Editor Jim Salicrup in particular was required to make a number of compromises for McFarlane's work, including enforcing McFarlane's minor costume changes across the entire line of other Spidey comics, placing limitations on his choice of villains for his stories, and dealing with strong disagreement on the handling of the character Mary Jane Watson. Stories like Perceptions and Sub-City bristle with moral outrage about the news media – upset at the way that casual violence has become so common place that it is quietly buried in the backpages while sensationalist nonsense eats up the front page.

So let’s just take it that Marvel knows what they’re doing with this format and it works particularly well with a series like “The Amazing Spider-Man” that didn’t do double-page spreads in the late 1980s. Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, Image Comics co-founder, and founder of McFarlane Toys is one of the key figures in late 20th century western/American comics. In 1997, the two signed a deal in which Gaiman would give his share of characters Angela, Medieval Spawn and Cogliostro to McFarlane in exchange for McFarlane's share of British superhero Marvelman (in reality, what McFarlane actually owned were two trademarks for Miracleman logos, not the character, which would become clear only after the lawsuit concluded).McFarlane changed the character's appearance, making him more spider-like with wiry limbs and large eyes.

This lends the run a rather breezy quality – plots tend to develop in the background before getting pushed to the fore when the time comes to resolve them.It’s just too easy to bend it at corners, and it doesn’t feel good in your hands when you’re reading the book.