#i say venom even though in this concept he looks a lot more like carnage instead but whatever

[maythearo]

Yahoo! Scarabia into the spider-verse concept! That was way too difficult to design, idk why I got stuck on it for so long. I wanna make a comic cover piece with these two soon. I'm in my atsv era.

And UHH apparently Earth 912 is already officially taken by marvel comics but. Let's pretend Earth (0) 912 is different, idk 💀 I just took Kalim and Jamil's birth dates for their universe numbers lol

Anyone who might want to use these designs to make your own art, feel free to do so, no need to ask for permission! as long as there's credit somewhere kwndiwbfjebfj (I consider this the same I'm doing with the MH AU, I don't really own this universe idea or anything, just the designs and hcs I make up for it according to what I personally imagine of these AUs to be 👍👍)

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man 1994 and Me

I have no idea how I first discovered Spider-Man the Animated Series. I know it wasn’t the first Spider-Man THING I ever encountered. That was some other Spidey show but I’ve checked them all and have no idea which one it was. But as a kid I didn’t know there was more than one show. I didn’t even know Spider-Man was more than a cartoon!

 So I conflated the then current 1994 cartoon with whatever show I’d seen and by extension with Spider-Man as a whole.

 To me back then Spider-Man WAS that show. The idea of comics, movies, video games and everything else never occurred to me and when I did discover them in my mind they weren’t the ‘real’ Spider-Man.

The ‘real’ Spider-Man was this show.

 Thing is I never knew when it was on. I just knew it was on Fox Kids the cable channel. And my family didn’t have cable. So I spent a long time hoping and praying every weekend that maybe my folks would take me to one of our family friends or relatives who did, and that they would have Fox Kids in their package and that Spider-Man would be on when I was there.

 Everyone in my family and at school I was hungry to see that show, and so they got me a VHS collecting 3 episodes for my birthday. They also taped one and a half episodes from a Saturday morning show that aired the cartoon before I had to go to Greek school.

 As a result of what I can only describe as playing those tapes on loop I can practically quote ‘Night of the Lizard’, ‘The Sting of the Scorpion’, ‘The Menace of Mysterio’, ‘Make a Wish’ and ‘Attack of the Octobot’.

 Whilst the latter two episodes are not well regarded, and I sympathise as to why (they’re basically a subpar adaptation of ‘The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man’), when I was the target demographic they really spoke to me.

 And not in a ‘kids don’t know taste’ kinda way. The plot concerned Spider-Man visiting the bedroom of a kid who was a huge Spider-Man fan, hanging out with them, confiding his secrets to them, going on an adventure with them and ultimately that kid restoring both Spider-Man’s memory of himself and resolve to BE a hero.

 Can you spell ‘wish fulfilment’?

 During one fateful trip to a family friend’s house (who always had the best stuff) I caught the two episodes which are probably the lasting legacy of the whole show, ‘The Alien Costume’ Parts 1-2.

 For all young and impressionable viewers I think these episodes left an indelible mark on them, along with the follow up episode.

 Try if you will to imagine yourself NOT knowing Spider-Man wears any other kind of costume besides his red and blue one. Then imagine the idea of Spider-Man...as the bad guy. Not just the bad guy...but scary. Then imagine he’s made bad, and made scary because his clothes are literally making him that way and forcing themselves on him, even when he doesn’t want them to. Then imagine seeing an even badder, even scarier Spider-Man, but you don’t get a good look at him. you just know he’s ‘out there’.

 Now imagine you are like 6 years old seeing all that.

 For me and new Spider-Man fans like me, our experience with the black costume and Venom was about as close to what the original readers of the 1980s went through as possible.

 What helped make these episodes so impressionable was the fact that my mind was filling in the blanks for what the ‘evil Spider-Man’ might look like.

 Then a while later, by complete chance at an entirely different friend’s house, she showed me a video that had the fabled third part of the story and so, like every 90s kid, I became entranced by Venom!

 And you know what, he was everything my childhood imagination had dreamed up and more. This wasn’t just a scary looking guy, with a scary attitude; this was a guy who was literally stalking our hero. As a kid you might’ve felt a certain comfort from Spider-Man. He was older than you, he was the hero and he was powerful. You either wanted to be him, or wanted to befriend him. But in this episode, suddenly he was as scared and as vulnerable as you were.

 Following those three episodes I spent a lot of time alternating between fear and fascination for Venom and the black costume, and I longed to see those episodes again somehow, even when I eventually did get to see the show more regularly.

 That happened when my family had to move in with my grandparents for 2 years, although I also caught the debut of Black Cat before that. Since Felicia was in whatever Spidey cartoon I first saw waaaaaaaaaay back I sort of knew the character and liked her.

 Anyway, back to my grandparents, during that time they got cable and eventually Fox Kids. So finally one of my childhood dreams was fulfilled and one day I taped a marathon of Spider-Man episodes beginning with the last half of the second part of the epic Spidey/X-Men crossover and ending during the first half of the first half of the also epic Spidey/Daredevil crossover!

 Again, I rewatched this almost religiously and since I didn’t quite understand the magic of the remote, I wound up sitting through the ads too and thus I’m still compelled to invest in the Chelsea Building Society and the 1997 Christmas catalogue.

 Not long after I rented a VHS from Blockbuster (remember those?) containing the Alien Costume/Venom episodes and soon committed those to memory too.

 Finally in now being able to watch the show regularly almost everyday I wound up seeing every other episode too, and seeing them like 5 times or something.

 The first of these episodes I really remember was the incredibly dumb ‘Partners’ wherein I was happy to see Felicia and Scorpion again, and got introduced to the Vulture for the first time. Also I got introduced to Silvermane but he was less than dignified in the episode. If you’ve seen it you will know what I mean.

 Among the most impressionable were the Carnage centric episodes and Secret Wars stuff. But I still fondly remember one morning seeing Spider Wars part 1.

 Mind = blown.

 Aunt May is dead. Green Goblin and Hobgoblin are together. New York is wrecked. Everyone hates Spider-Man, even Robbie! And this is all because of...Spider-Man!?

