On the other side of the coin is Dan Slott who, despite being of the best-selling writers at Marvel, is also one of the most divisive. Hickman has a devoted, core fan base who eat up everything he shovels to them. Slott is a hate-him-or-love-him type, having been the one to kickstart that whole Superior Spider-Man thing where Peter Parker and Doctor Octopus swapped brains, Peter seemingly died in Ocks body, and the villain tried to be a hero in the web heads body for the better part of a year. That was actually surprisingly fun, and distracted readers from the fact that Slott was a lot better at writing SpOck than he was writing OG Spider-Man. His plots before and since Superior have been spectacularly misguided, with a surprising amount of poor characterisation for a writer whos so clearly versed in the books history and continuity, as evidenced by the recent Spider-Verse event thats...well, like Secret Wars, but just for alternate reality Spider-Men. Much as Secret Wars appears to be the endgame for Hickmans entire time at Marvel thus far, Spider-Verse looks to be the culmination of all of Dan Slotts dangling plot strands - not to mention a chance to show off his knowledge of obscure Spidey characters. Between that and the general fan apathy towards him, perhaps the end of it would be the perfect time for him to bow out.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
