Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Spider-Man thread!

From today's beaucoupkevin blog entry--

Joe Q just signed his pink slip.

I think this is a horrible idea. In comics I've never seen a retcon of this magnitude actually fix something. It just makes it worse.

And again...there is Ultimate Spidey.

Just a few things:

http://spideykicksbutt.com/DeepThoughts/OneMoreDay.html
http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4968879&postcount=529
http://forum.newsarama.com/search.php?do=finduser&u=1139 ( p=4949670&postcount=523 p=4968007&postcount=357 )

Until Teh Lobe blows up the Ultiverse.

Ugh. You just reminded me Loeb is in the Ultiverse. I pray he’ll stay away from Ultimate Spidey (or realistically, Bendis’ status at Marvel will let keep Ultimate Spidey sacrosanct). Ultimate Spidey is just about the last aspect of the Ultiverse I’m bothering to pick up anymore…

I really feel with those die-hard Spidie fans who right now must feel robbed like we Legion fans did back in 94 when Zero Hour flushed Legion Lore down the toilet.

I for my part was a regular ASM reader since JMS came on board, and I liked most of his run. One More Day was a terrible exception to that - and I consider the final solution to be absolute nonsense.

To begin with, I never could follow the way of thinking that Peters and MJs marriage was a problem. That's simply rubbish. I thought that it was a nice twist to see Peter to gain that much power out of MJs love.

So there was no dilemma to begin with. Still, they had to retcon it. Perfect junk. The story did not work as well. An adult man with a wonderful marriage would never sacrifice all that for a dying aunt - at least he should not unless he is in some major psychological trauma...

Sacrificing his wife for his "mother figure" probably would Freudian psychiatrists happy, but storywise, it just does not work.

Now I don't know when in Marvel time this Harry Osborn revival is supposed to have happened, and how this hole gibberish is supposed to fit into New Avengers continuity, but I am happy that one decision has been made for me by such a weak storytelling and editing:

No way am I going to keep on reading Spiderman after the One More Day dedacle.

I quit. Which leaves me with just two Marvel books on my monthly pick (X-Factor and New Avengers).

Glad to have some free money now to spend on some more intelligent stuff...

Newsrama article about Kitson on Spidey

Well I had a feeling it was going to Spidey. Seems like after OMD Marvel is trying to get big names on Spidey. Congrats Barry.

With that said I can't go there. Not a fan of BND, etc. To be fair I wasn't collecting Spidey before. I would read my buddy's trades every once in a while.

Anyways, congrats again Barry. The preview pic looks great.

Well, I'll be picking it up, so this is a treat for me. Can't wait to see your Spidey, Barry! The only other franchise that I'm as big a fan of as the Legion (probably more so to be honest) is Spider-Man!

Combined threads.

No serious Spidey-fan should go without reading this. It's an in-depth analysis of the Clone Saga by someone who sincerely thinks it has some worth, but who is not blind to its faults. The icing on the cake is:

- The DVD-style commentary by Glenn Greenberg, a spectator throughout the proceedings.

- The interviews with other people who were involved.

My thanks to Reboot for bringing this to my attention by posting a link to this in another thread.

http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.com/2008/03/introduction-and-update.html

Yeah, that's a great link. I have another great Clone Saga link I just have to find (it used to be in my favorites back when I had my laptop, but I haven't taken the time to refind all my Spidey websites).

I just read the latest ASM arc with Zeb Wells and Bachalo, and it was actually pretty good! Definitely something 'different', but all in all a fun Spidey story with limited amounts of angst, which was very welcome. Usually Bachalo's work can be beyond distracting and I've never even heard of Zeb Wells until like two months ago.

All in all, and this is for about 90% of the Brand New Day relaunch, its been pretty fun and pretty well done! The problem of course was getting there with the horror that was 'One More Day' but the thrice-weekly relaunch is probably the best Spidey has been in awhile (probably since JMS first set of stories, though the tone is so different that its hard to really compare).

Still, I have no intentions of converting anyone to remain Spidey-faithful if One More Day caused them to drop Spidey forever. That's Marvel's job. I am enjoying everything so far with some minor complaints (and one major complaint--get Peter the HELL OUT OF AUNT MAY's HOUSE!!!!).

Also, all of this Jonah Jameson subplotting better lead to him being as omni-present as ever in Spidey's stories. He's more essential to Spider-Man than almost any supporting character to any series in comics history (akin to Alfred in Batman I'd argue).

So I’ve yammered on and on over the years about great links to Spider-Man websites I know about, especially lately with the Mary Jane thing, and I’ve at last taken some time to provide one. “Spider-Man kicks Butt” is a website that is highly opinionated and often I don’t agree with the blogger, but sometimes I find him 100% brilliant and dead-on. He also has an intense knowledge of Spider-Man minutiae that rivals my own.