Another Spider-Man!

Another Spider-Man combined...with Carnage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It helped that, though I didn’t realize he was a different character, I’d recently gotten a toy featuring the Spider-Ben costume and so when Spider-Carnage in an incredibly similar costume showed up, suddenly what I’d regarded as a dumb alternate costume action figure became startlingly relevant.

And the hits kept coming.

There’re even MORE Spider-Mans?

Spider-Man with Doc Ock’s arms!

Man-Spider!

And who is this blonde Scarlet Spider dude?

Ben Reilly and this whole storyline wound up being more important to me than I realized as around this time the Clone Saga was being reprinted, thus I was picking up my first Spider-Man comics off the back of recognizing both the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Ben costumes.

The next night I saw the final episode.

Of course I didn’t know it was the end. I thought for sure there was more coming and if I obediently watched enough of the reruns someday I’d see the fabled (and totally imaginary) next episode where Spidey finally reunites with Mary Jane.

However else I felt about the episode at the time, the story bears the distinction of introducing me to Stan Lee himself as he made his greatest ever cameo in the episode.

At the time it was confusing and surreal. The idea of anyone actually CREATING Spider-Man, or fiction in general, was a foreign concept to me. It grew more surreal as via osmosis I gradually began seeing this ‘Stanley guy’ in other places...except he was REAL, not a cartoon!

After being frustrated by the lack of follow up, and being bored by having seen the show so many times over, I began to...not exactly grow out of the show but began to sour on it a bit.

And upon entering the comics, realizing the show was actually based on THEM and regarding every deviation from them as ‘wrong’, I began to actually hate the show.

For the next 10 years or so I longed for another Spider-Man show, a better and more accurate one.

I went back and forth between disliking and lightly enjoying the show until about 2012.

I might not have many kind things to say about the Marc Webb Spidey movies. But after several years of distancing myself from Spider-Man and pretty much comics in general, the hype for the movie got me back in the mood and slowly but surely I disappeared back into the rabbit hole and this time got in deeper than ever before. Part of that was rewatching the show in it’s entirety from start to finish.

Initially I noticed the flaws, but then that last episode hit me. And over time, I fell in love with the show and see the worth it had beyond it’s flaws.

Quite apart from introducing Spider-Man and his world to me, it ‘educated’ me on the character in ways that actively helped me navigate the comics when I eventually did start to read them.

And looking back, there’d never been a more spiritually faithful take on Spider-Man ever before that show. It wasn’t a cartoon show using a comic book character, it was a comic book cartoon show!

So on this day, I thank you Spider-Man 1994. I wouldn’t have loved this character without you!

[davidmann95]

Thoughts on this week's comics?

Once & Future #1: On the final day of my local comic book store’s operation (don’t worry, I’ve I think found a new place close to where I work) they finally got the sixth and last printing of this baby, and what an odd comic. I absolutely dig it, but just in terms of pacing and the rhythms of the dialogue, this feels much more to me like a Morrison joint than Gillen? Maybe it’s just because I associate Dan Mora with Klaus. Anyway, I’m late to the party on this one but yeah, it’s good.

No One Left To Fight #4: It hasn’t been as good as the first issue got me to hope, and I don’t think it’s going to change that with apparently just one issue left, but this is still solid and definitely worth a look once it drops in trade for DBZ fans.

DIE #8: Gillen’s always been a guy who works best for me on reread, but between this and Peter Cannon he’s working overtime lately to jump a few notches even further upward in my estimation. And I cannot believe a monthly comic, even one with breaks built in, can look this gorgeous.

Marvel Comics #1001: God what a shitshow! I repeatedly referred to Marvel Comics #1000 as nothing short of a minor miracle, and I’ll stand by that. But while that was an exceptional if by no means perfect realization of its intent as a celebration of Marvel’s history, this is a truly shameless dumping ground, with only two teasing story-lite bookending Ewing pages to lure in chumps like me. I think there’s something like 3-4 notably at least *okay* other stories in here, with everything else ranging from empty calories to bizarre to total crap. Worst I’ve spent about dropping my money on a book in some time.

Fantastic Four #15: I’ll admit to being a little perplexed about the strength of the negative reaction to the title right now. I’d be the first to admit it’s a complete embarrassment in the context of being the Richards families’ grand return, but it’s perfectly fine superhero comics, even if I’ll likely drop it after this arc.

Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1: The gold standard of event tie-ins - it fits well with the event, with the main book (even if Ewing’s assured nothing plotwise here is going to feed back into the main title...though honestly, I’m a touch skeptical depending on how Absolute Carnage proper goes, I could see something in here playing out in Immortal while requiring fairly minimal explanation), and it hits us with an extra little dose of seeing how the current status quo plays with Marvel at large since it’s typically in isolation without diluting the flavor of either side. A+.

Bizarre Adventures #1: Actually really good but it should be a federal crime that the initial solicit promised a Chris Onstad story and this didn’t deliver, without even at least some sort of formal apology.

Daredevil #12: Oh, Willie. WhatEVER are we going to do with you?

House of X #6: Okay, I’ve tried to avoid blanket “anyone who doesn’t like these books just doesn’t GET IT, MAN” statements, but I haven’t been subtle in finding a lot of the criticisms of how the X-Men are changing up how they operate/express themselves as a minority metaphor...charged. I’ve already had reason recently to think I was being too broad even with that though, but with this issue? The idea that Professor X was psychically manipulating people into going along with this seemed like a dumb, boring as shit way of reckoning with the new status quo, but maybe that merits a rethink, because holy shit. Anyway this is still fire and I can’t believe I give a fuck about the X-Men now, one issue left until this run properly starts. Jesus.

The Immortal Hulk #24: I’ll admit I’ve been finding the conclusion of the General Fortean story merely excellent rather than mind-blowingly transcendent recently, and while I wasn’t disappointed I was ready for things to properly kick back into high gear. THAT IS CERTAINLY NOT A PROBLEM ANYMORE, TRUE BELIEVERS.

