Written by If comic book industry journalists did their job, then they would take Dan Slott to task for behaving like an immature clown on social media. The appropriate websites have abdicated their responsibility to discuss what it means to be a professional, so douglasernstblog.com will fill the void.
Those who follow The Amazing Spider-Man scribe probably remember the time he stalked The Main Event and got smacked down via YouTube. Readers of this blog will remember the time he tried to sic his Twitter followers on yours truly. Fans of Spider-Man Crawlspace and a host of other message boards undoubtedly have their own tales to tell. Now comes the time when Dan Slott tracked down and trolled a random woman on Twitter who said that The Superior Spider-Man sounded lame, and then afterwards he had the gall to bash GamerGate supporters.
I’m not sure when a man’s behavior qualifies him to be labeled a “douche canoe,” but it seems as though Dan Slott’s online impulse control problems can serve as a sound litmus test.
Ami Angelwings took the high road and simply pointed out how ridiculous and weird it is for the Marvel comic books writer of The Amazing Spider-Man to be manically searching through Twitter streams for criticism that he can use as an excuse to lash out at young women in front of his 65,000 + Twitter followers.
Slott, rightfully feeling shame, apologized. Then, without even picking up on the irony, he soon was bashing GamerGate supporters.
Despite the fact that GamerGate supporters are both men and women from a variety of different backgrounds, and despite the fact that many of them — including the Main Event — have very legitimate gripes about the gaming industry and the journalists who cover it, Dan Slott then goes on to slime all of them. Dan Slott — the man who just moments before found a random woman online and made jokes about the value of her life — said he will block people who merely defend guys like The Main Event. Telling.
Luckily, guys like Raúl get it: “She didn’t even tag you. You actually searched for people to bully. How is that okay?”
It’s not okay, Raúl. You are 100 percent correct. The problem is that Dan Slott — the guy who complains about deadlines — is busy finding random women on the internet to spout off to because they didn’t like the premise of The Superior Spider-Man.
The next time you read The Amazing Spider-Man and ask, “Isn’t that sort of lazy for a writer to literally insert a deus ex machina into his big Spider-Man project,” you can now say “Yes” without skipping a beat.
The reason is simple: Thin-skinned writers who feel the need to sift through Twitter streams looking for women to troll are not very efficient with their time.
In the future, Dan Slott can go back to stalking random Twitter users and then mocking them in his own Twitter feed without identifying them by name. The thing is, he doesn’t even realize that such a bizarre way of fishing for compliments is just as sad.
Exit question: What are the chances that “Mister Mets” over at Comic Book Resources will ever take Dan Slott to task over his online behavior? And if you talk with Mister Mets, ask him what I’ve done on Twitter that comes remotely close to Dan Slott’s behavior. I’d really like to know. Please, go through my feed. All of it. Or not, because I don’t act like Dan Slott.
Notice that Cameron Samuri was banned? Why do I think it has more to do with him not adhering to Orwellian message boards rules than actually speaking out of line?
Douglas Ernst Blog 
Wow. Stalking a random woman for saying she thinks SSM sounds lame? That’s a new low for Slott. He has some big-time issues, and that’s being kind.
Was that a pun on “Big Time,” Carl. 😉
The weird thing is, the woman didn’t even really say anything worth him interjecting (even if we were to say it was okay for the sake of argument). She read a few summaries of the book and didn’t like what she saw. If someone doesn’t like the premise of a story (e.g., killing Peter Parker and making Doctor Octopus “Spider-Man” for over a year), they don’t read the stinking book. Likewise, if multiple Yelp reviews say an Italian restaurant doesn’t have a core Italian dish on the menu, then it is quite logical for someone to criticize that restaurant.
“Was that a pun on “Big Time,” Carl. ;)”
Ha. Maybe an unconscious pun! I’d forgotten all about that story, although that was the time I gave up on new Spidey comics.
