#who was experiencing on the page both superhero stuff and issues in their personal life

[daydreamerdrew]

The Avengers (1963) #9

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Life Story #4 Thoughts Part 3: Pathetic Parker

Aaaaaaand finally....let us discuss you know Peter Parker.

Or the stand in for him in this mess of a mini-series.

Positives should be gotten out of the way first. I like the new Spider-Suit’s look. I’ve liked all the suits’ looks so far.

Okay cool we’re done now with positives.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo...Peter is dating Jessica Drew huh.

Hahahahahahaha....fuck off.

Jessica Drew technically speaking existed in the 1960s but only because Bendis picked a random girl from a Ditko issue and decided he would make her his new original character (who was a rewritten Jessica Drew stand in...) Jessica Jones...which happened in the 2000s.

Remember how I said the Stark thing was remixing stuff from the 2000s and how this probably references the Ultimate Clone Saga?

Well between that stuff, the inclusion of Parker Industries, a obvious reference to Slott’s ‘No One Dies’ buzz word, and now Jessica Jones Zdarsky has entirely collapsed the ONE consistent thing about his writing in this series.

You can read my past posts on this series for more detail, but in a nutshell, this series is utterly convoluted in it’s premise and confused in what it wants to be.

However the ONE utterly consistent thing about it was the fact that it remixes elements from Spidey stories that happened in the decade each issue was covering.

Until now.

Now in fairness Parker Industries was a 2010s thing that debuted in the 1980s. I let that one slide a bit because I guess the idea was if Peter age 30 had money and time he could have a company by age 37 which would be in the 80s. Okay I guess.

But with all that other stuff...this issue isn’t remixing 90s stuff it’s remixing 90s and post-90s stuff so what the fuck is the conceit of the story again?

It’s anything Zdarsky wants whilst mostly remixing stuff from every decade per issue oh and Spider-Man ages in real time I guess and mentions various wars.

I (and others) have talked about how this series is fanficion. A time honoured tradition of fanfiction is the wacky indulgent ships that occur.

In professional works though these are best avoided, see MockingSpider.

That’s what Jessica Jones and Spider-Man being a couple is. Yeah she had a crush on him in high school.

Now tell me anything else that’d serve as a basis for their relationship instead of her being with Luke?

How the fuck did this even happen? At least with Peter and MJ you have canon as a roadmap. In this series...nothing. Peter and Jessica just hooked up somehow in the last 11 years!

What’s so insultingly asinine about this ship is that it emphasis another person who is conspicuous via her absence.

So...where the fuck is Felicia!

I know that the important life events of Spider-Man can be debated up to a point.

That point doesn’t cover though whether Black Cat is relevant of a mention or not across his ‘life story’.

No shit of course she is!

But she wasn’t mentioned in the 1970s when she debuted. She wasn’t mentioned in the 1980s when she became a regular. She wasn’t mentioned in the 1990s.

Surely in a world where Spider-Man’s marriage to MJ falls apart and he’s dating a private eye that should be fucking Black Cat not a character who wasn’t even invented until 10 years later! I mean c’mon Black Cat BECAME a private eye in the 1990s!

And wouldn’t that have been way more dramatic too?

In the 1980s instead of Peter being allegedly addicted to a costume or neglecting his family to clean up radiation or asking his wife to kill him if he turned into a brain munching alien the root of their break up involved his affection for Felicia?

I mean c’mon the symbiote was framed as a response to a mid-life crisis, a sexy platinum blonde who actually wants to hook up with Spidey not Peter isn’t prime real estate for a story about a superhero’s mid life crisis? Even the Incredibles did that!

And wouldn’t that have been more worthy of drama in this issue than literally 2 panels of Jessica Jones establishing they’re shagging but also he’s neglectful and she dumped him. I mean at that point you might as well have just had her be a private eye he hired and dropped the romance completely it served no purpose at all.

One aspect of the story that I will praise Zdarsky for even if I think he got it right by accident is that without his family Peter couldn’t keep on going as Spider-Man.

MJ, May, etc, they keep him together, he needs people, he’d fall apart without them.

Running out of gas as he did in this story could be seen as a reflection of that depending on future issues. Or it could just be he’s old and tired and don’t you know all superheroes would feel that way at age 48.

Too bad that seems rather at odds with issue #3 where he was a neglectful jerk.

Another problem inherited from issue #3 was the issue of Peter’s diminished prowess in his old age.

Remember how he wanted the symbiote to stay ‘relevant’ because he was slowing down.

Okay so it’s been 11 years later, he’s held onto Parker Industries and...he’s just accepted he’s gotten slower and weaker.

Remember how issue #3 implied he had a nano-weld suit.

Okay so he’s had 11 years to improve on that tech and...he hasn’t.

In fact his current outfit looks less high tech even.

Now brace yourselves because I’m about to do something nuts and call upon Dan Slott continuity as reference material.

In Slott’s run Peter with HORIZON labs and Parker Industries tech was able to whip up a variety of costumes for himself. These included nanotech.

