Category Archives: Spider-Man
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #14
Yep, Brian Michael Bendis wants absolutely nothing to do with the ‘Divided We Fall’ crossover taking place in the rest of the Ultimate Universe. The crossover banner may be emblazoned on the cover, there may be a map in the beginning of the comic detailing the current chaotic state of the country, but you wouldn’t have any idea what the heck is going on based on this issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. This is entirely self-contained. Honestly, reading Ultimate Spider-Man #14, it’s as if nothing has changed anywhere else in the Ultimate Universe.
Ultimate Spider-Man #14
And I am perfectly fine with that! To hell with the rest of the Ultimate Universe and its stupid crossover!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
Apparently Captain America went into hiding in the wake of Peter Parker’s death. You wouldn’t know it based on this comic. Cap is a major guest star this issue, but there’s no indication that he left or that his return is a big deal. He’s written exactly as he would have been written had he not taken a major sabbatical. And better yet, Aunt May, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson are all written the same too. Nobody seems to know or care that the United States doesn’t exist anymore, and that’s great! As long as Miles Morales’ fantastic story isn’t disrupted due to the rest of that crap, I couldn’t be happier. Bendis is writing good comics here. The origin and early adventures of Miles Morales are going to be important for a long time. ‘Divided We Fall’ isn’t even flavor of the month. Nobody’s talking about it. Nobody cares. It’s a dying gasp from a past-its-prime universe.
Give me more of this issue, where Miles finally has a real heart-to-heart with Peter Parker’s supporting cast. Give me dialogue and characterization like this. I’ll take the story of Miles’ first attempt at web-swinging over some dumb, overblown crossover any day of the week.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review! And Miles’ first web-swinging!
I Hate When Comic Book Advertising Goes Negative
Let me ask you a question, both comic book fans and non comic fans alike. The Amazing Spider-Man is about to reach the milestone issue #700 this fall. Would you be more or less inclined to buy the comic if the writer went around telling everyone that you’re going to hate it?
Writer Dan Slott seems to think that we’re going to hate what he does to the character in Amazing Spider-Man #700.
I already kind of hate the cover
This kind of comic book advertising – or hype – annoys me to no end. So why is Slott doing it? Why is Marvel Comics doing it? Why even write the story if you know that fans are going to be angered and upset with you? But then for that matter, what is the balance between keeping your fans happy and entertained vs. writing compelling and interesting stories?
The answer to all of these questions is easy. Anger is an emotion, and as long as they get some emotion out of comic book fans, that’s good writing. Right? Makes sense to me. But why not instead try for the happier emotions like love or delight? Why use Amazing Spider-Man #700 to write a story that you know the fans of the character are going to hate? But I digress.
I’m not trying to say that comic book writers should be afraid to write stories that anger the fans, that they should never push the boundaries and try for something new and different. My problem is with then going ahead and using the potential anger as a selling point.
Here is what Slott said in a recent interview about what he has planned for Amazing Spider-Man #700:
I’m really happy with our 1-2-3 punch of #698, #699 and #700. I think people are not going to forget this one. This story will raise some really strong emotions in Spider-Man fans. It will probably be one of the biggest things I ever do to a Marvel Comics character in my career. I don’t know if people will start making little dart boards of me or not for this one. I’ve said it before, but I’m going into hiding after issue #700 comes out. I’m not looking at message boards. I’m not poking my head up out of that hole, because what happens in issue #700 is big!
He’s joking about having to go into hiding because of how angry the fans will be at him. How is that funny? Why can’t he say something nice about the comic? Even with this big change coming, why not hype it up as something awesome and cool? Why be negative about it? This frustrates me. When I pick up Amazing Spider-Man #700 in a few months, I’m going to be worried and afraid to see what happens. I would prefer to be excited and elated to see what happens.
(And that’s assuming USA Today doesn’t spoil the change a week or a day in advance, like Marvel is wont to do these days.)
The story, for anyone curious, is that longtime Spider-Man arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus is on his death bed. He has only hours left to live, and he’s horrified at how little he’s accomplished with his life. But in those final hours, Doc Ock discovers Spider-Man’s secret identity. What he does with this knowledge is apparently going to anger all of us Spider-Man fans.
