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majiinatc · 1 day ago

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you said that they don’t let peter cross the line in comics anymore- is this a recent thing?? do they hate the drama or what

They hate me having fun, that's for sure. I would say it's recent-ish, as in the past decade specifically. After all, Grim Hunt was published in 2010, and in it Peter rips off Sasha Kravinoff's face, threatens to kill both her and Kraven, and has to be actively stopped from actually murdering them.

(ASM #637) They just don't let him be hot anymore. So as recent (and it is recent when we're talking about a character who has remained in the spotlight since 1963) as 15 years ago, they were still letting him be pretty violent when the situation called for it. Violent, but more importantly competent. Peter is good at what he does, and that extends to both intimidation and hurting people.

And his anger at Kraven and his family is justified in this comic. He's been hunted, tormented. Kaine, his clone, his brother, is dead in his place. Mattie Franklin, the third Spider-Woman, Jonah's foster daughter, a teenager who looked up to Peter, is dead. Madame Web is dead.

(ASM #637) "You'd be amazed what anger does for a body, Julia." Julia Carpenter being the second Spider-Woman, about to become the second Madame Web. I'm using Grim Hunt as an example because it and One Moment in Time (OMIT) are kind of my cut off in terms of truly good Peter characterization. I find that once Horizon Labs enters the picture, we sort of start sliding into Flanderization, as fun as I find Spider-Island conceptually. (Everyone in New York is spiders.) I wouldn't say it's like. Good. Entertaining, occasionally! But not good.

There's good Spider-Man content after this, don't get me wrong. Just... not in ASM, particularly, beyond a handful of issues (love you, ASM #657: Torch Song). I don't want to blame Slott entirely; I think editorial played a huge part here. But Slott is a weird case when it comes to writers where when he hits it out the park, he absolutely hits it out the park. That being said he hits it out of the park maybe twice every five years. (He's very good at writing Johnny and Peter together, I'll give him that! Modern patron saint of Spideytorch, unfortunately. Without his incredibly, unbearably long tenure on Spider-Man, we probably would have much less modern Spideytorch content.) There is ASM #665, one whole issue before Spider-Island, when Peter violently took to the streets after Betty was mugged and assaulted. (Harm to Betty is definitely one of his big red buttons, granted.)

(ASM #665)

It's not even entirely about Peter crossing any lines, since circumstances generally interfere in him actually killing anyone, with the notable exception of Charlemagne in Spider-Man vs Wolverine (not really his fault, but a hit from him is the direct cause of her death) and one could argue the burglar who shot Uncle Ben in ASM #200. It's more just this inability to let the character function as a competent, aggressive vigilante. There's just this real erosion of his personality and his priorities that has cropped up in the last decade. Comparison time. In ASM #797 (published March, 2018), Peter stops a mugging by webbing a purse snatcher, in the process wrenching his previously injured arm.

And then he apologizes to the mugger? Who is apparently a repeat offender when it comes to purse snatching? What the hell. This is a case of what I mean when I say Slott is a sloppy writer -- the intent here seems to be to show that Peter has a familiarity with various street criminals, but it just comes off so pathetically wishy-washy and spineless. The joke with "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" is that it's sarcastic; the neighborhood isn't friendly and neither is Spider-Man. It also puts Peter's sympathy on the purse snatcher, and not on the woman whose purse he snatched. If we go back to 2010, there's another purse snatching scene:

(ASM #627) Same crime, same method of webbing the purse snatcher, but he couldn't care less about the pressure he's putting on this guy's shoulders. His focus in on the woman whose purse was snatched. Similar scene, completely different tone.

To take it back even further, I'm very partial to this subway scene from DeMatteis' Spectacular Spider-Man. (JDM and JMS are probably my top two go-to Spider-Man writers.)

(Spectacular Spider-Man #199) This is exactly one issue before Harry's death, and Harry's gone full Green Goblin, so Peter's under a lot of stress, granted, but the fact of the matter is it's very easy for Peter to hurt ordinary people if he isn't watching himself. (Something something Wolverine is a loophole for him and that's why he can throw him out a penthouse window without a second thought.) He can't really afford to lose his temper in civilian situations, and that's something he's had to exercise some strong control over through the years.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #134) "Peter, you're -- you're scaring me." "Sorry. You're not the one I had in mind to scare. Later, hon." Note the hand print in the stoplight poll Peter had his hand wrapped around.

I think that, for all I will talk about his flaws all day, it's easy to view Peter as sort of -- inherently nice because he really is so good at the end of the day. But let alone nice, I don't think Peter's even inherently kind. I think it's something he works for, every day. It's not a natural reaction. It's a choice he makes: to be kind, even if it goes against his base nature. And if anything I think that makes it more meaningful that he's able to be so kind and be so good.

(Amazing Fantasy #15) "I'll see it to it that they're always happy, but the rest of the world can go hang for all I care!" That's a hard mindset to get out of, and while the guilt of Uncle Ben's death carries him part of the way there, he has to be self-motivated to make those changes in worldview, too.

There's just been such a serious dilution of Peter's whole personality the past decade and like, it's easy to blame Slott and Spencer and Wells and the last couple of runs. (I think Kelly is a decent enough Peter writer from what I've previously read from him, I am just. so tired.) But I find it difficult to like, solely blame it on the author. Editorial obviously plays the part, and so does readership -- there's a large swathe of the fandom that wants Peter to just be like, your Regular Little Old Nice Boy. Which is fine, that's their prerogative; it's when Marvel starts listening to what certain subsections of fans expect rather than the decades of preexisting canon that it becomes a problem. Like please I am begging you to let him almost murder someone again. For me.

Because at the end of the day, I think Peter's gentleness matters so much more when it's a choice rather than his default mode. When he looks at someone in his life and makes himself softer, sweeter, tender.

(ASM #509) "There are days I love her so much I can't breathe."

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #5) "We'll be fine, baby."

(Webspinners #12) "Beautiful, benevolent smile. You never really told her. Not really. Tell her."

(Black Cat/Spider-Man: Evil That Men Do #6)

(Fantastic Four v5 #12) The gentle hold.

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9)

Because without the violence lurking underneath his skin, the moments where he makes himself gentle for the people he loves just don't mean the same thing. tl;dr Marvel hates love AND drama.

#marvel #spider man #peter parker

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majiinatc · 2 days ago

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peterhobies…..

#spider man #peterhobie #peter parker #hobie brown #YES THEM

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majiinatc · 4 days ago

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Speaking as a completely objective third-party outsider with absolutely no personal interest in the matter, I am not sure that you and Olivia really mesh well together. But you and Viola…

She’s the Man (2006) dir. Andy Fickman

#she's the man

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majiinatc · 6 days ago

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