In fact his MAIN suit in ASM volume 4 was nanotech armour that came complete with all sorts of gadgets.

Are you telling me that a Peter Parker with even greater years of scientific knowledge and experience, with even more time and resources, across 11+ years NEVER made technology like that?

He NEVER invented tech that could offset his diminished powers?

Seriously?

IRON MAN had strength enhancing armour in the 1960s and that technology got illegally distributed to countless people, hence we got Armor Wars. Even that aside there is countless inferior technology that could increase strength, speed, agility, etc, let alone protect from knock out gas.

But Peter in LF is such a jackass he...never employed this. He never considered this. He just let himself grow weaker and more vulnerable?

Either he’s stupid or he’s a sellout on Ben and May’s morals of responsibility because he had a death wish hence he never upgraded.

I mean Jesus Christ the Hobgoblin found a way to make the Goblin serum SAFE. Peter couldn’t investigate that avenue as a way to spike his power levels? Friggin Norman Osborn was in his 40s when he got the formula and it made him almost on par with Spider-Man.

It gets even stupider when you consider Peter hands over his mantle to Ben Reilly.

Ben is physically the same goddam age as Peter. In fact considering he clearly doesn’t crime fight as much as Peter does or else ‘Red Mask’ would be more famous, Peter if anything would be in better shape. So Peter is giving the mantle of Spidey to a less experienced, weaker 48 year old man who’s ALSO got diminished strength and speed.

But it gets worse.

He doesn’t just hand the mantle of Spidey to Ben. He hands Parker Industries over to him. You’d think this is a case of him passing it on to his relative Ben Reilly right?

Nope.

He wants Ben to...literally become him.

Peter wants Ben to literally pose as him forevermore and run his company.

This is the most gamebreakingly stupid thing in the entire issue.

Ben having Peter’s notes doesn’t mean he’ll be able to pose as Peter.

He doesn’t know the in jokes Peter has with people. He has 0 experience of running a big company.

He has less scientific knowledge and experience.

He will be way worse in business negotiations because he hasn’t got the measure of people.

And he’ll be seriously stressed out because unlike Peter who just knows this stuff Ben will have to study for a lifelong performance as Peter Parker every moment of every day.

Not to mention is no one going to notice the sudden disappearance of Ben Reilly?

Didn’t he have friends or colleagues of his own like Lori from the start of the issue?

Peter starts the comic determined to not allow Parker Industries to fall into the hands of the war profiteer Tony Stark but by unloading his entire company onto Ben Reilly he’s placed it in a hugely vulnerable position that makes it MORE likely that it will be absorbed into Stark International.

Oh and of course there the teeny tiny problem of PETER AND BEN NOT LOOKING ALIKE!

Now realistically Peter and Ben Reilly, having lived such different lives, would look similar yet different, like identical twins. Identical twins might look the same at age 1 but they really wouldn’t at age 30 if one of them was a desk jockey and the other was a soldier.

But you know artistic licence and suspension of disbelief can bypass that.

What cannot be bypassed is when Mark Bagley is drawing both characters on the same page in the same panel and you can tell that they clearly look different to one another. Their faces, hair colour and hair styles are not the same.

Did Peter’s notes include the correct shade to dye his hair too?

But the biggest aspect of this which is betrayal pornoigraphy for Peter’s character is between handing over the reigns of Spidey and P.I. to Ben...how...the...Hell...is...that...at.all...responsible?

He claims that he can’t give up his responsibility but he can ‘shift it to where it matters’.

What a crock of shit. That’s some lame ass lawyer talk for giving up and letting someone else do your job for you.

In the 90s Clone Saga Peter’s retirement was justified. He had impending parenthood as a responsibility and he and his wife had nearly broken in recent months. In Spider-Girl he got his leg blown off and had a 2 year old child to care for.

In this? His ex-wife and children are doing just fine without him as far as we know but the city still needs Spidey and P.I. still needs Peter Parker.

So no, retirement under these circumstances is irresponsible and utterly unjustified.

Not to mention wouldn’t BOTH Peter and Ben being heroes be more responsible? Or at least have Ben take over hero work and Peter runs P.I., possibly training Ben up.

There is also this bullshit that because Peter is so loud and public Ben could never live up to his potential.

I’m sorry but what is it with the Spider-Man fandom’s obsession with the idea that success = owning your own business.

As if that is the one and only way Peter or Ben could fulfil their scientific potential. Why not work for Reed?

Why not work with a Think Tank?

Why not start up a company in a different country and establish that Ben is indeed Peter’s relative. He already had his last name in issue #2!