Are we sure he can do anything more than just wet himself?
Let me explain my position a bit more. Comic book fans hate change. It’s why all the most popular superheroes remain relatively the same today as they were when they first appeared decades ago. Comic book fans like reading about their favorite heroes doing awesome things. If you change the character or change the things they do, it’s not the same comic anymore. It’s not the same enjoyment.
On the flipside, comic book writers have a job to do. They want to tell new and exciting stories about character that they love just as much as the fans. But if they can’t change or shake up the status quo, the stories are going to get really stale really fast. How many times can Batman fight the Joker before you’re just reading the same story over and over again? Why not let the Joker reap some real, life-altering carnage? Why not let the Joker do something so huge and evil that Batman is forever changed?
A good example of this fans vs. writers conundrum happened only a few years ago in Spider-Man comics, a story called One More Day.
You’re not reaching hard enough!
In 2007, Marvel decided that they needed to make Spider-Man more appealing to younger readers, because that’s just good business. The comic book industry can’t survive on its old, aging fans forever. Kids need to read comic books too. But at the time, Spider-Man was happily married to Mary Jane Watson, and had just revealed to the world that he was secretly Peter Parker. So his identity wasn’t a secret anymore. Marvel’s line of thought was that kids don’t want to read about an old married guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. They want a young, single, happy-go-lucky Spidey! But they couldn’t kill Mary Jane or have them get divorced, because nobody wants to read about Spider-Man the widower or Spider-Man the divorcee.
So Marvel decided to tell a story in which Spider-Man uses black magic to reshape his life.
With Spider-Man’s identity known to the world, his arch enemies send an assassin to kill Peter Parker. But the sniper’s bullet instead shoots Peter’s beloved Aunt May, and her life hangs in the balance. After exhausting all other possibilities to save her, Spider-Man then makes a deal with the Devil in order to save Aunt May’s life. The Devil’s fee is Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. He wants the soul or essence of marriage between them. They eventually agree to pay this price, and the Devil uses his magic to save Aunt May. He then makes everybody forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. And he changes history so that Peter Parker was late to his wedding day and he and Mary Jane never actually got hitched. In order to maintain two decades worth of stories where they were married, Marvel said that Peter and Mary Jane were only ever in a long term committed relationship.
Spider-Man fans the world over HATED this story. And for good reason.
Because he made a DEAL with the DEVIL!
First of all, people actually liked Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. It wasn’t like the fans wanted the two of them to break up, the fans were happy with the union. So sacrificing the marriage in the name of sales is just revolting. Second, Peter Parker MADE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL in order to make this happen. And it wasn’t part of some larger story where this choice came back to haunt him in the end and he regretted the whole thing or learned a lesson. This was a one time thing. Marvel wanted Peter to be single again, so they just thought up the first mystical being who might have the kind of power and magic to make it happen. It didn’t seem to matter to Marvel that Peter Parker as a good and heroic character would be forever tainted by MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL!
I know comic book fans who stopped reading Spider-Man after One More Day, fans who still hold a grudge against Marvel and refuse to go back to Spider-Man comics because of it. I don’t blame them.
And the point I’m trying to make with this example is that comic book fans will hold a grudge and will stop buying your comic if you write a bad story and piss them off.
Still, I want to emphasize that I’m not saying that writers should never anger their fans. It’s an old rule when writing fiction that you hurt the ones you love, especially when it comes to character. If you never change the status quo of the character or hurt them in some way, you’ll never have interesting conflict in your stories. So by all means, Slott can do whatever he wants to Spider-Man in issue #700. Let the fans get mad. Maybe it’ll turn me off reading Amazing Spider-Man for awhile, but I know I always come back eventually.
I’m just saying that if you’re writing a comic book that you know will harm the character and anger the fans, maybe you shouldn’t brag about it.
((P.S. My guess is that Slott is going to kill Mary Jane!))
My 6 Favorite Fictional Weapons
I’m not much of a weapons man in real life. My family never owned guns and I never went hunting. I never got my parents to sign me up for any cool ninja sword classes. I never even got to use my dad’s chainsaw when I helped him gather wood all those times. But like most every boy on the planet, you better believe every stick or toy I found turned me into a Ninja Turtle. Every cardboard tube was an instant lightsaber. It’s just the way of the world.
