Hello love the blog and am always impresse by the encyclopedic knowledge so Ben Reilly question, what it the difference between Peter and Ben like character traits or anything?(like in recent years of making Kaine the herk with a heart of gold brawn to peters' nice guy brains.)
Let’s ignore post-OMD Ben Reilly for the sake of argument and sanity.
Curious what you think of the IDW series' main covers? I love the interior artwork and there are a few standouts for sure (1-4, 10, 13), but I can't help but feel the covers are sometimes too busy (issues 6, 11, 18) or kind of hard to tell what's actually going on (issues 5, 7, 9, 16)? Or am I being harder on the IDW covers because the interiors are so consistently well done, whereas Spaz's artwork was the high point of many issues?
Nah, overall I love the covers! They have so many amazingly talented artists and I’m blown away every issue. They might seem “busy” with lots of characters compared to the old Spaziante stuff I post here, but if you look at the last decade of Archie covers, they liked doing covers with lots of characters too
Admittedly, a couple of them early on were bland (I kind of hate the drawing of Sonic from Yardley’s B-cover for issue 1, which Comixology for some reason uses as the cover image for the whole series). But I mean, any time one cover feels slightly weak, the alternate version almost always picks up the slack
And like... I know Spaziante is (rightfully) seen as one of the best Sonic artists ever, but come on. Archie still had its fair share of stinkers
I am sad the 3rd one is so bad because it's a Sonic parody of one of my favorite comic book covers ever
200x200 anime mikan tsumiki icons for anon!!!
hope this is okay, if you want more let me know ☆
-mod miu
Death and Destiny:
Lee Weeks kicks ass in this homage to the Lee/Romita era that was one of the few bright spots in the hard times of the early 2000s Reboot
Blue:
Even though I have a lot of problems with this the art, dialogue and execution of this (another love letter to the Lee/Romita run) are too good to overlook. Just don’t tell me it’s canon okay?
Negative Exposure:
Oy vey, ANOTHER story sort of set in the Lee/Romita era. Though in fairness this one isn’t really a homage or love letter like the other ones but was a very cool look at Doc Ock from the perspective of a new character. It’s almost not a proper Spider-Man story but it is told very well.
Spider-Man/Human Torch:
For all my problems with Dan Slott as a writer this series is genuinely terrific and I can understand people coming away from this with the idea that Slott would be the logical choice for ASM. The odd thing is a lot of the things I dislike about Slott’s run as a whole are not only present here but work within the context of the series. His nostalgic, outdated, comedic style and preference for teaming Spider-Man up works with a book which is set in the past, is not significant (except for the ending) and so can afford to keep things gag worthy most of the time. And the continuity porn is fine within a five issue love letter.
Clone Saga:
Yeah if you’ve been following this blog you could probably guess this would be here. It’s possibly the ONE Spider-Man mini/one shot published after OMD I’d ever allow and that’s more or less because:
Plus unlike the above stories you got A LOT of content within the issues you purchased so it was true value for money.
Maybe some of the other minis on the list are technically better but for me this one was the single most worthwhile.
P.S. Some Honorable mentions:
Revenge of the Green Goblin
Not included because it’s a 5 part story with parts 4-5 being in the main titles so it’s kind of a main title event.
The Evil that Men Do
Not included because the first half was fine but the second half sucked.
X-Men and Spider-Man
Not included because whilst it’s fun and does have Ben Reilly these other minis were just better.
Doctor Octopus: Year One
Not included because there are a few too many continuity misfires and whilst that happens in some of these other stories those other stories also had either writing/art which edged them out.
Quality of Life
Not included because it was too experimental and I don’t like the Lizard anyway.
Spider-Man/Red Sonja
Not included because frankly it’s very fanservicey and is pointless but it’s a guilty pleasure for me but only because I like MJ.
Superior Foes of Spider-Man
Not included because it’s from the post-OMD continuity and I just couldn’t bring myself to put anything like that on the list although it is very good.
P.P.S. Spider-Man limited series which can go to Hell:
House of M
Out of character for Peter, was a dick move to Mary Jane, made Peter look bad and also had jacks*** to do with the actual House of M event
The Evil that Men Do (the second half)
Retcon Felicia’s perfectly fine origin and rapes her. Charming. Also mutants randomly?
Get Kraven
Ruined a genuine character with potential, Alyohsa Kravinoff, wasn’t about Spider-Man, was a sadistic, over the top, pointless satire of Hollywood, was out of character for a lot of reasons and oh yeah, had another insensitive rape in it.
Breakout
It’s not a Spider-Man story it’s a story about the lameass villains the U-Foes with Spider-Man coincidentally in it.
