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It may have taken 20 issues and $80, but Dan Slott’s Spider-Verse is finally over. Unfortunately for Peter Parker fans, the writer was able to get in one last parting shot by making his sex-crazed concubine Cindy Moon (Can anyone deny that’s how she comes across?) try yet again to get into the pants of Peter Parker. Our hero then takes their relationship to another level by calling her “honey.” Shouldn’t feminist comic book fans be raging over this bizarre and puerile treatment of Silk? The muted criticism is rather strange, but I digress.
When reviewing Spider-Verse Part 6 there is much to cover because it became a giant discombobulated mess. Perhaps one of the main takeaways is that the final battle ends — fast. In fact, the whole final battle is wrapped up so quickly that one of the main villains understands that something does not add up. It’s almost like Dan Slott subconsciously knew what readers would be thinking. He seemed to think that by having Morlun draw attention to the villains’ rapid downfall that readers would believe Spider-Man’s answer: “Everything is going according to my plan.”
What plan? There never really was a plan. For a good portion of Spider-Verse, Otto was in charge. When Peter was nominally the leader, he couldn’t even control his own team members.
Kaine took off to do his own thing, which prompted a “son of a…” response. Cindy took off as well (twice), which prompted a “@#$%! She took off again, didn’t she?!” response, and Dan Slott literally inserted a deus ex machina into the tale, which gave Peter’s team “everything” they needed to prevail. When it all spun out of control, his response was “Whatever you’re doing — drop it! We’re going to Loomworld.”
That doesn’t sound like a plan. That sounds like, “Charge!” (and hope for the best).
Perhaps one of the biggest problems with Spider-Verse is that there is no intellectual consistency. The Inheritors are built up to be almost unstoppable enemies, who then essentially collapse like a house of cards.
In one instance, Solus defeats a version Cosmic Spider-Man in the blink of an eye, but in the next he is effortlessly impaled to death by Kaine. The Inheritors have survived for time eternal, have the ability to clone themselves and insert their life force into crystals, but yet they can’t figure out how to clone a body that is resistant to radiation. The Inheritors feed off the life force of men and women powered by the bite of radioactive spiders, but a landscape with nuclear fallout in the air sucks the life out of them.
Spider-Verse seems as though it was born out of a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise that never had an editor take the time to go over it with a fine-toothed comb.
And what of Superior Spider-Man, you ask? Answer: Dan Slott has him kill Master Weaver — the character who controls “the nature of reality itself,” and the “god in the machine” who gave the spider-team “everything” they needed to be victorious. Yes, in that situation Dan Slott wants readers to believe that Otto would have applied Occam’s Razor to the idea of killing Master Weaver and followed through. I’m inclined to think Otto would be smart enough to know that killing a being that is literally tasked with weaving together space and time would not be wise; he would have found a different (evil) path to victory, but we can always debate that in the comments section. (Luckily for him, Master Weaver’s death seems to have no immediate consequences. How convenient.)
Whether you’re a fan of Spider-Verse or not, let me know what you think in the comments section below. As long as you keep it respectful and don’t start soliciting people for sex like Dan Slott’s Silk, we should get along just fine.
Related: Dan Slott’s Spider-Verse: Peter Parker sadly gives off ‘Where’s Waldo?’ vibe in his own book
Douglas Ernst Blog 
Cindy Moon? Lol. Marvel will probably never use her again, so good riddance to bad rubbish.
The pictures were a little blurry and I’m wondering why you didn’t scan the comic first. Laziness?
She has her own series.
Are you serious or joking? I worked until 8:00 p.m., and then after work I wrote a review for the conclusion of Spider-Verse on the day it came out. I did that after already having written a blog post before work along with having made a special trip to the comic shop to make the ASM review possible. Lazy? Not really. I’ll start scanning pictures once I buy a new printer/scanner to replace my broken one.
“She has her own series.
Damn it. I guess the methodology behind this is “Womyn? PUSH IT!!!” It’s sad because you know that after the initial media blast, only the most hardcore of fans will keep buying issues, and that group seems to be shrinking by the day.
Are you serious or joking?
Sorry, that was harsh on my part.
In the hands of some other writer, perhaps Silk could be decent. Who knows. As a reader, I just feel as though it’s pretty condescending for Marvel to say, “Hey, buy this because Silk is not only better than Spider-Man in countless ways — she’s a woman! Girl power!”
Is Marvel going to have a future New York City with Silk, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and a few other spider-heroes? Ugh.
