#back in my MJ stan era

[sugahoney-icedtea]

MICHAEL JACKSON on the set of "BAD" (1987)

[amageish]

So, Nico Minoru's in Spider-Man Freshman Year... Let's talk about it.

About a year ago, Marvel spilled some details about the upcoming animated Spider-Man series, Spider-Man Freshman Year. There was a lot of discussion about it, what it was, what it wasn't, and whether what it is is better or worse then what people wanted it to be.

A couple weeks ago, a trademark filing indicated that the show was scheduled for Winter 2024. In an era where companies are killing announced and nearly-finished projects, I was honestly thinking the show was on thin ice... but since it seems to still exist, I want to talk about something that I feel has gotten surprisingly little discussion in all the discourse about the show: the inclusion of Nico Minoru, of the Runaways, as Peter Parker's best friend.

Now, from a Peter-centered perspective, I think this choice makes sense in a very specific way? If you flash back to the original 60s Spider-Man comics, which the show seems to be trying to invoke aesthetically from the little we've seen, Peter Parker had a female close friend who was representative of 1960s youth counter-culture: Mary Jane.

The degree to which Stan Lee's own values undercut MJ's counter-culturism is something that people could/do entire academic essays about, but suffice it to say that she was meant to appeal to the zeitgeist of the era and the character's spirit certainly got through to viewers. Like, there is a reason that she the OTP for Peter for so many people, even if Lee at the time had intended to keep the focus on Peter's more traditionally conservative romance with Gwen Stacy.

Nico Minoru slots into this classic pre-MJ-as-the-love-interest MJ role very well, in my opinion at least? In her 2000s comics, she was cast as a edgy goth social outcast who made her own clothes and did her own thing... In her 2010s MCU show, she was cast again as an outcast, but with a certain amount of doomerpilled depression that she outgrows as the show goes on... In the 2020s game Midnight Suns, Nico is still a devoted goth, but also draws from queer youth culture and has a certain semi-ironic peppiness to her (she calls the player "friendo" constantly - she's just like me fr).

So, honestly, I think picking Nico Minoru for Spider-Man's best friend is a really clever move that slots her into this historical role of the foil to Peter Parker - fun choice!

However, from a Nico-centered perspective, I have a lot of questions about what this version of the character will be like practically... The biggest one being: Why is Nico in New York? One of the core concepts of the Runaways as a team is that they are a response to the oft-asked question "Why is New York always under threat? Why are there no superheroes having to save LA?". While the West Coast Avengers do, y'know, exist, the Runaways introduces another answer to this question: Supervillains cannot operate in LA without permission of the Pride, a LA-based supervillain mafia who made a pact with a demon from Limbo and require a cut of all crime committed in the city. The titular Runaways are the children of these villains, who choose to reject their parent's lifestyle and go on the run rather then be complicit in their villainy.

So... How did Nico get in New York and end up enrolling in a New York high school? That's a big change for her and I hope the explanation is satisfying.

Nico and her team also don't usually appear as traditional costumed heroes with secret identities, at least not for prolonged periods of time. They've used several codenames and several costumes, but it's always bit a touch comedic - Nico goes by "Sister Grimm" because they decide they need nicknames to be superheroes as somewhat-cringy-teens while she later uses "The Gloom" partially at the encouragement of her girlfriend, but she's still largely just... Nico. It's worth noting that both Midnight Suns and Marvel Snap break naming conventions to call her by her first/last name instead of an alias - something Snap mostly does with big-deal characters like Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde, with even other characters more known by their real name like Emma Frost and Danielle Moonstar being called by their hero names instead...

So, I'm curious if Nico will be using her powers to fight crime and, if she is, what codename/costume she has... On top of that, I wonder if Peter Parker will know that Nico is a blood witch and if Nico will know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man - or if they mutually uncover that across the events of the series... Doctor Strange is also set to be in this show - will he be a mentor for her as a budding witch, perhaps even more then he is a mentor for Peter? There's a lot of possibilities there too.

Finally, there's the big question of Nico Minoru's queerness. Now, there's basically two lists of Marvel queers - the characters written as queer by the writers and artists at Marvel and the characters Marvel corporate have actually approved as being queer and stamped with a big rainbow stamp of approval. This is what separates your "did a gay kiss once" characters from your "paraded out every June" characters...

Nico is in the latter category and is potentially one of the most corporate-approved queer characters there are. This girl is BISEXUAL and Marvel is uncharacteristically interested in making sure you know it. She got a Pride variant cover kissing her girlfriend when Pearlmutter was still at the company. Her MCU show is full of gay kisses and has not one but TWO fantasy gay wedding sequences (it also got removed from Disney+ earlier this year, funny that).

Now, uh, America Chavez is basically the face of Sapphic Marvel in the comics and her queerness got reduced to a Pride pin in her movie, so I'm not sure if Nico's bisexuality will be acknowledged in the show given that precedent... but I sure hope it does!!! It'd be cute if Karolina pops in too, helping her girlfriend out with whatever antics she gets into... She wasn't in the initial revealed character line-up, but I could also see them waiting to reveal her and hoping to get hype specifically from shippers who haven't thought about the pairing in a few years since the Runaways TV show ended.

ANYWAY. That was a lot of thoughts, but I'm just very curious what's going to happen here... I love Nico and am eager to see her in this show, but it also just feels like such an unconventional choice... to the point where I am apparently thinking about it this hard a year later.

[frankenbolt]

"But I was in the trenches in 2009. Back when Livejournal was still king. And let me tell you that I have seen some real weird stuff that I'm sure would have wattpad whipper-snappers clutching their pearls." - I don't know. I've seen some pretty wild shit in the MJ Wattpad fandom. LiveJournal was some dark-sided shit for real though.

When I say babygirlification, I mean the way that the younger stans tend to.....treat and view him through the lens of borderline feminization. Very strong "he's a man,but I 've decided he's female-coded" energy. Which,let's be honest. The Bad era with that kinda androgynous bad boy look(Dirty Diana, my love)? I can see it. Plus a lot of his struggles are very relatable for a lot of women. The constant hyper-analysis of one's appearance by outsiders is one for sure. Body and facial insecurities,the feeling of not being good enough despite all of his achievements.....the list could go on.

Ahhhh I see what you're driving at.

You know, my sister and I had this talk a while back, about how if he'd been a young person today, perhaps MJ would have been at least curious about the concept of agender personhood. It's an interesting discussion, but I'm not sure I could fully agree with it either.

I have some theories (which, idk I'm a little uncomfortable airing on my blog in public tbh). If you'd like to come off anon and dm me, I'd be happy to chat to you about MJ any time. :)

[kiestrokes]

a Bias Check

I do not have an ult group, because I came into the kpop fandom stanning ASTRO and SHINee simultaneously. As multi-stan as it could have been. There’s always an ebb and flow between eras and comebacks for which group I prefer more.

ASTRO Biases: Moonbin 🌕 | Wreckers: MJ & Rocky

ATEEZ Bias: MATZ | Wreckers: Yunho, Yeosang, OT8

BTS Bias: I am currently having a crisis about who my bias is for the first time in the four years of stanning them, please don't ask.

ENHYPEN Bias: Sunghoon | Wreckers: Heesung & Jake

Epik High Bias: Tukutz | Wreckers: Tablo

EXO Bias: Lay, but Baekhyun now that he is gone 🥲 | Wreckers: Kai, Jongdae, Sehun, Kyungsoo, OT11

GOT7 Bias: Jackson | Wreckers: BamBam, Jinyoung, OT7...don’t ask me about Jaebeom PLEASE

LE SSERAFIM Bias: Kazuha | Wreckers: Chaewon

MAMAMOO Bias: Solar | Wreckers: 👻

MONSTA X Bias: Kihyun | Wreckers: Honey 🐝, Changkyun, OT7

NCT: 127, Dream, U, WayV Ult Bias: Mark + Yuta | Wreckers: everyone but Johnny, but sometimes Johnny

Red Velvet Bias: Wendy | Wreckers: Selugi

SEVENTEEN Bias: Hoshi + Minghao | Wreckers: Boo, Wonwoo, Dino, OT13

SHINee

Bias: Key | Wreckers: heavily Jinki wrecked

Stray Kids Bias: Seungmin | Wreckers: Lino, Hyunjin, OT8

SuperM Bias: Mark | Wreckers: this is literally a super group of my fave SM artists, OT6

TXT Bias: Taehyun | Wreckers: Yeonjun, Soobin

The Rose Bias: Hajoon | Wreckers: Sammy 🖤 I first heard Lazy back in 2020 and fell in love with Woosung's voice.

XG Bias: Cocona | Wreckers: Maya

🎧 for the unbiased groups and soloists, it will just be easier to drop my playlists:

K-ulture (k-pop with some c-pop)

Tren-dy (R&B, tren-chill)

K-afe (coffee shop vibes)

[brawltogethernow]

Opinions on hair clip!Gwen vs MJ bangs!Gwen?

(Personally I think that the hair clips give off some kind of vibe and I don’t know what it is but it’s definitely there)

Very niche topic you were correct to guess I would have involved, impassioned thoughts about.

(Quick visual rundown of the history of Gwen’s hairstyle for the normal people out there:)

Aesthetically, of course the bangs are superior. At least some of why the headband and bangs look is iconic is because it’s a Look™. But that’s not...the point.

Copying MJ’s hairstyle - and then immediately needing to return to having something holding her hair back and experimenting with how to do that with short bangs for a while - is one of those little things that makes Gwen feel like a person despite her comparatively minor volume of appearances. It’s just such real social circle of 17-19yos behavior. Her smiling on the outside despairing on the inside face when Harry points it out??

Agonizing. I love it.

(Digressing but the panel immediately before this where Harry is like, “Peter, in my unprofessional opinion I diagnose you with Every Single Disease.” I love this era.)

Simultaneously, the vibes of Gwen stealing her hottest friend’s look? Her hottest friend who her other hot friend is clearly attracted to’s look?? Girl was really going through it. [Here I tried to casually insert a bi flag emoji, but there isn’t one.] Every leg of this love triangle-cum-OT3 is real.

So I love all of that, and you sacrifice all of it when you act like Gwen was born with a black headband fused to her skull divorce the bangs from their context. Having her already sporting the hyper-recognizable fringe look in high school is my sole critique of what we got of the Gwen Stacy solo title. (Marvel, please? The rest? I am but a starving Victorian orphan--) I was rooting so hard for acknowledging her awkward high school senior hair.... Like to a weird degree probably. I was texting people updates about the projected likelihood of the established hair continuity being adhered to as new promotional art dropped.

Because the clips are valuable shorthand to convey what era of Gwen you’re looking at! The sharp corners and exposed widow’s peak and old fashioned bit of curl tell you right away you’re looking at a less settled Gwen, someone with only one firm friend who, for all she’s remembered as a bookish sweetheart, did very much and by her own design hook up with Peter via an enemies-to-lovers route.

Gwen was MEAN when she was introduced! You can’t use the clips without remembering Gwen being mean, which honestly I think everyone writing her should take a couple of minutes a week to do, for health reasons. (Sometimes it’s for reasons of my health, as a reader.) I talk about how Peter/MJ is bitch4bitch and the poetry of two liars being honest only with each other, but Gwen and Peter? Very much united by a shared passionate drive to deck the world hard in the face and watch it bleed. And also science or whatever, I guess.