Batman #80: I’m still down for it, both this bit in isolation as the triumphant comeback lead in to the finale, and the run as a whole. And while I think he’s been doing his best work in a VERY long time recently and I’m glad to see he’ll be joining Tynion, I’m glad Daniel is taking a backseat to Mann, Romita Jr., and soon Janin for concluding City of Bane, given it’s now also the ending of King’s time on Batman proper even if he’s still finishing his story elsewhere.

Lois Lane #4: It’s extremely weird that this is a Renee Montoya book co-starring Lois Lane but if Greg Rucka wants to write a Gotham Central/52 followup I’m not gonna...question it.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2: DANG! Taken as a whole with the first issue given it clearly should have been a big one-shot, this is easily the best thing Bendis has done since the DC jump outside the Superman books, and I’m properly pumped for Legion now. Jeff Dekal and Ryan Sook in particular take my breath away once apiece in here.

The Green Lantern #12: With the season finale on the stands, I’d say it’s now more than fair to call Green Lantern Morrison’s weakest superhero output of the 21st century. Which doesn’t mean it’s not a hoot, it’s still Morrison, but again, I’ve yet to see anything at all that convinces me Morrison isn’t doing this on autopilot in-between his TV commitments. Admittedly Morrison on autopilot has its own unique charms, just spraying odd archetypal superhero concepts and sci-fi jargon at you to fill up space; this feels like one of his ad-hoc superhero teams such as the Status Quorum or the Cometeers or one of the throwaway Multiversity Earth ideas slouching to a sort of independent pseudo-life and throwing off neat ideas like an isotope bursting radiation, not fully-formed but perhaps in its own way all the more beautifully off-kilter and primally iconic in the process. Not enough to make up for the absence of him actually trying, you understand, but certainly unique and still an experience I enjoy every month. Please god though, don’t let this and Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3 whenever that happens be his last major superhero works. One last Justice League story, Arkham Asylum 2 like he said, Superman Squad, something.

Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #4: Venom exists in the DCU and it’s an evil speedo, this is objectively a perfect comic book. I liked the original Way run a lot even if I could never remember what was going on, but I’m stunned with every issue what a level-up this second volume has been, at least for my money.

Justice League #33: I think the book’s sagging a bit at the moment, since Justice/Doom War is clearly a feint for whatever the real finale is going to be in 2020 and I don’t think Snyder/Tynion work quite as well as an apparently full-on writing team as they do when simply trading off issues and letting their individual strengths shine. Still the best straight-take capeshit on the stands though, make no mistake.

Young Justice #9: If Namoi was the return of the Bendis who tried writing sincere stuff near the end of his time at Marvel but was too burned out at that point to make it work anymore, this is the Avengers guy who’s freewheeling and kinda screwing around where he should be getting to brass tacks but still has his moments. I might end up dropping this book, but it’s still at least got me through the end of this arc.

DCeased #5: This book’s been disappointing me more than a bit the last couple issues given how good it SHOULD be with how much it plays into Tom Taylor’s greatest strengths. The ending on this one, however? Is one I’m going to remember forever, and Trevor Hairsine sells the absolute hell out of it. Propelled to my favorite of the week just on the back of that.

[softgrungeprophet]

it’s that time again. time for me to be annoyed/frustrated at the comics that came in the 20-teens that simultaneously responded directly to the 2000s, followed in the 2000s’ continuation, but completely glossed over and ignored the very serious topics that were brought up. and then we get the fucking 2018 run which does NEITHER and just seeks to make it worse for shock value without being even remotely thoughtful about anything it does! wow.

we could have had some really interesting growth for eddie and the symbiote’s relationship by honestly addressing things like eddie’s illness, hypocrisy as anti-venom, his status as a victim of abuse, and so on...

of course i know if i say “eddie is a victim” people will get hissy but like.... i’m not saying he’s an innocent blameless baby who was manipulated into being the weirdo he is... i’m just saying... he’s a victim of abuse. he’s been taken advantage of a lot. almost any help he’s received has required some kind of reciprocation.

he’s a shithead and he went off the deep-end after new ways to die because remender’s version of eddie fucking sucks, he’s smug and weird and violent, and also he’s been neglected and tortured and abused and experimented on and he needs therapy and blah blah blah

he’s also not some fuckin accidental drunk driver who was hit into thinking he’s innocent. that’s so fucking--jeez. everything about these retcons donny has been doing miss the point even more than the comics he says he loves so much. it’s wild. like i don’t like new ways to die OR new ways to live, remender’s run was okay but i hated the way he wrote eddie, marvel knights spider-man just sucks in general, the hunger 03 also sucks, but like they do feed into each other in a way that.... sort of makes sense....

i just wish there was a way any of the comics would have said, “hey look there are some ways in which eddie is a victim but there are also some ways in which he needs to take responsibility for his actions”

but that kind of nuanced take is impossible for the way these comics are put out and canceled and retconned and so on forever.. it’s so ... ugh.....

the hunger 03 sucks... it also influenced over a decades’ worth of Venom comics including costa’s in its own weird way.... and i just wish we could simultaneously be like, Yes the symbiote is not inherently evil or corrupting but Also it did abuse Eddie, and Yes Eddie has been treated poorly for a great deal of his life and Also is a motherfucker who needs to be held responsible for his actions.

Is this hypocritical to be like, “can we address the 2000s” while also saying “2018 run is not valid”

in my defense even the shitty 2000s were like a continuity and didn’t try to fully retcon every single aspect of venom lore that ever existed (tho it sure did plenty of retconning....) whereas the current run... is doing exactly that....

of course this goddamn run will probably also influence the following comics unless the next writers retcon the retcons or like, ignore it and it gets put into its own earth or something. idk. like no one really counts dark origin right? and that works cause it also had a negligible influence on the rest of the comics. but like, the bad hunger had a very lasting impact on the comics. so i guess we just hope that donny cates, despite currently selling super well, does not actually influence any of the comics that come after?

i don’t fuckin know. i just think it kind of sucks that like “eddie was abused” is something that gets used as either a “lol no that never happened and if you talk about it you hate the symbiote” or else an excuse to demonize the symbiote even after its own character growth arcs in the apparently supremely unpopular gotg and space knight stuff... lol

maybe if every fucking series from 2013 to 2016 (minus costa which is honestly more 2017) didn’t get canned we could have gotten more. like honestly, 2016′s Carnage--for all its flaws--seemed like it had something to say about Eddie as a character, about his flaws and so on, and I gotta wonder where that was going. It flat out says “Venom didn’t make Eddie Brock a bastard” so like? But then at the same time all of the symbiotes in that series were completely silent so? I don’t even know.