“The weird thing is, the woman didn’t even really say anything worth him interjecting (even if we were to say it was okay for the sake of argument). She read a few summaries of the book and didn’t like what she saw. If someone doesn’t like the premise of a story (e.g., killing Peter Parker and making Doctor Octopus “Spider-Man” for over a year), they don’t read the stinking book. Likewise, if multiple Yelp reviews say an Italian restaurant doesn’t have a core Italian dish on the menu, then it is quite logical for someone to criticize that restaurant.”
I agree. If the premise doesn’t sound interesting to them, people aren’t going to read it. I’m the same way. I know that’s hard for Slott to understand, but that’s the way people are.
It goes back to the notion that just because you can write a certain story (e.g., making Doc Ock “Spider-Man” for over a year), it doesn’t mean you should. To Peter Parker fans, that was a giant slap in the face. And let’s not even talking about Doc Ock pleasing himself to the thought of Mary Jane, etc. … If a Peter Parker fan reads the premise of The Superior Spider-Man and they’re revolted that someone would do that, then that is a logic stance that can be defended. Dan Slott may not like it, but one does not to read his story to know that the idea can rightfully be interpreted as spitting on Peter Parker fans everywhere.
Can a story with Doc Ock as The Superior Spider-Man have some interesting elements to it? Sure. Of course. But the premise can also be considered absolutely revolting at the same time.
He bickered with me for 4 weeks for telling him that SSM was garbage, so this is just par for the course for Dan.
It also doesn’t surprise me that Dan Slott is against GG, there seems to be a lot of balding, chubby white knights against it.
And you’re just one of the people he’s argued with. Multiply your experience by many, many other readers and then we begin to see why characters in SSM had to lose about 20 IQ points in order for the story to work, why spending a decade in a box hasn’t affected Silk, and why Spider-Verse has become a bloated mess requiring a literal deus ex machina to move the story along.
When even Ami Angelwings, curator of Escher Girls, thinks you’re a weirdo, something is wrong.
I never even heard of her before. Here’s a link to her Tumblr account, for those who have Tumblr.
To borrow a line from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon: “Okay, wow. Just wow.” I’ve lurked around this blog, Crawlspace, and others, so I knew Slott was (for lack of a better term) obsessive when it comes to criticism of his work, but this is just creepy. Stuff like this makes me glad I gave up buying Marvel comics.
The sad thing is, no matter how many guys like you speak up and say that the creators’ behavior is prompting you to give up on the medium, they continue to downplay or completely brush it off like it’s not happening.
Comic books fans should start calling Dan Slott “Rockwell.”
“I always feel like…Dan Slott is watching me! And I have no privacy.”
Dan Slott is such a creep. His stories are creepy, his man-crush on Otto Octavius is creepy, his stalking and trolling of those who don’t like his stories is creepy, and his vision of who Peter Parker should be is just downright disturbing. He does give us entertaining stories though, not Spider-Man stories that is, but stories of how he attempts to manage his own personal frustrations by engaging in keyboard warfare with fans and random women he doesn’t know. All you can really do with this guy is laugh.
Sal, your comment was one of the first I read this morning and it brought a smile to my face. What a great way to start the day. Indeed, laughter is the best medicine.
Very strange behavior. He truly is an egotist with an obsessive stalker disorder.
Don’t tell that to “Mister Mets” over at CBR. He thinks my behavior online is worse than Dan Slott’s. Heh. I’d love to have Mister Mets come over here and talk about that. My guess is that he won’t because he likes having the power to ban people who tactfully disagree with him.
From the Spider-Man books I have read I can say they were bad. Now I have read them so does my statement count or do I have to read them all because that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
How come this troll only goes after people he thinks he can get away with? Notice he only attacks where he can delete messages and hide his actions. Dan Slott is an internet bully. I will save him the hardship of searching since I know he reads this.
Dan grow up, you have lost more fans than you realize.
My friend Spider said you need to seek help and I strongly agree there is still hope for you.