No problem. I don’t hold grudges. When someone asks if I’m lazy, however, I’m going to push back.
It was a joke of an event, the exact same beats occured each time, there is the animated series version told in two short twenty-five minute installments that is better paced and more coherent than this rambling mess. Peter is such a bystander at this point that he seems geinually taken back by the fact Otto commits murder…really, what you say about lack of consistency is incredibly on-point. In addition to that, the switch with Benjy and Spider-Ham wouldn’t have fooled anyone on Tiny Toon Adventures.
Cindy again earns nothing and gets everything “we’re connected, I can reach you across time and space, how PERFECT”. Congrats Silk, you’re even more of a sue than Carlie Cooper.
And it’s not over yet, oh no. Marvel announced yesterday there will be a follow-up story tied to Secret Wars. Mike Costas is writing the full thing this time, so it may stand a chance of being a more enjoyable experience now that Slott is building towards his next event over the summer
Haha. It’s true!
I’m really glad for the comments section because that’s where guys like you can bring up some of this stuff that would have turned my review into a bloated mess. There’s so much to say! 🙂 Yes, Silk just “knows” where Peter is, because she can smell his Spider-pheromones across time and space.
Seriously, I cannot for the life of me fathom why people are spending money on this tripe let alone be entertained by it.
Even Newsarama had to swallow hard and admit that Spider-Verse’s ending was a let down:
Ouch.
When you pointed out it was Otto that inspired spider-Ben my jaw dropped. I mean… an alternate universe, where Uncle Ben is the one who was bitten and lost Peter… the fanboy’s mind just whirls with all the possibilities of how things might have gone. But ultimately it means PETER MUST INSPIRE BEN! It’s the most obvious, simple narrative arc. If I was an editor and saw Slott turn in that book, I would have made him eat it and do it again!
This whole thing was a mess. In his analysis of Cabin in the Woods, goodbadflicks made the point that the monsters in it are really a representation of the audience. Spider-verse was the chance for Marvel to do a bit of meta commentary as well with the antagonists representing the audience (except normally comic fans could chuckle a bit at “we are villains” if Marvel hadn’t been doing so much to burn bridges). The “big 3” was such a screw up. A chance to acknowledge and celebrate years of Spiderman. The choices were obvious:
The bride == Spider-Gwen, the woman that almost was a bride and the 2nd most important death in Peter’s life. (runner up: a spider Mary Jane)
the Scion == Spider-girl, yes you could have claimed it was Benjy at first but then the twist! She’s a fan favorite and it would have been a nice touch to see some acknowledgement of that from Marvel to heal said burned bridges. Plus her arguable death in the comics is one that has impacted Peter even if they really don’t want to admit it.
the Other == Spider-Ben, THE biggest death impact on Peter and probably the biggest “what-if” that ignites fanboy minds. Alternate pick? Ultimate Spider-man.
With those three chosen, we would have seen why Peter is so important (at least subtly) because he is the lynchpin that ties them all together. He is the one that “gets” these 3 so he can bring them together. A few tweaks and expansion of the story here and there and you’ve got yourself a decent crossover the fans could actually LIKE. It’s so obvious and EASY if one would just follow narrative rules.
Impressive. I really don’t have much to add. But hey, the fans don’t know what they’re talking about, right? 😉
And yes, I don’t know how any Peter Parker can read that Uncle Ben moment and not cringe. That was one of the worst moments I’ve ever read in a Spider-Man comic book.
lol You want me to expand it to a larger post on my own blog, Doug?
I’m always for another voice out there that can point out what a missed opportunity Spider-Verse was. If you do it, then just make sure to load it up with the proper tags and categories and then tweet it so it gets to as many people as possible. If you use the right Twitter hashtag, perhaps Dan Slott will give you a personal insult. 🙂
Oh and was I wrong? Was Silk and Kaine (the 2 of the 3) both the 616 versions or was one or more of them from other verses?
Silk and Kaine were both 616.
And hey look what I found…
I like that website. I had never been there until someone covering Superior Spider-Man linked to a couple of my blog posts. It’s pretty informative.
Oh yeah, I’ve been involved on tvtropes for awhile, watch out! It can suck up your life. 😀
“Spider-verse was the chance for Marvel to do a bit of meta commentary as well with the antagonists representing the audience”
You say that, but I’m at the point where I expect Slott to make a parody of me specifically, as well as other people.