Cullen Bunn was clearly going somewhere too but I have no idea where other than “symbiote is alive but has trouble communicating” and “eddie is coming down from his murder spree as he realizes flash thompson is in fact helping people as agent venom”

the two fit together in a very strangely complementary way. sometimes i gotta wonder about a universe in which those two comics in particular ran concurrently to address venom, flash, toxin, and eddie’s many issues. but toxin’s probably gone... though in my heart they are with jubulile and her mom in south africa, learning what it’s like to be part of a loving family...

man. the resigned “Okay.” at the end of twav...... twav good imo.

anyway

i don’t even know what the point of this is. i’m all over the place in this post. it’s frustrating that donny has made it kinda impossible to bring up eddie’s victimhood without like... qualifying it to the ends of the earth to clarify that you don’t think he’s some kind of pure cinnamon roll who’s been dreadfully manipulated for 12 years....

I feel like I’m not making any sense!!! Words are hard.

I feel like I’ve kinda been avoiding writing about the symbiote though in part because it’s hard for me to balance that many characters and in part because of Donny’s stupid bullshit, which is dumb as fuck but I guess that’s what he wanted huh!!!! Need to read Lethal Protector to cleanse my palate but it’s taking forever to get it from the library because they only have one copy.

ugh

The symbiote is not an evil creature like he wants everyone to think... goddammit.... but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t carefully address both its and Eddie’s mistakes without fabricating new different mistakes to obscure the previous ones. Or whatever. Fuckin I don’t know lol the entirety of the continuity is just a bunch of bullshit. 80s-90s continuity largely separate from 2000-20...15ish continuity largely separate AGAIN from the 2016 continuity yet also directly tied to it, against completely separated from the 2018 continuity which is off saying “fuck you” to literally every venom writer to ever exist since Eddie’s conception, ironically including the guy who wrote the cursed hunger

What am I trying to say! I don’t know! i feel like a broken record. There’s a lot of empty space between Agent Venom and 2016 that was never filled! also between 2016 and 2018 lmfao.

Donny “everything went wrong and I’m not going to explain how other than ‘God’ and ‘Eddie lost his job cause screaming symbiote’“ Cates really pullin some shit. what do you mean eddie tends to work toward solving his own problems EVEN WHILE DYING. waid’s mini-story in NWTD showed that eddie, despite being sad and sick and exhausted was still like.... eddie, stubbornly searching out his own solutions and getting angry. ofc i’m not sure how well it succeeded at parts. the comics in those days were still pretty steeped in the weird symbiote hallucinations that it was never clear if they were meant to be caused by the symbiote or just eddie’s sick brain. like the Last Temptation. I have a love-hate relationship with those two issues... I think they’re pretty well-done but also something about them just rubs me the wrong way. 

Anyway back to Cates: it’s not like there wasn’t space for a spiral after FH or anything. You could have really dug into Eddie and the symbiote’s insecurities wrt family and parenting. but nah. let’s just make it so there’s a SECRET CHILD, and oh the pre-established sibling? we could have dug into her and made her a real character. but no, she doesn’t exist, women are either fake or dead or violated.

asshole.

but again like..... the 03 hunger, cursed and bad... like... it’s still workable. you can work with the corrupting forces, the addiction metaphor (on the SYMBIOTE’S part, with adrenaline) and the intense codependency, and still have them move on and into a healthier-by-comparison relationship.

but cates’ run is like... much harder to recover from if it has as lasting of an effect, because it leaves no part untouched, and goes beyond “normal” abuse into really weird unforgiveable territory... like the canon of that comic is the canon in which everything has been completely changed into something unrecognizable.

i joke about my AUs being unrecognizable because, visually at least, they WOULD be unrecognizable for most Venom fans, but the comics inform them as characters a lot in the stories i write in those AUs, from the 96 good hunger, to the 03 bad hunger, to space knight to venom inc, and so on. But donny cates really is out here essentially reverse-engineering retcons to justify his characterizations.

barely related: the way eddie was raised and the way he coped by overachieving and so on and so forth makes me think he would have--despite presumably gaining a great deal of confidence in college once out of his father’s home--been really vulnerable to being taken advantage of by like, other students or teachers, but idk how exactly to articulate what i mean like... uh... not even that he WAS taken advantage of but that his need for validation would have left him open to it... i guess??

that’s got pretty much nothing to do with this post though but kinda ties into what i’ve said before about how i think eddie was a withdrawn and isolated adolescent who only opened up in college. why i disagree with donny’s retcon for that reason in addition to other reasons--the way he’d been shown to be bullied as a kid in previous comics, as well as the lack of history of alcoholism, the clarification in lethal protector that carl wasn’t physical, so on and so forth.

again that’s not related to this post really... and it’s like, a good 50% headcanon, but it makes sense in my head as something that fits his history?? i guess?

[honorarycassowary]

I finally read Carnage (2016). I had heard good things about it, but ultimately I enjoyed both Carnage vol. 1 and Carnage USA more. More thoughts, including spoilers, under the cut:

THE GOOD:

Cletus Kasady’s characterization here was excellent. He was petty and goofy and an absolutely awful person. Conway was able to write about Cletus’s childhood abuse in a way that made it clear it was painful and unfair for Cletus, but also didn’t excuse or justify his cruelty.