From the Spider-Man books I have read I can say they were bad. Now I have read them so does my statement count or do I have to read them all because that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
Nope. It doesn’t count. You have to read them all, and then if you don’t like them you have to talk to a psychologist about why you don’t like them. And if you want to criticize Dan Slott’s work online you must put in a written submission with Marvel. The company will then evaluate you opinions and, if they are within the accepted standard for Slott criticism, then you may proceed. The fine print on your agreement with Marvel notes that you may still be singled out by certain editors for online ridicule or harassment. 😉
He definitely doesn’t like to go on any forum where he doesn’t have total control. He may be smart enough to know that his bosses would like it if he came here, made a complete and total fool out of himself, and then couldn’t delete the comments like he did in his YouTube meltdown. That was classic, but he deleted tons of comments after the fact.
What are the chances of “Mister Mets” taking Dan Slott to task? I’d say…just about zero.
Translation: “You’re a respectful person and you may have something that legitimately challenges my predetermined conclusion about who you are and your motivations for contacting me. La!La!La!La!La! Mute! I can’t hear you!”
Wow. He is such a strange, insecure bully. Why does he have this obsessive need to be loved by everyone and constantly praised?
You would think that a guy with 65,000+ Twitter followers, many who are ready and willing to massage his ego any time he asks for it, wouldn’t have to track down some random woman who doesn’t like the premise of The Superior Spider-Man and certain plot details. Telling.
Dan just blocked Frugalgamer…wonder why..sarcasm.
Made a crack about a typo and blocked him so he could not respond, Dan is a class act.
That says it all right there: Dan Slott blocks or mutes anyone who might actually present evidence that refutes his claims, but then jumps at the first chance he gets to mock and ridicule someone for … yes, that’s right, a typo. And of course, his Twitter minions are right there to act like the palace lackeys who bowed down before Xerxes in “300.”
He’s been on GamerGate all day. Why? Because of this very post — and he knows it. But these days he’s careful not to draw attention to my blog because every time he does he comes out looking more foolish than before.
Frugal could have been nicer (I am not a big fan of calling a person a fool) but it was odd since he did not send it to Slott or put @ so Dan must have searched for himself.
It is also the common Slott move to hide the point using deflection from the facts.
Again. Thank you! As you point out, this is a man who is actively searching for people to ridicule on his Twitter feed — his little shrine to himself — where 65,000+ can come and lather him up with lickspittle accolades. It’s weird. It’s bizarre. It’s sad.
But the thing is, every time this guy gets up on his moral pedestal while he writes The Amazing Spider-Man, I’m going to be there to chronicle his hypocrisy. If people want to know why Dan Slott is completely lost writing Peter Parker (hence, why he must write stories where Peter Parker is killed or where Peter gets lost in a sea of spider-totems), all they need to do is scroll through his Twitter feed. All the answers are right there. For a more thorough analysis of Dan Slott’s narcissism, all they need to do is search through the archives of this blog.
I was Cameron Samurai and, yes, I was pretty much banned for not playing by Mister Mets’ rules, I was chucked out while trying to defend the classier characterizations of Mary Jane from one of at least two posters I know there who post deliberately antagonistic and condescending comments towards people in support of the Spider-Marriage and have issues with Slott’s writing and handling of the characters, but who are both allowed to run rampant because Mets agrees with their viewpoints. What I’ve found over time is that, probably due to Mets being as strict as he is (likely coupled with the fact the books just are not very good), the Spider-Man forums are very scarce in activity, it’s usually the same regulars posting there with only the occasional new guy drifting in before they settle on the other forums on the site.
Haha! That’s classic. Zariusii, you don’t strike me as a guy who would say anything ban-worthy. You’re obviously a pretty sharp guy, but the way you have conducted yourself here indicates that you’d abide by forum rules on pretty much any website. Sometimes there are individuals who post here who agree with me on politics, but I can just tell they wouldn’t last long on most websites… You do not strike me as such a character at all.
That’s hilarious. “Mister Mets” is a joke.