So, really, when all is said and done, what was even accomplished? From what I can see, it was just that he reintroduced some characters no one was even using, all for the sake of just killing them off. New Warriors was already cancelled, and then Kaine dies. What’s funny is that it reminds me of EXACTLY what he was teasing with Darkest Hours. The way he presented himself in an interview with CBR (Which awarded this issue a 3.5/5, to the surprise of no one except those who would expect them to just fart out perfect scores for anything Slott does) was that, the instant the Venom series was cancelled, he wanted to use Agent Venom, which of course prompted a few arguments between him and myself about how desperate he was to try and make me worried that he would totally kill one of them off forever, even when we saw the cover for that FCBD issue with Agent Venom and the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s like the moment a spinoff gets canned, Slott sees an opportunity to kill a character, which just feels horrible. “Oh, the book got cancelled? Well clearly that character deserves to die!” That or he thinks he just hasn’t filled his regular quota of pointlessly killing off characters for the dumbest of reasons, so canceling a book just gives him what he’ll see as the perfect opportunity.
Oh, but of course, now we’re getting books for Spider-Gwen and Silk. Frankly, given the Spider-Verse tie-in to Secret Wars while he’s “stuck” on Renew Your Vows, the moment Secret Wars is done, he tries to go to whatever happened with Spider-Verse 2 and pick off the survivors just because. Spider-Gwen might live for a little bit just as a symbol of the “success” of Spider-Verse before Slott just decides “Hey, her book got cancelled! Now *I* can one-up Conway when it comes to who killed off Gwen!”, because let’s face it, Slott’s approaches both to writing his story and interacting with fans just come down to a self-imposed to one-up EVERYONE, because he needs to be the best there ever was at all there will ever be. After all, Spider-Verse is just Slott’s attempt to outdo what he did with Shattered Dimensions. Plus, given how he let it be known that he wanted to work with Bendis on Spider-Men 2, there’s “competition” with him and Bendis there.
Silk has a better chance of surviving than Gwen as far as Slott would be concerned, if only because Silk is HIS creation. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if even he’s not all that invested in her, since the primary purpose of her character was to just satisfy editorial with a premise of Original Sin, in that Slott wanted “dibs”, but had to throw some idea together because he actually didn’t HAVE a better idea, and he just made her the new love interest and a tool for Spider-Verse, killing two birds with one stone by setting up Spider-Verse as well as continuing to avoid using Mary Jane, the latter being why I call bullcrap on the idea that he’s been trying to rally editorial into letting him bring back the marriage, since Renew Your Vows seems more like something Lowe actually cares about, and Slott has to bite the bullet, and would only say HE came up with it to make himself look good.
At the end of the day, Spider-Verse was just one massive ego trip for Slott. Remember, this was supposed to be a story for Superior Spider-Man, and Darkest Hours was a REPLACEMENT for this, which probably says something else about what I was saying with Darkest Hours, but I think I’ve rambled enough as it is. It still feels like a SpOck story, and the epilogue is going to have to address Necessary Evil, since at this point, I imagine that Slott’s talks with Lowe just amount to Lowe saying “Okay, but you have to do THIS next”, followed by Slott going “Okay, but THEN can I write another Doc Ock story?”
Addressing the comment about Slott being a good husband, he’s said he’s single, but if anything, he’s married to Doctor Octopus. Maybe it’s called “Renew Your Vows” because Slott is bring back his beloved Otto.
If he’s been interested in bringing back the marriage, then he has a funny way of showing it. Mary Jane has been M.I.A. for a heck of a long time, and the few times she’s shown up she’s been an embarrassment. How long did it take her to suspect something wasn’t right during SSM? Yeesh. If Mr. Slott did have an affinity for Mary Jane, wouldn’t there be a prominent Spider-M.J. during the course of Spider-Verse? His actions do not telegraph that he’s particularly interested in repairing the damage that has been done to the character over the years.
I have not read it so I cannot comment on the story, but from what I have seen I am happy that I did not read it.
I know you didn’t read it, Truth, but maybe you can answer this question: If Spider-Verse Part 6 was supposed to be “the” issue, why on earth did Marvel have two artists split work on the book? Shouldn’t the be battle we’ve all been waiting for have been drawn by one person? They’re both good artists…but it seems like a very strange decision. Someone dropped the ball on delegating responsibilities over the course of the story if the finale had to have two artists. Am I wrong?
