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Spider-Man General Discussion

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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?).

     Original Thread OP 
Since everyone likes talking about him. I know little about him(Ironically,I got nearly all I know about him from a Batman thread),but he's apparently important so I made this thread. Enjoy.

Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#35551: Jul 15th 2024 at 11:41:45 AM

It's the earliest I can remember seeing that specific Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style plot of them trying to trick their way onto Earth and then subsume humanity / symbiotify everyone, anyway. It might've happened in something else earlier, but I'd be surprised if it's popularity wasn't nevertheless because of Reign.

Then a couple years later Spider-Man Web of Shadows did it, and the rest is history. Every single adaptation and several comic stories did it over and over again, and the symbiotes didn't get anything new until Knull came along.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 15th 2024 at 11:42:45 AM

TheMageofFire Since: May, 2012
#35552: Jul 15th 2024 at 11:49:59 AM

Huh, I never really thought about that, but yeah, Reign was patient zero of that boring Symbiote plotline.

GateStarX The Formatter from The Great White North Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
The Formatter
#35554: Jul 15th 2024 at 12:42:28 PM

Wouldn’t Planet of the Symbiotes be the start?

It's gonna be fun on the bun!
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35555: Jul 15th 2024 at 3:13:49 PM

Yeah Venom in Spider-Man Reign also codified the idea of him being an evil tyrant that wants to take over the world with symbiotes mostly to spite Peter.

Interestingly, Eddie Brock usually is never part of this, he’s not the host in Reign, Web of Shadows has Venom acting against his wishes, and it’s Harry who is the host in the PS 5 game.

[up] TBF, Venom fought against the symbiotes there.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Jul 15th 2024 at 6:14:21 PM

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
TheMageofFire Since: May, 2012
#35556: Jul 15th 2024 at 6:42:26 PM

[up][up] You'd think, but there's a decade gap between that and Reign and Web of Shadows, so clearly the latter was the inspiration more than the former.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35557: Jul 15th 2024 at 8:06:22 PM

It's always fascinating when books that are either not well regarded or have had their popularity fade still have a huge influence on stuff following.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35558: Jul 15th 2024 at 8:51:30 PM

The important question is, was the radioactive spooge a parody or meant to be serious?

Because yeah while the writing meant Peter’s contact with her, the dialogue says a different tale.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Aisaac123 “Cause i'm a punkrocker, yes i am” from México Since: Jun, 2024 Relationship Status: All I Want for Christmas is a Girlfriend
“Cause i'm a punkrocker, yes i am”
#35559: Jul 16th 2024 at 11:44:15 AM

[up][up]A tragedy

How does this Site works?!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35560: Jul 16th 2024 at 6:13:40 PM

So issue 2 of Spider-Man: Reign.

They're still having very serious discussions about nursery rhymes.

Jameson has spontaneously generated a gang of newsies to distribute his illegal bootleg Daily Bugle. Oh, yeah, and he totally doxxes Peter, to force him into action. Has his hacker newsie hack every electronic device and broadcast Peter's home address and that he is Spider-Man.

What the shit, Jonah.

The Hypno Hustler shows up for a brief but deeply weird scene where he hypnotizes the police into disco dancing but then his boombox battery dies and he is shot by the police. Deeply weird.

The police then shoot a missile into Peter's apartment because of Jameson broadcasting his address. Peter was right in the middle of packing to flee to Canada at the time so that's funny.

Y'know, everyone always focuses on the radioactive spider gunk and nobody really talks about how strongly a 9/11/Bush presidency comic this was. Some big terror event in the backstory gave the mayor the excuse to turn New York into a police state where crime is down but police viciously beat people for petty offenses. A color coded warning system is mentioned. James turns that security vs liberty thing into a reworking of the spider-man motto by saying "when you give away personal responsibility, you give away personal power."

The Sinister Six are the Sinner Six now. Because, I dunno, that's scarier? There's a handwave about them being sinners seeing salvation by working for the police state but I think it's just supposed to sound scarier. Anyway, Kraven full on murders a child on-panel. Damn, Kraven.

I still think the book is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It's just hard to see it as a wholly serious project when Peter is going 'oh shit, time to flee to Canada'

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35561: Jul 16th 2024 at 7:43:12 PM

Wait, why does that line sound like a parody?

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
HamburgerTime Since: Apr, 2010
#35562: Jul 16th 2024 at 8:39:29 PM

The direct Bush parallels plus the line about Canada do seem at least somewhat satirical; “I’m moving to Canada” is a very old meme used as a tongue-in-cheek shorthand to express displeasure with how politics are going in one’s home country.

RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35563: Jul 16th 2024 at 8:54:50 PM

Oh okay.

