This thread's for the Spider-Man comics and spin-offs, whether they're decades old or brand new.
- Apart from the main Marvel Universe titles, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man "What If?" stories, crossovers, guest appearances in other books, Alternate Universe tales and things like Marvel's manga adaptations are all on-topic here.
- Spider-Man 'family' books are on-topic (as are their own crossovers, guest appearances etc.) - e.g. Spider-Man 2099, Miles Morales, Spider-Woman, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, Carnage, Black Cat, Red Goblin and Spider-Verse.
- Characters and comics that originated in Spider-Man but are no longer directly connected to the spider-franchise (e.g. Punisher, Silver Sable) are not on-topic, unless you're discussing historical connections and crossovers. If in doubt, check before you write a long post. If this isn't the right place, there's a more general Marvel Comics thread
which covers them.
Technically, Marvel's Infinity Comics (and their predecessors, Infinite Comics) are webcomics, not comic books, but it's fine to talk about their Spider-Man stories here.
Discussions that are only about Spider-Man adaptations in other media (films, video games etc.) are off-topic, but discussing the differences between the adaptations and the original comics is fine - as long as spoilers for the adaptations are tagged.
Please follow the spoiler policy rules - tag spoilers for the latest issues, for any previews or content leaks, and for off-topic comics. When including spoiler tags, try to write so that tropers can make an informed decision before viewing them (e.g. which series and issue will they spoil?).
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
Professional Complainer
Jessica was trans?
I thought she should have hooked up with Gwen since she said she like girls.
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
I believe she said she was in love with Mary Jane, but that was carry over from literally being Peter's Opposite-Sex Clone and having his memories.
I'm not totally sure if that's a sign she liked girls or not, or she still hadn't fully figured out who she was yet.
One Strip! One Strip!
During The New Ultimates, I believe she came out as lesbian...and then said she was attracted to nerdy Jewish girls while looking directly at Kitty Pryde.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Calling her trans would be inaccurate since Ultimate Jess is both genetically female and ultimately identifies as female as well.
Yeah, New Ultimates more or less has her coming to terms with both her gender identity and sexuality.
Edited by Lionheart0 on Oct 30th 2018 at 12:28:51 PM
Love is Love is Love
Yeah, I feel like making Ultimate Jessica trans would be a fucking can'o'worms.
My various fanfics.
Which is also sad, since it brings the number of transgender character in Marvel down to three: Sera, Koi Boi, and Tong. And two of those are aliens.
Funny but not helpful
Tong at least is an intraterrestrial
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
What does intraterrestrial mean?
Edited by windleopard on Oct 30th 2018 at 10:41:14 AM
Funny but not helpful
Inside the Earth.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
She's a mole person.
To answer the earlier question: I'd love to see Lady Spider, the Steampunk Spider-Woman, get a series. The fact that Marvel has yet to actually put out a Steampunk AU series, even as a mini, continues to baffle me.
On trans characters: Yeah, it's long past time Marvel included some. They have three, one is a supporting character in a comedy book, one is a Moloid, and one has disappeared without a trace. (I hope Bunn does get a second arc on Asguardians, just so that he can at least have Sera actually being fucking somewhere, after Bendis had her vanish rather than have to actually acknowledge a same-sex relationship). Have an openly trans hero who's part of a team. A new X-Man who's openly trans. Or someone in an Avengers spin-off team. Shit, relaunch New Warriors and have a trans member.
There's always the option of having an existing character come out as trans, too. Yeah, there'd be the "wah wah don't change existing characters" whine-asses, but who gives a shit about them, they'll complain about a trans character just existing, no matter how it's handled.
So Marvel needs to just get it done.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
The Head of the Hydra
Uh isn’t Ultimate Jessica Drew being a woman not a voluntary choice on her part?
There’s a can of worms in trying to make her trans I think since it be like if a guy was forcibly converted into a woman without his knowledge or input.
It’s a pretty fucked thing to imagine.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Of course, Jessica was not a trans in the traditional meaning, but in a comic-book way: a human clone of another sex, and retaining the age, memories and the acquired habilities of the original, is not something we'll see in the real world anytime soon (we have yet to see the first human clone, period). Still, it's close enough, enough to allow to explore the related topics. That's something that Marvel has never done, and Jessica is the only character with the potential to explore this.
Is can open a can of worms? Of course it can! That's the whole point: open the can of worms, let all the worms be free, and let's see where does that lead us to! Be creative, take risks! Don't be afraid to defy the reader's preconceptions! Marvel is the "House of ideas", live up to that name!
It does not even have to be an "Ultimate" comic book, if that's the problem. They can simply handwave that the Molecule Man transferred her to the prime earth at the end of Secret Wars, alongside all of Miles' family and friends, and that she has been retired and out of focus this whole time.
Ultimate Secret Wars
Yeah but sometimes when you open up a can of worms all you get is a big, ugly mess that you can't clean up. Marvel is the House of Ideas but not all those ideas are good and it's okay not to go with an idea that could end up really bad. And Marvel's had a lot of those recently.
Yes, that's what "taking risks" and "Doing It for the Art" basically mean.
Ultimate Secret Wars
I continue to think that the problem with Secret Empire wasn't that they made Captain America into a Nazi — it was that they didn't commit to it. Instead of trying to say "Oh no, this story isn't political at all," they should have gone whole hog and said, "Yes, this story is completely political."
...I know that doesn't have anything to do with Spider-Man, but I agree with your sentiment.
Edited by alliterator on Oct 31st 2018 at 8:03:23 AM
Nah, I think revealing a beloved hero was TOTALLY EVIL HIS ENTIRE CAREER AND THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT A REALITY WARP THAT WILL BE UNDONE LATER NO SIR is just dumb.
This isn't even the first time they did that.
Marvel is in the business to make money. They aren't making art for the sake of it.
Edited by windleopard on Oct 31st 2018 at 8:27:08 AM
Of course that they are not. I meant that they should, not that they actually are. We are in the middle of the second retelling of "Spider-Verse" under a new name, after all, new ideas and risks are clearly not a priority nowadays.
Yes, they make comics to make money, but they are not very good at it, right? They have the films to keep them afloat, but in the comic book market they are not really doing it much better than they did when they were near bankruptcy.
Ultimate Secret Wars
If Marvel did want to do a story based on the question of whether Ultimate Jessica Drew is trans, the best way to do it would be to tap a trans writer to handle it. Leave it up to trans people to determine the extent to which she qualifies as trans.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
Peter and MJ guest-star in Iceman#3 next week, which is a Spider-Friends reunion special.
Love is Love is Love
A thought: the ideal way to write Peter Parker is as George Bailey.
My various fanfics.
The problem is that Peter Parker lives in New York City, in Queens, and he works and spends a lot of time in Manhattan and gets to study his vocation. George Bailey wants to be Peter Parker, i.e. Peter before the spider-bite. Bailey envies that life. He's a small-town guy who never went to the big city, so it's a different problem for Spider-Man.
And you know OMD is Peter's George Bailey moment...
Weird page topper, but Peter's reaction to Johnny saying he made out with her was hilarious.
Wake me up at your own risk.