Maybe the story did not come in on time and they were in a rush to meet the deadline? Remember Slott has not been good with deadlines since he tends to spend too much time stalking people on forums and twitter.
On another note here are some other views on the book:
http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/2015/02/11/amazing-spider-man-2014-14-andrewroebucks-take/
http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/2015/02/11/amazing-spider-man-2014-14-stillanerds-take/
Stillanerd nails it again:
That dude’s Spider-Man review batting average is unbelievable right now. You know that’s really getting under Dan Slott’s skin. It’s one thing to have a random blogger like me make these points — it’s a different situation when Spider-Man Crawlspace gets a guy on staff who regularly knocks it out of the park.
As for my own review on the Spider-Man Crawlspace, with regards to Peter sending Morlun to Uncle Has-Ben’s post-apocalyptic Earth, I stated, “It’s the equivalent of Bruce Wayne telling Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins, ‘I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you.’” The reason why I bring this up is because Dan Slott has made numerous tweets blasting this very scene, saying how it “ruined the film” because Batman used “semantics” to essentially let Ra’s die when he could have easily saved him, as Batman never kills his enemies and would never “lawyer his way out.”
Yet what does Slott have Spidey do in this issue? Well after all of Peter’s sermonizing about how “No one dies on my watch” and “We’re heroes, damn it! And heroes don’t kill!” Peter essentially condemns Morlun and his family of steampunk vampire clones to death by stranding them on a planet where, if the fallout doesn’t kill them, they’ll likely starve to death since they have virtually no life force or totemic energy to feed on–all while claiming he’s showing them mercy because they can seek shelter in Ezekiel’s bunker. Granted, as readers, we might think that Morlun and the Inheritors got better than they deserved, but as a character, methinks Spidey wouldn’t “lawyer his way out” when it comes to his enemies, either.
Mike, you’re going to put me out of a job, man. In 2012 I hammered this home with the “no one dies” moral pedestal Peter was repeatedly putting himself on, and Slott was not happy. That’s when he was taking veiled shots at the “neo-con”/”conservative” blogger…
Regardless, my point is that the “no one dies [ever]” mentality and the “hero never kills” mantra both make a mockery of what law enforcement personnel and soldiers have to do when they’re put in situations where they may have to take a life to save a life. I’m not saying that Peter should ever needlessly kill, but when the rule is that he “never” will kill — then you end up getting exactly what you described: a de facto death sentence on a radioactive world with no food. It’s cheap. And when guys like us call Dan Slott out on it, he’ll try and flip it so we sound like war mongers who don’t understand Peter Parker. No, I understand Peter Parker just fine, and as a writer I would not make him say nonsensical peacelovedope platitudes.
Kain “killed” Solus for all intents and purposes. Was he not a hero in the eyes of Dan Slott’s Spider-Man? Of course Peter should never want to take a life — no one wants to do that — but perhaps it might be necessary when you’re dealing with god-like beings intent on genocide that spans multiple times throughout multiple dimensions. Just a thought, Dan Slott.
Related: Spider-Man: War Zone liability thinks small in big situations
BTW, sincere thanks again, Doug, for the compliments. 🙂
No problem, man. I definitely don’t hand out compliments unless I mean it. It’s refreshing to see someone review these comic books who knows how to balance the need for light-heated fun with serious substance. If we don’t demand more from the people crafting these stories, then we deserve what we get.
I’ve said this before, but I want Spider-Man stories that operate on multiple levels. ASM should work for the people who are just happy to laugh at a naked “Spider-Ham” on occasion, but it should also work for people who are disgusted when they see a literal deus ex machina move the story alone. The Christopher Nolan Batman flicks are a perfect example of how a writer can have his cake and eat it too.
I don’t expect everyone to possess Christopher Nolan’s genius, but I do expect them to at least shoot for excellence at all times.
Great, now Dan will have even more free time to harass women on the internet.
Zing!
Wait, I just found out it is not over…what?
So it will disappoint twice.
Dan Slott isn’t the boy who cried wolf; he’s the man-boy who cried “Big. Things.”
I understand the need to promote a book, but his delivery just gets ridiculous after awhile.
Also, there’s a difference between writing a sound story that naturally leads to “big things,” and consciously trying to shoe horn “big things” into every issue. In one instance you’re naturally going from Point A to Point Z. In the other instance you’re often forced to make strange decisions to get your desired result — especially if you’re on a deadline and don’t have the time to properly map out all the details. That is why there are so many inconsistencies in Spider-Verse, for example. It’s some seriously slipshod storytelling with glitter sprinkled in (e.g., Spider-Ham jokes) to get people to ignore the obvious.