To restate my own opinions on MJ, the Marriage and Brand New Day (As I feel they were misread by some):
(1) I love Mary Jane – I can’t see how any really serious Spider-Man Fan could not. Gwen is my favorite, but I certainly don’t want her brought back—part of what I love about Peter/Gwen and MJ/Peter is the history of their development.

(2) I was not a fan of the Marriage to MJ initially (when I read it of course since it happened when I was like four), and didn’t think it was a good move for the series. But I still loved MJ

(3) I’m going to buy Spider-Man’s comics whether they kept the marriage or did something stupid

(4) I do think “undoing” something is usually a pretty stupid move in comics, even though I agree they backed the series into a corner in the last ten years prior

(5) I believe “One More Day” may be the single worst Spider-Man story ever written, including “Gathering of the Five”, “Maximum Carnage’ and a host of other crap. The one story that could be worse? “Sins Past”, which I’ll never forgive anyone for.

(6) I’m “kind of” enjoying the new series, and if I’m in a good mood can list what I like but if I’m in a bad mood, I can list why I think they have their heads up their asses on certain things. There are a few things that annoy me to no end, far more than the marriage situation (re: Peter as a loser).

[Edit] #7 - The major problem with Mary Jane after a period of time was making her a super-model and celebrity. *That's* where things went wrong in terms of a married Spider-Man.

Warning: these articles are incredibly thorough and long, which I why I personally enjoy them. It takes over a ½ hour to read each one if you really give it the time it deserves. They also appear very fair to me, and I think it’s the single best argument I’ve ever read why Mary Jane is the one for Peter and why the Marriage was so important to keep:

Why did it have to be you, Mary Jane? Part 1

Why did it have to be you, Mary Jane? Part 2

Why did it have to be you, Mary Jane? Conclusion

Another funny take on the OMD fiasco...

Somebody at another board asked, "If Norman Osborn doesn't know who Spider-man is, WHO killed Gwen Stacy?"


Now the SPIDEY fans know how the LEGION fans felt all these years.
(Thank YOU, Mike Carlin-- and Keith Giffen-- and Mark Waid... etc. etc.)


Maybe we can do this like TV GUIDE did it when Bobby Ewing turned up
in the shower. (ALIVE! ALIVE!) They asked several famous writers for
explanations. My favorite was from Stephen King, who said, "Bobby is
still dead. He was brought back as a zombie..." I laughed, because
DARK SHADOWS had actually used that exact plot once... (Maybe more
than once, heh)


As new SPIDER-MAN holds no interest for me whatsoever, I think I'll
just take a stab at it, for some perverse "fun".

Pete felt guilty about lying to Gwen all this time. He finally wanted
to get married, but felt he wanted to be honest with her. So, in his
guise as Spidey, he "kidnapped" her (the same way he'd "kidnapped"
Peter Parker twice already right in front of Gwen-- heh) and swung
around town with her, trying to to convince her "I DIDN'T KILL YOUR
FATHER, DAMMIT!" in between her screaming. He got tired of lugging her
all over, and finally took a breather... on top of the Brooklyn
Bridge. (NOT George Washington Bridge-- somebody PLEASE get Gerry
Conway a guide book to NYC!! Gil Kane had already drawn the art-- you
CAN'T mistake those two bridges for one another unless your memory is
as bad or worse than Stan Lee's.) He figured, up there, she can't get
away, and she'll HAVE to listen. "WHY should I believe you???" she
screamed. "Because..." He took off the mask. ("...I'm the guy who
loves you!" In a state of SHOCK-- she stepped backwards, lost her
footing, and FELL OF THE DAMN BRIDGE! Key up Kane-Romita art, exactly
as before, "SNAP!" Only this time, it was ENTIRELY his fault. Imagine
the GUILT!!! Oh, my-- HORRORS!!!!!


Hey, that can't be anything worse than marvel has actually published
over the last 35 years...


Henry

Remember, "Norman will make the hard cho...ind. Norman will do what it takes."

You know, I was going to comment on this directly, but I think it's more damning without comment on my part:

What an asshole. :rolleyes:

Flowchart explaining the statement (no, I didn't make it, I just agree with that it's what he said):



(Guggenheim also writes Young X-Men)

Peter and Mary Jane were never married, but lived together in sin?! What kind of filth is Marvel trying to peddle to kids these days!

Oh, why can't the regular Spider-Man continuity have the same old-fashioned, wholesome morals shown in Spider-Man Loves* Mary Jane?

*"Loves" in a strictly platonic, let's-have-an-ice-cream-soda-at-the-malt-shoppe way.

[JD]"LAAame..."[/JD]

"JD"?

Dr. John Dorian, from SCRUBS...

I love this scenario!

Hey, don't knock livin' in sin!

<pinches Stu's butt>