Average at best. Ross Andru was a step down from Romita and Kane. And after the Death of Gwen Stacy it all seemed too frivolous.

I hadn't been reading comics much for most of that run but came back to the series I think with #148, going by the covers, so I only caught the tail-end of the span you're talking about - not enough to have an opinion one way or the other. I was never a big fan of Gerry Conway's writing but OTOH, he did come up with the iconic Death of Gwen Stacey story, so maybe he was better on Spider-Man than on other series? I found the Ross Andru artwork solid enough, but unspectacular. It wasn't something that made me look forward to the next issue with great anticipation.

How about the era immediately afterwards? Looking at the GCD gallery, I think I kept with it all the Len Wein run and was still reading sporadically over the next couple years as well. I liked it well enough, but it wasn't anywhere near being one of my top series.

I always wondered if the lower page count of the mid-70s hindered artists who were used to having more space to work with, or if it was just something in my own attitude. The page count had dropped from 20 to 17 during the few years I had stopped reading comics regularly in the early 70s and it bothered me a lot at the time.

What Cei-U! said ... I backed him up 100%!

I'm another big Andru fan -- after Ditko and Romita, he's probably my favourite Spidey artist. The whole period the pinkfloydsound17 is talking about is very, very good IMO. Wonderful Bronze Age comics and the Gwen Stacy clone storyline is one of my absolute favourites.

Also, yay the Mindworm, my #1 D-List Spider-Man villain.

Very good, with some great here and there. Readers and/or comic historians should remember that this period had the unenviable job of following one of the most series-changing arcs ever published with the deaths of Gwen Stacy/Norman Osborn and the immediate aftermath of Spider-Man accused of murder. Most comic writers/editors rarely had the ability to follow such an atomic blast of creativity/drama which consistently played into the greatest strengths of a concept.

ASM #129-150 took the challenge and succeeded more often than not by not carrying on the effects of an event, unlike so many modern age "event" comics of the past 25 years, but accomplished his in by creating two, distinct plotlines in the Jackal/clone story, and Harry as the second Green Goblin.

The Warren/Jackal arc made sense in that we see how the Stacy tragedy touched/angered someone instead of always seeing the hatred of Spider-Man from the Jameson perspective (which was last dealt with in a direct way in ASM #123 with Luke Cage). To see the kindly Warren (as originally introduced) sink into a creepy, obsessive who--at the heart of it all--was a study of the doomed mindset of those unwilling to accept death (as Parker was forced to at the end of the clone story--in a cemetery, no less), and how immoral one would become when they refused to let go. Hiring the Punisher, playing psychological torture against Parker was an inventive way to move the title forward.

Unlike Jameson using very 1950s kinds of weaponized tech like the Spider-Slayer, the Jackal contracting the Punisher posed a dark threat with roots readers would find familiar in the very violent early 1970s, particularly in the United States, where gun violence was too often the "answer" for almost everything. This first attack forced the hero to deal with realistic threats that no amount of super-heroics was going to solve. Even the original clone plot had some roots in reality (the possibility of cloning was a big topic in this period), with Spider-Man getting his own "back from the dead" horror once associated with characters like Captain America (all of the Bucky imposters/robots/androids, et al.).

Aside from the Jackal's schemes, the continued fall of Harry Osborn from drug addict to filling his father's shoes felt like a natural development. After all, its not a stretch to think a man with a drug-addled personality coupled with what he thought was his father's murder...then learning the alleged murderer was his best friend would become an unhinged psychopath seeking revenge exactly as his father would. Instead of merely being a second Goblin "in name only", Harry's longtime friendship with Parker dashed to pieces (at that time) was solid drama, and brought a natural end to the Goblin saga as it should have been...if Marvel had the guts to leave it alone at that point.....but did not.

Through it all we were treated to the return of Liz Allan, not seen since her high school graduation (ASM #28). Although her being the stepsister of the Molten Man felt a bit soap-opera convenient, Allan's then-brief return not only addressed the "whatever became of" question, but in Spider-Man tradition of the era, illustrated that just about everyone in the Spider-verse had lost their innocence.

There were other storylines in this period, but I feel ASM #129-150 successfully built on all that ASM #121/122 dropped on the title. Too bad that kind of strong run did not last with any consistency after #150.

I would add the only down side to this period was Ross Andru. Romita (and Kane to a lesser degree)defined Spider-Man's world like no other and to select Andru to follow as the next main artist was a very odd, jarring decision. Thankfully, the stories were solid, which were the most engaging part of this period.

I loved Conway & Andru's run. 1st Punisher. 1st Tarantula. 1st Harry as the Goblin. The Jackal & the Gwen clone. Plus other villains like the Molten Man, Mysterio, Scorpion, Grizzly. Doc Ock & Aunt May almost get married.