Fleisher as writer--it was weird, but there were still things to enjoy (including some fantastic Frank Miller covers, following up on the great Bill Sienkiewicz covers SW already had).  I was more torn when Chris Claremont and Steve Leialoha took over; they were obviously a quality team, but they moved her to San Francisco and basically turned the book into an X-MEN side dish.  The Los Angeles era was over.  When I read that Gruenwald was heartbroken when he was taken off SW and would have stayed for years if given the choice (proved by his long runs on CAPTAIN AMERICA and QUASAR), it was extra sad.

I really enjoyed re-reading their whole run again.

Jeph Loeb/ Arthur Adams on Ultimate X

Arthur Adams on Monkeyman & O'Brien

Alan Davis on Clandestine

Alan Davis on Fantastic Four

John Byrne on Hulk, Hidden Years, Danger Unlimited, Fourth World, His Hero universe. Basically anything JB has done!!! LOL!!!!

JR JR on any Spider-Man title

Ivan Reis on anything he has done

Jim Lee on X-men

Busiek/Pacheco on Arrowsmith

JMS on anything he has done

Ron Frenz on anything he has done especially Spider-Man!!!

Many, many others as well!!!!

The Stern and Byrne run on Captain America

Busiek and Perez on The Avengers

It's a shame how poor art can ruin good or even great writing. 

Some people I can't stand do hundreds and hundreds of scripts, while people like Steranko and Brennert only give me a handful.