Hell the argument that if they both started up companies and 2 Spider Heroes showed up it’d raise questions doesn’t consider the ideas that:

a)      Ben could WORK for Parker Industries, thereby allowing Peter to be in the lab as he wants or Ben handle the lab work

b)      They could SHARE the Spider-Man identity, which if anything would help maintain their secrecy

 Finally this issue (and the last one) on the recap page and at the end of the story pushes some toxic, dated, bullshit narratives regarding MJ:

a)      That it was grief alone that hooked up Peter and MJ

b)      MJ is Peter’s Plan B

c)       Peter cannot be married/have kids and be Spidey

d)      MJ wouldn’t stay with him if he’s Spider-Man, hence he only regains his family by retiring from Spidey

 I’ve seen an assessment of this story that argues that issue #3 as the halfway point was the low point from which the character will gradually fight back.

In a sense issue #4 goes along with this idea. Peter is at his lowest in issue #3 and his happier by the end of issue #4.

But the narrative structure of this series, wherein each issue is a snap shot of his life in each decade leads me to think that we’re unlikely to have 2 more issues of ending on gradually happier and happier notes.

Rather I think this issue is giving a pretence of happiness before it comes crashing down next issue and then in issue #6 we will get our happy ending or a bittersweet exit.

Regardless writing these long ass posts has actually soured me even more on the issue.

It’s another shit show I’m afraid.

P.S. The solicit read:

“THE REAL-TIME LIFE STORY OF SPIDER-MAN CONTINUES! Spider-Man’s life enters the 1990s! The COLD WAR is no longer cold as PETER PARKER returns to a world gone MAD! But will he let that madness infect HIM and his family?”

Where the fuck was any of that in this story?

Peter didn’t have a family, Peter didn’t return from anything, and the only madness to be found was in Ben and Otto.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #13-15 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

Yes I know I couldn’t be later to this party but I started this series so I’m going to finish giving my thoughts on it.

I tried very hard to finish Houser’s run on RYV in time to read Spider-Girls but it just didn’t happen, I only made it up until just before the penultimate arc and I didn’t write up a proper post of my thoughts back then. So I re-read her first arc today with ambitions of re-reading the next 2 stories before finally experiencing the final arc and then Spider-Girls as part of reading over most of Spider-Geddon. What you will read below are a mixture of some initial thoughts I jotted down during my first read through and my thoughts upon revisiting the story, mostly the latter.

Oh SPOILERS I guess

So let me immediately get some obvious business about Renew Your Vows’ direction from here on in. The book, sans its covers, desperately misses Stegman. It also misses Conway but that is not a condemnation of Houser at all.

Houser in this arc does a good job with the situation presented by the new direction. Whether that new direction was her idea or editorials is unknown, though likely the latter.

And really that is the absolute worst thing about this story, the new direction itself.

It isn’t so much that it is bad unto itself but it is reductive that after 12 issues building a certain status quo, the one also built by the RYV Secret Wars mini-series and was promoted by Marvel prior and during the book’s initial release that we are abruptly changing course in a big way.

The book is still unique, at least the Spider-Books on the stands (even now). But it is less unique for various reasons.

Firstly we simply have way more teen heroes than pre-teen ones. Secondly a book that pays much attention to Spider-Man’s super powered teen daughter is going to either tread upon familiar ground that Spider-Girl stood on or else it will evoke Spider-Girl in the memories of the readers. Annie unto herself innately did this anyway, but that was offset when she was much younger than Mayday.

It also throws away the world building and set up Conway enacted in his initial arc, not to mention it just fast forwards a lot of Annie’s potential character development.

Does this render Annie uninteresting or the premise less likable? No because Houser has a strong handle on both the characters and more specifically what RYV as a book is.

Perhaps this is nowhere more apparent in how she structures her opening arc. Each issue shifts the POV to one of the Parker family, starting with Peter, then handing off to MJ and concluding with Annie, exactly like Conway’s first three issues did. This is a pretty clever way of conveying to readers Houser ‘gets’ the book and reassure readers who might not be thrilled about the time skip that these are the same characters just at different points in their lives, and not even that different, sans Annie.

This is rather realistic because Peter and MJ being the adults are comparatively less likely to change all that much even within 8 years whereas Annie inevitably will drastically change going from a pre-teen to an out-and-out teenager. Fittingly Houser compensates for this by showcasing Annie’s new state of being throughout the issues that are about Peter and MJ.

On the one hand this does somewhat undermine the idea that this book is about the family collectively as opposed being about Annie or placing Annie as the ‘first among equals’ in the team dynamic of the book.

On the other hand since the book is about the Parker family it adds up that so much of Peter and MJ’s characterization will stem from their relation to Annie; your child is after all the most important thing in your life.

So we get Annie’s somewhat more salty and disconnected relationship with a Peter who is very much starting to feel his age. Which is GOOD, the obnoxious proliferation of teen Spider-Man renders almost any older portrayal interesting by default. With MJ though, Annie seems to have a much more conciliatory relationship, its more that she exhausts her mother and seems more comfortable going to her about stuff. Also as a nice way of distinguishing her from Mayday, Annie seems to share her mother’s passion for fashion which Mayday actively didn’t.

