That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

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Ult_Sm86
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That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

This is a very intriguing (but lengthy) read about the history of Spider-Man and why (without directly stating it) "Brand New Day" wasn't ..... *sigh* 'that bad'.

It has convinced me it was out of character for him, at the time of the incident, but I understand a little better why it was done.

It mostly is a following and lead-up to a re-imagining of Spidey in "Ultimate Spider-Man" by Brian Michael Bendis (the great Brian Michael Bendis) and makes a great attempt at tickling your funny bone while alerting your sensibility about how Spider-Man was conceived and what his purpose in the Marvel U is, both as a story point and a character. He's a fantastically, original, plot, and this article proves it.

Introducing: The Amazing & Spectacular Spider-Man
:smirk
Here's a taste:
This isn't a view of Peter Parker's situation and appeal which Spider-Man's co-creator Steve Ditko would have accepted as valid, though I doubt anything as crass as "popular appeal" would have been held to be pertinent by him anyway. According to Blake Bell in his "The World Of Steve Ditko" (*3), Mr Ditko was, from 1965 onwards, determined to act according to his Objectivist principles to recast Peter Parker from woe begotten loser to the master of his own fate. And so, for example, Mr Ditko had Peter Parker graduate from High School in "Amazing Spider-Man" # 28, and 10 issues later he had so removed Peter from the role of sympathetic everyman that Parker was contemptuously expressing his opposition to confrontational youth culture. Mr Ditko's Spider-Man would therefore be an independent-minded adult standing apart from, and indeed looking down upon, the corrupt society he inhabited.

Which explains why for me the appeal of Spider-Man as a character starts to fray in the mid-'60s, even while the Lee/Ditko team had almost a full year of Spider-Man tales before them. Because I don't believe that Spider-Man is a character predicated upon the need to change and develop, and I certainly don't believe that transforming Peter Parker into a poe-faced Objectivist sitting in judgement on the rest of we subjectivist masses would be a very good idea at all.

Indeed, as far as I can see, the very notion of "development" is inimical to the functional integrity of Spider-Man as a character. For Spider-Man was designed both by intent and chance to represent the specific moment when adolescence and its' increased potency begins to intrude upon the certainties of childhood. And the further from that moment the character's "growth" is allowed to stray and "develop", the less unique and fascinating Spider-Man becomes, and the more Peter Parker's alter-ego becomes just another superhero amongst ten thousand other superheroes.

Yeah, that's just a taste, that's not even the whole thing. Like I said, it's lengthy. That's not even 1/4, LOL! :LMAO


-Ult :spidey

[Edited on 14/5/10 by Ult_Sm86]
R.I.P. Ultimate Peter Parker :spidey 6/22/11 USM#160
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kladyelf
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That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

Post by kladyelf »

*facepalm* ...oy flippin' vey...

You know there's a blog/site called "spidey kicks butt" that actually puts forward an effective (if lengthy) rebuttal, along with a lot of in-depth essays about the other significant characters/events in Spidey's life, looking back over *forty* flippin' years. (For example "Why did it have to be you Mary Jane?")

Mr Bendis may think that keeping Peter Parker single/a teenager may be the only viable alternative, for the character to "maintain its potencty" (bleh) but I must respectfully disagree. Especially when you consider that I, as a teenager actually picked up Spider-man back in the 90's and stuck with the character, and that I as a consumer/reader actually LIKE the romance between Peter and MJ. I liked the humour, i liked the interaction, i liked the cute romantic banter between a married couple, I liked the fact that they struggled with finances and work and things like that in a universe that had super-tech and mutants and people who could fly or turn invisible.

I even liked it when the Parker family joined the Avengers, Peter was still a funny smart-alec and the cast of characters widened, with the potential for interest and conflict increasing. OMD may have given us a Harry Osborn that was interesting and sympathetic, (i just started reading when Harry died) and that was forgivable, but unfortunately the change stuffed up decades of continuity and character growth/development as well as a nice little romance that can, did and still does pull a FEMALE audience (Spider-Man loves Mary Jane anyone? anyone?)

Don't even get me started on the whole "faked photos getting Pete fired" thing (Peter being a supposed genius level intellect that has been likened to a young Reed Richards at one point, apparrently to be making such an obvious error and the whole way JJJ dealt with the situation .... excuse me i have bad taste in my mouth!)

So before this turns into a long rant, I will keep it short-n-sweet, and simply reiterate that I must politely and respectfully disagree for the above reasons and more.

No, wait, one more thing. :P

Spidey got me into comics.

Nightcrawler kept me interested.

One is dead and the other messed up, no matter how tantalizing the Age of Heroes is, no matter how interesting the previews look, I am kind of fed up with Marvel at the moment. (does this come across as a reasoned and intelligent response? or is this just another fangirl rant? i dunno, but i'm gonna go looking for some chocolate now...)
meddle not in the affairs of ficcers for you are malleable and easily .... O_o *stares* ooh is that a cookie?

Love your enemies - It will drive them nuts!

Crazy.... but in the nicest possible way....

To Stupidityyyyy - and beyond!

*after reading the latest gory/depressing "mainstream" comic* ....*sigh* that's it, I'm packin' up and moving back to the Eighties...
Ult_Sm86
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That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

*cracks knuckles*


Here's the thing.
I agree with you.
SORT OF.

