>Amazing Spider-Man #1000 hits shelves September 16. The thousandth issue of Marvel’s flagship title, the character that built the publisher. The main cover was drawn by John Romita Jr. and painted by Paolo Rivera. It was pulled by Marvel editorial after social media mockery spread. Then the comics industry pushed back and Marvel restored it within 72 hours.>The cover was designed to show Spider-Man from a pedestrian’s upward perspective, his body distorted by the G-forces of acceleration at high speed, webbing pulled taut, figure warped by inertia and momentum. The concept is kinetically ambitious, with Romita’s pencils rendered at maximum velocity, with Rivera’s painted finish giving the figure three-dimensional weight. Online, nobody engaged with the concept. The cover spread across social media with a single read: Spider-Man looked like he was shrugging. As if it were “one thousand issues? Really? Who cares?”>That description is how the mockery framed it. A TikTok video amplified the joke, and it spread far enough that Marvel editorial pulled the cover entirely and replaced it in the Penguin Random House catalog listings with a new Pepe Larraz piece. Marvel then issued a press release on June 18 describing the Larraz cover as “a main cover” rather than “the main cover” — language that suggested they were giving retailers two options rather than admitting they had yanked the Romita piece. The solicitation listings, however, confirmed the Romita/Rivera cover had been removed as the primary. The people who had mocked it celebrated online, with some specifically describing themselves as having “bullied” Marvel into pulling it.>What they had actually done was pressure a publisher into removing a 70-year-old legend’s farewell cover from the milestone issue he had spent his career building toward. That distinction matters because of who John Romita Jr. is, and what Amazing Spider-Man #1000 represents for him specifically.
>>154340423>JRJR’s father, John Romita Sr., took over Amazing Spider-Man from Steve Ditko in 1966 and spent years defining the character’s visual identity. The poses, the costume details, the weight and proportion of the figure — Romita Sr.’s design choices became the standard every Spider-Man artist since has referenced. John Romita Jr. grew up inside that legacy. He created his first Spider-Man character — the Prowler — at age 13. He began drawing the book professionally in his 20s. He is now 70. His collaboration with J.M. DeMatteis, his runs across multiple decades, his willingness to keep pushing the character into new visual territory — none of that is the work of someone with a casual relationship to Spider-Man. Amazing Spider-Man #1000 is his farewell. After this issue he steps away to work with Mark Millar at his new production company. The cover they briefly replaced his with was a perfectly competent piece by Pepe Larraz. Larraz is a talented artist. He is not the man whose family built this book.>The industry’s response to the pull was immediate and went in one direction.>Scott Snyder: “JRJR, Sale (RIP), Miller, they’re masters who’ve done every kind of classic design — they invented a lot — so in recent years we get to watch them experiment to find things they’ve never done. For a lot of us creators, the boldness is incredibly inspiring. Legends still pushing.” He added: “I REALLY like this cover because we so rarely see JR’s work rendered three dimensionally with a painterly approach.”>Jimmy Palmiotti: “I like this cover. The internet has now made it famous. If I was JRJR I would sell prints of this at every show.”
>>154340423Stop reposting your shit on /co/.
>Declan Shalvey: “Art is subjective, tastes are varied but JrJr is one of the greatest living Spidey artists who is normally inked, then coloured. To have another iconic Spidey artist in Paolo Rivera collaborate by painting his pencils for a milestone issue is an objectively cool and suitable idea.”>Ivan Costa, responding directly to the TikTok video that spread the mockery: “John and Paolo deserve RESPECT from Marvel and from these so-called ‘fans’. SHAMEFUL.”>Fan @FkMySmPnsLife: “Nobody deserves the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #1000 more than John Romita Jr. He created his first Spider-Man character when he was 13. That character was the Prowler. He’s been drawing Spider-Man since he was in his 20s. The man is 70. His LIFE has been Spider-Man.”>@TheJamOfSteel: “I’m not even a big Romita Jr fan, but pulling his cover for ASM 1000 is absolute bullshit. The Romita family are so crucial in the legacy of Spider-Man — his cover belongs on this book.”>Marvel reversed course. Both the Romita/Rivera piece and the Larraz piece are now listed as main covers. The Penguin Random House listings updated Monday to reflect the restoration.>The mechanics of what happened here are worth sitting with. A cover was revealed. Social media decided it was funny. A TikTok video spread that joke widely enough that Marvel’s editorial team felt sufficient pressure to pull the work of a 70-year-old artist from his own farewell issue. The publisher of the thousandth issue of Amazing Spider-Man looked at a viral joke about the cover and concluded the right response was to remove it. That decision lasted 72 hours before the people who stand with the history of the industry told them what they had done.>The cover still doesn’t evoke excitement among fans like many in the past have done, but a lot of the pattern of modern covers has been like this.