Speaking of fashion lets talk about Annie’s new costume. I’ll level you all..it looks better than her prior costume, but also less unique but neither is...all that great. I guess when you have Mayday Parker and Spider-Gwen and all the Spider-Women running around, coming up with something thing that fits the general Spider-Man motif, looks unique and also is really dynamic can be difficult. I can see where the designer was going though. Peter, MJ and Annie share the same outlines for where the chest areas of their suits turn into another colour. Peter’s is red and blue, MJ’s red and white and Annie’s is blue to black. So the ‘shape’ of the suit lends to the ‘unified family’ idea. The colours also make her stand out but maybe too much. If her parents had red chests and then she has blue it’s kinda weird. If the idea was she was trying to strike out on her own sure but I don’t get that impression at all. It is kinda cool she has MJ’s mask design but I preferred her old mask which was a compromise between her parents’ masks.

As for the main plot, I think Houser could’ve milked it much more than she did, we could’ve done with much more of the slice of life stuff and the Lizard was underutilized. There is a strong element of family defining the Lizard’s character because of his wife and child. In a book about family I presumed that was where we were going when he showed up. But...no he was just used as a monster amidst monsters.

I’m not saying Houser got the Lizard wrong just that there was an obvious and more compelling angle to exploited in the story.

The two big reveals surrounding the plot, that there is a zoo full of near-human people, and that it’s being run by Mister Sinister was also...underwhelming.

Spider-Man has the best supporting cast and rogue’s gallery within Marvel comics. Not only does this mean we don’t really need to see non-Spider-Man characters (like the X-Men) pop up, it’s frankly less interesting when we do because they have little-no history with Spider-Man or his family.

It was also just kind of a reveal that didn’t land for me, I could not care at all.

Mister Sinister was a little different because, I like Sinister as a bad guy I really do...but not in Spider-Man. I get including and referencing the X-Men in this arc because for some reason they were practically supporting cast members in Conway’s run, so paying that off makes sense. But why double down upon it with a major X-villain? Like the Jackal, even Doc Ock, either of them would be more fitting villains in this type of story or where the series implies it will be leading onto later.

It didn’t help that when we met Sinister initially in disguise there was just very little gravitas to him because he obviously looked like a no-name 18th century circus reject.

The ending let this arc down is what I guess I’m getting at. Issue #13 and #14 had pretty nice hooks for the next issues.

What was a letdown throughout though was the action sequences. They were pretty pedestrian along with the art overall. Like it wasn’t BAD per se (except Peter’s eyebrows...wtf?), it just was a major step down from Stegman and even Stockman, the latter of whom I think the artwork was chosen to be more like. It had this softer undefined element to it, and not in a Romita Senior way.

Returning to the character though, I do commend Houser for having a good grip on everyone and efficiently finding a way to distinguish them from one another across the three issues.

Peter dealing with being older and now decidedly less cool and engaging to his teen daughter is delightful..even if at points it feels like the narrative is kind of undermining him, especially in the Wolverine scene at the start of the story...still Dad Joke Spider-Man is awesome. Even more awesome is how together he over all is. This isn’t an angst ridden Peter Parker or one who is introspectively questioning himself. Throughout the story he gives off this air of relaxed experience, like he knows what he’s doing and can tell the situation allows for a few jokes and a bit of fun. Refrshingly he doesn’t angst about not pursuing the bad guy at all.

Moving on, Houser probably dissing MJ’s place in the Iron books at the time with her reprimanding and smack down of Tony was awesome (although I don’t get why she was so miffed at him). Her playing Spider-Mom, and more poignantly dejectedly owning it, was hilarious. Her sense of exhaustion is relatable whether you’ve been a parent or just been around them. It very much taps into Conway’s characterization of MJ as a juggler

Houser’s Annie also shines. She is believably an older version of the kid Annie we once knew but also stands firmly as her own person. She’s somewhat embarrassed by her Dad and wants greater independence. She loves being a superhero, but is (also in contrast to Mayday) a more of a punch first think later kind of gal with a dash of overconfidence.

She is untrustworthy of the Lizard and more gung ho, whilst MJ and especially Peter (to my delight) are both more reigned in and trusting.

This is nicely explored in the family’s single page descent underground where Houser gives Peter a really great speech about what it means for Annie to accept the great responsibility of the mask, that it might mean trusting those who are not trustworthy for the sake of others. This serves to nicely develop Annie as its her Dad treating her as more of an adult for the first time. the fact that it’s her Dad, the iconic hero Spider-Man conveying this wisedom onto her is very fitting and helps further legitimize Annie as a Spider-Hero to the readers of RYV and legitimize the new teen version to those jumping aboard at this point.

Not to be outdone, MJ an issue earlier got a wonderful piece of dialogue about how in spite of how their lives might be messed up by being heroes she and her family will still endeavour to make plans and live normal lives. Which is both a wonderfully inspiring heroic statement but also so very true to who she and Peter are as people.

Some other small points:

I saw Carrion amidst Sinister’s menagerie

The underground nature of the story’s conclusion nicely evokes the first arc by Conway

Overall Houser sells/sold you on the new dynamic with this arc as much as I preferred the older one and wish they hadn’t changed.

