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.
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- 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.
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Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
An amusing thing about the whole “synergy” nonsense Marvel tends to be unhealthily obsessed with is that many times the comics change things to be more like the movies, the movies are instead making things like the comics, defeating the whole purpose.
Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider’s portrayal in the Spider-Verse movies is heavily based on her comic, especially the original Latour run, with her traveling through the multiverse just being part of the larger plot involving lots of different takes on Spider-Man interacting rather than anything inherent to her as a character. Yet in their attempts at synergy, instead of actually portraying Gwen like she’s portrayed in the movies, they had her jumping universes and meeting variants and shit.
It’s definitely good they’re getting back to just letting Gwen stay in her own little corner and not jumping across the universes or fighting clones.
I wouldn’t be surprised. But also I really really really hope we’re finally done for good with “Spider-Verse” stuff in the comics beyond just the usual Elseworlds. I think it’s telling that by the most recent one, even Dan Slott himself was openly acknowledging how badly the concept has been handled in the comics and how overplayed it’s gotten, to the point that he spent the entirety of said most recent event all but erasing the Spider-Verse events from continuity — reviving everyone killed in all of them, wiping out the Inheritors, declaring everything is basically as it was before, etc. — and having Peter himself declare that he is never getting involved into this bullshit again.
At least we got a lot of cool AUs and the animated films out of it.
Edited by immortaleditor on Oct 28th 2023 at 4:03:57 AM
And it turns out that Slott's recent story was a Series Fauxnale, as they are planning another big Spider-Verse event next year and new "Edge of the Spider-Verse" books are coming out soon to highlight new variants that'll presumably form part of the event.
I can see Slott potentially shifting gears to have Bailey and Superior involved in it and not Peter, if he is writing it at all (maybe it'll be Gage again)
Edited by Zarius on Oct 28th 2023 at 5:15:15 AM
Finally started reading the current Miles comic, finished the Rabble arc.
I feel like Rabble works better as a Doctor Doom/Early Venom type antagonist where they are just a horribly petty psycho person regardless of their sad backstory.
Cause her vendetta is so fucking disproportionate that no amount of sad backstory or fractured mind from overusing her powers will ever make her sympathetic.
Its better to lean into her being a terrible person and Miles calls her out on it, instead of trying to talk her down in a sad voice and saying it doesn't have to be this way.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."It probably should have been played up to make her a foil but not as her explicit motivation
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYeah, I don’t like the attempts to portray Rabble as sympathetic when she’s yet to do anything even approaching sympathetic. Her motive is way too petty and borderline deranged, her hatred of Miles too severe, and her actions entirely too disproportionate to her actual problems. They should lean into her being a total scumbag. Not every villain needs a sad backstory.
I’m not terribly surprised that she ended up being Unintentionally Unsympathetic, since she’s clearly influenced by Phin from the Insomniac games, who was also really bad about this and just came off as a vindictive dumbass with no self control or moral code rather than the Tragic Villain she was meant as to a lot of people.
Edited by immortaleditor on Oct 28th 2023 at 5:20:06 AM
Yeah, exactly. Eddie’s motivation is petty and vindictive but that’s because he’s (or rather was at the time) supposed to be unsympathetic. He blames Peter for something that’s his own fault and is so narcissistic and self-deluded — on top of being regularly manipulated by the symbiote in full “gaslighting partner” mode — that he legitimately sees everything he does as totally justified, no matter how bad. And his backstory reveals this to partially be because of his intensely fucked up childhood and relationship with his neglectful father leaving him with an intense desire to be loved and respected as well as reacting violently at anything he sees as jeopardizing that goal other than himself.
Rabble should be similar, but instead the story seems to treat her anger as a lot more justified than it actually is and apparently expects the reader to feel sorry for her to a greater extent then with Eddie.
At the same time, I admit I might be biased because I always preferred Eddie as a villain or very dark antihero and disliked the changes to make him more outright heroic, so Rabble’s portrayal may be scratching at an old annoyance for me.
At least in the Silver Age, Mysterio's illusions were particularly built around practical special effects, like robots and stuff, so there is usually a physical element to it that Spidey is interacting with. Though it's funny to imagine Spidey stumbling around tripping balls while Quentin points and laughs at him.
Disney100 Marathon | DreamWorks MarathonYeah, I was just playing a round of Injustice 2 as Scarecrow with a friend and we joked that since Scarecrow in reality is just some guy in a burlap mask wearing a labcoat, Supergirl must be seriously tripping when she's getting hurt by him.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I feel like it depends on what kind of illusions Mysterio is using at the moment. Like Ibssb said, mostly Quentin seems to prefer practical effects in the comics, so what Spidey is seeing is technically real, just a robot or mask or whatever. He’s not above less tangible illusions like holograms, but that still leaves a visual element.
In general, Mysterio’s illusions involve actually physically constructing the things that he uses to trick people and he’s never often used stuff like hallucinogens to get things done like your example of Scarecrow. That modus operandi actually fits better with another Marvel villain, Mister Fear, who’s one of Daredevil’s big enemies.
Yeah I was thinking about that.
And there's that one story where he tries to manipulate Spider-Man into thinking his life was all just a Hollywood production, and he's just an actor.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Gaslighting people into thinking they’re insane and delusional is one of Quentin’s trademark schemes, one he’s recycled many times. “Guardian Devil” even had Daredevil mock him for it, pointing out how he’s repeated that trick how many times now and is prone to stealing ideas from other villains and from old movies on top of it.
I love how the first time he tried it it was Jameson and Flash Thompson that accidentally saved the day.
The Protomen enhanced my life.

Spider-Gwen is one of those characters who are both overexposed and underdeveloped, so it'll be great to see her mythos expanded.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"