Don’t worry, she’s from the Internet, she will protect us
And while real life weapons are cool, fictional weapons are even cooler! Imaginations run wild and think up some of the greatest, coolest, wildest tools imaginable, and we’d all sell important body parts just to own them. Some people may want jetpacks or flying cars to be invented, but I want these 6 awesome fictional weapons!
Review: Scarlet Spider #8
The epic battle between the Scarlet Spider and the Rangers was not as epic as I would have liked, but it was still entertaining. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but this issue gave us a nice take on Scarlet Spider’s reaction to other superheroes, as well as a look at a hero team that doesn’t get much attention. Everything was a little cliche in the whole ‘heroes fight and then team up’ angle, but to be fair, Scarlet Spider is kind of breaking the law through a lot of this issue. So it only makes sense that the Rangers would be looking to stop him. And I prefer it when stories make sense.
Scarlet Spider #8
But basically this issue is straight forward and simple, with an emphasis on the action over characterization.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
I guess I was hoping that the Rangers would be more than just set dressing, or a cameo for cameo’s sake. I appreciate that writer Chris Yost didn’t force the Avengers into making an appearance, relying instead on realism over marketing, but the Rangers don’t really make a strong connection with our hero in this issue. It’s almost entirely fight scene with little depth to any of the characters. There’s some running, a little humor and banter, but mostly it’s just fisticuffs. Seeing as how this is a superhero comic, fighting is expected. But I would have liked a little more interaction. At least the art holds up, though it’s not as good as departed artist Ryan Stegman.
What we do get is another look into Kaine’s head as he tries to sort out all these shenanigans. He’s still rather entertaining as a reluctant hero who isn’t entirely sure if he’s doing this right, or even what he’s supposed to do. But Kaine is a competent hero, in a way that I think is working against Yost’s ideas. It’s like when an R-rated movie is softened to get the more marketable PG-13 rating. Yost could really push some boundaries with an uncouth, anti-hero Kaine; but it feels like he’s hemmed in by the idea that Scarlet Spider needs to be more ‘family friendly’ as part of the Spider-Man line of comics. So there’s a struggle between Kaine as competent superhero and Kaine as rough anti-hero. I don’t think the book should strike a balance between the two, I think Yost should go full-on anti-hero.
But at least Scarlet Spider remains an entertaining comic. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #13
The dreaded crossover has come to Ultimate Spider-Man, and the issue is worse off for it. Fortunately, writer Brian Michael Bendis does his best to shrug through this inane ‘Divided We Fall’ storyline so that he can keep telling the Miles Morales story he wants to tell. Seriously though, Bendis has had to deal with so much editorial bunk on this title. They force him to kill off Ultimate Peter Parker, and now barely a year into his new series, they force him to play along with the craziness of the rest of the Ultimate Universe. It’s a sad shame.
Ultimate Spider-Man #13
But like I said, Bendis mostly just offers a little lip service to Divided We Fall. He focuses much more on Miles than on the larger universe stuff, though a few odd story choices keep this issue from being too stellar.
And the random Batroc the Leaper cameo doesn’t help – though it also doesn’t hurt.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
Quite honestly, the Divided We Fall storyline is completely at odds with the Ultimate Spider-Man storyline. So much so that there is at least one scene where the characters literally point out the silliness of trying to tell this serious Spider-Man story alongside the larger Ultimate Universe crossover. The two just clash, and awkwardly at that. So it makes for a stunted issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. When we focus on the non-Divided We Fall stuff, the story is OK. Miles is once again going through all manner of inner crisis as he once again balances being Spider-Man with living his life, and that always makes for good storytelling.
Unfortunately, the best stuff, a meeting between Miles and Aunt May, appears to be being saved for next issue. Instead, Bendis pads out this tale with yet another fight with a silly super-villain. Batroc is the same as Omega Red and the Ringer, just a silly bad guy for Spidey to pummel and take up page space. It’s kind of odd that Bendis has gone back to this well so often…
Anyway, join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire 