#i mentioned it and he's so dramatic like 616 is the most drama

[movedto-mastcrmarksman]

@darehearts gets a silly thing for the 616 cause clint barton is so nosy

So this is the CORNBALL that the Avengers' very own Carol Danvers was FUTZING around with. Clint takes it as his personal duty to assess the man; after all he's selected himself one of Carol's best friends (most of the time; superheroes were complicated creatures) and as big brother Avenger (he was like seventh out of all avengers ever).

CAPTAIN KIRK; he has read his file at SHIELD (he still has some of Maria's access codes). He's impressive, but Clint's not that impressed yet. The purple clad man squinting at him behind his sunglasses and making a HMM; in truth he only knew Carol had a boyfriend because Tony let it slip. ❝ I'm on good terms with Carol's bestest friend, and I'm sure she'd gladly help me hide your body. ❞ That's quite possibly the better of things he could have said but it's so rare his friends leave their significant others unattended around him.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Fake Red Chapters 1-3 Thoughts

Well this is new, in more ways than one.

 I don’t think I’ve ever posted thoughts on a manga before, Spider-Man or otherwise.

I’ve read precious little of the medium so I’m not overly familiar with a lot of it’s tropes and mannerisms, thus my post here is coming at it from a mostly Western perspective. For instance I can’t honestly say if the art is good or bad or mediocre. It seemed fine to me. Apart from one action scene I could always tell what was going on and even in the action scene in question I simply might not have been experienced enough reading right to left to follow it all.

And of course we need to account for stuff being lost in translation. I am uncertain if the intention was truly to have as many F-bombs in this manga as wound up being there.

The highly serialized nature of manga can make doing posts like this difficult as you are so often seeing a tiny slice of the story. Truth be told I’m not sure if I will be doing more posts like this in the future at all, though I do intend to keep up with this manga when I get the chance, but it’s lower on the reading list after current 616 stuff.

Anyway how about the story.

The story is interesting.

Basically rather than being about Peter Parker it’s about this teenager called Yuu. He got into a good school but struggles to keep up with the work and also has no friends, as such he skips school at times to hang out at a bouldering gym where he can practice climbing which makes him feel like Spider-Man. One day after refraining from helping a fellow student getting beaten up in an alley he finds a discarded Spider-Man costume and upon examining it at home learns it is the real Spider-Man’s costume complete with web-shooters.

Whilst wearing it in public one time citizens mistake him for the real thing and direct him towards a burning building where he helps save a young boy. Later on after seeing a classmate called Emma (whom he has a crush on) perform a particularly difficult climb at his gym (and crashing hard when talking to her) Yuu again dons the costume when Emma is kidnapped by a group of criminals. He barely survives and the next day at school Emma notices Yuu has cuts on his arm just like Spider-Man did.

Whilst all this is going on Yuu is wondering where Spider-Man has gone and Mary Jane is doing the same about Peter Parker. Her worries are alleviated after getting a phone call from a mysterious individual who seems to be pretending to Peter whilst watching the real McCoy on a video screen. Peter is in fact wandering the sewers as Venom!

I found the story pretty interesting as an AU goes. A lot of that has to do with seeing a Japanese spin on Spider-Man but one that isn’t really reinventing the wheel for the character.

Spider-Man of course has a history of Japanese interpretations. The most famous is the 1970s TV version (referred to as Supaidāman) who beyond the suit and powers bore little resemblance to the canon character. But there was also Spider-Man from the Mangaverse (a 2000s imprint that tried to capitalize on the anime and manga boom of the early-mid 2000s) and even an older 1970s Spider-Man manga which I hear was pretty bad.

I’m only vaguely familiar with all three I must admit, but from what little I know what makes Spidey Fake Red stand out is that it is not attempting to portray the world of Spider-Man from Spider-Man’s own POV and reinventing who he is as a result.

Instead by having the protagonist be an original character (with certain vague similarities to early days 616 Spider-Man) the author Yusuke Osawa can present for us a version of Spider-Man that cuts closer to the 616 version whilst still allowing himself the freedom of embellishing the story however he wants.

In a sense Fake Red is more about the broad idea of Spider-Man as opposed to specific nuances of Peter Parker but it still uses those elements to add some sparkle and intrigue to the story.

This makes a lot of sense as, and maybe I’m wrong on this, the primary audience for this manga is Japanese people and their access to translated Spider-Man comic stories I imagine isn’t that great. I mean even in America and other primarily English speaking territories we don’t have legal access to the majority of Spider-Man issues, whether they be in trade or digital format. So I’d guess the average person likely to check out this comic in Japan probably doesn’t have just general knowledge about stuff like One More Day or Superior Spider-Man.

Jump back to the 1970s though and that state of affairs would be even worse. No internet, probably no translated Marvel comics at all and with Spidey being less than 20 years old and not yet the icon he is today you can see why the original manga and TV show opted to make something mostly different from the canon to essentially introduce the character to Japanese audiences.

In 2019 though that’s not the case. Thanks chiefly to the movies Spidey is a global icon to the degree that everyone has SOME knowledge about his lore even if it is via osmosis alone.

That’s the smart thing about how the manga plays with Spider-Man lore, it has some subtle winks to deeper lore for fans but mostly it uses stuff that just about everyone knows.

Peter Parker, Aunt May, her house, Mary Jane, Jameson, the Bugle, Venom. There is even a reference to the Life Foundation and the first shot seems to be evoking the famous Spider-Man 3 image of Spidey crying on the church.

All that stuff is either present in the majority of Spider-Man media, present in recent Spidey media (the Life Foundation was in Venom 2018) or present in famous enough Spidey media. The latter would be the Spider-Man 3 reference and not for nothing but Spider-Man 3 both broke box office records and had it’s premiere in Japan so maybe it was something Japanese audiences could be relied upon to remember well enough.

In a sense by being about the idea of being Spider-Man this manga is sort of similar to Into the Spider-Verse but still very, very distinct. Yuu lacks powers, Peter Parker isn’t dead but rather missing and is set up as at least one of the major antagonists of the story.

It’s all quite different and very interesting to most AUs...and it bears mentioning much more interesting than Abramazing Spider-Man has been thus far.

I think what’s most compelling to me is that we’re seeing in a sense a typical Spider-Man status quo but with the focus shifted onto a stranger. This isn’t reinventing Spider-Man as having a giant robot or as a kind of douchebag or as a sort of ninja. Spider-Man is mostly Spider-Man, he might not live in New York (it’s unclear where this is set) and the city might generally love him (which is a situation more to make Yuu’s journey dramatic) but it’s really not a million miles away from current Spidey or 1970s Spidey or Raimi movie Spidey even.

As such the drama I think lies less in just enjoying the insanity of something so far away from canon Spider-Man or seeing how the canon will be reinterpreted and more in the tension of knowing what Yuu is going to go up against.

And I don’t just mean Venom, because there is that mysterious guy impersonating Peter. I suspect it’s Mysterio, not just because he was in FFH but also because a street sign referenced ASM 13 which was his first appearance. And this would fit in with his abilities and M.O.

So yeah this was fun and I’d recommend checking it out.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I want to talk about the rumour of Kraven being from Wakanda.

Now I hope in the past I’ve been very clear about my stance when it comes to casting actors of different races, ethnicities, etc from their comic book counterparts.

To repeat myself I think it’s fine so long as the character in question doesn’t demand to be of any particular race or ethnicity (for the sake of argument let’s discount being an American/New Yorker) and the actor is a good choice for the role. As a follow up I do fundamentally disagree with actively seeking out to racebend characters 99% of the time, it should simply be that every actor who would be a good fit, regardless of their race and so on, should be looked at and then the best person for the job hired.

This then brings us to Kraven and for what I am about to say let’s presume for a moment the rumours are true.

For Kraven casting a black actor in the role is rather dependent upon what direction they are going to adopt for the character.

In a sense there are two Kravens from the 616 universe. I’m going to refer to them as pre and post KLH Kraven. Pre-KLH Kraven, as the name would imply, is Kraven as he was typically portrayed prior to Kraven’s Last Hunt and post-KLH Kraven is how he was portrayed during and after that story, which would include not just stories where he was alive but also flashback stories, appearances as a ghost or vision and also his metaphorical ‘ghost’, e.g. how characters talked about him after he died.

Whilst neither version was portrayed exactly the same way in every story, more often than not they had a consistency to them.

Pre-KLH Kraven was really nothing more than a B or C list villain who’s gimmick was simply being a jungle themed big game hunter who was a take upon the classic ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ archetypical antagonist.

And he was a jobber. Really his shining moment was in ASM #47, a story remembered more for it’s supporting cast drama and Romita artwork than for it’s super villain plot, but the latter (and thus the super villain in question) became memorable via association. It was also a time when Kraven scored essentially an unmitigated victory against Spider-Man but got his comeuppance shortly thereafter. Really Kraven’s role might’ve been played by almost any villain and amounted to practically the same thing.

In truth he was something of a joke character no one took seriously as a threat and was a villain few people, if anyone, particularly liked.

Post-KLH Kraven though is a different story altogether. The unimpressive reputation of pre-KLH Kraven helped to fuel the success of this iteration as in Kraven’s Last Hunt a villain considered a joke suddenly became deadly dangerous and effective. It wasn’t just in terms of the physical threat he posed though or even his deranged plan. Kraven’s personality got a makeover. Instead of overwriting what we’d known of him before J.M. DeMatteis expanded upon what we knew about Kraven and constructed a truly complex and nuanced character, who’s motivations and actions were understandable even as they were clearly deranged and insane.

Across just six issues (arguably just one even) Kraven the Hunter’s reputation was totally hanged. He became a contender amongst Spider-Man’s most effective and formidable foes and to many a fan favourite. This reputation was further fuelled by the legacy of Kraven’s Last Hunt consequently leading to further mentions and appeareces of Kraven usually being reframed through the lens of his more complex and darker Kraven’s Last Hunt characterization. This was even the case with the Chameleon, a character strongly associated with Kraven who was used in a very ambitious revenge scheme upon Spider-Man motivated by Kraven’s death, and used his ‘ghost’ as a weapon against Spider-Man. In the story Chameleon received his own share of character development as his backstory was revealed as inherently linked with Kraven.

The key to DeMatteis’ decision to use Kraven, to understanding the character and to developing him (and by extension the Chameleon) was the fact that he was Russian. DeMatteis was a fan of Russian literature and connected with it a lot so it was through that lens he expanded Kraven’s character. Rather than being a big game hunter who happened to be of Russian descent*DeMatteis revealed Kraven was a Russian aristocrat who’s lose of his home, wealth and ultimately his family in the 1917 Russian Revolution was the key to his embracing of a more primal lifestyle in the animal kingdom and his obsession with Spider-Man.**

The Russian influence was so important that on occasion Kraven’s name would at times be stylized with Russian alphabet characters.

In other words post-KLH Kraven is the more popular and dramatically compelling rendition of the character and his Russian origins are integral to that.

You likely see my point in all this.

If the MCU adopts the pre-KLH rendition of Kraven casting a black actor won’t really be a problem as his ethnicity is mostly irrelevant to the character.

However if they MCU adopts the post-KLH Kraven then casting a black actor would be a problem as his Russian aristocratic heritage is inherently vital to who this rendition of Kraven is; and unless I am very much mistaken there were no black Russian aristocrats.***

The question then becomes which version should the MCU adopt.

And frankly the answer should be pretty obvious. Even if you wouldn’t commit to a Kraven’s Last Hunt story specifically the post-KLH rendition of Kraven informed by his Russian heritage has proven itself inherently more dramatically compelling and effective. Pre-KLH Kraven is really just a gimmick villain with little substance, making him a Wakandan might improve upon that to an extent but why bother when the comics already have a more compelling version of the character to drawn from. Making him a Wakandan also perpetuates a systemic issue with MCU Spider-Man, that his corner of the MCU is dictated more by the wider MCU than...well...Spider-Man himself.

If you examine most of the Phase 1 movies, or in fact most of the MCU origin films you will see that most everything in them is built around and flows from the central character. Captain America the First Avenger might use Asgardian technology as a plot device, but fundamentally the movie revolves around Steve Rogers and everything is first and foremost connected to him. Same thing with Thor 2011 and Iron Man 2008 and Doctor Strange 2016.

The Spider-Man films have been this weird exception to the rule as Spider-Man himself and his world has to a very large extent revolved around other characters or the wider MCU, typically Iron Man or Iron Man associated elements. Case in point both of his villains’ have been designed as dark reflections of Iron Man and their motivates stemming from him, their ultimate plan revolving around the acquiring of his technology. If MCU Kraven is a Wakandan and uses Wakandan technology, and presumably will be motivated due to factors connected to Wakanda, we might be not be usuing Iron Man elements but the underlying problem would remain the same.

It’s Spider-Man’s characters and Spider-Man’s world essentially filtered through the lens of the MCU rather than organically integrated  within the MCU. It is allowing the MCU to lead and dictate the character and his world rather than reconciling the creative integrity of the latter within the pre-established world of the MCU.

*A fact likely established either because the Chameleon was Russian recruited Kraven and/or in the 1960s Russian was shorthand for villain.

**I should also note that DeMatteis explained that the source of Kraven’s powers alter retarded his aging hence he could look so young in spite of being born before 1917. This was revealed alongside the fact his origins date back to 1917.  

***I’d also add that his dynamic with the Chameleon, already established in the MCU with an Eastern European flavour, (though his skillset means you need not be constrained by that) would be inherently different (and inherently lesser frankly) if he is neither Kraven’s brother nor his lower class punching bag. So far in the MCU (and Black Panther fans will need to tell me if this is also true in the comics) apart from the royal family there doesn’t seem to be a class system in Wakanda wherein there is anything akin to an aristocracy. One might even argue the lack of one would fit with the notion of it being so advanced.