I don’t read Gwen as becoming a less intense, angry character through the different micro-eras you can mark by her hairstyle, but she gets more comfortable with the rest of the core cast while also picking up a thread of melancholy. (Okay sometimes...you have to read against the text a little to reconcile it with itself.) The sum effect of this mix gets flanderized into characterizing Gwen as a Good Girl, and when creators go with the headband look for periods where Gwen-the-character would be wearing hair clips, you know that even if they’re writing good content they view Gwen as a Good Girl who was Too Good For This World who would never ever start a petty feud or or insult someone who doesn’t deserve it or escalate a situation into minor violence. (Because, you know, women must not cause narrative drama by wanting things, only by being wanted.)

...More charitably, it’s just not going to hit the same, because it’s a sign the team is working with the concept of Gwen without either enough affection for or knowledge of her personal history to adhere to it. If you keep snipping bits out of her like this, you’re going to run out of girl pretty fast.

The silver clips anchor things in an era where there’s a greater discomfort with themselves in the whole cast and they’re all taking it out on each other. THERE IS DEFINITELY A WHOLE VIBE.

Also the style is actually very fun to draw, in my experience.

I’ve been sort of talking around the Doylist angle -- I think it’s excellent how much the progression of Gwen’s hair works from a characterization standpoint, given how every single minute change is very clearly a creative team shift thing. Horror art style to romance art style followed by whatever Stan Lee was doing to whatever Gerry Conway was doing had an effect on how the first stretch of Spider-Man reads you just. Could not bottle. Most of Gwen’s look shifts are very blatantly an ongoing series of nudges deeper into Romita Sr.’s favorite things to draw -- which incidentally looked excellent, so who was going to complain?

Of course, then if you continue with a meta lens beyond the JRSr era...the bangs look depreciates considerably! I was originally planning for that infographic at the top to do much harder double duty as a joke, with more images in between the last two. Death! Every single clone! Spider-Gwen! Flashbacks set before the bangs! But it’s like! How much effort do I really want to expend just to lampshade that her style has been frozen for 45 years!? Also it wasn’t going to be worth it without the skeleton as the punchline, so I had to go get that first because it was the only one I hadn’t actually seen personally, and finding it really sapped my energy for balancing good-natured ribbing with deep appreciation for a topic. I was kind of hoping people on Twitter had made that up!

Like. God damn. It still looks good, but the overlap with not really empathizing with this character or getting into her head is intense. Every day I thank Into the Spider-Verse for its bid at unfreezing Gwen’s hairstyle for the first time since 1973.

So like, yeah. I like looking at the bangs look slightly more, but adhering to them fanatically is refusing to use all the weapons in your arsenal. And to all the Marvel writers using the bangs while simping for either side of the Gwen vs. MJ thing: That’s MJ’s hairstyle, and that’s a little gay.

[athicfa]

Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol 1 #4 Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol 1 #5 Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 #155 Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 #156 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #329 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #330 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #331 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #335 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #337 Marvel Comics Presents Vol 1 #57 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #341 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #342 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #343 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #346 Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #347

Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol 1 #4

Apparently, at least from reviews and comments I’ve seen online, Moon Knight fans generally hate this run so my expectations are low. I’m only here for Felicia anyway.

this issue exists solely so Felicia Hardy can serve us this look

Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol 1 #5

yeah that was awful

Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 #155

Did they drop the “Peter Parker” tag from the title of this series? Looks like it.

I thought they ended the gang war several issues back? k then

Fe’s just a cameo and the rest of this issue is just Weird

Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 #156

oh no have we entered demented redneck territory? dude I’m from Arkansas and this is one of my least favorite tropes EVER. The only acceptable version of the demented redneck trope is in RE7.

primitive existence??? because they live in log cabins and play the banjo??? man fuck you, writers, from the bottom of my primitive southern heart

dude they forgot her sleeve

“I know you Gov’ment men and yORE lies” yeah nvm that’s pretty accurate

If you want to know how to NOT write a southern accent, read this issue. It’s insulting. This isn’t even the south it’s PENNSYLVANIA WHAT ARE THEY DOING

This is bad ED rep too. As if they couldn’t make it worse.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #329

Tri-Sentinel? Oh this sounds like a bad idea.

MJ doing Queen shit as usual. Prepping for her “Secret Hospital” role. We stan.

AH so we’re in the West Coast Avengers era? Neat.

LOKI WHAT ARE YOU DOING

why do they write Loki with a cockney accent?

Captain Universe? WHAT IN THE HELL

And here she is, showing up at the end of the issue for a cliffhanger with Flash. Because they really have to make her as vindictive and hateable as they can.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #330

we start with the Punisher blowing up an ambulance with a rocket launcher so everything is guaranteed to go downhill from this point

Felicia shows up to dinner with Flash and Peter’s going feral but can’t explain to anyone WHY he’s going feral because secret identity and all that jazz

OH MY GOD THAT’S HOW THEY KILL OFF EDDIE? OR AM I BEING SCAMMED WITH A FAKE DEATH AGAIN??? WHAT???????

I love you Aunt May

they break the fourth wall a lot in this and it’s always them going “haha that’s what YOU think Peter but we’re obviously going to make everything worse for you and you should know better you cheeky bastard”

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #331

this is FUCKING AWFUL and I hate it so much

Felicia would NEVER put her hands on MJ like that. This is bullshit. Even if they’re trying to play her as a jealous ex, this is just STUPID. I hate everything about this story so much I’m about to have a fucking aneurysm istg.

oh so I was right Eddie’s fine he just faked his death

now some old lady just randomly slaps MJ WHAT??? second time she’s been physically assaulted in the same issue, and the third time in the past four issues I’ve read. WHAT THE FUCK MAN

they just really hate women I guess

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #335

this is from #332 and I’m not talking about it bc It’s not relevant to Felicia but I just wanna say that this page was pretty cool

Hobgoblin looks genuinely freaky now

Aunt May is precious and needs to be protected at all costs

Flash’s outfit is a fucking crime

mmm Sinister Six is reforming and I couldn’t care less. that was anticlimactic.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #337

oh no Nathan’s dead. Poor May.

once again Fe’s serving LOOKS while Flash is dressed like the embodiment of glitter in the 80′s

him standing up for her is nice and all but Felicia would have already been throwing hands and handing out free kick vasectomies

Marvel Comics Presents Vol 1 #57

she broke into Versaille and is sleeping in the king’s bedchamber which, y’know, is actually pretty in character so I’m not complaining

Fisk is after her. Again.

that’s it. cute little story. now back to the main event.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #341

aaaaaand they’re taking Peter’s powers away because they obviously hate him

Felicia looks good. Flash is a neon mess. As always. Guys she would never date a guy that dresses like this I’m sorry but it’s true

MAY YOU SLY DOG I SEE YOU FLIRTING

Felicia being genuinely nice and friendly to MJ, as they should have had it from the start.

Flash is being really sweet and all but dude I still just can’t see it happening between them. He’s too much of a “jock”, to put it as nicely as I can. I know they’re trying to make it turn into a genuine relationship between the two of them but it just. This does not work.

Peter (as Spidey) is in trouble without his powers so Flash and Felicia rush in to help him and MJ is worried about all of them, even Felicia, which was a sweet moment.

“I can’t break your heart if you’re dead” sure Felicia not like you actually just don’t want Peter to die or anything

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #342

they’ve promised me Felicia protecting Peter from the Scorpion this issue and they better give it to me or I might cry

Peter having to cope with not having his powers anymore is genuinely interesting but it’s hard to trust that they’ll do right by him based on how they ALWAYS do shit just to hurt him. And also having it be his choice is just??? Dude I doubt it. That doesn’t feel like a Peter Parker move AT ALL.

they keep having Felicia randomly refer to the Black Cat from a third person perspective and I hate it

she knows something’s wrong and she gets him to fess up to it

“Flash is a good guy and I wouldn’t never hurt him just to get back at you” REALLY MARVEL WHERE WAS THIS ENERGY AT, I DUNNO, THE BEGINNING OF THE ARC???

next day. Scorpion nabs Jameson. Felicia brings Peter’s Spidey suit to him, even though he’s powerless now. Nice that she still has faith in him but this is objectively a very bad decision from both of them.

Fe protecting Peter from Scorpion like they promised me??? FUCK YES

they’re letting her have a lot of nice moments in this fight I’m shocked they’re FINALLY showing her an ounce of respect

she kicked the shit out of Scorpion I LOVE it

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #343

Actually love the dynamic reversal right now. It’s like when Felicia had no powers, except it’s Peter in her shoes now. Still hate how we got here but at least I can enjoy it reading again. For the most part.

AH THERE’S THE FAMOUS PHYSICS-DEFYING PURPLE DRESS

no but seriously she went to borrow jeans from MJ and came back with THIS

more badass Felicia moments so I have been placated. For now.

Why did they draw her with claw feet in one panel though when she’s supposed to have normal boots on lmfaoooo

he fiddles with Dr. Turner’s device and gets his powers back right as Felicia’s getting overwhelmed.

“At least they didn’t break my nose” followed by a cute little cheek rub, as she DESERVES

oof she’s in bad shape

the machine took her powers away somehow so...okay

so she’s gonna quit being the Black Cat? BULLSHIT. She was the Black Cat before she had powers. It’s something she’s NEVER gonna be able to give up, just like Peter can’t quit being Spiderman.

At least Felicia, Peter, and MJ are all on good terms now which is more than I expected from this awful arc.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #346

VENOM

she wants to come help Peter so I guess she’s NOT giving up the Black Cat completely like they said? Which...okay. But he won’t let her come help anyway because he knows she’ll get trashed by Venom.

Venom feels like a real threat which is great because most of the villain set-ups leading up to this have been lame af

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #347

UH

Venom in the background of this is hella creepy

Felicia and Flash are fighting bc she’s worried sick about Peter and pissed she can’t do anything, so she’s lashing out and refusing to go to some stupid concert with him. And then immediately changes her mind because what is consistency in a character am I right, Marvel?

May and Willie are cute

He had to fake his death to get Venom off his back and you know...I think I kind of like it. It was an unusual finish to a story but it does a good job at painting Venom as an unstoppable force, which will make his eventual defeat way more rewarding than most of the one-and-done villains that show up, get their asses kicked, and then disappear for thirty issues.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

The above is from Spider-Man: Lifeline #3

For context, everyone is after an ancient stone tablet (the same one from the classic Stan Lee storyline) that will grant it’s user immense power even over life and death.

When creating the formula to imbue someone with this power Peter considers how the power could be used to bring back Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy and Gwen. When Hammerhead (temporarily) obtains this power he offers Spidey the chance to restore them to life.

What I want to talk about is who Spidey and Hammerhead don’t mention, namely Mary Jane.

You see this storyline is distinctly set when MJ was presumed dead after a plane crash. Thus a No. prize is demanded to address why Peter wouldn’t consider resurrecting his wife!

This is my attempt at reconciling the issue.

The first thing to bear in mind is that this three part mini-series was released towards the end of the era where MJ was believed dead. Specifically issue #1 came out the very same month we learned MJ was in fact alive and issue #3 was released after she’d definitively returned. 

So clearly this was an editorial issue. When the first issue came out MJ was dead when the last was out she was alive again. Not only might it have been weird to reference her as dead when she was very much alive but given the controversy surrounding her death Marvel were probably in damage control mode and wanted to move on as quickly as possible. It’s telling that MJ’s fake death was rarely if ever mentioned again in any story after Mackie left the titles.

Additionally Ben, George and Gwen form the ‘iconic trio’ of dead Spidey supporting characters as their deaths were easily the most iconic and integral to the Spider-Man mythos. Given how the story (as evidence by the art style) was trying to recall the halcyon ‘good old days’, it makes a thematic sense to emphasis those three and not list every Jo or Jane Blo who’s died in the Spider books.

From an in-universe POV Peter didn’t just omit MJ but numerous other loved ones who’d died. Ned Leeds. Lance Bannon. Nathan Lebunsky. Ben Reilly. Baby May and of course Harry Osborn. All of them weren’t even referenced.

Does this demonstrate how callous Peter is for only caring about those three dead people? 

I think the more likely explanation, as hinted at by the story itself, is that Spidey was less concerned about people who’d died but more people who died because of him.

Whilst we can debate technicalities, the fact is that Peter honestly was far more directly involved in the deaths of those three people than any of his other loved ones. He will never know if MJ would’ve still caught her deadly flight even if he didn’t miss her before she left. He knows enough about the Osborns to see that Harry was thoroughly screwed up regardless of anything he did. Ben Reilly was a hero like him and literally did what Peter would have done in the same situation, wherein he gave his life to save Peter from a murder attempt. Peter couldn’t truly have done anything to have prevented that sans knocking out the Goblin. Even then he wallped Norman with everything he had short of a killing blow so there really wasn’t anything he could do. Similarly lance Bannon and Ned Leeds were murdered by third parties Peter never knew about. 

In contrast Peter’s selfishness actively facilitated Ben’s death. His carelessness snapped Gwen’s neck. And whilst George gave his life to save a child, the child was endangered due to Peter sending Doc Ock’s arms out of control.

So I think this scene is ultimately about Peter wanting to undo mistakes that caused him to lose loved ones rather than wholesale play God and restore his loved ones altogether. In other words it is about Peter’s guilt, which obviously weighs heavily upon him.

[possession1981]

ohh the ask game with astro? and/or maybe the rose?

astro

do i already stan them? yes | only for the music | attempting to | no

my bias + bias wrecker: mj my favourite milfboy but all of them are lovely there's no wrecking.

first time i heard of them: whenever crazy sexy cool era like 2017??

when i became a fan: idk i started by liking a few of their songs and then gradually became more of a fan so it's hard to say like... where do we draw the line lol

favorite (and least favorite) title track: knock!!! literally my emotional support song. and i don't love blue flame she doesn't really vibe w me.

favorite (and least favorite) b-side: idk when you call my name really makes me feel so happy so let's go with that for fave.

favorite (and least favorite) mv: blue flame is my fave which is just a bit ironic innit lmao.. or maybe all night they're probably tied.

favorite (and least favorite) album: i think gateway probably but REALLY it's the moonbin+sanha masterpiece that is in-out.

a concept i wished they’d try: i just want them to do a full storyline mv like something really cinematic idc what the actual concept is.

what i like most about them: sweet as sugar honestly they're just lovely innit.

the rose

do i already stan them? yes i'm a triple military spouse | only for the music | attempting to | no

my bias + bias wrecker: jaehyeong bc i'm in the bassist cult but woosung makes me wanna fight sometimes u know?

first time i heard of them: when they released sorry.

when i became a fan: immediately.

favorite (and least favorite) title track: baby <3333333333333333 no least fave what am i insane?

favorite (and least favorite) b-side: candy good lord.

favorite (and least favorite) mv: red makes me happy <3

favorite (and least favorite) album: void

a concept i wished they’d try: i just want them back 😭😭

what i like most about them: that they're crazy talented AND just plain crazy and they don't care who knows it. i love them.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

Lets debunk the BS from this. Up top a lot of this BS comes from Bob Chipman/MovieBob who is the guy who if you recall said:

-         Superheroes like Superman (and thus by extension Spider-Man who marry civilians were jerks for putting their spouses through the same stuff soldiers’ spouses go through

-         Spider-Man appeals best to teens (even though he provably doesn’t since most people get into him before their teens and he appealed to college students in his heyday)

-         The Spider-Marriage was nothing more than a forced publicity stunt

-         Sins Past is worse than OMD

-         Spider-Man is about passive aggressive power

-         And the best one, ever since OMD Peter and MJ had become ‘more interesting’

That all being said lets dive into this:

Someone asked the panel what a queer reading would add to the character of Miles…Jesus…that’s just the greatest sign of hope for this podcast isn’t it? Shoot me now…

Miles was not 3 dimensional when he was created. Even if you disagree it is nonsense to say that Peter wasn’t  three dimensional when he was first created. Just look at how much Stan explored Peter’s psychology in this singular panel from ASM #50

Look at that. Peter Parker pulled between the two sides of his life. Making a judgement of someone. But then calling out his own judgement of them and acknowledging maybe he’s in the wrong.

This was 1967!

That isn’t three dimensional?

Additionally other people would disagree that Peter wasn’t three dimensional early on.

And even if you disagree with that it’s nonsense to say he hasn’t SINCE become three dimensional or that retaining his origin story (which Miles broadly uses as the basis for his story in every version of his character) somehow holds him back from being three dimensional. If nothing else Peter was at least multifaceted for the time period.

Spider-Man wasn’t an example of stories about a 15 year old made for 7 year olds. Spider-Man was intended to be a senior in AF #15 and the stories were written by Stan for at worst an older audience but at best basically just for him.

Stan Lee confirmed that AF #15 was written not as a one off but as something that if successful COULD become an on-going series.

Its BS to say Peter makes no sense as a character because he makes sense about as much as any character within the confines of the superhero genre can. MILES doesn’t somehow make more sense whatsoever.

No. Spider-Man wasn’t merely a thrown together ‘hey here is a teenage superhero story with a downer ending’ it was a story about selfishness, responsibility and appealed via it’s relative normalcy and lack of idealization of the superhero protagonist.

The psychology and thematic idea of his exclusive powers (invisibility+venom blast) is the same…how? How is disappearing and repelling people the same thing? They keep saying that in the podcast as though it’s obvious and it’s really not

Great Power=Great responsibility isn’t Peter’s catch phrase it’s the philosophy underpinning everything he does

‘The young end millennials have been thrown under the bus by society so the optimism is reserved for the young end millenials like Miles and Gwen’ oh but also ‘you need 5-10 years added to each character to have this make sense and also Spide-Ham doesn’t quit fit’…So…the theory doesn’t  make sense then does it. Also, what optimism is there for teen millenials in the late 2010s? We are all shit scared Global warming needs to be fixed within the next 10-20 years. The young end millenials will not be in much of a position to do that. Maybe not the high-end millenials either. The power rests in older Gen Xers or even older generations. So this ‘generational’ theory is bullshit. Yeah, Miles as the next generation maybe makes sense but not when you apply real world concepts of who the different generations are. Especially considering that’s made up bullshit anyway.

‘Blah blah blah for most of my life I’ve been uninterested in Spider-Man because I’ve believed him to be WHITE MALE teenaged wish fulfilment.’…*internally groans*…oh boy…this woman is one of those  types huh. Frankly I, and I would advocate others too, take a salt shaker with them whenever they hear someone say something like this. But more importantly Spider-Man is seriously NOT what she describes. For starters Peter was a senior in high school when he began and shouldered adult responsibilities when his father died. That’s wish fulfilment? That’s a BURDEN. The reason that spoke to so many people was because he was just different and because his imperfections made him more relatable. The whiteness idea is also bullshit since he was intentionally or otherwise subtextually Jewish and has spoken to countless people of all colours across the generations. He very particularly has a HUGE following among African Americans which was partially what prompted the creation of Miles Morals in the first place!  Shit, the showrunner for the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon was black for God’s sake. Many of the head honcho creators for ITSV were people of colour who were clearly MASSIVE Spider-Man fans!

‘As a woman Spider-Man didn’t resonate with me’. Spider-Man is male. And he acts in ways a male would in the context of the situations. But the character as a whole, in his deepest themes and concepts, is a universal character. He does and has spoken to people across race, gender, sex, sexuality, class, culture and generations. Spider-Girl, Mayday Parker, was her father’s daughter and far more similar than different to him. She spoke to male and female readers. Peter Parker himself has had female fans since his inception. There is no end of female fans here on tumblr or in other online spaces that are the proof of this, to say nothing of old letters pages.

Miles feels more like a real kid and fits together better than most other versions of Peter Parker?...how? I don’t like USM the comic but hwo the fuck do you take that, Spec Spidey, the 1994 cartoon and the Raimi movies (that MovieBob adores btw) and say ‘it doesn’t fit together properly like Miles’. Dude, Comic Book Miles Morales is a teenager in New York who goes to a bordering school for scientifically gifted kids and yet is supposed to be an everyman. That fits together well? He risked his life before  being motivated to do so which is how most 13 year old woudn’t  have acted. Then he feels guilty about Peter dying but his BFF explains it’s not his fault and he accepts this but then goes on to become Spider-Man anyway. And somehow this equates to guilt+responsibility. THAT’s better put together? His character got web-shooters two different ways by the same writer and the guy he was a legacy to was resurrected within like 3 years of Miles’ debut. That’s well put together? This makes more sense and is more believable than a kid who’s Dad dies because he didn’t use his gifts altruistically, so he spends his whole life striving to use them altruistically?

Blah blah blah MovieBob spewing more shit about how Peter is a teenage wish fulfilment power fantasy even though he clearly isn’t from a modern POV and REALLY wasn’t in the early 1960s.

By extension arguing Peter is an adult male’s retroactive teenaged wish fulfilment fantasy of working stuff out is so plainly wrong. Peter Parker in the early 1960s didn’t have everything figured out. The whole world was against him totally unfairly. He needed Aunt May or the Human Torch at times to give him pep talks. His social life was barely existent! You wanna see a middle aged man’s retroactive young wish fulfilment fantasy? Go read Brand New Day, which MovieBob claims was superior to the pre-OMD era. What is the wish fulfilment here? That attractive young women like him? Is that it? That one thing vs. all the horrible shit beating Peter down?

Bob claims there was a lot more Steve Ditko in the early issues of his run compared to Stan Lee because Peter was very angry. First of all Ditko was such a private person claiming he was definitely angry and that the anger was all him is a MASSIVE speculation. Especially considering Stan wrote Spidey as angry plenty after Ditko left. More importantly, Peter wasn’t  angry in the early Ditko issues except for maybe issue #8. He had his moments sure, but it wasn’t at all consistent. He wasn’t raging out or smashing shit like he did later  in Ditko’s run. He was more anxious and neurotic in those early issues which is comparatively closer to how Stan and Romita handled Peter in their earliest issues together. Peter and the whole world of Spidey got angrier towards the end  of Ditko’s run. You know when Stan was letting Steve plot stuff more and more…It’s almost like Bob is full of shit or something

Bob tries to claim by the time ITSV was being written the kinks in Miles’ character had been worked out in the comics. Nah fam. If anything they’d been exacerbated. In reality it was the ITSV writers who took the wonky early Miles character and worked out those kinks themselves, creating an overall superior rendition of the character. A viewpoint I am not alone in.

‘The Prowler has never been a particularly noteworthy villain in the comics’ That’s because he’s not  a villain. He was kind of a villain in his debut but he very quickly became an ally to Spidey

The panel then get into a very pretentious discussion about how ITSV preaches you arne’t stapled to your origin, you are not your trauma. That claiming that is pretentious ala Zack Snyder. But like…isn’t that the POINT of super hero origins? That they contextualize everything about the heroes thereafter? Isn’t carrying his trauma with everything they do practically the point of Batman and Spider-Man’s origins; you know the 2 most popular heroes? Uncle Ben’s death IS stapled to Spider-Man because it underlines everything he ever does. Shit it doesn’t even make sense when applied to Miles in ITSV. He does what he does because his Spider-Man died and then so did his uncle. There is even a whole scene in his dorm room where each Spider-Hero relays the grief that shaped their own lives. I’m not saying you need death and tragedy to be Spider-Man. But that’s neither a bad thing nor something that ISN’T applicable to Peter nor ITSV Miles. Aren’t these idiots supposed to be film buffs? How do you screw up such a basic reading like that?

One of the pundits claimed the movie preaches acting heroically in spite of your tragedies not because of them. Again though…that’ not Spider-Man. Peter is a hero specifically because his uncle died. Miles endeavours to become Spider-Man because his Peter died. His Uncle Aaron’s death further fuels him and allows him to make to final leap of faith. Yes, Peter B. continues to be a hero in spite of his failings but it is only his experiences with Miles that make that possible.

‘They don’t need the tragedies to be heroic they are already heroic in their own right. Look, I don’t disagree with that more broadly. Mayday Parker didn’t need tragedy to be a hero. But in terms of the specific characters in this movie? That’s clearly not true:

This whole ‘in spite of tragedy’ shit is so pre-Marvel DC comics it hurts. Heroes who just innately do the right thing because it is the right thing to do is a dated and archaic invention Spidey and the other Marvel heroes were reacting against.

‘Spider-Man Noir detracted from the film’s message of diversity because he was a brooding WHITE MAN who prowled the night to enact fist based justice!!!!’ Do I even need to say anything to that? First of all literally every hero in the movie enacts fist based justice. Why does Noir operating at night make him worse than Peter B? Why does him being male make that worse than Peni or Gwen? Why does him being white make that worse than Miles or Peni? And as for detracting from the message of diversity, shockingly diversity can be found within the same ethnic or gender group. You know white/male people aren’t a monolith and all that. Plus creatively you want PERSONALITY diversity more than anything else. In this movie in particular you want shorthand conceptual differences too. ‘Spider-Man but an anime mech girl’ ‘Spider-Man but a noir character’. ‘Spider-Man but a cartoon pig’. This is how asinine this disgusting modern day mentality is.

Wow…MovieBob defending Noir from the asinine comment. I’m genuinely surprised. Too bad he doesn’t use the most obvious defence of ‘that is obviously a ridiculous statement to make you moron’

The next topic of discussion was related to Marvel moving away from Gwen as Spider-Man’s dead girlfriend. I spoke a lot about Bob’s ice cold take on that in this post.

He claims they introduced Spider-Gwen because the idea would be taboo and thus would get people talking. HA! Spider-Gwen was done as just a general idea not something to spark controversy. It wouldn’t even BE controversial. Marvel brought back a version of Gwen within 2 years of her death. They brought her back again 15 years after her death. They brought her back again 22 years after her death along with other versions who melted because it was the Clone Saga. During and after all those times they had AUs of Gwen in What If, Age of Apocalypse, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and other such stuff. An explicitly AU of Gwen Stacy in 2014 was one of the most aggressively uncontroversial  things you could do.

Gwen’s ballet shoes differentiate her from every other Spider-Man ever. I mean yes in terms of being a dancer I suppose but in terms of being dedicated and studious, training hard and earning immense physical control? There have been plenty of versions of Spider-Man pre-2018 who are like that.

The only way you can make Spider-Gwen work going forward is by not tying it to her death in the canon? Boy…too God damn bad her debut and origin is entirely built upon that. Her origin in the comics and in the movies is built  upon a role reversal because it is Peter who dies to motivate her. Film audiences would’ve still grasped that role reversal because it was only 4 years ago Emma Stone’s highly popular rendition of the character died. And that was in the last pre-MCU Spider-Man movie to boot!

‘The only Iron Man story anyone cared about was Demon in a Bottle’ Actually they only cared about that story and Armor Wars. But yeah, the MCU version is lesser for neither having his alcoholism nor a crippling heart condition. The mere fact people became complacent about that doesn’t mean it wasn’t reductive.

‘These are fictional characters they need to grow and change with the times to remain popular’ Gwen Stacy sucked shit in the 1960s-1970s and was then killed off and defined by her death. Somehow she still  wound up becoming a fan favourite by the 90s and 21st century. Spider-Gwen sucks as a character but not in concept. I never had a problem with the concept. But the idea that she needed to exist to keep Gwen popular is bullshit because Gwen had somehow become immensely popular in spite of being a nothing character. And that even presumes anyone needed to perform maintenance on Gwen to keep her popular. No we didn’t. She was an irrelevant character beyond her death. It’s like saying we need to change Uncle Ben or Bruce’s parents to keep them popular.

Gwen’s affect on Peter Parker was important for awhile but we aren’t that society anymore. It’s not a fucking societal concern!  Putting aside how a 2014 movie did Gwen’s death just a few years before ITSV, Gwen’s death is about a universal human experience.  Death, grief, moving on. Oh, I see. This halfwit mistakenly believes Gwen is an example of women in the refrigerator.

Gwen died because Peter had this perfect lovely girlfriend and everything was too great for him and they didn’t know how to write beyond that. An oversimplification. Gwen died because they needed to shake things up for sales in general. Because Conway shipped Peter with MJ. And a 20 year old Spidey in 1973 really was too young to be killed off. Oh and you know she was written like shit. Yeah that’s the part no one ever talks about. Gwen is played up as this underserving victim of a character but she sucked shit.

It’s almost the 2020s! So fucking what? People still lose loved ones in the 2020s? I’m not even saying Spider-Gwen should have died in ITSV or revolved around her counterpart dying. I’m saying this dumbass is wrong for bringing it up as though killing Gwen off is dated on principle. But this is the same moron who unironically said ‘I never connected to Spider-Man because he is a teenaged white male wish fulfilment fantasy’. I’m sure she got top marks in her gender studies class

‘sOme PpL nEEd 2 gEt oVa iTTTTTTT’ I genuinely wish this person would wake up mute someday.

‘We could do a whole movie about Spider-Gwen’. I don’t respect where this opinion is coming from but I don’t necesarilly disag- ‘Get Seanen Maguire to write it’…nevermind. This gets even worse when you consider Maguire had only been writing Gwen for literally 3 issues at the time this podcast was released. Of the back of three issues  you are declaring this writer qualified to write an entire movie about the character? Not even Jason Latour who created her. I smell someone who just jumped on the bandwagon or worse is blinded by agenda and ideology.

‘Gwen could’ve done with 5 more minutes’ It’s not her movie!  It’s Miles’ movie and secondarily Peter B’s movie because he is Miles mentor. It is through their mutual relationship that Miles learns to be Spider-Man and Peter learns to be Spider-Man again.

It never made sense for an 80 year old woman to be raising a 16 year old boy! Aunt May in the 1960s wasn’t in her 80s. She just looked that way because, duh, standards of health were different back then. A 40 year old now looks much younger and in better health than someone who potentially might’ve been born in the 19th century circa 1962! A working class  woman no less…With chronic health problems! Even if she was in her mid-late 50s her looking like that was totally believable in context! And her raising Peter was also entirely believable depending upon how old Ben and May were when Richard and Mary were born. It’s not beyond possibility at all that there was 15-20 years separating Ben and his younger brother, meaning if Peter was born when Richard was 25, Ben and May would’ve been in their 40s. Thus by the time Peter was 15 they’d be in their 50s or 60s.

These idiots keep treating Peter from Miles’ universe as a bona fide version of 616 Peter when it’s blindingly obvious he’s supposed to be an idealized rendition of the character. A version intended to be a juxtaposition to the version we all know walking into the movie.

Peter B. Parker having a more traditional version of Aunt May as opposed to a more proactive and involved version has left him with a sense of giving up. Er…no. It’s pretty obvious Peter B. Parker is the Spider-Man we know and love who normally doesn’t give up but one string of failures after another has brought him to his lowest. But he rises back up again. Look Peter is supposed to be a representation of human beings. Human beings need people and need emotional support. When you lose those people and are alone you can go to a very dark place. That’s Peter B’s story. If Aunt May had been more involved but everything else went wrong (including her death) he’d have still wound up in the dark place he went to. Blonde Peter might’ve weathered May’s death better in theory but he had OTHER stuff in his life to keep him afloat. Peter B lost most everything. What horseshit it is to argue if Aunt May was different he’d have not given up.

There was no purpose for Aunt May being as old as she was or on the cusp of death in the original comics. Er…yeah there was. She was that old because it made her more vulnerable and thus accentuated the loss of her husband and the need for Peter to be her support network. It also internally justified why she was so frail and unwell. Old people usually have health problems. Duh! But then Bob admits there is a reason for those decisions. So he is contradicting himself.

Bob presumes Blonde Peter told Aunt May his secret even though there is no evidence in the movie to support that idea.

Kids today aren’t resentful of their grandparents like older generations were, that’s why Aunt May is played differently now. Um…Peter was never resentful of Aunt May in the first place. He sincerely loved her and felt he needed to pay her back for all she’d done for him.

‘Kids today have cool grandparents because 50% of them would have been hippies.’ Hippies aren’t cool. And never were. They were pretentious losers that hid behind causes as an excuse to do drugs and have lots of sex. Over half a century later the world they claimed to fight for and want to build has yet to materialise and in fact is in a lot of ways far worse off than it was before their generation rose to the seats of power. The hippy generation are part of the baby boomer generation that are so thoroughly mocked today. The people in power who’ve fucked up the job and housing market for consequent generations. These idiots literally spouted a dumbass theory earlier on about how first wave millenials have been thrown under the bus. Who do you think did that? The baby boomers, many of whom used  to be hippies! And NONE of this demands Aunt May has to be different. I have no problem with her being different in ITSV. But the idea of someone who used to be a hippy being doting? Being a worry wart? Why the Hell is that a dated concept?

These idiots clearly view the world aggressively through an identitarian and group weighted lens as opposed to how the world really is. I.e. 7 billion+ individuals

There was a weird amount of focus upon gangsters in the Spec Spidey cartoon considering it was for kids. Not really, the show was reverential of the original comics. The original comics (which were for children) had lots of gangsters

To the people who bitch and moan about getting another Spider-Man it doesn’t take away from the one you had before. No one was complaining about Miles as another Spider-Man in this movie. People weren’t claiming it ruins the Raimi movies or something. People resent it in the comics because it waters down the brand and makes Spider-Man himself less special when he is an ONGOING character. It’d be one thing maybe if the torch was passed from person to person. But nowadays it’s literally all of them co-existing.