I'm a New Yorker, but I've never heard that phrase before.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
TomWithoutJerry Tyranny Bad, Democracy Good. from Where Might Makes Right and I have no Might. Since: Dec, 2023
Tyranny Bad, Democracy Good.
#35564: Jul 17th 2024 at 6:23:46 AM

In the Marvel Universe Canada is probably the last place to flee from politics.

Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.
Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#35565: Jul 17th 2024 at 6:26:27 AM

So, they move to Mexico in Marvel Earth? Or just try to cross the sea?

Wake me up at your own risk.
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35566: Jul 17th 2024 at 6:33:17 AM

In Sam’s recent Captain America book, a lot of people tried fleeing to Wakanda. Before T’Challa cancelled all immigration because Sam pissed him off

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HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#35567: Jul 17th 2024 at 6:47:57 AM

[up]Wasn’t it Shuri who did that?

Edited by HandsomeRob on Jul 17th 2024 at 6:48:10 AM

One Strip! One Strip!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35568: Jul 17th 2024 at 6:53:52 AM

I might have misremembered the specific details. T’Challa and Sam do fight each other in the story.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35569: Jul 17th 2024 at 8:49:34 PM

Spider-Man: Reign Drops Keep Falling on My Head #3

Even in context, Peter hugging MJ's corpse and sobbing that his radioactive spider love killed her is hard to read as anything but being about spider jizz. Yeah, the writer says its about sweat and whatever but c'mon. "And not just blood. Every fluid. Touching me... Loving me... Loving me killed you! Like a spider, crawling up inside your body and laying a thousand eggs of cancer... I killed you."

Like c'mon. How did you expect that to be read, Kaare Andrews?

Anyway, that's weird. But the focus on that kind of occludes the fact that it's all frickin weird. The skeleton of Dr Octopus kidnaps Peter from the asswhupping of his life, takes him to the graveyard and then digs up Mary Jane's coffin. A pre-recorded message goes on about how he and Peter are brothers but Peter is Baldur and needs to be rescued from the underworld. Otto. What the fuck?

Apparently MJ's last words to Peter were "Go get 'em, tiger." And him remembering that is a big cathartic- just kidding. Peter very aggressively does not want to be in this plot at all. He relucantly masked up to save Jonah in issue one. Only masked up because the Reign police blew him up in issue 2. And now in issue 3, MJ's ghost/zombie/lingering guilt memory tells Peter to go get 'em and Peter decides to just go lay in her coffin until he dies. He only suits up in the red and blue (which he buried with MJ, Peter you drama queen) because somebody keeps ringing church bells in another part of the plot. And he emerges singing the Spider-Man theme.

This is a very serious story or so it is assumed.

Hm. What else. Jonah has gone completely unhinged in his old age in a way that has made him a complete badass. He's dragged before the mayor after getting arrested at that riot he caused. And he just swipes a letter opener from the guy and stabs him in the throat. Because he thought he was Venom. Which he wasn't but at least he gets it right on his second try.

I was worried that the security vs liberty theme would just vanish once it was revealed Venom was behind everything. But, nope, Mayor Waters thinks an invasion of the symbiotes is a good thing. Sure, they'll eat a lot of people. But the people they don't eat will have symbiote pals who will protect them from Whatever.

I'm surprised there's not more backstory for this guy because he seems extremely neurotic about the idea that any bad thing could ever happen and he's willing to cause many bad things to prevent the nebulous bad things. So he's perfect for the theme.

Also a badass, the Random Girl that glommed onto Jonah's group of revolutionary newsies because hacker newsie was hot. She almost threw all the newsies under the bus to save herself from all the symbiotes that are suddenly the plot but then she remembered Jameson's insane ramblings about church bells and now she's starting La Revolucion.

She wants to be in this plot a whole hell of a lot more than Peter does. Who is happily napping in a coffin until she keeps ringing that church bell on her side of the story.

So, anyway. I still think this is tongue in cheek. There's just too much silliness. Peter's scene in the graveyard is memetically infamous for a reason and there's even more stuff in there that doesn't get mentioned. Corpse MJ bites Peter. And she has a tongue still. It's weird! I have no idea why Doc Ock has the role in this that he does. And it's got some real stuff to say about security vs liberty now that it's stopped talking about nursery rhymes quite so much. It hasn't dropped it all the way. Venom throws one in.

Also, he looks stupid. Why does he look like someone pasted Venom's texture on the Juggernaut?

     Folder Name 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spider_man_reign_3_1.png

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RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35570: Jul 17th 2024 at 9:09:57 PM

See, Doc Ock and Venom are in this story, but not Green Goblin.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#35571: Jul 17th 2024 at 9:12:52 PM

Ock is a corpse though.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35572: Jul 17th 2024 at 10:37:52 PM

An appearance is still an appearance.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#35574: Jul 18th 2024 at 4:16:30 AM

Oh cool.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Zarius Since: Nov, 2012

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