As Stillanerd mentions in his review, if you seriously stop and think about it for a moment the whole thing basically unravels. Editor Nick Lowe dropped the ball on this one.
Yeah, we knew even before Dan tweeted this that it was’nt over, as Mike Costas (who wrote the excellent Scarlet Spiders mini-series) will be taking over from him and continuing Spider-Verse. Bleeding Cool reported something last year claiming they had heard from an interview that Peter would be spending time “lost in the multiverse”. This was denied rather strongly by Marvel, but everything I’ve heard about this new Spider-Verse story seems to tie back to that
Another thing that bugged me in issue 14…Uncle Ben takes Baby Benjy back to MC2, yet…Mayday does’nt go with them? Why? Also from the scene shown ,the Parkers house is still burning, but I don’t see fire engines or cop cars isolating the area, there’s no huddled public crowd gathering to view the destruction, and where did MC2 Peter’s corpse go? It’s like these disruptive things don’t even phase the community of Queens! Crimety, even Ultimate Peter’s last stand against the Goblin in 2011 drew everyone to the area!
**Guy looks out window while eating oatmeal.** “Hey, I think the Parker house just blew up. Weird.” **Goes back to eating oatmeal.**
Actually considering the Marvel universe… that’s kind of logical.
(ever see that “born & raised in townsville” commercial?)
It ain’t over until the fat lady sings… and we’re still trying to pry that sucker’s mouth open.
Frugal just pointed this out to me:
Then why are we chainging the color of heroes if it does not matter?
People who are obsessed with showing their racial bona fides will say and do all sorts of weird things.
I understand that it is the essence of a man that is important (e.g., “The Phantom” lives forever as different men who embody his noble spirit), but once you essentially start going down the, “Let’s just arbitrarily make Peter Parker black tomorrow and if you get annoyed, then you’re a racist” road, then that’s where you’ve lost me.
Marvel successfully pulled that off with Nick Fury. That makes sense because he was never a figure with national/world wide recognition. It’s a different thing when basically the entire world has a vision of what “Peter Parker” looks like and guys like Dan Slott start screwing with it.
It would be like if Nintendo suddenly made Mario and Luigi black and said, “What? What? There are black Italians. What are you, racist?” to people who started rolling their eyes.
Well, no, I’m not racist Nintendo executives, but I think you’re just taking the racial sensitivity thing to an absurd level.
I think cloning an army of spider-hulks would have been a more interesting final twist. Hulk full of gamma radiation, Hulk Smash, Spider spin webs.
Don’t give Dan Slott any clone ideas, please. 😉
Oh ANOTHER obvious fix that just came to me!
So these things feed off “totem energy” (whatever that means) but are weak to radiation. Ok, so another sign of “why Peter”, because he’s the only one who ever got the totem power by a radioactive spider bite. He’s the equivalent of a walking kryptonite trap!
So you have it set up where all the spideys have gotten their powers via similar, but different ways (like Tobey-spider, bitten by a gene-tweaked arachnid) not involving radiation. Thus how cosmic spidey might be beaten (they can take his energy, a kind of “back door” around the power) while Peter cannot and/or is important. Dan can even have his Silk in there as maybe she was given a larger dose of radiation with her bite. The inheritors want to kill her and Pete because the latter can beat the former (then you could even have that explanation, the weaver “twisted” things so Peter would become a totem by radioactive bite).
Doug, I may have to consult you on this via email to make sure I get some details right but I’m going to try and have something tomorrow at the latest (have some things to do tonight).
I’m looking forward to reading it. Sounds good.
You know. I think we need a B title Spider-Man book. Like a new volume of “Spectacular” or “Sensational” or “Avenging”. Just a B title with perhaps a different creative team that follows Spidey on his days off from “Amazing”.
So, they just faced an extinction level event spanning across time, dimensions and universes. After being stabbed by Morlun, Cindy would now like to copulate, shaking my head. I think one of the things which makes least sense is that the ending of all this is banish the Inheritors to Earth 3145— Radioactive earth. Presumably, the Master Weaver could have done this from all time immemorial and just… never had that thought. Is that they guy you want in charge of reality? Another problem is that Morlun’s reaction to the Master Weaver being killed is that all of reality would fall apart. Which means the MW should not be fearing the Inheritors because they need him in order to travel and feast upon the web of life so they can’t kill him. It’s a crazy mess for sure. Otto is nothing if not a strategist filled with hubris. Would he have impulsively killed the guy or rather try to control him? That way he can control time and figure out a backdoor way to save himself since he knows that Parker is his future self?
