Marvel canceled the first volume of Spectacular Spider-Man after 264 issues, as part of a larger, post-Final Chapter paring down of the line that resulted in just two monthly Spider-Man books (Amazing and Peter Parker.) Of course, they made Howard Mackie writer of both those titles initially, so I'm not sure that's an improvement.
After about 5 years, they canceled Peter Parker: Spider-Man and restarted Spectacular. Paul Jenkins had taken over Peter Parker: Spider-Man about a year before JMS took over Amazing Spider-Man, and Jenkins and Mark Buckingham had worked together for a couple of years (with Humberto Ramos taking over as artist for an arc or two and man, was that a stylistic shift.) A lot of Jenkins and Buckingham's stronger stuff were one-off stories, sometimes sweet, sometimes silly.
With Spectacular Spider-Man, however, Jenkins shifted to more multi-issue arcs, with a variety of artists. Humberto Ramos for a Venom story, Daimon Scott for a Lizard 3-parter. An Avengers Disassembled 4-parter that resulted in Spider-Man turning into a Spider-Monster briefly and getting organic webshooters.
None of those issues remain in my collection, and they've all been gone for years now, so clearly I wasn't digging them. What's left behind is again, two standalone issues, albeit one (about the Kingpin crashing a superhero poker game) was drawn by Talent Caldwell rather than Buckingham. The other, the series finale, is Peter having an extended Christmastime conversation with Uncle Ben at Ben's graveside. Buckingham adopts a faux-Bill Watterson style for flashback panels of Ben and Peter making Calvin & Hobbes-esque snowmen to annoy Aunt May. Again, it's a little silly and a little sad (it is, after all, Peter essentially trying to not have a breakdown by talking to an imaginary version of his dead uncle), and a little sweet.
I think this volume got canceled to make room for Marvel Knights Spider-Man. Which I skipped in Sunday Splash Page because I only have one issue (where MJ turns out to be a pool shark and whips a creepy fan's ass with a pool cue) and there's no splash page, and I don't care enough about that title to bother breaking my rules for it. Steve Ditko or Colleen Coover can flout the splash page rule, but lesser mortals can go pound sand.
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