Oh I can be pretty salty sometimes, I can’t say I was entirely innocent in my banning, as I did say something along the lines of “if you’re proud of MJ acting the way she currently is, then it’s very telling of what you’re like as a person and how you value relationships”, however I caught on to how bull-headed and judgemental that sounded and edited the post to concentrate on just the key bullet points I was raising, but Mets was clearly waiting to pounce on me for the slightest slip up, and I was on my third strike there, so it was just a case of me not being careful with choice of words and that.
You’re too humble in my opinion, my friend. Being a little “salty” is not a reason to ban someone, and even the quote you apparently got banned for isn’t all that bad. If I disagreed with you on MJ’s behavior I’d say, “Okay. Fair enough. You think I don’t value relationships. I think your point is silly. Moving on…” I wouldn’t ban you.
As Carl can attest, I “banned” Lizard19 for a few months after putting up with all sorts of ridiculous behavior. But I gave him a chance to redeem himself. He came back, and I think he was banned again for a month or two. Again, I let him back. Basically, I tend to put people in a “penalty box” like hockey, and then give them a shot at redemption. Until someone starts swearing up a storm or generally just being a poisonous troll who derails every discussion, I don’t like to pull out the “ban” threat.
ROFL, yeah I probably am being a little too humble, my quote (not entirely an accurate one) was one better read in context with who I was arguing with, it was the least on-point thing to say and I tried taking the high road and was a little late on the landing, at least I saw the error in judgement, saw how silly it was, and attempted to remedy the situation. If that isn’t enough for some people, so be it. I’ve seen some characters on your more politically and religiously-charged blogs and to how well you compose yourself and co-ordinate some well balanced arguments right back at them while allowing them their platform is quite a rare thing. A little slice of vintage America in that permission of expressive freedom that is lost on other like-minded communities/platforms such as this
Thanks! I appreciate that. Like you, I can get a bit “salty,” but in general I like a good back-and-forth. Yes, some of those religious threads can go on for quite a while. If anyone says I’m not open to dissent on my blog, I would just instruct them to look at: “The Atheist 10 Commandments are here — even though ‘There is no one right way to live’”
When Dan Slott tried to sic his Twitter followers on me, I wasn’t annoyed at the fact that he did it — I was annoyed that he would do it and hope that they did all of his dirty work for him. If a guy is going to send his minions after me, fine. I’ll go through thousands of comments if a guy is actually making semi-coherent points. But for Dan Slott to do that and then not even get in the arena to make the case for himself…it’s just embarrassing. He’ like the little kid in the neighborhood who makes all sorts of wise cracks from his bedroom window, but never steps a foot outside where the target of his ridicule is waiting for him.
Yes, it’s true: Dan Slott is now banning people who haven’t even said a word to him on Twitter about GamerGate.
https://twitter.com/PsychokineticEX/status/561303716113174528
It’s almost like Dan Slott thinks he’s a character from Tom Cruise’s 2002 movie Minority Report. Dan Slott is now the master of pre-twittercrime.
Nothing says “open-minded” like blocking people who haven’t even addressed you.
Did you also see the tweet where he said “f*ck KFC” in his “apology” tweet? He DOES know Marvel and KFC have a long promotional history right?
I woke up this morning and was pleasantly surprised that Spider-Man Crawlspace covered that: Editorial: Slott, Marvel and the New Professionalism
We went with a screenshot instead of an embedded tweet in case the original tweet is deleted. Next to the screenshot of the tweet is an Avengers related KFC promo, an Amazing Spider-Man KFC promo and a KFC kids meal promo with Hulk, the Thing and Wolverine.
Dan could teach a class what not to do in a professional job….of course all you do is watch.
Mets is a lackey.
That’s one of the reasons why I love blogging. “Mr. Mets” can ban me all he wants, but search engines still bring people to posts like this one every single day.
What an interesting read. To be honest, I’m a… novice(?) comic book reader. I don’t know the best runs of whatever book and the artists and authors who worked on them. I really don’t pay attention to the creators, and tend to just consume the product… But it was hard for Slott to go unnoticed, which is telling – that the quality of your work and your behaviour irks even the most apathetic comic book reader.