Blah blah bah symbolism of a young black boy fighting a big WHITE business MAN. Blah blah blah this is the type of bad guy Miles would fight in real life blah blah blah…Jesus Christ… these people really just buy that type of Kool-aid in bulk don’t they? As if Miles, were he ‘real’ wouldn’t fight anyone who’s doing bad things. FFS they just got done talking about Tombstone from the Spec cartoon. Tombstone is an African American!  And he’s in this fucking movie. He’s not some weird fantastical guy, he’s a regular gangster who happens to be albino. That’s it. Miles fights him in this fucking movie! Miles first major adversary in the comics was the Prowler who was another African American. Miles wouldn’t JUST fight ‘evil white businessMEN’

‘As far as I know about Doc Ock from Superior Spider-Man, which is excellent’ Wow. So, as would be obvious with anyone with a working brain and some prior knowledge of Otto, Superior is garbage. And saying you are basing your assessments of Otto on Superior is like saying you have never known about the character

Doc Ock is in so many Spidey stories as a scientific assistant to other people because the Green Goblin is always either dead or completely untrustworthy. Bob really just said that huh? This is further proof Bob has read precious little Spider-Man material. Doc Ock is NOBODY’s assistant. Even in Secret Wars he had to be threatened into compliance by Doom himself when Ultron was his attack dog. Doc Ock isn’t recruited by other people for his genius, he is the mover and shaker. He recruits other people and is the man in charge. And who the fuck is looking to get the help of Norman Osborn because he’s a scientist? Not to mention Norman is untrustworthy, oh but Otto?????????? The guy who tried to nuke NYC???????? WTF is Bob talking about?

Since we are in the ‘age of heroes’ (whatever THAT means?) it is impossible for Spider-Man to not be mentored by some other hero. Er…yeah it is? This is obviously a defence of MCU Spider-Man and it holds no water. First of all DC and Marvel have had young heroes show up when there are a plethora of heroes around they’ve not had mentors. Second of all it’s entirely possible for Peter to not WANT a mentor and it’d be entirely believable that the other heroes might not see themselves as mentors or might mistrust him.

The Spider-Heroes take their grief and turn it into action. WHOA WHOA WHOA! Didn’t these guys say earlier that the movie preaches the heroes are more than their trauma? That they aren’t stapled to their origins? That they move on from it? What’s this change of tune all of a sudden?

Miles Dad was probably made into a cop to avoid having a difficult discussion about how the police would react to a black super hero or a black Spider-Man. Yeah, or it’s because you know…his Dad worked in law enforcement in the comics so you know…faithfulness. Also the police don’t discriminate against black heroes in the MCU except Luke Cage. Also, also not every fucking cop is racist. Also, also, also how would they know Miles is black his costume covers his whole body!

Miles Dad was super authoritarian. Dude. He didn’t like vigilantes and he followed basic rules like stopping not abusing police sirens. That’s hardly akin to being a jackbooted fascist.

Miles would’ve had a different relationship with authority and the police if his Dad hadn’t been a cop. Er…no not necessarily. First of all being the son of a cop doesn’t mean he’d have not experienced institutionalized racism from the police. Second of all even if he had experienced that he could still believe in justice and taking down obviously evil and dangerous people like Kingpin.

They never touched upon institutional racism from the police in Luke Cage which was for adults. Er, yes they did. The rapper in the later episodes of season 1 (the Bulletproof Love guy) stated he wasn’t going to call the police. The police were stopping and searching black men in their hunt for Cage. Black people wore shirts with holes in them in order to protect Cage and defy the cops. The rap mentioned how nobody was interested in protecting their neighbourhood.

Nobody wants the tell a superhero story about institutional racism within the authorities. Isn’t that literally Luke Cage’s origin? Didn’t Black Panther mention that earlier in the year ITSV was released.

I’m going to disagree that Miles fighting Kingpin was unnecessary because of the cultural connotations we talked about….God…You couldn’t just say ‘the main hero obviously has to defeat the main villain. Duh!’…

Dan Slott is a dang genius! As if you needed more proof these people are unqualified  to talk about Spider-Man…

Spider-Verse’s (the comic’s) fan service is what happens when you get Spider-Man fans to do the story vs. ITSV. Nah fam. ITSV is what happens when you get real fans who are talented  vs. Spider-Verse is what happens when you get a real fan who fundamentally misunderstands the characters and is a hack

There is no real Peter Parker. Who cares! The real Peter Parker is the original because he is the one everyone else is derivative of and therefore based upon. And fans AND creators and Marvel itself clearly care about that because they sure as fuck didn’t kill him  off so Miles could replace him. They killed off the secondary and surplus Ultimate Peter Parker. Treating the original version as the true  one doesn’t invalidate any other versions because they can still be great characters unto themselves. But given how disgustingly SJW this whole podcast has been I am unsurprised they go in for this participation trophy form of analysis where everything is equal all the time.

It also doesn’t invalidate the idea of Spider-Man being anyone. Spider-Man CAN be anyone. But not everyone can be Peter Parker. If we are going to say otherwise the praise these jackoffs lauded onto Miles for how his specific identity was explored is invalidated. Peter is Peter. Miles is Miles. They can both be Spider-Heroes worthy of the mantle.

Because Miles is a POC people who don’t look like Peter can believe they can be Spider-Man. I’m not arguing against Miles but seriously, that was the case before Miles existed. The showrunner of Spider-Man 1994 was an African American and he related to Peter Parker in the 1960s. Poc can relate to Spider-Man regardless of skin colour.

The original comic book version of Spider-Man isn’t the true one just because he is the original. Er….yeah. It seriously does precisely BECAUSE he is the version all the other ones are derivative of. Hence he’s from the PRIME universe. Shit the Spider-Verse comic book the movie takes mild inspiration from literally says that. Granted it then contradicts itself but the point still stands. Because he is the original one he IS the true one because without him the others would not exist. He is the canonical one!

The true 616 Spider-Man will never be in any adaptation because there is too much continuity…Yeah…so? How does that make him not  the original one in the broad context though when you compare every version?

Continuity is the killer of enjoyment when it comes to movies. No, this podcast is the killer of enjoyment. And btw, maybe ask all the people who went to see Infinity War earlier in the year ITSV was released and ask them if continuity ruined that movie for them. This is such a lazy, myopic attitude.

If continuity is used to exclude people it is bad. Good job nobody was ever saying ITSV shouldn’t exist because Miles isn’t Peter then

Infinity War is a fine movie even if you do not know who everybody is. No it isn’t. Infinity War is wholly inaccessible if you do not know who everyone is because it’s throwing dozens of characters at you with little-no context provided.

Black Panther is better than Infinity War, this proves continuity is bad. No. Black Panther not having to have it’s story wrapped up in everything else in the wider universe was what helped make it better. FFS, Winter Soldier is better than Avengers 2012 and that still relies upon plenty of continuity. Civil War is better than Thor the Dark World and the latter has way less continuity than the former. It’s not about having continuity it’s about how you use it. Black Panther was world building in it’s own corner. It wasn’t plugged in so directly to the wider universe the way Homecoming or FFH was. THAT’s what made it good but that’s not a continuity issue that’s a world building issue.

Continuity is toxic when you use it to claim a long running fantasy series didn’t satisfy you. Uh huh, hey do you wanna ask all the people who hated Game of Thrones’ final season that?

Oh, and one of the pundits, the one who bleeted on about Spidey as a ‘tEEnAgE WHITE mAle wish fUlLfiLmEnt fantasy!’ is a Hollywood actress. Now her views make waaaaaaaaaay too much sense

In conclusion…Sigh…For a podcast called School of Movies I think these guys need to go back to kindergarten.

[leaving-fragments]

kpop faves tag

tagged by the amazing @marculees :))

🌱 what group(s) do you stan? (stan defined as you listen to their music, like all the members and are mostly up-to-date with their promotions)

nct with all its sub-units (+ superm) , astro and sf9, oneus too by that definition but i feel like i'm less emotionally involved with them? but i listen to a whole lot more

🌒 bias(es)?

doyoung, ten, hendery... rocky, hwiyoung

🍃 bias wrecker(s)?

all of nct, as in, every single one of them (most frequently yuta, kun and mark though) jinjin, mj, inseong and chani

🌠 favourite song(s)?

the whole awaken album (it's so underrated), nonstop, asteroid (by imlay, yangyang), no manners, mad dog, quiet down, electric hearts,

crazy sexy cool (still the best song), always you, call out,

midnight road, easy love, love me again... i have too many :')

🌿 do you collect for the group(s)? (if so, what do you collect?)

i have two nct albums and i kind of made my own nct merchandise (embroidered a cloth bag and made a felt pin) but i wouldn't call that "collecting"

✨ what concept(s) do you want to see your group(s) do in the future?

nct... i would love to see nct u come back because the lineups they could do! i get that a ot21 comebacks is chaotic and probably would be rather dissatisfying since it's near impossible to give everyone lines and exposure with twenty-one members... but having multiple nct u singles with different member combinations would be amazing!!

i'd love a range of fresh to sexy concepts (like touch and baby don't stop) maybe a kind of flower power aesthetic since we haven't really had that?

for astro i love the current concepts but i miss the bright soda-pop or even just the really fun, cheeky concepts of the dream eras so something like baby or csc would make me very happy :')

sf9... god, i'm entirely overwhelmed by the summer breeze teaser and rn i want exactly that so i have no complaints, it sounds so good!! o.o but in general i hope they continue in the direction of the more sensuous comebacks like now or never and o sole mio rather than the harsher sound of rpm

☄️ group(s) you want to get into/are almost stanning?

ah, i'm half involved with stray kids and day6, itzy and twice and loona, a few soloists, shinee and exo, got7, most of those i used to stan until i got too busy to keep up and atm i don't have the energy to fully keep up with them either so i like, support their comebacks and watch some variety shows and stuff, the odd vlive maybe...

i want to get to know the members of dreamcatcher and monsta x more, maybe ateez or everglow too but again, i don't really have the energy so i just casually watch them on occasion

i'm too lazy to tag anyone but i genuinely, really would love to read ppl's thoughts so if you wanna do it, pls tag me!! don't feel awkward, i'm actually interested in what concepts and groups everyone likes ^^

[starmakerdotcom]

MISSION 2: VENUS is the second mini album of smke group SOLAR. this mini album, containing five songs, saw more success than their debut album. the title track, MIDNIGHT, was promoted from september 30th until october 31st. MIDNIGHT received two music show wins, and there were occasionally special stages for the bsides INSOMNIAC and NEON.

