Spider-Man General Discussion

I love Peter for all these reasons as well. My favorite sole hero for sure. However, it is just me who finds it kinda odd he is a scientist genius? For all his 'normal' appeal, that is one really big thing. It really says a lot about the writers who can make big use of this part of his character while still keeping his 'averageness' appeal*

Huh, that's a point.

I disagree, actually; I've only recently started reading Slott's run, but one think I love about it is the sheer likability of the Horizon Labs crew, including Peter. I mean, think about it. They goof off, tell jokes, talk about things unrelated to work, and don't dress or act like you'd expect a typical scientist to. They're normal people who also happen to be genius scientists. Maybe this is just because I'm a science major, but that is relatable to me.

Oh, no. You misunderstand me. I love the Horizon Labs as well. As I said, it says a lot about the writer he can use a brilliant genius while still keeping the focus on the normal guy.

It is just I found odd, conceptually, that a character who has "normal guy" as its main appeal ended up being a scientist genius. Props for Stan and Dikto for making it work, but it is a very strange decision.

He was a normal guy who then married a supermodel/actress.

I think "normal guy" may have gotten dropped somewhere along the way.

I do like MJ, though. I'm glad Slott's got them getting close again.

She wasn't a supermodel/actress when he first met her, though.

The thing about Peter is the (good) writers still menage to keep his "normal guy" feel no matter how outlandish some of his life may be. He is still very relatable despite being a super-genius super-hero (ex)married to a supermodel.

What's funny is that some of the same writers that said that Mary Jane made Peter unrelatable are the ones that made her a supermodel in the first place.

And I suppose, thanks to Quesada, he wasn't married to MJ. 20 years of comics was all just a dream. No matter how little sense a lot of the stories from that timeframe make now.

Fucking OMD.

& Let it be known that that's hardly a new phenomenon; the two EICs preceding Quesada tried to kill the relationship, too. It didn't take, and I doubt this latest attempt will, either.

edited 22nd Aug '12 7:42:48 PM by HamburgerTime

The other editors didn't come up with an idiotic retcon that made everything that had happened for the prior 20 years stop making any fucking sense.

One of them killed MJ off-panel, though; that was pretty stupid. And the other one... actually did sort of do what you described, really. There's good money the Clone Saga was DeFalco's attempt to shuffle out boring, married Peter in favor of swingin' single Ben, and in the process revealed that we'd been reading about the wrong guy for twenty years. DeFalco didn't stay very long into it, though.

I don't think he was into it. Tom DeFalco wanted to bring back Baby May.

Wasn't Harras in charge by the time we got to that plot-snarl, though? Harras was also behind the whole "Aunt May was really an actress good enough to fool even the woman's gorram surrogate son" thing, too.

Well, I mean, Tom DeFalco doesn't really seem to hate the spider-marriage since he likes things that stem from the idea.

I dunnae, I read that Life of Reilly thing and that had a lot of behind the scenes stuff but I don't remember if Tom made a guest interview in it.

I really hate the "Illusion of change." As Stan originally conceived it it was a sound idea, but these days it seems to be an excuse to ping-pong stories back and forth between whatever stati quo (is that the right plural?) the writer/editor/whoever that day likes best.

Still better than reboots, though.

Interestingly, Actual Spidey fans on the message board compared Alpha to Poochie when the announcement and preview pages came out. No idea if Slott wrote before those comments cropped up or after. I'd assume the whole issue was done by the time those pages were shown, thus it'd be before.

This article is an excellent analysis of the character of Spider-Man.

That was a pretty good read.

Indeed. I'd be interested in an AU where Spider-Man became a villain instead of a hero, possibly due to lack of personal tragedy. Or something.

Yeah, I enjoyed reading that.

Now I really want to catch up on the series >.>

You know, it's struck me how easily many of the more controversial stories in Spidey's recent history, particularly those involving a certain Prince of Darkness, could be Hand Waved away simply by saying "Hell-Mysterio◊ did it." In the arc that featured him, Peter David had him say to Miss Arrow that "[his] superiors" and hers still needed Peter. I'm told there was an interview, though I've never seen it myself, where David confirmed that "his superiors" was a reference to Mephisto. "Her superiors" would most likely be whoever was ultimately responsible for the whole "totem" nonsense, and given what a frosty reception that got I doubt we'll ever find out who they are. David with his love for obscure characters and remote bits of continuity certainly doesn't seem like the type to support stupid retcons, so it's my personal belief that he did this to leave an "escape hatch" for OMD a future writer could use if so inclined, but who knows.

Don't know about an interview, but PAD definitely mentioned that bit on his blog. It always bothered me that "Hell Mysterio" got dropped like a bad habit once BND launched, and Slott returned Mysterio to the lame old cliche of "Quentin Beck was never dead, it was all just smoke and mirrors my boy!" (though it was implied, not outright confirmed, and by a character you can't particularly trust.). Interestingly, the bio for Mysterio in the game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions lists "demonic minion" as one of his occupations.

So what does everybody think of Alpha? Im liking him. Yes he shows off and showboats but he hasnt had tragedy to make him serious yet. Hell Peter tried to be a wrestler when he got his powers.

I don't think Pete was designed to be a "normal guy". He was designed to be a guy with real problems. I hate when the everyman-ness of a character gets played up. It usually just means taking all of the unique qualities of the character (Pete's intelligence for example) and downplaying them. It's negative characterization rather than positive.