I remember reading the build up to Superior Spider-Man and the first couple issues of Superior itself, and to be perfectly honest, all I could see was that it was self-insert fantasy (a quite disturbing one at that), and just… poor, poor writing. In browsing the Spider-Man tags and finding this, in addition to other things I’ve heard about him, I’m convinced that Dan Slott has some deep-rooted insecurities. I can see some people have already reached the same conclusion. It is actually pitiable.
Mike, thank you so much for reading and commenting. I love when guys like you show up on the blog because certain Marvel creators like to make it seem like you don’t exist. But here you are! 🙂
That sort of says it all right there, doesn’t it? Heh. The thing is, Marvel wants you to just “consume” its product without ever really asking questions like, “Is this really good writing? What’s this writer’s motivations? Is his vision of the character true?” Once you start asking questions about what you’re consuming, then it becomes clear that Marvel isn’t giving you the diet you deserve.
I’ll be writing on the conclusion to Spider-Verse in the near future. Feel free to check it out. Again, thanks for taking the time to read and share your thoughts. I appreciate it.
There was a time where I actually liked his work on Spider-Man. Now I’m seriously considering dropping TASM as long as he’s involved.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Zac. I appreciate it.
Indeed, it’s hard to want to buy a product when the guy writing it feels the need to impugn anyone who disagrees with him on race, politics, editorial decisions, etc. He puts Marvel fans in an awkward situation, that’s for sure. If Marvel operated like most businesses, its top brass would pull him aside and tell him to knock it off with the circus side-show race-baiting.
I don’t know how, but I ended up on this post and just… wow. I mean, I know some writers kinda have a word or phrase that they search on Twitter, but it’s usually way — and I’m not trying to be rude here, but — smaller creators. Like, writers and artists who have a few projects and want to get feedback and know who supports their stuff. I like some of Slott’s work, but this is seriously low. Wikipedia is a general summary, and judging something based on its general premise isn’t the same as hating on something because of reviews. The very premise of Superior Spidey was controversial, never mind the actual plot within the series!
“Judging something based on its general premise isn’t the same as hating on something because of reviews. The very premise of Superior Spidey was controversial, never mind the actual plot within the series!”
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Button Panels. I appreciate it. Sadly, my guess is that if you tried to make these very same points with Mr. Slott you would soon find yourself banned from his Twitter feed. Now that there is a record of you commenting on this blog, there is a good chance that if you criticize his writing elsewhere he will show up and suggest you were somehow mind-controlled by my work. I wish I were joking…
Again, thanks reading.
No worries. You’re blog is interesting, so I’ll probably stick around 🙂
For real though, at the very least I expect some kind of meaningful response when a creator searches Twitter for the title of their work. Like if he were to try to explain his intent, or clear a misunderstanding. But no, it was just attacking someone. Makes it really hard to support his work, especially since I think he may still do this. A while back (a few months I think, whenever that really trippy issue of Silver Surfer came out), he liked or retweeted one of my tweets about Silver Surfer and I didn’t hashtag it or mention him or anything.
“No worries. You’re blog is interesting, so I’ll probably stick around:)”
Thanks. I’m always interested in hearing what others think of these creators and the jobs they’re doing. I review ASM, Spider-Man, Invincible Iron Man, Daredevil and Black Panther.
“For real though, at the very least I expect some kind of meaningful response when a creator searches Twitter for the title of their work. Like if he were to try to explain his intent, or clear a misunderstanding. But no, it was just attacking someone. Makes it really hard to support his work, especially since I think he may still do this. A while back (a few months I think, whenever that really trippy issue of Silver Surfer came out), he liked or retweeted one of my tweets about Silver Surfer and I didn’t hashtag it or mention him or anything.”
If you really want to see what Slott is capable of, then you should check out his most recent run-in with The Main Event.
This video is one of the best smack-downs of Dan’s online behavior that I have ever seen. The response is at the start of the video and runs about 10 minutes.