Before we reach the '90s, the '70s is Spider-Man's weakest decade. There's a scattering of good issues to be found, but out of a couple hundred comics, that's the least you can expect. I was particularly disappointed by Wein's run. Not because the run was relatively worse, but because I like Wein and expected him to raise the bar for the era. (this is from the perspective of buying back issues in the '90s, I only bought a few comics off the stands as a kid in the '70s)

We do have Kane and Romita still on Spidey at the start of the decade, where the art alone makes the issues worth looking at. I have the Kane Spider-Man Artisan Edition which I treasure, and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of volume two of the Romita Artisan edition next month. I don't know what it is about Kane and Spidey. I normally avoid Kane-drawn comics - I often wonder if the people praising him have gone blind. But if he only ever produced his Spidey work, I'd rank him as one of the best. But despite these issues being in the '70s, the majority of these feel a little more like the '60s to me, so I tend to not count them as mitigating the mediocrity of the decade.

I was really happy reading Peter Parker's adventures in high school, but then they had to ruin everything with that stupid "radioactive spider" gimmick! This happens when you run out of ideas!!!!

The Winter Soldier comic story says hi!

Please; everyone knows that Peter Parker's birth ruined that great series of stories about The Parker Couple!

You know, if we keep carrying this joke back far enough, we are going to get to, "Everything was great in The Amazing Amoeba, until the cell subdivided!"

The Betty, Gwen or MJ fest just doesn't compare to Aunt May almost finding love in the many arms of Doc Ock. The old girl still had it.

What I am about to post makes zero sense within the context of a comicbook universe that relies on ongoing adventures, so please bear that in mind.

At times, a part of me thought Parker should have permanently given up the Spidey identity because a) his and other people’s happiness depended on it, and b) there were plenty of other heroes to pick up the slack.

I get the guilt over Uncle Ben and “with great power comes great responsibility” (I really do). But at what point does one “pay their debt”? At what point is it worth the heartache caused to Betty, Aunt May and others, not to mention the effect on Parker’s studies and career?

A real-world analogy for me would be this: a guy joins the police force because of past selfish actions. He spends many years as a beat cop. At some point, the demands of law enforcement affect - badly - his girlfriend, his aunt, others, etc. So, at some point he says, “You know, I’ve been a patrol cop for many years. I’ve arrested lots of criminals, and have served society. But I’m giving it up. There are plenty of other cops, and the force will hire a replacement - or recruit lots of cops soon. But my commitment now needs to be to my girlfriend and aunt.” Who would blame him?

I realise such a scenario with Parker means the end of his exploits. And that’s another issue I guess: the inherent flaws in eternal, ongoing fiction which needs to hook subsequent generations. In a way, it’s why films and TV shows can be better at ending an arc: sooner or later, an actor gets too old and retires, which means on some occasions, the character he plays has to settle down. I thought about this while watching UK cop show A Touch of Frost, where David Jason, who was still playing Detective Inspector Frost in his late sixties, chose to retire; it means we got to see Frost actually end his days as a detective.

Other than maybe “imaginary stories”, we don’t really see a proper finale for superheroes.