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
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I mean, Marvel law enforcement fakes crime to draw teenage superheroes out of hiding, goes at teenagers trying to rescue people from a flash floods with attack helicopters and shock prods, and thinks nothing about incarcerating them without a trial or access to a lawyer or even letting them contact their parents.
Marvel law is weirdly draconian when there needs to be an antagonist.
Edited by reppuzan on Nov 5th 2023 at 1:08:20 AM
Sort of like GOTHAM CITY: NO MAN'S LAND, the ridiculousness of the premise works pretty well as satire once you put superhero=minority. Which was that DC got deluged at the ridiculousness of a major American city being abandoned after a natural disaster right before Hurricane Katrina.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 5th 2023 at 1:11:52 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.![]()
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That’s so fucking dark I feel bad for laughing. God, Avengers Arena/Undercover was fucking terrible. Its so fucking disgusting and badly written.
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That shit always annoys me. Like, motherfuckers, I don’t care how much you hate superhumans for God knows what reason, one would think the cops and government would rather leave the heroes alone so THEY aren’t the ones getting slaughtered when the supervillains are rampaging.
Edited by immortaleditor on Nov 5th 2023 at 1:30:08 AM
You know, as much as I like joking (well, half-joking) about Marvel Civilians surpassing the actual villains in monstrosity... I actually don't know where that impression of them came from originally. Was it Civil War, with the heroes getting the blame for blowing up that town rather than the exploding villain who was blatantly the actual culprit?
If nothing else it was well established by World War Hulk the following year; feeling the Hulk actually deserves to conquer Earth was probably the most common opinion on that arc I recall seeing.
That reality show retool of New Warriors was SO godawful. I hate it so much. It singlehandedly allowed Millar to get away with slaughtering the New Warriors like that in Civil War, and given New Warriors are one of my favorite Marvel teams/heroes, that pisses me off so bad.
But yeah, the hatred of Marvel Civilians mostly comes from X-Men and the tendency of really bad writers to exaggerate the Fantastic Racism to obnoxious, cartoonish, and Anvilicious extremes for the sake of preaching to the reader. It ended up creating the image to some angry readers of everyone except the superheroes and those directly related to them being hyper-bigoted and ungrateful sociopaths who tormented superheroes and innocent superhumans but then expected them to save them whenever trouble happened and then immediately went right back to hating and fearing them as they were being rescued.
I’ll never forget how in an early issue of Ultimate X-Men, Ice Man’s introduction has him saving a crowd from a Sentinel on the rampage terrorizing the public… and the very nanosecond after he does so, the crowd that owes him his life starts trying to lynch him. After they had just watched him kill a giant robot with ice.
Edited by immortaleditor on Nov 5th 2023 at 1:52:56 AM
The previous talk about the public hating the heroes by failures outside of their control reminds me of the start of "The incredibles" when a guy trying to suicide by throwing himself out of a building is saved by Mr. Incredible, only for him to sue him for hurting his neck, which lead into a chain of other lawsuits and protest that got all heroing banned.
So yeah, I could see plenty blaming, wanting to incarcerate and trying to give life sentence (or worse) to Spider-Man for "participating" in the death of Gwen Stacy, considering what i have heard about Marvel civilians in the past.
He actually got fired because Jameson tanked his reputation
Peter was so hard up for money earlier on that he definitely would have kept performing
I am surprised that Peter never got into Thing’s super duper superpowers wrestling league thing
Edited by Bocaj on Nov 5th 2023 at 7:53:52 AM
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Yeah, lol, considering Peter regularly tried (and still sometimes tries) to use his powers to get rich quick as long as it doesn’t expose his identity, he wouldn’t quit a job to focus on being a hero, let alone as potentially profitable as a TV career… though considering how badly some indie wrestling can pay, he probably dodged a bullet.
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It’s ironic that you cite the Incredibles example because suing someone for saving your life like that actually illegal in the United States in real life. It’s the entire reason Good Samaritan laws exist, to prevent the occasional sleazebag who thinks to try something like that from doing it. Especially in a case like the one in the movie where the guy was attempting suicide, since suicide is, y’know, illegal, so that would be like suing someone because they stopped you from committing a crime you were attempting. So in reality, the dude would’ve been laughed out of court and follow-up lawsuits of similar nature against superheroes probably wouldn’t be entertained either.
Edit: Correction, suicide isn’t a felony in parts of the United States today but it WAS considered a felony through most of the US at the time Incredibles takes place (the 60s) if I recall correctly.
Edited by immortaleditor on Nov 5th 2023 at 5:08:38 AM

Lmao, fair.
I’m imagining a court in the Marvel Universe where a lawyer is arguing a man who happened to be a mutant should get the death sentence for performing CPR on a dying person because in the process the rescuer broke some ribs — which is supposed to happen — and the judge instead of laughing the lawyer out of court is like “no wait, let’s hear him out”.