B+

[funakounasoul]

My Personal 10 Fave Webcomics I Read in 2017

So there was this post making the rounds from Vice (yeah I know) about some "journalist's" top 10 comics from 2017 that instantly boiled down to "there were no good comics". The comic community - mainstream and indie alike - were furious. My reaction was to make my own list. I read when I could since I have my own stuff that I was working on, but I read some neat webcomics this year. Some were started this year while most have been going on for a while and are still in-progress. So, below the cut, I shall share my top 10 (in no particular order):

Slightly Damned by Chu - I’ve actually been reading this one since 2007 (Leigh introduced me to it) BUT we both started a major re-read this year, especially since a major event was going on for a while. This one bases itself around the classic “Angel vs Devil” trope, but does twist it around and also includes other races that are caught in the middle. It’s got its hilarious moments but then gives you such mood whiplashes that you better be strapped onto your chair when you read this or your head will fly.

Missing Monday by Elle Skinner - I TECHNICALLY picked this one up late 2016 (so I may as well count it as a 2017 fave, especially as the story got REAL interesting in this past year!)...though little known fact - I was commissioned by the creator to draw the main couple back in 2014, and that’s where the interest began~ This one is a low fantasy, wlw tale involving time/dimensional traveling and some bargaining with dubious creatures~

Nwain: The Night Who Wandered Dream by Terrana Cliff - This one’s really unique. It’s an animated comic (not a Flash comic, but like, each panel is a bit of a storyboarded-style animation). But what really caught my attention was the curious cast of characters. From the eponymous, quick-witted knight from another time, to the cute robot mouse and (currently) a wild cast of contestants from various lands...Their personalities are so colorful and...well..animated!

Radio Silence by Vanessa Stefaniuk - I love music, so I was instantly attracted to this comic. It’s a slice of life, kinda dramatic at times tale of a British rock band that’s trying to make it big, the trials and tribulations involving such things. Something unique about this one is that the band’s songs are legit composed by a relative of the creator, so whenever you see lyrics with music notes...it’s a proper composition. And also major props to Vanessa for doing SO MUCH research on the locations involved in the story. It’s fictionalized, but despite being Canadian, it really feels like it’s a story being told by Brits (and a Scottish lass and a German guy)!

Heroic Shenanigans by Haley Martin - This one shows off where superhero kids go to train and also socialize in a summer camp-like setting. It’s silly but it’s got a little something underneath it all...agendas and questions and whatnot. But overall, a fun tale of three kids coming of age, so to speak.

Magi Soldat by Star Sumiaki - You like anime? Especially the anime of the 80s and 90s? Magical girls and technology? Then you should check this comic out (that is also read AND paged like a manga, so definitely pay attention to those page arrows!). Earth’s in danger, and it’s up to some unlikely “chosen ones” to learn how to use their new powers and save mankind! And yes, hilarity ensues. (And why, yes, that IS Miko in one of the most recent updates~)

Lavender Tea by Joichi - If you have known me for a period of time, you know I tend to lean more toward wlw and/or female-centric stories in general. This one, which focuses on two boys, actually caught my attention! It’s cute, fluffy, it’s SO unlike the typical BL stuff that tends to make me go elsewhere. Just a simple tale about two boys, and one already has a crush on the other (as far as I know from what I’ve read so far).

Junk Hyenas Diner by Chu - Yes, another one by Chu! I found this one just this year and it’s another great read. Much simpler than Slightly Damned, and it’s a B&W comic, but who cares? It’s still got Chu’s brand of funny. This one is a sci-fi-ish series of random events that take place around a diner run by some mutant hyenas and their robot friend.

MoonSlayer by Mónica N. Galván - R-RATING WARNING FOR THIS ONE. It’s a high fantasy tale of a girl who is trying to write her own destiny because her original one is a terrible one (like, REALLY terrible, not just run-of-the-mill stuff like crappy parents). I haven’t been able to catch up in the latter half of this year, but the story that I’ve read so far has been SO captivating, especially seeing how this girl grows up with so different influences in her life.

Vatican Assassins by MJ Massey - Literally read this one just last week and caught up THAT fast. It’s got demon hunters (see why I got interested so fast? lol) but with a Catholic theme - the hunters work for the Vatican, and pray to saints for battle blessings and the like. They are also mostly a bunch of teenagers, so it’s got teenager problems and conflicts alongside the demon hunting plot, which gives it a bit of a relatable touch since most anyone has experienced, in some way or another, some typical teenager issues.

....And that’s it for this year’s list. I still have quite a bit of a list to go through. I definitely didn’t get to all the titles I wanted to read....so I hope to start reading more titles in 2018! Maybe my list will grow! Also, you definitely should check these out, and maybe make your own lists, even if you’re just a reader. We love hearing recommendations!