TRACK LIST:

MIDNIGHT (title) insp

INSOMNIAC insp

MY NUMBER 1 insp

NEON insp

IS ANYONE THERE? insp

STYLING:

ERA HIGHLIGHTS:

THEY POPPED OFF AGAIN

this album was slightly darker than the last, which got them a bit more attention !!!!!

midnight got two music show wins ! they cried again

the special stages for insomniac and neon were great !! they all looked so good

min was still black but her hair was longer now, just past her shoulders with blonde highlights underneath

eri had a dark reddish auburn colour that was usually straightened or in a ponytail for performances

milo was still black !! growing it out a little though

leda had blonde hair !!! she still curled it and it was in pigtails for most of the performances which was cute

beth’s hair was slightly shorter bc she cut off her blonde ends bc they’re were dead as hell . and she dyed her hair a darker brown !!

posie’s hair was the same colour as the last era but she’s growing it out !! she usually had it up in a ponytail or half up

mj was BLONDE !! that was sudden especially bc last era he said he had no plans of dying his hair

orion lightened his hair a bit !! it was brown and still curly

the styling was . amazing

sort of similar idea to the last era but also v different

this time it was darker and there was a lot more leather

LEATHER HARNESSES LEATHER HARNESSES LEATHER HARNESSES LEATHER HARNESSES LEATHER HARNESSES LEATHER H

COMBAT BOOTS R BACK BABY

THERE WAS THIS ONE STAGE where beth was wearing this iconic outfit w a leather skirt sort of thing and she kinda went viral for it ?? everyone knew her as “leather skirt girl”

the makeup was . amazing

it was darker but they pulled it off so well

the glitter is back too baby !!

solar vlogs are back and they had so much fun filming the music video

you could tell they were getting so much closer it was sweet :(

“and over here we see hyesoo looking really tired” *eri pokes posie’s cheek and posie bites eri’s finger* “AH SHI-“ - eri, IN ORBIT WITH SOLAR s2 ep8

they uploaded dance practices for midnight, insomniac, and neon

and a studio version of is anyone there !!!!

AND a video for my number 1 that was just a blooper cut of the midnight music video

we got so much more content this time baby

there was this little segment they did where they were backstage at the show and they got asked what idols they’d like to get to know better . beth and orion got into an argument bc beth basically yelled out that orion had a crush on linlin from cherry bullet and then orion yelled that beth had a crush on beomgyu from txt it was hilarious

this era caused a lot of stans that were just there for the darker concept . we don’t talk about them

this was a great era tho. 11/10

[saltys]

astro! :0

send in a kpop group and i’ll reply with:

do i already stan them? yes | only for the music | attempting to | no

my bias + bias wrecker: i think my bias is sanha but i’m very fond of all of them LKSDHGDS 

first time i heard of them: kkap was having a crazy sexy cool workshop my first year in uni but i was like ... crazy sexy cool sounds like smth out of my comfort zone (me: crazy? sexy? cool? i am none of these) so i didn’t go LKSDGHSDG WAIT NO i’m editing this bc i remember my friend in high school mentioned them back in early 2017 n was like they’re babies n she couldn’t stan so like imagine my surprise to find out we were only older than sanha DSGSDH

when i became a fan: i think around the time of always you era is my first vivid memory thinking about astro on my own bc i heard baby a lot but i never looked super into them ?? but since kkap had always you in one of our sets i was like... u kno what this is some good stuff n i Know they have more KDHSDG n around the time of iqs2 i started watching some youtube content bc chuu and mj were so endearing that i ended up watching blanket kick too

favorite (and least favorite) title track: i’d say perhaps... crazy sexy cool !! but if i want to b in the feelings... all night is there for me <3 maybe my least favorite is blue flame... maybe... it’s still good tho 

favorite (and least favorite) b-side: i don’t know their b-sides super extensively !! going off the ones i do know, i think role play is my favorite !! but with you makes me :D and real love brings me peace

favorite (and least favorite) mv: the all night mv is just SO PRETTY ??? the colors rly suit the tone of the song and the opening shot ?? breathtaking

favorite (and least favorite) album: again i have not listened to their albums in full, but i like the vibes dream pt 1 and 2 have !! 

a concept i wished they’d try: i think i’m just an advocate for groups to try funky/groovy concepts, but i’d love to see them do something like crazy sexy cool amplified ?? i love the bass line in csc ;(( if they took that sound and twisted it to make it a little less bright maybe kinda like dongkiz blockbuster ?? where the sound is still bright but the concept of the mv would be a lil spookier

[spaceorphan18]

Marvel Movie Night: Spider-Man

Kicking off Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy! Whoo!  It’s interesting - Spider-Man was one of those things that I wasn’t initially into (totally here for the X-Men).  Then I really fell in love with this trilogy.  And then kind of fell out of love with it.  And then Tom Holland came along leaving this in the dust.  Coming back to it again I find it… endearing? But like the original X-Men films, despite being thought of as great for the time, I don’t believe it holds up that well now that we’re nearly twenty years later.  (My god, am I getting old?) 

Let’s back up and talk about this film in context for a second.  X-Men was revolutionary in its own way - bringing the comic book genre into a space that could be taken more seriously.  Spider-Man, however, was the first glimpse of what films based on Marvel properties would later become.  Unlike superhero and action films of the time, it was brightly colored.  It was cheesy, but not overly campy.  It had humor and emotion.  And, not surprisingly, audiences reacted positively! 

But now that we’ve had twenty more years of Marvel films, does it hold up? Kind of?  Is it a good Spider-Man film, yes if the context you’d like your Spider-Man films to be in is taking directly from the Silver and Bronze age era of comics.  Is it a good film overall? Meh.  

I don’t spend a whole lot of time in Spider-Man related fandoms, but there is a big chunk of fans that prefer this film and its sequels to the other two Spider-Man franchises.  And while I don’t agree (though I support everyone having their own, varied opinion), I can see why this might appeal to those fans who had been reading the comics for years. 

The first half of this film is directly lifted out of Amazing Fantasy #15, the comic issue Spider-Man made his debut in.  The filmmakers did, really, a fantastic job of bringing it to life -- the origin story, Uncle Ben, the ‘great power’ line, Peter Parker’s guilt, the spider-bite, and so on and so on.  It’s there.  This film feels like a Silver Age comic book brought to life.  On the one hand - that’s pretty remarkable.  I don’t think the comics had ever been directly referenced in the same way prior to this.  On the other, it brings along with it all the downsides of a Silver Age comic.  The dialogue is incredibly stiff.  The acting feels forced.  And everything has that -- ‘ah, golly shucks’ mentality about it.  It felt dated in 2002.  It feels even more dated now.  But the novelty of it being THE COMIC BOOK was pretty revolutionary for the time. 

Peter Parker/Spider-Man

Of course there are hundreds of polls out there, and I’m sure a few dozen YouTube videos about who the best Spider-Man is.  Honestly, there’s a lot of subjectivity that goes along with it.  I think each of them has their pros and cons, so let’s take a second to talk about Tobey Maguire in this film.  One thing I think Tobey Maguire does really well, especially for being nearly thirty by the time he got the part, is play the nerdy and awkward Peter Parker… or at least at least the nerdy and awkward Peter Parker that was written in the 60s by Stan Lee.  Maguire does a great job of doing the part he’s supposed to be playing - the problem is, and I feel this way about all the characters, is that he doesn’t feel like he’s playing a real person.  He feels like he’s a comic book character thought up during the 60s.  

What about the Spider-Man side of things? I’m going to give this a pass more than I probably should.  First of all, Spider-Man is supposed to be rather chatting, and this Spider-Man is near silent.  But that’s more so due to the lack of ability with the suit.  And I don’t blame the filmmakers for keeping Spider-Man off the screen for so much of the film.  Not only does it make those times Spider-Man is there feel more special, but it saves them from having to do a lot of things that, maybe, didn’t the technology wasn’t fully ready for yet.  

Look - I think while it was definitely moving in the right direction, the action sequences in this film are probably some of its weakest points.  Everything is incredibly stiff and/or ridiculous looking.  Sure, there are some great moments of Spider-Man swinging around the city.  But most of the stuff between he and the Green Goblin have not aged well at all.  

One last thing - the organic webshooters?  Nope.  Nope, nope, nope.  Ew.  

Aunt May, Uncle Ben, and Great Responsibility

So - Aunt May (and Uncle Ben) in the comics are older.  It’s… kinda unrealistic, unless Peter’s parents were much, much older when they had a kid.  Uncle Ben says in this film that he’s 68.  That’s grandparent age -- and I’d believe this whole thing much more if they were Peter’s great Aunt and Uncle.  That said, Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris were perfect choices for their roles.  Robertson especially plays the closest to an actual person as he grumbles about unemployment and new technology he’s having trouble with.  But more so, he does such a great job with his Great Responsibility line, that there’s really no reason for other Spider-Man films to do it.  It’s in the culture now.  We get it.  Meanwhile, Harris’s Aunt May, well, looks exactly like Aunt May.  Aunt May, in general, kind of annoys me, so I suppose we’ll leave it that. 

The Osborns and the Green Goblin

First, James Franco as Harry Osborn.  There really isn’t a whole lot to this character - it feels like he’s talked about more than actually on screen, and I feel like we don’t get to see that much of Peter and Harry’s relationship.  That said, Franco does brooding rather well - and is pretty consistent at keeping the brooding up throughout the film.  He’s fine, but sometimes feels like he’s there because the movie wants him to be in it.  

Willem Dafoe is Norman Osborn, and here’s my thing.  Dafoe is a pretty good actor.  He does the whole split-personality thing rather well, and makes an incredibly convincing villain, especially when everything about the Green Goblin is, well, incredibly contrived.  Really, I think the Oscorp stuff is the dumbest stuff in this film because it strictly adheres to comic book logic.  And while I also understand there were obvious limitations and complications making such a ridiculous suit, that Green Goblin costume is terrible.  Dafoe was much more menacing without it on.  

Mary Jane Watson

**sigh** Okay.  Let me start by saying that I like MJ in the comics, even though, yeah, this is a pretty good representation of her (or more so the kind of character she was forty years ago) here.  I don’t even mind Kirstin Dunst.  This version of MJ bugs me though.  Part of it is the story framing.  Everything’s from Peter’s POV, and it doesn’t make any sense.  What is it about her, besides the fact that she’s pretty, does he even like? They never actually spend time together - and when they do, Peter’s giving her soliloquy about how wonderful she is. The problem is that we’re never really given a reason, other than pretty, to understand why.  Do they have anything in common? Not really.  Do they make a connection beyond his constant saving her from bad situations - whether it be emotional or physical? Not really.  

Everything about their scenes is just over-the-top a majority of the time.  Like -- this is a big sweeping romance, hear the music? See the close-ups? Add tears, more tears!  But I never buy an actual connection between the two of them.  

The one thing that does actual work, and I will give them a ton of credit for, is that upside down kiss in the rain.  That’s pretty damn iconic.  And kinda hot.  It’s the only time that the movie allows the romance to do something other than follow the tired tropes of boy-likes-girl, boy-rescues-girl, boy-gets-girl.  Ug.  

J Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle

JK Simmons and the Daily Bugle is hands down the best thing about this film.  It’s witty and almost satirical with everything looking straight out of the 60s comic book.  It gets the humor that the comics often has and runs with it.  I have no complaints, it’s really, truly amazing.  And I have to wonder if this entire film would work better if it had taken place during the 60s and was a tad more on the satirical side.  I feel like the world would have made just a little more sense.  