You may have liked that part of Peter Parker, but he wasn't a great character anymore. Not the same great character at least. Certainly not what made him so original.

He was good, but he wasn't Peter Parker. Now Ultimate Spider-Man took that place of a new Peter (with Bendis "reinventing the wheel" in terms of his intro to Peter's life) but Canon was still lacking that flare that Spidey always had brought. Spider-Man does a great thing for Marvel, he brings them a street-character who fights X-Men size villains. He has a lot to juggle, and that balance and strife we really enjoy reading about.

Now... I do not agree with how they went from point A to point B.
One thing this essay leaves out that I really wish it hadn't was Ben Reilly.

Originally, in the '90's where you say you began to read :spidey , he was supposed to mary MJ and ride off into the sunset, and then Ben would take over. Then you'd have someone to take the shoes without retconning the shit out of the last (then) twenty years of Marvel History.
Unfortunately, the fans ('cause they're always right, right?) thought they knew best, and refused to let Peter go.
So Marvel, mistakenly, killed Ben off.

So Peter lost his other self, someone who was like a brother to him. It was strange and was another devastating blow to Peter. Don't get me wrong, it made him quite an impressionable character but... it was a travesty of a plot.

Bendis is simply arguing that, point "B" had to come at some point. And they put it off for so long... and unfortunately it seems like they (well, no Joe, who is admittedly out-of-control) rushed the plot and used Mephisto and made a terrible mistake of making Peter act out of character, COMPLETELY out of character.

The point of the essay (in my opinion) was "Even if you don't agree with how Peter did it, stick around, wait it out, things are going to kick back and things are going to happen again. Peter will be Spider-man as you loved him once again, we promise."

It already looks like they're working on retconning the shitty plot.

And "Shed" has been one of the best plots I've ever read. It's all leading up to the return of Kraven, Ben Reilly, and some other great new twists.
I'm still skeptical that Spider-Man is going to San Fran with the X-Team, but I am really excited to see them pull the tricks out of their sleeves. Especially since "Shed" has turned into such a devastatingly intriguing plot.

Check out

Spidey's Grim Hunt

and The Year of Spider-Man.

I'm especially looking forward to the
Gauntlet/SpiderMan Vs Archrivals series coming out this summer!!

all of this seems to be the lead up to San Francisco...

[Edited on 15/5/10 by Ult_Sm86]
R.I.P. Ultimate Peter Parker :spidey 6/22/11 USM#160
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That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

Post by Angelique »

Chocolate, red wine, and attempting to write my own comics is working pretty well so far.
Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

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kladyelf
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That Radical Bendis & His Marvelous Misadventures in Spider-

Post by kladyelf »

heh, i don't drink Amgelique, you can have the wine, i'll have the chocolate!

I'm basically with you Ult-SM86 I liked Ben too, I liked having both Ben and Peter around the place being spider-bro-dudes (that being the technical term :D) but i also liked the romance with MJ, and i felt sad and a bit ripped-off when Ben died, adding more fodder to the wagon o' angst.

And i'm not saying I didn't like Ultimate Spidey, one of the fun things about Ult Spidey (was this mentioned? i forget) was the slightly different take on the Spidey universe.... until gruesome things started happening (*cough* venom, Gwen's death,the tidal wave, *cough, cough,*) this reboot was originally a series for kids?! The rebooted reboot :D does seem to have its cute moments though... (mostly seeing what's what online as what gets down to where I live is *seriously* erratic) and seems to have a "Spider-man and his Amazing friends" feel to it.

I'm still reading through the blog o' Bendis and well, when you get down to it, he's a Marvel writer and I ain't and there's not much i can do about that, and while there are some statements that make me cringe as I read them:
Nobody that kind and empathetic can fail to maintain successful and lasting relationships.
(arg! MJ was a lasting relationship! even through the faked death and separation thing!)

I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong... well i am a bit, :P .... and i'm not saying that Marvel can't write a good Spidey story (the Spider-man/Wolverine thing looks good, and the whole gauntlet/Kraven thing looks interesting)

I think i'm just reacting to the whole OMD thing (which it looks like we all agree that it was poorly written) and the Peter Parker: Unemployed bit too.

I think it would be nice if you could have him move beyond the "lovable loser" routine - which was something they were working on when he joined the avengers a few years ago.... and maybe will again now that he is going to be an avenger... again Mr Bendis seems to be saying something along those lines (good grief he can waffle on eh? :D)

I guess the question is: is a great character also an enjoyable one? it should be, methinks, and a character who is both great and enjoyable can still have (some) of the qualities pre-OMD spidey has ... and pre-civil war too, the direction taken with the "what won't you do for your family" was interesting but granted it couldn't and didn't last...

I think I am reacting emotionally (oh bugger, I am doing a fangirl rant, *smacks self*) to the whole situation, the electronic equivalent of throwing up my hands in the air and going "gaaah!"

...

aaaannnd I'm rambling *facepalm*

I hope when everything gets reset they keep the good bits :D
meddle not in the affairs of ficcers for you are malleable and easily .... O_o *stares* ooh is that a cookie?

Love your enemies - It will drive them nuts!

Crazy.... but in the nicest possible way....

To Stupidityyyyy - and beyond!

*after reading the latest gory/depressing "mainstream" comic* ....*sigh* that's it, I'm packin' up and moving back to the Eighties...
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