>>154340423Original cover did suck though. This one might be worse be being so boring, generic, and forgettable though.
Another chatgpt article summarizing social media posts by substack blog fandumb pulse. Lazy content farm shit.
>>154340848If you don't like the book the don't buy it dumbasss it's that simple.
JRJR has sucked for like two decades now
>>154340423That Legend hasnt made a good drawing in 10+ years.
>>154340423its one of the worst covers of all time and should never have made it past editorial in first place. the fact everyone is recoloring it and pretending its good just because jrjr's father was a good artist is retarded. 'oh no, dont bully jrjr, his art is really good even though its blocky overinked trash with rubber limbs and looks like a retarded downie drew it' while at same time completely shitting on the colorist that tried to make his trash napkin sketch work by recoloring it and acting like that was the issue with the cover. its such a disconnect in how they are shitting on one guy to protect a nepotism hire like jrjr who has never been great. the only time people actually had any regard for his art was when he first broke in and he didnt do the actual art. just got all the credit. here's quote from him on his work on iron man with bob layton:>Of this experience, he later said "(Bob and David) didn't want me to do pencils. I wasn't really treated that well. Not poorly, but I was kind of not taken as an equal. Bob Layton was also plotting as well as inking, doing finishes over my breakdowns and obscuring any of my stylization. It ended up looking like Bob Layton to me, though it was a great experience working with the two of them, a great learning process, but I didn't see my work in the finished product."his amateur sketches were inked and finished by a pro to try and get a real product for fans. they liked laytons work, not jrjrs. artist in name only. his work on xmen? same thing. his direct quotes regarding his time on xmen:> "Dan Green was doing finishes on the majority of my stuff on that book, and he did beautiful work on my breakdowns. Once again I was completely dwarfed by Chris Claremont's scripts and plots and finals; I almost felt like I wasn't even part of it."he did breakdowns and rough sketches. actual talent did the plotting and scripting and finishing of his sloppy work that is regarded as his best works of his career.
>>154341761and his spiderman is the same - the reason his 90s return during clone saga era looks completely different and all blocky and messy is simply because his early work is someone elses he got credit for.>"I was also doing breakdowns on Amazing Spider-Man and Jim Mooney, bless his heart, was doing finishes over me. I was working from plots, but I was so thrilled about doing Spider-Man that I didn't care that I was doing breakdowns again, and Jim Mooney's inks were covering me up again."he knows hes a fraud and admits it over and over. only has a job because his father had talent and he has a junior at end of his name. this cover is dog shit and he shouldnt even be drawing comics at a pro level anymore.
>>154340423JRJR needs to retire
This is actually great for comics, it SHOULD be competitive and being an old legend shouldn't mean shit if you aren't bringing buyers now.We keep getting told that editors only care about hitting deadlines in American comics, and it's lead to bullshit like Greg Land being considered acceptable. This is bullshit reasoning and just keeps the comics stagnant.
>>154340423This was all a publicity stunt to try and drive up sales, stop falling for this shit
>>154343992Sorry sweetie, ragebait is just too easy of a sell
>>154341761>its one of the worst covers of all timeMost retarded shit I’ve ever heard a troon say
>>154340423>pull cover>replace it with one of the laziest pieces of shit I’ve ever seen>bring back original cover>leave everyone confused why a reaction video from a man who thinks he’s a teenage girl was influencing decision making at marvelByrne was right, apologize
Tbh I always hated John Romita Jr's art. It's fine for interior stuff, but there's a reason others were doing the covers during JMS's run. John Romita Jr is one of the worst artists that was doing asm, but his father is one of the best. lol I hate nepo babies.
>>154340423Well what was the cover that was chan...>>154341761Holy shit this is awful
>>154340423JRJR's art has just been getting worse. I don't care how long he's been in the industry or how many times he's drawn Spider-Man; it's getting to be unacceptable.
>>154340423JRSR is a Legend. JRJR is a nepo baby
>>154340423You punch your wife today, Jon?
>>154345156>>154345927>>154345907Seething samefagYou will never be a woman, faggot
>>154340423JRJR should just stick to layouts at this point
>>154340423Pic unrelated?
>>154345196>JRJR was still good in the 2000s bro
>>154340423Larraz's art is so fucking boring, JRJR's looks like he intentionally said "fuck you" to Marvel and sandbagged it to make them look like faggots and Marvel are incompetent retards that let it be picked as the main cover in the first place instead of just having multiple main ones to not place too much pressure on one artist. So yeah they don't give a fuck and they all deserve each other because Romita either should have had enough money and sense to know when to bow out of this shit industry.
>>154345991Anon the designated shitposting thread where we suppose something is a masterpiece is the chimptopia one. Go there instead
>>154346329That face is constantly used as the strawman of that era and you're probably samefagging and you instantly get fucking bodied by pic rel, 500's spread, and the spreads when the Morlun fight happens. MJ's face is a little awkward but that's kind of the point with an awkward comedic scene which is that panel's context you faggot.