I really liked Jubulile! She’s tough and clever and kind. Sailing around the world as a teen takes a lot of guts even before the Carnage thing happened.

as a combination of the first two points: I enjoyed Jubulile’s backstory & seeing her genuinely loving relationship with her parents, as well as Cletus’s anger at seeing her happy memories.

I also liked Manuela and Claire Dixon and how they gave Eddie very little quarter. He’s done some pretty awful things, and I’m glad to see that acknowledge by people who aren’t the antagonists.

Now that I’ve read this, I think Costa actually wrote Claire being too nice to Eddie in The Nativity. Given her opinions on Eddie and symbiotes, her negative experiences with symbiotes, and her willingness to let Eddie die, I think had she heard Eddie was lethal protector-ing it up again with the Venom symbiote, it would have been more in line with her character as shown in Carnage (2016) for her to see it as a total relapse into sociopathy on Eddie’s part and then to try to kill Eddie, the Venom symbiote, and its offspring outright. 

Also, I think she would have chosen someone more easily controllable than Mac Gargan to be the host. There’s no way she tells him to shut up any less than she told Eddie to shut up.

also Manuela is a lesbian. I approve.

The cast overall is very diverse! There’s multiple people of color from different backgrounds. I appreciate it. I mean, it says something about the piss-poor representation in comics that I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Sikh character in comics, but it’s progress. 

Big fan of Eddie finally admitting he did awful things & it wasn’t the symbiote who made him do it. I also like him protecting Jubulile.

THE BAD:

where are the symbiotes, man? this series has two people get bonded to symbiotes without their consent and we don’t even get them spiraling into insecurity as they hear a voice in their head?

I really liked how Cletus and Tanis spoke to their respective symbiotes in Carnage Vol. 1. It showed that the symbiotes were sapient beings without having any dialogue and keeping them kind of strange and hostile-seeming, which would have worked with the tone of this story. Carnage (2016) seems like you could copypaste any number of supernatural terms over the word “symbiote” and not change the story at all.

I don’t like either of Jubulile’s symbiote form designs. The sexy catsuit look with the creepy eyeballs and hair is the worst offender, but I don’t actually like the look of her armor either, even though I LOVE the concept of symbiotes looking like armor & especially a female symbiote host who isn’t wearing a symbiote catsuit.

Toxin’s look here is also a definite downgrade from Toxin With A Vengeance.

On a more serious note, I really could’ve done without the Broodlings. Strange barbaric pygmies from the tropics who wear skulls as decoration and are actually the offspring of a perverted union between Chthon’s minions and white sailors (the diary is in English; the only named Broodling is O’Brien)? Did Conway accidentally enter some sort of competition to uncritically regurgitate Lovecraft’s most blatant anti-interracial relationship metaphors?

The diverse cast is nice. Less nice is how everyone who dies is a person of color.

I ... really don’t care about Victoria Montesi, John Jameson, or Yuvraj Singh. /shrug

Carnage (2016) was decently entertaining, but I didn’t find it compelling. I think I would have liked it more had it been an entirely original work that didn’t involve symbiotes at all. This is a recurring thread in Venom comics, because I’ve had that thought about Space Knight and Cates’s Venom run as well, even though they’re all very different works. They all have cool ideas, but I don’t think what they do with symbiotes is one of them.

[aion-rsa]

Kraven the Hunter: Marvel Stories That Could Inspire the Spider-Man Spinoff

https://ift.tt/3khheq9

Sony’s Spider-Man expanded universe is a fairly bizarre corner of the realm of superhero movies. Back when Marvel’s Avengers showed what kind of money could be made with an expanded superhero universe, Sony looked at their Spider-Man playset and got a bit drunk on their own hype. Using their ill-fated Amazing Spider-Man movies as a foundation, they intended to make a bunch of spinoffs. Then it died before it could really start thanks to Amazing Spider-Man 2 being a dud that did okay blockbuster money, but not-so-okay money for a property that intended to spread its wings.

Their fortunes changed, both due to their agreement with Marvel to let Spider-Man be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and with the release of 2018’s Venom. Venom showed that they could make a successful movie based on a Spider-Man property without, y’know, actually featuring Spider-Man in it. They’re now following up on that with Venom: There Will be Carnage and Morbius. It’s even becoming apparent that these movies may sorta/kinda be attached to the MCU.

Whatever the case, their plans now include giving Kraven the Hunter his own movie. Not, say, make Kraven the villain for the next MCU Spider-Man movie. I mean putting him front-and-center where he’s the protagonist.

That’s certainly an interesting choice. Kraven is different from Venom and Morbius. Despite being Spider-Man’s Vegeta, Venom spent years being a vigilante with his own comic. Morbius has long been an antihero who occasionally interacts with Spider-Man. Kraven, on the other hand, is a full-on Spider-Man villain. He has, at most, only flirted with being a good guy.

Hey, that reminds me. Remember when Kraven and Sabretooth were on a secret Avengers team that existed at the tail end of the 1950s? No? Just me? Fair enough.

As out of left field as it is, Kraven still makes for a prime candidate to get his own movie. Get past his desire to kill Spider-Man and you have the same driven, hyper-competent, super-skilled, overly-prepared badass type that comic fans love. He’s over-the-hill Batman stomping on Superman’s face. He’s the Punisher killing the Marvel Universe. He’s Dr. Doom defeating the Beyonders. He’s the reason why the Predator went from slasher villain to a race of extraterrestrial cyphers that we cheer on.

So where do you go for inspiration for a Kraven-based movie? Here are some ideas that come to mind.

KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT

“Kraven’s Last Hunt” is THE defining Kraven storyline. It’s to Kraven what “Knightfall” is to Bane.

In it, Kraven defeats Spider-Man, buries him alive, dresses as Spider-Man, does some crimefighting, beats up a villain Spider-Man’s had issues with, feels content in his superiority, digs Spider-Man back up, and then…commits suicide.

A cool story, but how do you make it about Kraven and make it, at best, tangentially about Spider-Man? You could always try and add emphasis on Vermin and make him Kraven’s “white whale,” but would that really work in the long run?

