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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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
x5 NOICE
I decided to take a look at Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #3, the first full appearance of Venom. Eddie discusses how he fell from grace after the real Sin-Eater was caught and he was forced to take demeaning jobs such as writing celebrity gossip and stories about people who were kidnapped by aliens. I find the latter particularly amusing considering Eddie lives in the Marvel universe where aliens are a known fact and there are three possibilities you can take from this:
1) Eddie's luck was so terrible that he couldn't get a story about a real alien abduction.
2) Eddie did encounter real life alien abductees but was too cynical to believe them.
3) Even if Eddie did meet a real life alien abductee and wrote an article about it, no respectable paper would publish it because of his bad reputation and no one else he told the story to would believe him.
MIDNIGHT SUNS actually had a very interesting take on Eddie Brock as a character as you find out that Eddie still thinks of himself as a journalist but he is a huge Conspiracy Theorist and very credulous of any person's weird theories.
This occasionally works out due to how weird the setting is and "vampires in the sewers" being a real thing but makes it clear the Sin Eater business was really just a matter of time for his bad fact checking habits catching up with him.
(Which I admit fits my RL bias that the world is full of lying conspirators, it's just that doesn't make all of the racist nuttery by online trolls go away - I assume the MCU is similar with "Are Mutants Really the Product of Government Experimentation" and people who deny Galactus is real)
The game also has Eddie still hates Spider-Man but he's starting to note that being obsessed with revenge against someone half his age in-universe was never a productive use of his powers.
(No shit, Eddie)
Which is the one time a much younger Peter worked well.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 17th 2023 at 6:07:32 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Squirrel Girl actually had it as a plot line.
Super-Truthers believe superhero fights are all faked.
:)
And the Galactus denial was a thing in MARVELS. The Daily Bugle apparently is skeptical of all superheroes.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 17th 2023 at 6:24:45 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Like, I could TOTALLY see people believing Galactus is a hologram Reed uses for Engineered Heroics.
Jameson acting like Galactus was a hoax was in the original story as well, albeit as a minor gag.
It's pretty funny early Jameson hates all heroes including the Fantastic Four, since he's evolved into hating Spider-Man because of his mask.
I feel like if it was written today, Jameson would be praising the Fantastic Four to high heaven because of their publicly known identities, while Spider-Man reacts by being dumbfounded.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I would posit a fourth possibility: the fact that aliens are real makes alien abduction stories as banal and common place as celebrity gossip
Sometimes, because world outside your window, any comic book nonsense is treated like its the worst thing ever that has never ever occurred before.
Other and better times, the Marvel citizenry are shown to used to the whole thing and just roll with it being part of their lives. With talk radio shows specifically focusing on superhero news going 'okay so if you take the Brooklyn Bridge, you're going to need to take a detour. Electro is having a thing with Spider-Man there today. Now stay tuned for this ad for insurance specifically for superheroes busting up your apartment.'
This is the same world that had Namor flood or invade New York like five times since the 40s. The entire city has been sealed inside a dome probably five times too. Aliens constantly invade and break their faces against the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, or whoever.
Its funny that the big iconic alien invasion Secret Invasion wasn't even the worst one in living memory.
Edited by Bocaj on Nov 17th 2023 at 10:02:37 AM
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYeah, it’s always way better when they lean into the Alternate History and World of Weirdness aspect instead of trying to delusionally pretend it’s still Like Reality, Unless Noted when it’s moved way beyond that. It’s always awesome and fun to see little details of worldbuilding about how people are used to all this superhero shit and it’s just a mundane part of life; political debates about the role of superheroes in society, civilian mutants who use their powers for mundane jobs, bars catering to synthezoids (don’t say robot that’s a slur), insurance and construction companies dedicated to repairing the damage of super fights, the existence of superhero groupies/fetishists derisively called “mask chasers” by those who disapprove, casual mention of the random fictional stand-in countries actually taking part in global politics, stuff of that nature.
It’s always more interesting and realistic to see people on the street shrugging after the billionth time they’ve seen Spider-Man than it is to see those same people acting like they’ve never seen anything even slightly unusual in their lives after the billionth alien invasion begins.
Monet St. Croix also suggested this was why Jameson distrusted Spider-Man in an issue of X-Factor
.