[jennaschererwrites]

Omega Kids: A Conversation with Noah Mease and Jay Stull | Culturebot

If you make the trek up the four flights of stairs at 380 Broadway to the Access Theater, you’ll come upon an unlikely sight: a small black box in the middle of a spacious white room, like something that fell from outer space. Inside, you’ll find a sunken square of plush white carpet surrounded by chairs on all sides, evoking not so much a stage as a blank canvas, or a Zen garden not yet raked into a design.

This is the performance space for New Light Theater Project’s Omega Kids, a play about two twentysomething boys (Fernando Gonzalez and Will Sarratt) passing a long, rainy night in each other’s company, written by Noah Mease and directed by Jay Stull. They’re both named Michael, they’re both a bit shy, and they have at least one thing in common: their fascination with the titular Omega Kids, a comic book about a group of teenagers grappling with X-Men-style superpowers.

In addition to his playwriting, Mease is an Obie Award–winning prop designer who’s worked on intricately designed plays like Annie Baker’s John and Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. So it makes sense that he’s chosen to center his play on a prop: a copy of an issue of the comic book, which he wrote and illustrated himself, that is not only perused by the characters onstage but is also in the hands of each of the audience members.

Omega Kids is a story about the way we use stories to connect — or not connect — with the people around us. Employing a potent blend of naturalism and expressionism, the play creates a world that is both lushly romantic and endearingly mundane, where as much is communicated through charged silences and canceled gestures as through the languor of meandering conversation.

I sat down with Mease and Stull — who first met when they were both members of the Fresh Ground Pepper’s PlayGround PlayGroup in 2014 — one night after the show to talk about how Omega Kids‘ singular combination of the epic and the ordinary came to be.

Jenna Scherer: What was the germ of Omega Kids? Noah Mease: I wanted to write this play about how we talk in summaries all the time. It felt like all of my conversations with friends had become us summarizing external stories at each other — like, TV shows that we’d seen or articles we’d read. All of the content of the friendship was filtered through these stories. And you never see that onstage.

Jay Stull: I remember the first day I met Noah, we all pitched what we were writing. And he was like, “I’m want to write the most boring play in the world, and have a comic book. I want to make the play boring enough that people can feel free to read it.” And then when I saw it read, I was like, this isn’t boring at all! This is all subtextual tension, and so much of what I’ve experienced and what I assume a lot of people have experienced about romance.

The romance between the two characters in this play is very specifically a queer romance.

JS: I was always interested in this play because I felt like it articulated the walls and contours of the closet in ways that were exciting. It’s certainly not about not being able to articulate that you have a non-normative sexual desire, but it is about not being to articulate the thing that you think you are. So it’s kind of an inverse closet — it’s a fear of wanting to be basic or commodified.

NM: This play is a reaction to the queer narratives that were available when I was growing up. They were all like: Two gay men who don’t know that they’re gay realizing that they are through shame and misery. I wanted to write a play that felt more grounded in what you could actually live in your real life, using those tropes from queer narrative and also superhero narrative.

In the world of the play, the Omega Kids comic acts as a sort of bridge between the two Michaels.

JS: Art is so personal. The stories that move us, those are who we think we are. We model our lives around the heroes that we grew up wishing we were. And I think it’s such a beautiful portrait, what Noah has done, to say: This art matters to this guy. And it’s the smallest art. It’s not an opus. It’s not Wagner. But it’s so integral to how he understands his life and his development.

NM: There’s a moment where you both know enough about the same thing to enjoy each other’s conversation about it. And then geek culture knows how to take that too far. [Laughs] Like, if you don’t like the right X-Men best, then we can’t be friends. There’s a quality of bravery that Michael doesn’t learn about in superhero comic books that we need in our lives to make things happen. Our stories tell us to wait for the magical object that will fall into your lap or the giant quest that will define your life to be handed to you. That’s what we’re taught to want, and that’s why we’re miserable. [Laughs]

How have audience members been interacting with the comic during the show?

NM: A lot of my theater training has been about giving the audience a lot of free will. So for me, the comic is an option for the audience. A lot of people are choosing not to read it, which I think is totally fine, because I never want to take my eyes off the actors either. But even the choice not to read it feels exciting for the piece, because you’re holding this tactile object the whole time, and it’s a physical connection to what’s happening onstage.

In contrast to the superhero stuff that’s happening in the pages of the comic book, what goes on between Michael and Michael onstage is very small and personal.

JS: One of the exciting things that I see in theater is that people are asking increasingly: What is stageworthy? What is dramatic? Who represents me and my story? This play has a very specific audience, and I think it tends to be people who are very sensitive in their life, who probably are pretty anti-conflict. If you have an audience full of geeks watching this play, I think they’re riveted, because they’ve been there.

NM: The reason that I gravitate toward this kind of theater is that it feels more connected to a lived life. There’s something really radical in saying that those little moments are worth all of us sitting quietly for 85 minutes and watching them happen. It celebrates them in a way that feels special and worth coming to witness.

How does the way the play is designed and staged help to bring audiences into that experience?