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 Spiderwebs.  I think this film is a great embodiment for what Spider-Man meant to a whole group of people who grew up with the character.  As a film, I think it’s standard issue, and besides letting comic book movies be brightly colored and fun, I don’t think it does anything special with the story it’s telling. And much like the original X-Men film, while I’ll give it credit for being special for the time it came out, I don’t think it holds up now.  

Next Up: Oy, I’m gonna have to watch that Ben Affleck Daredevil film now.  :P 

[loopy777]

If you were told to write a spiderman series, with the regular high school/college love triangle shenanigans involving the usual ladies of Peter's life, only with the twist that in the end Spiderman/Black Cat would be the actual couple of the series, how would you go about writing them? Also what do you think the good and bad things about a series focused the ship would be?

(Sorry for the delay. The most recent chapter of Traitor’s Face insisted that every single thing I wrote for it needed to be completely rewritten at one point or another.)

Huh, now this is a new idea. It reminds me of how the 90’s animated series started with Felicia Hardy, no Black Cattiness at all, as the main love interest. And for some reason she was a cheap knock-off of Gwen Stacy for something like four seasons. I can only guess that they came up with the character first, and then stuck a random name on her from the comics.

However, if they *did* start with the idea of using Felicia, I understand how they wound up having to add so much to the character. The first big problem with the concept is that she essentially doesn’t have any character besides being the Black Cat. So anything that tried to make her the winning Love Interest would either need to bring Felicia into Peter’s civilian life and flesh her out as something more than a costumed adventurer/criminal/hero, or make the focus of the stories on his life as Spider-Man. You know, maybe do something like the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon and make him a pro-hero all the time.

The second big problem is the Black Cat’s weird status with her powers. If she doesn’t have any powers, she’s just a Catwoman knock-off. For a short while she had generic Cat powers, but that’s nothing that’s going to put her on the map. Her ‘true’ power, as far as I’m concerned, is her Bad Luck thing; it plays well on her full theme, it’s fairly unique, and it’s something that can be presented in a dynamic way, with her opponents continually encountering ridiculous bad luck as they try to impede her. But there’s no real origin for those powers, is there? She got them from Kingpin (in a story I haven’t read) and as far as I know the exact method by which he gave her those specific powers isn’t known; it’s incidental to plot point of her going to Kingpin in the first place. So a full, meaningful origin would have to be invented for those powers, too.

The final thing that needs to be created for the Black Cat is a reason to stick around long-term. She dips in and out of the comics because, when she isn’t romantically involved with Spidey, there’s really no reason for her to be in the story. She pursues her own goals, which can take her away from Spidey’s drama.

With all that in mind, here’s a possible scenario I came up with to answer the question.

Set during college years, Felicia and Peter are childhood friends, once being part of a Three Amigos thing with Flash Thompson before Flash became a bully. All three came from messed up histories, with Peter being the orphan raised by his aunt and uncle, Flash having an alcoholic father, and Felicia having something more complicated that we’ll get into. What Peter doesn’t know is that Flash turned against him because Flash fell in love with Felicia, but she had feelings for Peter. Peter never noticed because in high school he was a total nerd who didn’t feel lovable, and after that he was too distracted by Spider-stuff.

Anyway, Felicia’s backstory is that her family was super-poor until her father started working for the Kingpin as a spy, enforcer, and coordinator/boss of Kingpin’s thieves. Their family had to hide that Daddy was involved in organized crime. After Felicia got into college, though, things became more strained, as her father couldn’t deal with all the super-heroes who have been chipping away at Kingpin’s empire, especially that insufferable Spider-Man! But Kingpin has made a deal with an evil scientist (maybe Norman Osborn, maybe the Jackal, maybe even Doc Ock) who has developed a counter for Spider-Man: a 'Bad Luck’ power that’s actually an unconscious psionic defensive ability to alter the immediate future. It’s a direct counter to Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense, which is an unconscious precognitive defensive ability.

For reasons, this can only be given to one person. Perhaps having too many Bad Luck people around compounds the effect? Or maybe Kingpin fears the power’s subtle nature, and doesn’t want to pass it around too much. Perhaps a few other limited people are given the power, but they only come into the story on rare occasions, like when Felicia needs to deal with a Shadow Archetype.

So Felicia becomes the Black Cat, and becomes an apprentice to her father. She battles Spider-Man, but isn’t entirely committed to the idea. She’s a good person, and doesn’t like the Kingpin or the way his empire hurts people. But she’s loyal to her family, and if she doesn’t do something about Spider-Man, her dad will be killed. She’s also juggling her college like, because she wants to eventually get out of being a criminal.

This all gets complicated when Felicia’s Bad Luck ability sets into motion a sequence of events that end with her finding out that Peter is Spider-Man, with Spidey unaware.

So we settle into our storytelling engine, where Spidey encounters some crime or adventure. If it doesn’t involve the Kingpin, then Black Cat helps him out because she wants to protect her buddy Peter. If the Kingpin is involved, Spidey and Black Cat can find themselves on opposite sides; in those cases, Black Cat obviously is trying to hold back against Spidey, and because he can sense this, he holds back against her, too. He even becomes rather taken with her.

This frustrates Felicia to no end, for obvious reasons.

Throw in the complication that, in their civilian lives, Flash is dealing with his family history and trying to be a better person as he goes through college. He tries again with Felicia, who both feels bad for him and is frustrated that Peter is more interested in her alter-ego. And there’s the outgoing Mary Jane Watson who seems interested in Peter, and he in her.

A change in the dynamic can happen if Peter discovers Black Cat’s secret identity. Perhaps he doesn’t realize that she knows who he is, and she doesn’t know that he knows about her in turn, so hilarity ensues as they’re both unaware that they could end all these complications with a very simple conversation.

Another 'end of an era’ switch-up can happen if the Kingpin gets taken down, but not necessarily Felicia’s father with him. I like the idea of replacing Kingpin as the big bad with Norman Osborn, and Osborn discovering Peter’s identity can mess around things. Perhaps Felicia’s father even teams up with Osborn, dragging her into the conflict. The love triangle could be messed up by Harry Osborn getting involved and pursuing Felicia or the Black Cat- or both!

I’m thinking we also need to eventually do something for the Black Costume Saga, so that Flash has the opportunity to become Agent Venom and get involved in the super-heroics that his childhood friends are perpetrating. It would be interesting if Agent Venom is working for SHIELD or somesuch government agency, and both Spider-Man and Black Cat can be wanted felons by that point, so they’re both fighting Flash without realizing it. Bonus points if Flash’s superiors include a corrupt character who is running a criminal sideline.

I’m keeping to the spirit of this idea as a comic book, so I don’t have a definite endgame. Obviously, Peter and Felicia would have to become fully aware of each other’s identities and knowledge. Perhaps Flash’s death is what inspires them to finally try to commit to each other, or else the defeat of a major villain, which might wind up being Felicia’s father as their ultimate enemy. I don’t think I’d have them give up their superheroics afterward, but it probably depends on all the drama and trauma they’ve suffered through at that point. Since the speculative scenario is that I’m writing a real comic book with this storyline, I need to keep my options open for either getting canceled after twelves issues or going over a hundred.

The main appeal of this kind of series, I think, is that the female lead gets to be involved in both the civilian soap opera stuff and the superhero drama. It’s always hard to get the love interest involved with the superheroics, Lois Lane being the exception to prove the rule. In every other case, I loathe it when the Reporter job is used, because it feels so derivative of Lois.

The main weakness of this series, I’m thinking, is that excuses have to be generated to keep Spidey and Black Cat from just talking things through and teaming up. Their relationship needs to remain in a constant state of volatility, although sometimes at a low simmer, and that can become contrived.

Also, as shown by my plans here, the end-ship is going to be telegraphed from the start. I think it’s futile to try to make the Black Cat a dark horse in the romantic race like Mary Jane was, because MJ’s success was an accidental result of many contributing factors, including the transition from Stan Lee to Gerry Conway as the primary Spider-Man writer, and then the promotional mandate that had the newspaper comic strip’s marriage between Peter and MJ forced on the main comic line.

Also, I’m not one for real love triangles in fiction. Done right, it just seems like a good way to alienate at least half the audience at the end, while being done poorly is just going to make the ending obvious anyway. It’s fine to throw in spoilers every now and then, but any romance I write is going to end in a predictable way, and the audience is just there to enjoy the ride.

[lunebinnie]

(1/14)I am so sorry for taking so long! (I also had to spend a lot of time studying this week bc I had my first exam for my Anatomy Lab on Wednesday... And then we had our first exam for *Lecture* Thursday (which also was the day I had a bunch of powerpoints due for my very intimidating adviser...) and then I had to substitute teach all day Friday (and then I meant to respond sooner but I got so busy 😭) so yeah I completely understand about school getting in the way no worries abt it!)

And also sleeping in on a day off when you’ve been busy studying lately is completely valid hon 👌 I hope that your midterms go well and that you’re able to stay healthy and take care of yourself in the midst of preparing! (not that you wouldn’t, I just have a bad habit of neglecting things like healthy sleeping and eating habits when I get caught up studying, so hopefully you’re not like me in that way) And yeah me too! I mean on the one hand I understand *why* they have that limit

3)If u could just send as many as u want there would be so much more spam and ppl would definitely abuse that. But also?? Um? I have a chronic condition called ‘Can'tShuttheFuckUp-itis’? 🤷 This policy is so discriminatory towards people like me who suffer from this crippling condition! I feel oppressed honestly 🙄 tumblr rlly has something against ppl just trying to get to know each other huh? Lol, but at least now we know why it eats them I’ll be sure to try to prevent that in the future

4)And oh my gosh that’s so cool! I’m super jealous!! 😮 lol. I wish they hosted kpop nights at my local bar! 😭😭 But no, I’m here at my little state college in a little 2 mi2 town just under pop 5500 (and idek if that’s before or after counting college students) in the middle of the 'farm zone’ of my state. All we get is country night @Riley’s 😩 RIP. But ya I wish I had more ppl around me who were into kpop! So far I’ve only met 3 ppl who listen to it. One was that roommate I told you about

5)One is just a casual listener who isn’t really into 3rd gen groups and mostly just listens to Girl’s Generation but that’s valid, and one isn’t even rlly a fan of any groups in particular, she just puts the kpop station on when she studies bc she says she needs music but if it’s in English she gets distracted, lol And omg that is insane! $500?? And 5 copies of the same album? 😲 (Says the girl who’s been a Monbebe for a hot 2 months and has already bought three (3??) Monsta X T-shirts… 😂

6)in my defense tho one of them was only $10 bc it was Black Friday? And u can’t blame me, Hot Topic is my krypotonite lmao) but yeah I already feel guilty about spending 30+ dollars on one copy of an album (thx international shipping) That’s so wild. And yeah I don’t get why ppl feel the need go out of their way just to insult other ppl’s music taste. I’m also pretty self conscious abt sharing my music taste and obviously the way everyone around me talks abt kpop has made me even moreso now 🙃

7) I haven’t gotten into too many groups yet bc I’m trying to go slowly and focus on getting into one group at a time but I do have a long list of groups I plan on getting into eventually! NU'EST is one that I’ve heard some of their songs on my Spotify based on my listening history and they’re on the list haha 😂 And omg I feel really similarly about Got7! I tried to get into them after I got into Monsta X and right before I got into Astro and although I did really like some of their songs