Probably the most important aspect to translate to film would be Kraven’s complete misunderstanding of what being a superhero is about. That part where he’s wearing Spider-Man’s tights and acting like a lunatic on the streets? Take out the cosplay part and you might have something. You could effectively make the Punisher movie that nobody’s had the guts to make. The one that shows him succeeding at hunting and killing his prey, but makes it entirely apparent that this is NOT a good thing, even if the bad guys have it coming.

Read more

Movies

Sam Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy Writer David Koepp Reveals Original Plans

By Joseph Baxter

Games

Marvel’s Avengers Review: It’s No Spider-Man

By Bernard Boo

Seeing him utterly fall apart as a vigilante and get arrested for it would at least help work towards building that long rumored Sinister Six team-up.

GET KRAVEN

Even though Sergei Kravinoff was dead for a while, he still got the Landfill from Beerfest treatment. In other words, he was replaced with another Kraven the Hunter who, for a time, was borderline interchangeable with the original.

Kraven’s son Alyosha picked up where his father left off for a while, but then decided to turn away from his life of crime. In the early 2000s, he got his own miniseries called Get Kraven, which was the only time any version of Kraven has had his own comic. The comic is about Al Kraven and his girlfriend Timber going to Hollywood with the intent of making their own movies. They end up running afoul of two brothers who are very obviously based on Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

And hey, that’s a movie concept that’s strangely relevant in today’s age. Kraven vs. Harvey Weinstein. Predator vs. Predator!

Read more

TV

The Amazing Spider-Man TV Series Deserves an Official Release

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Spider-Woman Movie Coming From Olivia Wilde

By David Crow

That’s pretty much the only part of the comic that is salvageable, unfortunately. The suicide jokes, rape plot point, and transphobia are best left out of well…just about anything…including a Spider-Man spinoff movie.

Anyway, Al Kraven fell into semi-obscurity and got killed off when regular Kraven was resurrected.

ULTIMATE KRAVEN

Ah, Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Memories. Before it spun out of control, it was such a cool testing ground for new twists on classic characters. Years before Miles Morales became Spider-Man, it gave us the Samuel L. Jackson design for Nick Fury, Hulk as a failed super soldier experiment, and generic-looking Hawkeye. Kraven only appeared a few times, but they were memorable showings.

Read more

Games

How to Get Spider-Man in Marvel’s Avengers

By John Saavedra

Initially, Kraven was a reality TV star, loosely based on the then-popularity of the late Steve Irwin. As the ultimate game hunter, he was going to chase ratings by hunting down Spider-Man. This did not work out well for Kraven as after all this hype, he chose to attack Spider-Man while the hero was rescuing people and Kraven got taken out by a single punch.

That in turn ruined Kraven and he got roped into joining the Ultimate Sinister Six. Due to desperation and the fact that he was totally out of his league against Spider-Man, Kraven started undergoing genetic experiments that turned him into something that was more beast than man.

Spider-Man has a lot of animal-themed villains and enough low-ranking ones that you could easily have Kraven spend a movie trying to hunt them down. Give him the depiction of a struggling TV star looking for new challenges and you might have a decent antihero concept.

STORM HUNTER

I’ll admit that this isn’t so much a suggestion based on an existing story, but one that was hinted at.

About ten years ago, Daredevil went kind of crazy, turned into a villain, and took over Hell’s Kitchen with an army of ninjas. He later got his head on straight and left the area behind, but needed someone to take his place. Marvel built up this new series via a bunch of teaser images wondering, “Who is the New Man Without Fear?” Was it going to be Gambit? Nova? Falcon?

Kraven, fresh from being resurrected and needing a new direction in his second life, also had his own teaser image. Kraven the Hunter Without Fear? Hunting down criminals in the concrete jungle and making Wilson Fisk nervous? Trying to be a better Daredevil after once trying to be a better Spider-Man? How awesome would that have been?

Instead, the spot went to Black Panther.

Kraven still showed up during the run for a two-issue storyline based around how cool a Black Panther vs. Kraven the Hunter fight would be (enough that Ryan Coogler initially wanted this in the Black Panther movie). Otherwise, Kraven’s deal is that he’s owed a debt to a doctor that saved his life years earlier. While he has his own sense of honor to complete her mission, he’s ultimately disturbed by the doctor’s horrific actions.

Namely that she likes to create nightmarish human/animal hybrids.

Anyway, Kraven chooses to do the right thing in the end because he’s not a total dick.

THE UNHUNTABLE SERGEI

Kraven’s most optimistic days have come from his friendship with Doreen Green, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Unfortunately, while Squirrel Girl is a Steve Ditko co-creation, she probably doesn’t count as a Spider-Man-adjacent character, so we sadly won’t be seeing any movie team-ups any time soon.

Their adventures by themselves wouldn’t really make for a good Kraven movie, especially since they’re mostly based on him trying to redeem himself for his checkered past. It’s the in-between-the-lines adventures that can be mined for inspiration. At one point, Kraven decides to become the Hunter of Hunters, turning him into an on-land version of Aquaman. He’s all about kicking the asses of poachers and…er…dudes quietly minding their own business while fishing.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

What’s important is that this run features the ridiculously metal Kra-Van. If anything, can we PLEASE get the Kra-Van in one of these movies? And can I have it when they’re done?

The post Kraven the Hunter: Marvel Stories That Could Inspire the Spider-Man Spinoff appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Does Spider-Man NEED to be in a shared universe?

As of right now it seems as though Peter Parker is going to be out of the MCU and in his own entirely separate universe.

Most people have reacted negatively to this and one of the most frequently cited reasons for that is the inability of Spider-Man to interact with the wider MCU.

We can talk a lot about whether from a production and audience interest POV, there is any steam behind the idea of Spider-Man in his own separate universe again.

However I want to take a different angle with this and talk more broadly about the character rather than strictly just the movies.

Essentially I want to address whether or not Spider-Man truly NEEDS to be in a shared Marvel Universe at all or not?

Now look I’m not advocating Spider-Man pull a Transformers or ROM Space Knight and be pulled out of the Marvel Universe.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut from a creative POV strictly speaking...he really, really, really does not NEED to be in that universe.

There are advantages and disadvantages to that.

In a shared Marvel Universe Peter operates as the ‘heart’ of that universe as was the intention with Civil War 2006. He also has close ties to the F4, the First Family of the Marvel Universe and to Captain America who is more or less THE leader of the whole Marvel universe. His kinship with Daredevil in particular is a joy to behold and has rarely been used badly. His status as an outsider in the eyes of the more publically accepted Marvel heroes like the Avengers offers a great parallel to his initial life as an outsider in high school and helps to highlight part of Lee and Ditko’s conceit with the character, that he was atypical of the heroes who’d come before him.

On the other hand though...The Marvel Universe of the comics at least demands a shitton of suspension of disbelief because you have all this huge concepts co-existing with one another but also within a context of trying to keep the world relatively similar to our own, the world outside your window.

Sooner or later though this presents a challenge to the suspension of disbelief for guys like Spider-Man who’re not merely supposed to exist in a world relatively like our own with heroes, but in fact be relatively normal within it besides the fact that they are heroes.

But if Spider-Man is a superhero, lives in a world of heroes, and has interacted with so many of them inevitably you have to wilfully ignore the obvious facts that so many of his relatable problems in life could be fixed through the fantastical elements of the universe he lives in and is aware of.

Just one example would be if Aunt May was dying there would be at least half a dozen solutions to that problem. Magic, clones, suspended animation, time travel, healing factors, transferring her mind to a robotic body, extra terrestrial medical care and if all else fails resurrection and higher deities are a fact of life in the Marvel Universe and Peter knows it.

Now the way around this stuff is, in the context of the story you are telling, to simply treat such things as not existing and thus side step the issue.

Suspension of disbelief might stretch to ignoring all the older appearances of Reed Richards or Doctor Strange in Spider-Man’s history, but if they show up in an issue where Aunt May’s death is also a factor then having Peter ignore their abilities to obviously help is nonsensical.

All of this is leading me to saying that, for the most part, Spider-Man is actually able to be MORE realistic and cohesive if in his own isolated universe than if he is in the same universe as magicians and aliens.

When you watch the Raimi movies or the Spec cartoon you never really have to scratch your head over why Spider-Man couldn’t just do this or that to solve his problems because other than his own fairly grounded cast and villains those other solutions don’t exist.

Even having other heroes exist but still be fairly grounded presents problems as you always have to ignore or contrive a reason for their lack of help when Spider-Man needs it.

Moving on, let’s talk about Spider-Man’s ability to team up with other heroes.

Of course there have been whole ongoing series specifically about that...and they mostly suck.

Don’t believe me?

Okay, ask yourselves this, how many New Avengers, Avengers, Marvel Team Up, Avenging Spider-Man or Superior Spider-Man Team-Up stories starring Spider-Man make it into most top 10 or even top 20 Spider-Man stories of all time?

Not many if any at all.

How many of the top 10-20 Spidey stories could be regarded as team ups, as in Spider-Man himself is actively interacting with figures from the wider Marvel universe as opposed to people introduced in his own series? And we aren’t talking cameos either.

Again, not that many.

ASM #1 perhaps.

Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut, but that’s just giving Spider-Man someone to fight he’s not really teaming up with anyone, a juiced up Rhino could’ve done basically the same thing.

The Alien Costume Saga arguably

The Death of Jean DeWolff

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine.

Spider-Man/Human Torch

MAYBE ASM #500, though that was mostly a background feature a means to an end (sending Spidey time travelling) that could’ve been achieved by numerous other means.

Arguably the first Carnage story though that was also a background feature, the main focus was Spidey fighting Carnage and teaming up with Venom.

...I honestly can’t think of any more off the top of my head.

You see what I mean. Sure, providing villains for Peter to fight is a real advantage the wider Marvel Universe holds for Spider-Man but actually milking great stories from his ability to interact with other heroes, not so much.

In fact Daredevil and the Human Torch or F4 are the most reliable examples of Spider-Man team ups working out but not for nothing there are quite a few similarities between them and Peter.

It doesn’t help most of these stories happened so Marvel could grant exposure to lesser selling characters by having them show up with their A-list hero.

I think more significantly the reason there are so few great Spider-Man team up stories is because of the core concept powering Spider-Man as a character and a lot of his appeal.

He was created in large part to be the hero who could be you, the average joe, the character for whom Peter Parker and his regular life was as much, if not MORE, of a draw than the superheroics of Spider-Man.

The nature of superhero team ups though are that they emphasis the costumed identities over civilian identities. This is a limitation of page space a lot of the time, but it’s also because the characters look iconic when they are dressed in their outfits and seeing them together in their outfits is really the main ticket draw of team up stories. How many people want to see Cap, Iron Man and Spider-Man interacting but it’s just in their civilian identities? Not many I’d wager, it wouldn’t make for a very eye catching cover that’s for sure.

The end result is that at best you focus upon an explore merely one half of who these characters are (and in Peter’s case it is arguably the less interesting half) or it becomes incredibly generic, it’s just heroes with different outfits, powers, maybe speech patterns hitting each other or hitting bad guys together with no exploration of their personalities bouncing off of one another.

And hey that is fine as a change of pace but not as the default setting, hence MTU usually was the lesser of the Spider-Man titles.

If you look at most of the team up stories I listed, noticeably all of them DO explore who the characters (or at least Peter) are and involve a lot of page time to them out of costume, their personal lives and such.

This brings us back to Spidey’s appeal. Like I said a huge part of it is his regular life and a huge part of what makes that appealing is his personal life dramas with his amazing supporting cast. He is said to have the best supporting cast in comics and that’s absolutely true, but when combined with one of the best rogue’s galleries in comics is it any wonder he was so successful?

Because Spider-Man has such a robust group of characters to interact with in both his identities his world is already pretty populated and can already do a lot of character exploration. And honestly when you have so many options to explore the human condition in a way so similar to the lives we lead are you really worse off if you can’t also have Spider-Man go on wacky adventures to the Negative Zone too? Are you really going to tell me that any of the psychedelic crazy scenes from Doctor Strange 2016 are as impactful or as meaty as May and Peter just talking at a table in Spider-Man 2?

 Whether in the movies or in other media so long as Spider-Man has supporting cast and a strong villain pool to explore he’s got a universe to play in no matter what. This isn’t the case for a lot of Marvel heroes. Iron Man for instance does not have a great rogue’s gallery or villain pool, it’s why in every TV adaptation of the character he is either lumped in with other heroes so that collectively they have a lot on offer or in his solo shows the wider Marvel Universe plays a significant part. In Iron man’s 1990s cartoon Force Works were regular characters, in Iron man Armored Adventures Nick Fury and SHIELD were recurring characters and the finale of the show involved them, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk and others working together. The consistency of this with Iron Man points to his own series not being able to sustain itself without the wider Marvel Universe to support it.

 In contrast the majority of Spider-Man adaptations (which are much more numerous than any other Marvel character’s) either don’t feature characters outside his own series or they are relatively minimal. Even the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon which did feature a lot of guest characters and even did a Secret Wars adaptation, didn’t have most of it’s episodes involving guest stars.

 To return to the topic of Spider-Man’s concept and appeal, because the character was supposed to be more realistic and relatable, smaller scale more street level stories have been the preference by writers and fans and indeed his most celebrated outings have usually been cut from that cloth; even a lot of the well regarded team ups.

Because of this doing more personal stories works better for the character and a wider Marvel universe hurts that. Having Spidey be the ONLY hero in NYC and the scale be citywide creates if anything much greater dramatic impact in a story than saving the world or saving the universe. Big fish in a small pond situation I guess you could say.

Finally I’d add that Ditko himself didn’t really care for Spider-Man being in a wider universe.

In conclusion the notion that it would be inherently bad for Spider-Man to be ‘stuck in a smaller’ universe not connected to anything else is wrongheaded.

At best it simply offers some advantages but also some disadvantages.

However you wanna slice it though it’s absolutely not something Spider-Man NEEDS

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Geddon #0 Thoughts

Having finished watching Spider-Man PS4’s story I was finally able to read Spider-Geddon #0, a comic I purchased solely because it has PS4 Spider-Man in it.

 My big take away?

 Christos Gage very obviously had help when working on the video game.

 SPOILERS if you’ve not read the comic or finished playing the game.

 Okay there are some good points here. As in five. There are five good points.

 ·         Cain’s beautiful artwork which I’ve bee fond of ever since he did Venom vs. Carnage in 2004.

·         Miles and MJ’s appearances just because I love the game’s versions of the characters.

·         The raw brilliance of the idea of PS4 Spider-Man meeting Superior Octopus after the events of the game. MUCH MORE could’ve been done with it. But the moments trying to do something with that idea were not bad per se and it’s such a compelling concept given how Peter just lost his father figure in Doc Ock by the game’s end.

·         Peter’s comments about how if his Otto hadn’t gone off the deep end he’d have maybe become like Superior Ock is a nice highlighting of what made PS4 Otto great. He was truly a reflection of Peter and so had he not gone evil the idea that he might’ve become a literal Spider-Man in his own right is a neat idea, even if Superior Ock himself is unworthy of the comparison.

·         The redesign of La Tarantula. He was NOBODY’S favourite villain but the comic filtered him through the game’s aesthetic and came up with something that looked way better and made for a more intimidating foe.

 As for the rest of the comic. I mean if you like Superior Octopus then I guess you’ll like this compared to me who fucking despises the character because he’s a rapey scumbag!

 But there are other problems big and small with this comic.

 Small stuff would be the clunky dialogue at points which would’ve been fine if they were thought balloons but instead people say this stuff out loud because thought balloons are just not ‘done’ these days.

 The bigger stuff is the presentation of Superior Ock in juxtaposition to PS4 Spidey and PS4 Spidey’s characterization over all.

 Basically gage here writes Peter similarly to how he normally wrote him when he was Slott’s ‘understudy’ writer. Which would almost be forgivable if you go with the idea that he’s just trying to have synergy with Slott’s take.

 Except when you read Gage’s Spider-Man stories outside of ASM or when he is doing arcs of his own (like his Avengers Academy tie-in arc of ASM) he kept writing Spider-Man like that.

 And now he’s doing it again (albeit not AS badly) in this comic book which is both literally a separate version of Spider-Man and one he (allegedly) defined himself.

 So clearly it wasn’t that he was just trying to have synergy with Slott, he just genuinely thinks this is what Spider-Man is supposed to be like.

 And what is that you ask?

 In a nutshell it’s less competent and more rash and impulsive than the Spider-Man of the actual PS4 game even though this is literally supposed to be that exact same version.

 And this is used to contrast Superior Ock’s greater resourcefulness, tech and calculating attitude. PS4 Spidey even says as much when he says he would’ve just waded in and Ock responds that there is something to be said for his more analytical approach whilst Peter is impulsive and rash. And he is speaking of every version of Peter btw.

 Oh sure he says Peter is brave too but it’s obvious in context of the issue, Gage’s wider work and the fact that Gage is going to be writing Ock that Ock’s words are reflective of how Gage himself sees Spider-Man.

 And THIS is why I do not think Gage himself is really all that responsible for the video game being as good as it is in terms of story and characterization.

 I think it’s more than probably the case that:

a)      people within Insomniac put a lot of time and thought into the characters and world of the game and did something like a Bible for all that stuff and then gave it to Gage to follow in coming up with the story or just fleshing out the story they had in mind

b)      Gage worked on it WITH other people, sort of like how certain TV scripts have input from multiple people in a writers room as opposed to being the product of ONE person.

c)       Some combination of the above

 P.S. I would’ve appreciated the meta commentary on there being too many variant Spider-People running around if it wasn’t in a comic book event series specifically about that and written by the main writer of said event.