>>154340423YOU CAN STILL SOLVE THIS MARVELIT'S NOT LATE
>>154340423Based tiktok
It's a bad cover and JRjr should retire.
>>154346385You know what? If you're baiting then you're doing it very convincing, you sound like a blind fan. Some cool spreads and covers aren't enough anon. He hasn't been a good artist, for decades. In fact his art could be worse, his pencils are really bad. Inkers have always helped him>probably samefaggingBlind fan. This is my second post regarding JRJR
>>15434662000s-era Romita was fine.
>>154346620>>154346426>>154346359It’s okay troon. Statistically you’ll kill yourself and the rest of us can continue on like you never existed.
>>154346385this really isn't impressive, it's like the bog standard of what a comic artist should do, standards are really fucking lax for comic fans. this doesn't look super dynamic or unique.
>>154345991How confident you are in being wrong is funny.
>>154341083I don't like the reposting of ai slop summaries.
>>15434670920-22 pages on a tight deadline for a monthly comic means you're not getting the best art ever.
>>154346693Mindbroken
>>154341761That cover looks like it’s out of one of those mirrored video game cover threads
I am a proponent for a lot of those famously 'bad' comic covers since most of the time they are well made and just have a unique non-standard style.This just looks like shit and I can't defend it.
>>154347066It literally is mirrored, ya blind duck. How can you not tell that is a mirrored image. Look at the file name and the text on the image.
>>154347950I mean I didn’t actually look at his image but the actual cover looked like that
JRJR is one of the greatest to ever do it
>>154340423Jr is a nepo baby. He help create art for a shitty writer that shitted on a character that his father created. He doesn't deserve to make cover art for Spider-Man #1000, so he can go fuck himself.
>>154345907he's been downsloaping since mid 90speaked with picrel
>>154347950only the text is mirrored for memes to show how bad it is. the image is the cover >>154347178
>>154351501Sauce?
>>154347178>loldunno.
>>154347178Why is he shooting two webs for webswinging?
>>154340423what legend? are you mistaking him for John Romita Sr, who could actually draw
>>154341761> it’s one of the worst covers of all timeThat’s certainly hyperbole but it isn’t a good cover and certainly shouldn’t have been considered as the main cover for such an important issue. But considering the story inside is going to be about the secret child of aunt may just introduced 6 issues ago there is nothing in this to actually consider something to look forward to. It’s still weird that Defalco and stern have been snubbed for this issue considering as of this point they’re the most influential living writers of the character
>>154353230JRJR was always a solid artist but as of this point he’s worked as a bullpen artist for literally DECADES longer than his father ever did. As of this point he should be relegated to being an editor and maybe an artist for these legacy minis they keep doing, I think that animated series mini JMS did would’ve sold like hot cakes if JRJR was the artist for it since his father was the character designer for the 90s spider-man cartoon. But considering his age he shouldn’t be the main artist for the flagship title of the company. He had a legitimate career and deserves his laurels, but for the love of god let him retire
>>154347031There's plenty of artists who can draw as well or better with more impressive art who don't get glazed as much. Ron Garney was on Spider-man around the same time and I don't see his art hyped up as much despite arguably being better. People feel inclined to defend JRJR due to his name.
>>154341761IMO they should have made with only one arm outstretched. The way it looked just was too balanced to be interesting, and lead to the shrugging meme.
>>154353199Usually the double webshot is for a slingshot propulsion, the games show this off alot as an upgrade to basic webslinging.
>>154352812punisher war zone initial 6 issues
>>154347178The Amazing Shrug-Boy
>>154353703A blocky style like JRJR is sometimes easy to defend and sometimes hard. He has sameface sometimes yet sometimes he doesn't. He's variable and thus that leads to more discussion. Garney is pretty good but I would say yeah, maybe he does deserve more focus. But he does have some weird art sometimes like that black suit logo for example where the proportions are weird.
>>154346641I hate it when artists "find themselves" by drifting away from the established house style only to amplify to worst aspects of their true personal style that were previously suppressed by conformity to the expected norm.
>>154356864he didnt drift away. he literally was not the artist of his early work. he did breakdowns while others did finishes and fixed his art. you can read romita jr interviews where he complains about his early work. he was going to quit comics because he wasnt an actual artist despite having his name on books like xmen, iron man and spiderman. jim shooter hired him for a project called star brand. he quit because shooter kept shitting on how bad his art was and demanding he fix his shit. you can see how that book looks almost identical to his modern post-clone saga era work with the curved back and rubber arms with blocky hands, etc. completely different from the earlier work. daredevil job was only reason he stayed in comics since frank miller let him work with him. he was done if not for that job. now were stuck with his shit art.