JS: We had a lot of discussions with the designers of how to invite people in the minutes before the play starts. How do we change their metabolism? Their pulse needs to drop. So we created this Zen garden–like space, which is actually just a carpet. But small, simple things can seem otherworldly from a different perspective.

The lighting and sound creates this sense that the superhero world is kind of slipping into our own.

NM: The reason that this play is about superpowers, I think, is because it’s about these tiny little moments in your life, that when you live them, you feel super. When you’re falling for someone, suddenly you can remember everything they’ve ever said to you, and you can stay up all night, and all the things that you hope for start to work out. And I think that this play needs all of that language sucked down from comic book world in order to fill those moments in the audience’s imagination.

There’s a lot of silence in Omega Kids, but those silences feel really charged.

JS: Yeah. Especially if you want them to kiss. [Laughs]

NM: It’s really amazing to watch how much people love watching two people who might find a connection.

JS: This is one of the things I’m most interested in theater: How to represent a true moment in time onstage, and how dilating time, accentuating pauses, even unnaturally so, might bring us in. But it’s also a super fine line to walk. We have to be able to take the audience with us.

Omega Kids is at the Access Theater through Saturday, March 25. Tickets: http://omegakids.brownpapertickets.com/ New Light Theater Project: http://www.newlighttheaterproject.com/ Noah Mease: http://www.noahmease.com/ Jay Stull: http://www.jaystull.com/

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INTERVIEW: Priest & Cowan on Deathstroke and Real World Violence

SPOILER WARNING: The following interview contains spoilers for “Deathstroke” #11, in stores now.

All these months later, and storied DC Comics characters are still lining up for their respective debuts in the publisher’s Rebirth reality. This week sees the reemergence of that jaundiced, feral freak, The Creeper, along with his Fourth Estate alter ego, Jack Ryder. To make the return all the more odd, it takes place in the pages of “Deathstroke #11,” by Christopher Priest and guest artists Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Priest and company have hardly taken the typical approach to Slade Wilson or his terminations with this series, opting instead for something just as violent, but far more introspective. That’s especially evident with this latest issue, a frank examination of gun violence and vendetta–not in Gotham or Metropolis, but real world Chicago. When multiple perpetrators of gang murder turn up dead themselves, journalists flock to cover the story of a potential serial killer. Is this justice, or the kind of “eye-for-an-eye” vigilantism that only feeds the cycle of violence? Perhaps an assassin with an eye-patch may prove the best testimony.

CBR: Chicken and egg question: Did Deathstroke #11 start with the outline, or the knowledge that Denys and Bill would be the art team?

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Christopher Priest: The issue began as an inventory story, which is an issue we prepare and hold in case there are production or scheduling problems with the book. I wanted to do an anti-violence story and thought, what better place to do an anti-violence story than Deathstroke — a book that all but glorifies violence. As I see it, my run does not glorify violence so much as it examines the consequences of violence and the effect living this lifestyle has on this man Slade Wilson. I thought a stand-alone inventory issue would be a great platform to make a more forward-leaning statement about those consequences.

At the time of commissioning, there were many stories about the rising toll of shootings in Chicago, with 2016 being a record-breaking year in terms of gun violence and homicides. I thought this tragic situation would make an appropriate platform for my story, and discussed it initially with film director and producer Reginald Hudlin (“D’Jango Unchained,” “2016 Academy Awards®,” “Marshal”), who is now a principal in Milestone Media Inc. I invited Reginald to co-write the issue, but he was busy at the time directing the upcoming biopic “Marshal.” He did share his views on the culture of violence—including Hollywood’s role in it—and suggested my story might work as an urban spin on the classic western “A Fistful of Dollars,” wherein the beleaguered townsfolk hire the gunslinger Clint Eastwood to resolve their problems by means of violence. “Dollars” is a cautionary tale and an anti-violence statement in its own right, and Reginald’s suggestion provided the direction I ultimately pursued.

I thought the story would be a great fit for Milestone Media in its renewed relationship with DC Comics, and had hoped for a mini Milestone reunion by inviting Reginald and Milestone co-creator Denys Cowan to join me. I was incredibly pleased when Denys said yes and worked the “Deathstroke” story into his busy schedule. Denys then brought along our longtime friend Bill Sienkiewicz as well as longtime Cowan letterer Willie Schubert (“The Question,” “Legends of The Dark Knight,” “Lone Wolf & Cub”).

Was there ever any resistance to this story?

Priest: DC has been unqualified in their support of this story. I was actually prepared for a fight and kind of expected the story to get dumped somewhere along the approvals process, but both Bob Harras and DC Publisher Dan DiDio were extremely supportive, making me feel a little like a dope for, essentially, doing to the company what I’d experienced for so long — making assumptions along cultural lines. I kind of owe the company an apology for my having suited up for a fight that never happened.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Obviously, every project is different, with its own mood and pace. Denys, were there any particular challenges when putting pencil to paper on this one? Anything you wanted to try?

