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
Black Panther features plenty of begging too.
Both major story arc's have the big gathering allies moment but T'Challa has to beg and prostrate himself for help.
In the second case he has to ask for Tosin's help despite the guy previously calling him a jackboot. He of course refuses leading Shuri to the schmooze and pander to the asshole by saying "you're our future".
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I don't really get this trend of treating established heroes like crap or have them act massively out of character.
Luke in The Last Jedi to now Spider-Man in this current run
I's like booking the baby face on a losing streak having him be played like a fool repeatedly the heels then surprised when they don't get over with fans.
Edited by FKJ10 on May 29th 2023 at 10:59:36 AM
In some more uplifting news, fan favourite writer JM DeMatteis
believes the marriage will return one day
Nice but until I get it from Editorial in writing it ain't happening.
I don't mind Peter single as much as I mind him being repeatedly humiliated and acting like a man child
This run repeatedly has me thinking "Damm I will gladly take the "asshole" versions of Peter that are still heroic over this one at least they're competent"
Had me wishing for Assasin Spider-Man.
I don't know if this has been discussed here, but what are your thoughts on MJ being a journalist in some adaptations?
I don't necessarily prefer it to her being a model, but I do agree it makes it easy to integrate her into superhero plots. Then again, the fashion industry does have its own involvement in the crime world and the Hobgoblin is a fashion designer.
Apathy, it's mainly a way to make her a more conventional "working girl" over the "unattainable party girl" she was originally intended to be.
Like most things in modern comic book storytelling an overcorrection of a character background they now find problematic that no one asked for but is relatively harmless.
I just hated her and Miles' sneaking missions and thought "This could have just been a skippable cutscene and I would have lost nothing."
Edited by FKJ10 on May 30th 2023 at 12:54:09 PM
Personally? I'm not a fan. It makes her too similar to Lois Lane (whether or not that's the intention), and, yeah, it does feel like an unwarranted overcorrection.
I do think part of what made their romance work was how publicly they may have seemed mismatched, but how privately they're a lot more alike than people would give them credit for. Sure, she may be an actress and model, and he may be some scientist/teacher/photographer (who even published a whole book on his pictures he took of...himself
); but both are very insecure and kind of neurotic people who fear commitment and fucking things up.
Also they're major trolls, they love mess with people (moreso MJ in the older days).
So was reading the Spider-Man elseword story where he becomes The Punisher and all I can think was "Wow Spider-man got his happiest ending to date."
He avenged Uncle Ben
All his rogues including the Kingpin and Green Goblin are dead
He saved Gwen Stacy and eloped with her chosing the man over the mask
The only person you could say got the raw deal was Frank Castle whose family is still killed by the mafia for walking in on a hit.
Where he finds Peter's thrown away torn up skull costume in the trash becoming the Punisher.
Edited by FKJ10 on May 30th 2023 at 3:57:11 AM
the moral of the story: peter's gotta start taking bodies
I also don't like MJ as a journalist. It doesn't seem very in keeping with her character and when you make changes like that, IMO, you just end up with a character that starts to feel In Name Only
I also don't see a need to tie MJ into the action of Spider-man - any adaptation of Spidey should be making his personal life important enough to not require that.
Honestly it's kinda interesting how like every spiderman carton ends up doing way different stuff from the comics.
Like Harry is Venom and Mj is carnage in ultimate (which tbf is taken from ultimate comics where that was Gwen) and miles dad is Swarm in the 2017 show. Well Norman is his mentor in freshman.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."And the only consistent other than Aunt May and JJ is that Flash is a bully if he shows up.
Where's childhood friend Flash Thompson?
Let's be honest even though he's started out an enemy he's consistently been a better friend than Harry who shifts between struggling addict, spiteful enemy and dead.
With a small portion of relatively normal (but that was a clone)
In Spectacular the cartoon, he used to be childhood friends with Peter
And Flash’s mom thought they still were friends
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYou're not wrong, but then, this is probably the most vocal everyone's been over a particular run of ASM, and it's the bad kind of vocal. Like, so bad that someone out there on the planet earth decided to unleash chaos and not only reveal a gargantuan leak three weeks ahead of schedule, but also said leak reveals the offing of a prominent, modern and very beloved superhero that has had mere cameos in ASM at best.
Have we ever seen a comic book leak this early? And aren't editorial offices supposed to prevent that? Because having a leak this huge sounds like it'd be grounds for someone to get fired.
TL;DR: it might not be too far-fetched to believe that Marvel will have to seriously consider a 180 on ASM and other related books, so J.M. DeMatteis might be privy to things we don't know. Especially when he says something like "everything in comics is cyclical."
This run repeatedly has me thinking "Damm I will gladly take the "asshole" versions of Peter that are still heroic over this one at least they're competent"
Had me wishing for Assasin Spider-Man.
At the end of the day, yeah, I think this is one of the top 2 big reasons why we're all livid about ASM lately (aside from the MJ stuff).
Because look, editorial wants its single Peter Parker? Fine. Whatever. But he's got to have some shred of a win once in a while. That's why we read superhero comics. Because the hero wins to some capacity. It can't be the "Monthly Peter Parker Torture Porn Book" forever. Like, what's next at this point? Getting his nuts smashed into oblivion with bags of nickels? Grant Morrison said that we can analyze superheroes out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and they'll still return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be, but how can we hold onto that notion when this run on ASM isn't giving us much to work with on the "what we wish we could be" part when Peter just can't win any of his battles?
Peter Parker is the protagonist. Protagonists need to take charge. Be active, not reactive. And people having to bail Peter out during this whole run on both the superhero and normal routes of life does not an effective Peter Parker story make. At that rate, they might as well call this run "The Pathetic Spider-Man". Because the only thing that's "amazing" is how Peter doesn't just rage quit and be a supervillain. Heck, he's more active in Zdarsky's Daredevil and he's not even the main character there (obviously)!
I don't hate it. What I'm more concerned about is how people treat it like it's a blasphemous approach. Like, in the case of the Insomniac game, would the MJ of that world have worked if she was something besides a reporter? Like, would it still work if she was an actress or fashion model? Besides, worst case scenario, they can have it so that she realizes being a reporter wasn't explicitly her calling and tries the actress/model thing.
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Dear god. Just when you think they've run out of isekai/reincarnated life approaches, someone just surprises us all in the weirdest of ways.
Edited by TargetmasterJoe on May 30th 2023 at 9:53:07 AM

How he's being treated is like having a dog who keeps saving your ass and the entire village responds by constantly kicking him and telling him he's a piece of crap that no one loves or will miss.
And then they align with their most hated enemy and submit to them on the promise of exiling you and rendering you persona non grata.
Edited by slimcoder on May 29th 2023 at 6:46:12 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."