With Great Power
Does anyone actually give a damn about Spider-Man’s wrestling career? Or his as a minor romancing a much older woman?
Fear Itself
Just…ugh
Virtually every mini from the Clone Saga
Yeah as bad as some of these are the Clone Saga mini-series were chores. Apart from lost Years, Redemption, the Final Adventure and arguably Funeral for an Octopus, they sucked.
Hopefully in the future we’ll see some better Spider-Man minis.
Confession: I don’t like the eyes in the anime. They’re too big and bright compared to the original game
I actually really like the big eyes....
Confession: Mikan’s love for Junko makes no sense whatsoever with the brainwashing explanation in DR3. If she was brainwashed to join the Ultimate Despairs, then why does she feel anything towards her besides hate? Nagito was also brainwashed and still hated her, so the same should be happening with Mikan.
When I look back at Bendis’ career and impact upon Marvel and the characters I know and love I realize more and more he did far more to harm than to help.
His take on Spider-Man in in large degrees responsible for the ‘YOUNG YOUNG YOUNG Spider-Man’ fetish we’ve been been enduring for so long now.
His invention of Miles has erupted into fan wars which have served to tear down and denigrate the original character.
He invented what may well be the most worthless and shallow legacy character ever in the form of Riri Williams.
He eviscerated the Guardians of the Galaxy.
He destroyed the Avengers and sacrificed their central appeal in order to mark them the centre of the Marvel universe to the point where they are not only impenetrable to all but the most ambitious of fans, but he made being an Avenger meaningless because who ISN’T an Avenger anymore.
His take on Spider-Man in the Avengers further hurt the character and reduced him to a useless manchild who apparently liked being an Avenger and needed to be on most major formations of the team despite contributing NOTHING.
He brought Luke Cage back to prominence, which was a good thing (along with his relationship with Jessica Jones) but he sucked the personality out of Luke and rendered the character who whilst dated and cheesy, was ultimately charming because he was dated and cheesy. Now he’s just…bland.
He rendered Mary Jane out of character by putting her in the Iron books where she increased sales but also contributed NOTHING.
He began a fetish for sticking major characters from one franchise into another on the alleged premise that you can generate uniqueness from doing that and then failed to ever prove that to be true (see MJ in Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine as Avengers, Kitty, Venom, Ben Grimm, Carol Danvers and Iron Man as members of the Guardians).
Created Maria Hill who is just the fucking worst if you read her in…most things actually. Civil War and Standoff might be her worst outings ever but it’s not like those were OOC for her. Her value amounts to basically just being another notable SHIELD agent besides Nick Fury, but actually we’ve had plenty (more memorable) ones of those in the past.
He created precedents for MJ as a reporter (which is incredibly derivative of Lois Lane) and for Norman to be a mutated monster (which goes against the central themes of Norman wearing a mask) and for Spider-Man to be ‘a hero in training’ under the eyes of older heroes (again, not the point of Spider-Man).
He fucked up Wanda’s character by ignoring how her powers work, ignoring her history (he does this is ALL the characters he works on actually) and casting her character as mentally ill (which you could argue is more than a little sexist actually).
He treated Kitty Pryde as his waifu multiple times. She gets to date Spider-Man, become Star-Lord’s fiance (after a mere TWO YEARS of stories), become the new Star-Lord and beat Galactus.
He unmasked Daredevil, an idea derivative of older runs in the first place, but more poignantly created HUGE narrative problems for the character that he just ignored and left up to other people to clean up because he didn’t care.
He wrote some of THE WORST EVER Marvel crossovers and events and helped set the precedent for the indulgent event fatigue we’ve been enduring for over 10 years now.
Secret War: Cynical, overly dark and depressing bullshit storytelling that abuses the characters in the name of ‘realism’ and makes Nick Fury at least MORE of an asshole than he was. I’d evenargue it’s what turned Fury from a gruff leader of a government/military body who tried to do the right thing most of the time into a manipulative piece of shit asshole.
Avengers Disassembled: Requires a willful ignoring of how Wanda’s powers work and her established history. So fucked up that the Young Avengers guys needed to fix it via retcons in the infinitely superior Children’s Crusade storyline.
House of M: Same problems as above and he needed to kind of fix some of it himself 7 years later in another bullshit event. The event itself though REQUIRED the ‘heroes’ to be you know…UNheroic by deciding to just murder their friend instead of finding a better way. Fucked up Wolverine by just removing most of the mystery from him in ONE shot. Began the insufferable misinformation about Spider-Man really loving Gwen Stacy more because she was in his ‘ideal world’ during House of M. Turned Quicksilver into basically a villain. In fact the whole premise of House of M as an ideal world is never made any sense anyway. That’s how little thought Bendis actually put into this story.