Denys Cowan: The challenge of this story was to try to convey the city of Chicago and the people who live there, because the city is as much of a character in this story as Deathstroke is. I tried my best to show this… and with the excellent story by Priest and the inks by Sienkiewicz, I’m very happy with the way this issue came out.

I don’t imagine this applies to anyone on this call, myself included, but there are those who don’t want politics to infringe on the escapism of their comics reading experience. What’s your take on that?

Priest: Read other comics. [Laughs] The way I see it, there are so many choices these days and so many genres from both major and indy publishers, that there should be room for a myriad of approaches. You know, once there was a Cary Bates approach and a Denny O’Neil approach, with Chris Claremont emerging as a kind of amalgam of the two: the high-energy larger-than-life superhero action but character-driven and grounded in reality.

DC films are very much grounded in reality, while the main grouping of their superhero comic books tend to read more like animated series in terms of their heightened reality and high-octane action. Everything is really loud and really bright and occasionally silly, with colorful villains like Abra Kadabra and so forth. But The Dark Knight was so good, it actually worked without the costumes. I mean, if Bruce Wayne had been a Bond-style vigilante rather than Batman, that movie would have still worked.

If I were writing Justice League, the book would probably not be something DC fans would want to read because it would be far less larger than life and would echo life as we know it. I mean, what if there really were a self-appointed group of godlike people “protecting” us? How would the world respond to these people? My JL book would examine the real-world conflicts, challenges and consequences and be less concerned about the next galactic menace the heroes would have to fight.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

This isn’t to criticize writers who write the bang-zoom stuff; these are very talented people doing a great job. But I, personally, don’t read those comics unless I have to for research because they don’t appeal to me, and nobody is writing “JLA: The Real World,” which would appeal to me. It’s also possible I am simply not the audience for mainstream superhero comics because so much of it is just too cranked and too loud for me. I want the real world—or as close to it as I can get—and then pop the heroes into it.

Cowan: This isn’t a political issue to me. Gun violence is a human problem. We deal with this subject in the context of a thriller type story.

Still others might ask why Deathstroke the Terminator is the right guy to relay questions about the cycle of violence in the real world. Do you think audience perception of Slade is a hurdle or an advantage in telling a really charged, meaningful story?

Priest: I think only Nixon could go to China. If DC is going to do an anti-violence story, it really has to take place in “Deathstroke” in order to have real credibility. You had to send the most staunch anti-Communist crusader to talk to Mao in order for any agreement to be trusted by both sides.

I went into this one cold. In fact, I read this digitally without having seen the cover. So when the Creeper shows up, it was maybe the last cameo I expected to see. It’s almost a shame most other readers will have already seen him on the cover. How did the Creeper become part of the equation?

Priest: For this story, I wanted Deathstroke to be portrayed, more or less, as a force of nature. He has very few lines. The story is told by a point of view character. I thought that POV character should ideally be a reporter; someone who could ask questions. I did not want to the book to preach to the readers “Violence Is Bad!” I wanted to preach a good sermon. A good sermon is like a good court summation: tell a story, ask pointed questions, which lead the hearer to draw their own conclusion.

I initially wanted Lois Lane, but there was so much going on in the Superverse that we looked elsewhere. When Jack Ryder came across my desk, I felt Ryder — a former Jerry Springer-type — would be perfect. The story is built around Ryder however, as it developed, it became obvious that if we have Ryder in the book, readers would expect The Creeper to make an appearance.

I actually did not want Creeper on the cover, but this is the first post-Rebirth appearance of the character, so it made sense that DC would want to play that up. Hopefully, the way the book is written, most readers will have all but forgotten about The Creeper until he makes his entrance. I think it still works.

What’s important to you right now, as storytellers in, let’s call it 2017? What do you personally want to explore or say or ask? What do you want to get out of it?

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Cowan: As a storyteller in this medium, I’ve always tried to explore the human experience using extraordinary superheros to entertain and reach people. It’s just as or maybe more important in 2017 to continue to do that.

Priest: I’m still trying to decide if I’m having a good time or not, and how long I’ll be writing comics. It’s a lot of hard work, and there’s this big team the editor has to corral, like herding cats. I worry that I’m really not in sync with what is popular and what sells these days, which is probably why I am not offered leading, or A-List titles. A friend told me last week, “Dude, that [Denny O’Neil] era is over.” Man, I really hope not. I loved Cary Bates’ Superman and Flash, But Denny took Superman and grounded him in reality — got rid of Kryptonite and de-powered him, then wrote him introspectively. It should not be zero sum. Grant Morrison’s “JLA” was certainly larger than life and sold a gajillion copies, obliterating my “Justice League Task Force.” So, do I still belong here? I guess that’s for the readers to decide.

I’d like to be writing novels and exploring other creative avenues. As of this writing, there are lots of possibilities and I’m really kind of shocked that so many people have approached me to work with them. It’ll likely be at least another month or so before I know for sure what 2017 looks like.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

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