Goodbye, Spider-Man?
Sep. 16th, 2010 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerVia ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
box_in_the_box: one comic fan eloquently explains why he's stopped reading his favorite character, Spider-Man.
Y'know... sometimes, I actually forget that I used to be a huge Spider-Man fan when I was a kid.
The very first comics I ever read were Issues 2 and 3 of The Untold Legend of the Batman (both prizes from the BATMAN breakfast cereal), and the second part of "A Lonely Place of Dying." These Batman comics featured Jim Aparo art, as well as Two-Face, so I think it's safe to say that those were a deeply formative experience for me at age eight-ish.
But the one other comic I vividly remember from childhood? The one that might have been my second, or even first ever comic? A digest-sized reprint AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #59, 60, and 61, a Lee/Romita story featuring the Kingpin brainwashing Captain Stacy.
That one... didn't stay with me. I'm not a hardcore Spider-Man fan, nor so I devote an inordinate amount of my time obsessing over Wilson Fisk's every appearance and iteration.
And yet, by the time I was in fifth grade and I actually started getting comics on a regular basis, Spider-Man was my book of choice. Part of it was that I did reach current Two-Face levels of obsession with Dr. Octopus, for whom I still have a very soft spot. But part of it was also just the quality of the Spider-Man comics at the time.
Unfortunately, I was getting into Spider-Man at one of the worst times: right on the cusp of the infamous Clone Saga. I jumped ship early on, becoming a hardcore DC fan with Batman and Green Lantern (Bring back Hal! Down with Ron Marz and Kevin Dooley! Kyle is only interesting when written by Grant Morrison, and even then, ehhh! Time to renew my H.E.A.T. membership!), and didn't get back into Spider-Man or even Marvel in general until J. Michael Straczynski's run.
Unfortunately, even my fond feelings towards that (imperfect) run are sullied by the knowledge that they led to "The Green Goblin impregnates Gwen Stacy, and their offspring fight Spider-Man." It was at that point where I'd already given up on Spider-Man, even before Civil War, One More Day, Brand New Day, and any of the crap since, all that way up to the camel-breaking straw in the above linked article, One Moment In Time.
For the most part, I don't care. All I can do is shrug and hope that the big wheel of comics will keep spinning until Joey Q no longer has his way and we can get truly great Spider-Man comics again.
But lately, I've decided to track down a bunch of those stories I loved from childhood. Namely, the ones written by J.M. DeMatteis. And over the past week, this author's work has single-handedly reminded me why I was a Spider-Man fan in the first place.
I've been thinking about going into why I love DeMatteis at length here, but honestly, I imagine only about three or four of you have even read this entry this far, so I dunno who's really care. Heck, since I imagine so few are reading this anyway, I'll sneak a confession in while I'm at it: I'm increasingly feeling like I have no outlets for my geekery, that I'm having a harder and harder time finding people who care, or even know what I'm talking about.
If I had it my way, man, J.M. DeMatteis' run on Spider-Man would be as well-known and celebrated as JMS', Mark Millar's, and even Stan Lee's! In a better world, "The Child Within" would be in print as a true Spider-Man classic, a worthy sequel to "Kraven's Last Hunt!" But it's not, and no one seems to know of it unless they read it upon first release. And we'll never see those stories reprinted now, since Harry's whole arc up to his death has been retconned out.
So after six or so years of apathy, I finally find myself getting pissed off about what they've done to Spidey. Not just the character, but his whole world of stories, particularly the ones that shaped me as a kid and can still move me today. The ones that few know about, and most others will never discover unless they scour the back issue bins like I did.
But if nothing else, at least I've found those stories again. And in doing so, I'm able to reread others that I've loved, like the Erik Larsen Sinister Six stories, or Gerry Conway's "Parallel Lives," and especially the work of DeMatteis. And in rereading them, I'm actually being reminded all over again just why this die-hard DC boy had such a soft spot for Spidey's world.