8)I haven’t really been able to get into their music as much as MX and Astro’s yet. I do think they seem like a really fun group in terms of personality though. As for the comeback I know right?? I mean I know a lot of ppl were freaking out abt the comeback being a 'sexy’ and how it wasn’t gonna be the same cute Astro we all love anymore. But they filled the MV with flowers and glitter and still managed to make it sexy as fuck! This album has a very different vibe but it still felt like them

9) They managed to pull off a more mature and sexy concept while still staying true to themselves and I’m so here for it! I don’t know if I could really pick a favorite era because I love them all! I mean Spring Up was an excellent era and every era since then has been great. They really don’t know how to have any bad concepts or make any bad songs huh? Lol. Since I’m still pretty new I really love the title tracks since I’ve heard them the most. (I have listened to their full discography

10)But I haven’t listened to their Bsides enough to pick out my favorites from those) I also really love Again though! The first time I saw the dance practice I was super into it and then I looked up the lyrics and was like 'this is supposed to be sad/regretful song it has no reason to be this much of a BOP?!’ 😂 I have such a hard time picking favorites though. Since All Light is new though I actually have listened to it enough times to pick some 'non-title song favorites’ from there haha

11) Other than All Night (which is great, obvi) I also really like Starry Sky, Moonwalk and Role Play 😂 and Bloom is so pretty oh my god! 😭😭 the album is great and has no bad songs but those are the ones I particularly like. I feel u about the dances honestly. I think that’s actually what drew me to kpop initially. I mean I like listening to the songs ofc but it wasn’t until after I actually watched an MV/saw the choreography that I actually was like… Oh shit I’m gonna have to be a fan now

12) It was the visual aspect that really made me want to be a kpop fan bc I haven’t really seen that level of performance with any western music. Which isn’t to say I think all western music is bad but I think it’s really impressive to watch kpop groups singing and also doing really impressive choreography and performing at the same time. Plus that’s the part I can show my family and say 'even if you don’t like the music because of the language barrier you have to admit they’re talented dancers’

13)And yes! With Astro especially I think the dance practices rlly succinctly capture the reason why I love them so much. They are *super* talented but they also have such great chemistry and u can rlly tell that they just love each other and have so much fun together! I love a family of six hardworking dorks! 🤧💗 lol. And yeah it’s too bad that neither of are able to see them this cb ☹️ (I also did the 'hypothetically…’ research but it wouldn’t have worked out 😒) I hope you’re right though!

14)Hopefully the success of this comeback is the catalyst to Astro getting more of the attention they deserve and there will be many more opportunities to see them in the future! (Although it is too bad we won’t be able to see live performances from this cb, since it’s so pretty 😭 tho with their track record I’m sure future cb’s will be just as good lol) But what about you? Do you have any favorite songs from this cb in particular? Talk again soon! (I’ll try 2 b better @ responding 😭) -AHA

FUCKKK okay so after like a million years of midterms + 2 days straight of sleeping ya girl is BACK to answer these asks after getting through the hurdle of copying and pasting and italicizing 14 asks onto one response on my phone. Did I perhaps fail at least 3 of my midterms? Quite probably. Do I have the energy to care atm? No. Did I need to get away from everything and fly to Boston to visit my friend for reading week? Yes.

How did all your exams go? That sounds crazy though! I hope you got through everything ok!

Tbh I have the same unhealthy habits too, I essentially became nocturnal and lived on like one meal a day + snacks and coffee 😭 fr, I would be writing my midterm from 11:30-1:30, go home to eat, sleep from 4-7pm, then wake up to study all night for the next one, and repeat,,,,, I’m like an actual mess tbh

Honestly as much as I’ve enjoyed the Aroha secret admirer thing (it was sooo nice getting to meet new people) rn I’m just so glad that post-reveal we don’t have to deal with tumblr ask limits and writing entire essay responses all in one go.

Honestly 3 shirts isn’t even THAT bad especially if they weren’t all like ordered from overseas so they wouldn’t have been that expensive. When I went to the Myeongdong underground shopping centre I went craaaazy with Kpop merch despite stanning (at that point, pretty much only) BTS for a whole 3 weeks, so I ended up coming back with 2 albums, a bunch of stickers, a photocard pack (also bonus: got an Astro one too) and like a BUNCH of bt21 stuff. Speaking of, my All Light album finally came in!! I ended up getting a Moonbin, MJ, Jinjin, and Sanha photocard plus the a Rocky lyric booklet and ik I basically got THE best set for someone who loves all of them w my whole heart 😩✊ but I’m still sad I didn’t get any Eunwoo cards since he was my first Astro bias 😭 it’s soooooo pretty I love it sm and like lowkey I’ll probably end up buying more of their albums anyway oopsss

Speaking of Monsta X btw, I heard their new song and I thought it was really good! What did you think of it?

Regarding favourite songs, I swear my moods change so much, so it’s pretty common for me to not love a song at first and sort of rediscover it months later, and tbh that’s kind of what happened with Innocent Love, Baby, and Again. In this album though, I’d say my favourite Bsides are probably be Bloom, 1 in a Million, and Heart Brew Love.

And I toootally agree with the performance aspect of kpop being the thing to attract me it, even before I got really into it I’d sometime like to watch dance practices (and lowkey even learned a bunch of choreos a with my friend last term just bc we had access to a frequently empty dance studio). It’s just super impressive to see people singing and dancing at the same time mostly live, and for the same reasons I’m also super into musicals as well, which isn’t so say I think like lip syncing or just dancing/singing is bad, it’s just refreshing to see it done all at once, you know?

Also side story it turns out that I actually DO know another Astro fan irl!! Her older sister (who I’m closer to bc we’re closer in age) is the one who bought the million got7 albums. Even though she’s been a fan of Astro since before debut, her sister doesn’t even know she listens to kpop since she was afraid of getting roasted at first, but now she’s in too deep to say anything. I’d mentioned liking Astro to her before, but she didn’t say anything bc she didn’t want to expose herself in front of her sister but on Friday I saw her while her sister was out and she was like “oh btw here’s a secret I went to the Toronto fanmeet last year but my sister doesn’t know” I was SHOOK but tbh I’m just super glad now to have someone to talk about it and go to concerts with (I’m banking on the fact that they’re coming back)

Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH for waiting 2747287482 million years for my response, and it was so great to finally (officially) meet you Kjersten!

@kaptain-k-pop

[thecinephale]

Brushing the Trans Away: ’Ace Ventura’ and ‘Pose’

Have you seen Ace Venture: Pet Detective? How about Family Guy? The Naked Gun 33 1/3? The Crying Game?

Only one of those is known for its transgender character. Or, rather, it’s known for a ten second clip where one character sees another character’s penis and then goes into the bathroom to vomit. The rest of the movie is actually pretty touching. It’s not the best trans representation, but it’s also far from the penis-forward marketing campaign Harvey Weinstein launched in 1992.

It’s not the other three titles listed above.

Maybe you don’t even remember there being trans characters in those three titles. Maybe like me you haven’t seen those two movies or an episode of that show for several years.

But you’ve probably seen them, at least one of them.

What these titles have in common is a scene where a cisgender man finds out that a woman he kissed is trans. In each instance the man vomits. A riff on The Crying Game certainly, but without any of the tenderness and forgiveness and love that fills the 45 minutes following “the twist.”

The scene in Ace Ventura is quite extended. And for some reason the vomiting isn’t really what stuck with me all these years. Nor the burning of his clothes, nor the crying naked in the shower, grossly meant to mirror the common sexual assault survivor trope. What’s stuck with me all these years is the teeth brushing. The vigorous, desperate teeth brushing followed by the gorging on a tube of toothpaste. Trying so very hard to scrub her out of his mouth.

(Watch the scene at the bottom of this post.)

***

After just one episode, Pose, the new show on FX, has done so much. Hell, before it premiered it did so much. Just seeing the posters around New York City has personally improved my day to day mood these past few weeks.

I feel uncomfortable labeling things “firsts.” So often “first” really means first to be recognized by cis straight white people of a certain economic class. Trans people have existed since people have existed and while cinema is an artform that lends itself to gatekeeping there have still been trans artists telling trans stories long before our current era.  

But Pose is certainly the first major network TV show with this many trans actors and this many trans creatives. And it’s especially exciting that it’s about trans women of color, since the shows that have probably come closest, Sense8 and Transparent, centered white trans women. It’s thrilling to watch actors who I’d mostly seen in supporting roles be front and center, to see actors who I’d seen on stage or in readings or in a web series, get work that’s worthy of their talents at this production level.

I have no grasp of what Pose will accomplish but I’m so grateful already. No show should have the pressure of being the “first” nor that of changing any sort of landscape. I just hope these amazing artists get to keep telling their stories on their own terms.

*** Okay, but what does this have to do with Ace Ventura? Well, there’s a scene in the first episode of Pose that felt like a cleansing of that damaging cinematic memory. I don’t know if it was a direct response or just a coincidence but my brain immediately made the connection and felt relief.

One of two requisite cis white male characters is Stan, a young father of two recently employed by the future 45th president of the United States. Stan is also (secretly) drawn to trans women, or maybe he’s just drawn to Angel, played by the amazing Indya Moore (watch this year’s Saturday Church to see Moore and Pose lead Mj Rodriguez steal all their scenes). Angel is a sex worker and Stan picks her up one evening. They spend a lovely evening together, lying next to one another in an upscale hotel room talking about their hopes and dreams. When he drops her off they share a passionate, tender kiss.

Cut to Stan in his bathroom pulling an Ace Ventura, brushing his teeth like attraction and plaque are one in the same. This isn’t a pleasant moment. But it’s unpleasant in a markedly different way than the scene in Ace Ventura. There’s no joke. There’s just shame. Instead of the medium framing behind Ventura, we’re tight on Stan’s mouth. We feel the harshness of the brushing. And it feels like such a self-destructive, and absurd, response to the touching scenes we just witnessed.

(Watch the scene at the bottom of this post.)

Now there’s an argument that he’s only reacting this way because he feels he’s cheated on his wife. That’s a part of it. But it ignores the stigma in our society around attraction to trans women, a stigma that results in several deaths each year of trans women of color.

***

That’s the key point here. A movie like Ace Ventura may have filled me with self-loathing, it may have contributed to how long it took to come out. But that’s the least of it. Scenes like that, language like that, contributes to death. Straight men who feel insecure about their sexuality are incredibly dangerous.

Maybe it’s odd in a show as celebratory and emotional and exciting as Pose to single out a harsh moment featuring a cis white guy. But this moment, and its connection to the moment in Ace Ventura, clarified to me just what this show can accomplish, along with the work of other trans film artists like Sydney Freeland, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Yance Ford, Rhys Ernst, Zackary Drucker, and Silas Howard, who directed a later episode of Pose and has a movie, A Kid Like Jake, out right now (not to mention sooo many others).

We can write back and write forward. We can reframe our lives and the lives of those we know in a way that’s real or aspirational or both. We won’t be able to change how trans and gender nonconforming bodies were portrayed in the first hundred years of mainstream cinema, but we can determine how we’re portrayed in the next hundred.

Pose is one giant step.