Secret Invasion: A Battlestar Galactica rip-off
Dark Reign/Siege: You know how people incorrectly claim Norman Osborn rips off Lex Luthor? Let’s just wholesale MAKE him like Lex Luthor from the DC Animated Universe and the main DC universe during the time he was President. And also forget he has super powers. And also forget he’s Spider-Man’s Big Bad to the point where the story is more concerned with Hawkeye’s beef with him than Peter Parker’s. Meanwhile Spider-Man is robbed of his biggest villain for a prolonged period of time.
AvX: Heroes vs other Heroes AGAIN. Hooray. Haven’t seen that every year since 2004.
Age of Ultron: A confused, overlong set up to introduce and Image comics character into Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man 2099 into Superior Spider-Man and also set up Secret Wars.
Civil War II: Who hasn’t talked about what a turd this was? A bullshit false premise built upon everyone required to be out of character and also devoid of basic logic all in aid of ANOTHER hero vs hero fest that exists to tie into a superior film and promote Carol Danvers ahead of her own movie by tearing her down in the worst way possible. Also to set up Champions and Secret Invasion and make Miles Morales’ existence a way bigger deal than it should be for the ‘everyman’ character.
And then there is the precedent for decompression and writing for the trades. Not only is this frustrating as a reading experience but also harmfully impacts comic sales overall since it is so frustrating month to month and thus encouraging to just read the trades.
Bendis made Marvel a lot of money there is no denying that.
Bendis’ role in the Ultimate Universe might even have helped Marvel out of financial straits to a certain degree.
But from a creative POV, his impact upon the Marvel universe as a whole has been incredibly toxic and the sooner he fucks off the better.
Confession: Sometimes I wonder if Mikan isn’t used as a scapegoat by the writers. Whenever they need someone from class 77-B to do terrible stuff, they use her: She is the one who recover her memories, the most easily brainwashed, the one who had most screentimedoing fucked up things and the only one that is obsessed by Junko.
Batoto Mediafire Sendspace Whoo, a really big release this time around and one that’s taken 2 years to get done! To make a long story short, this is what started me deciding to typeset Danganronpa manga, thanks to a kind anon who posted the raws and another anon who posted translations to go along with the first twenty pages of the 4 koma! @taichinchin then helped me with a couple of pages before Mino Spelgud stepped in and did pages 22-30! Not only that, while I did the first 10 pages, @photoshopronpa was gracious and kind enough to help with pages 17-30, please go shower them with praise since they really really did an amazing job and they will most likely be a great help with the second half too! As you can tell, this is only the first half of the 4 komas, and the second half is currently getting translated! Hopefully we’ll get the whole volume done, but seeing as how we got about half of it done, I figured it’d be best to share what we have done now and release the rest later, so enjoy! - Manlyronpa
One of the frequent arguments used against the Spider-Marriage was that it allegedly made high caliber writers unwilling to work on the series and/or made filling the role of writer difficult to do.
In particular Roger Stern’s unwillingness to work on the series due to Spider-Man being married and Ed Brubaker’s public frustration with how the marriage prevented him from writing a story he had in mind is cited to corroborate the above argument.
But let’s deconstruct that idea a little bit shall we.
Watchmen (2009) dir. Zack Snyder
Confession: V3 is actually a satisfying conclusion to the series and we don’t need more mainline games. I would really appreciate spin-offs like a slice-of-life LN or a RPG, though.
One of the frequent arguments used against the Spider-Marriage was that it allegedly made high caliber writers unwilling to work on the series and/or made filling the role of writer difficult to do.
In particular Roger Stern’s unwillingness to work on the series due to Spider-Man being married and Ed Brubaker’s public frustration with how the marriage prevented him from writing a story he had in mind is cited to corroborate the above argument.
But let’s deconstruct that idea a little bit shall we.
Spider-Man (2002) dir. Sam Raimi
Friendly reminder that Peter Parker’s true and only father and inspirational figure is his uncle Ben Parker not Tony Stark:
I just love Mikan so much....
✨🌸Mikan icons!🌸✨
✨🌸reblog if you use!🌸✨
Headcanon: Even after they leaved the Program, Class 77-B never was the same and the guilt persisted on their conscience for years.
Headcanon: Makoto often has frequent nightmares about the killing game and seeing his classmates die in front of him, much like the hallucination he had in the Despair Arc of the DR3 anime. However, he keeps it to himself to in order to move forward and not remind everyone else more of the game.