I'll just have to hold on to those memories until such time as I can actually enjoy current Spider-Man comics again. So unlike the article's author, I'm less "goodbye," and more "till we meet again, webslinger."
box_in_the_box: one comic fan eloquently explains why he's stopped reading his favorite character, Spider-Man.Y'know... sometimes, I actually forget that I used to be a huge Spider-Man fan when I was a kid.
The very first comics I ever read were Issues 2 and 3 of The Untold Legend of the Batman (both prizes from the BATMAN breakfast cereal), and the second part of "A Lonely Place of Dying." These Batman comics featured Jim Aparo art, as well as Two-Face, so I think it's safe to say that those were a deeply formative experience for me at age eight-ish.
But the one other comic I vividly remember from childhood? The one that might have been my second, or even first ever comic? A digest-sized reprint AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #59, 60, and 61, a Lee/Romita story featuring the Kingpin brainwashing Captain Stacy.
That one... didn't stay with me. I'm not a hardcore Spider-Man fan, nor so I devote an inordinate amount of my time obsessing over Wilson Fisk's every appearance and iteration.
And yet, by the time I was in fifth grade and I actually started getting comics on a regular basis, Spider-Man was my book of choice. Part of it was that I did reach current Two-Face levels of obsession with Dr. Octopus, for whom I still have a very soft spot. But part of it was also just the quality of the Spider-Man comics at the time.
Unfortunately, I was getting into Spider-Man at one of the worst times: right on the cusp of the infamous Clone Saga. I jumped ship early on, becoming a hardcore DC fan with Batman and Green Lantern (Bring back Hal! Down with Ron Marz and Kevin Dooley! Kyle is only interesting when written by Grant Morrison, and even then, ehhh! Time to renew my H.E.A.T. membership!), and didn't get back into Spider-Man or even Marvel in general until J. Michael Straczynski's run.
Unfortunately, even my fond feelings towards that (imperfect) run are sullied by the knowledge that they led to "The Green Goblin impregnates Gwen Stacy, and their offspring fight Spider-Man." It was at that point where I'd already given up on Spider-Man, even before Civil War, One More Day, Brand New Day, and any of the crap since, all that way up to the camel-breaking straw in the above linked article, One Moment In Time.
For the most part, I don't care. All I can do is shrug and hope that the big wheel of comics will keep spinning until Joey Q no longer has his way and we can get truly great Spider-Man comics again.
But lately, I've decided to track down a bunch of those stories I loved from childhood. Namely, the ones written by J.M. DeMatteis. And over the past week, this author's work has single-handedly reminded me why I was a Spider-Man fan in the first place.
I've been thinking about going into why I love DeMatteis at length here, but honestly, I imagine only about three or four of you have even read this entry this far, so I dunno who's really care. Heck, since I imagine so few are reading this anyway, I'll sneak a confession in while I'm at it: I'm increasingly feeling like I have no outlets for my geekery, that I'm having a harder and harder time finding people who care, or even know what I'm talking about.
If I had it my way, man, J.M. DeMatteis' run on Spider-Man would be as well-known and celebrated as JMS', Mark Millar's, and even Stan Lee's! In a better world, "The Child Within" would be in print as a true Spider-Man classic, a worthy sequel to "Kraven's Last Hunt!" But it's not, and no one seems to know of it unless they read it upon first release. And we'll never see those stories reprinted now, since Harry's whole arc up to his death has been retconned out.
So after six or so years of apathy, I finally find myself getting pissed off about what they've done to Spidey. Not just the character, but his whole world of stories, particularly the ones that shaped me as a kid and can still move me today. The ones that few know about, and most others will never discover unless they scour the back issue bins like I did.
But if nothing else, at least I've found those stories again. And in doing so, I'm able to reread others that I've loved, like the Erik Larsen Sinister Six stories, or Gerry Conway's "Parallel Lives," and especially the work of DeMatteis. And in rereading them, I'm actually being reminded all over again just why this die-hard DC boy had such a soft spot for Spidey's world.
I'll just have to hold on to those memories until such time as I can actually enjoy current Spider-Man comics again. So unlike the article's author, I'm less "goodbye," and more "till we meet again, webslinger."