And of course… Parker is dying of radiation poisoning after being drained by Morlun. Guess who saves him? Cindy! A character whose spider sense is so strong is stretches across dimensions. The big takeaway I’ve been getting from ASM since issue #4 is, “Marvel really wants you to like Silk because she’s a better Spider-Man who can’t control her hormones. See?! Edgy for the kids.” Way to go, Marvel. Teach those kids about being horny in the middle of an intergalactic extermination. Crazy days being an ASM fan right now.
Bingo. We’re on the same wavelength with that one. To me that’s an easy layup for Dan Slott. I’m not sure how he missed that… Maybe the two of us should write “Spectacular,” Orange Mask? 🙂
And yes, I just had to cringe that right after a giant battle for the fate of the universe Slott had Silk essentially say, “Hey, you want to get naked?” What an embarrassment.
Yeah, with regards to that last page with Spidey and Silk in each other’s arms, with dozens of lit candles in the background, no less to make it seem even more “romantic?” *dry heaving into a paper bag*
So Douglas, what are you going to do with all of that expensive toilet paper now?
Haha. I definitely didn’t buy all the side-stories. I bought one of them and then threw it out. The rest I either quickly flipped through in the comic shop or just read the reviews online. Readers were initially told that they didn’t need to read the supplementary material to make sense of the story. As we now know, that was a lie.
The issues of ASM I’ll keep since they may come in handy with future blog posts.
Similarly, the guys at the comic book shop I frequent don’t mind customers reading a book before buying it. After ASM#700, I have put every SSM & ASM issue straight back on the shelf. I’m not spending money on books I’m never going to read again.
I’m so fatigued with trying to follow this mess, I can’t even drum up the energy to contribute lengthier debate over the amateurish writing style.
That’s why I’m so grateful for Doug’s blog and the fine folk over at Crawlspace. Keeping it real gentlemen and yes! Truthwillin1, expensive toilet paper indeed. 🙂
I don’t think the comic shop guys mind if they know you regularly come in and drop down cash. Often I’ll go in looking to just buy ASM, but I’ll leave with more. I was only going to buy ASM the other day and I left with Darth Vadar #1. I still need to read that…
I’m not sure if I’ll review every issue of ASM going forward, although I guess “Renew Your Vows” will be here before we know it. I don’t think I can resist that one. I’ve been scrolling through a few different comments sections and I’ll see people say “I hate Mary Jane.” Well, that makes perfect sense given that the editors at Marvel have knee-capped her for at least a decade now.
Question: How do you kill Mary Jane? Answer: Very slowly.
It’s shameful what these guys have done to Mary Jane over the years.
Yeah, it’s been rather telling when all the appearances of MJ in Spider-Verse have seen her brutally killed or literally punched out. Even the MJ portrayed in the Spider-Gwen comic is a bit salty. This is the price you pay for being a more compelling character than the “saintly” Gwen that was taken off the track in the Silver Age, breaking the hearts of all the people who are conveniently now in charge of their own childhoods and making sure to wreck other peoples’ fond memories of their own because it wasn’t appropriate to their vision of how things “should be”
Summer and “Renew Your Vows” feels like such a far way off…but I think you can manage still reviewing ASM on here in the meantime, because that book will be going back to once-a-month after Spider-Verse wraps up.
I just read something interesting from someone on scans_daily who had talked to Slott at a convention circuit
“I have it on good authority (as in, I had a personal discussion with Slott while at a ‘con) that Slott wants to bring the marriage back, has pitched bringing the marriage back… repeatedly… has been told he can’t bring the marriage back… repeatedly… and so is (and I quote) “making the best of things” and going in new directions.
Your mileage will no doubt vary on how successful he’s been with that. I’m not a fan, to be honest, but I’d honestly like to see him write the Spider-marriage. I’ve a feeling (given his Silver Surfer work, and the couple of scenes he wrote of Pete and MJ in She-Hulk way back when) that he’d be rather good at it.”
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5094624.html#comments
I’m assuming that Dan Slott is a good husband. He could glean plenty of material from that experience. It would certainly improve ASM. As it is right now, they have Peter in this weird man-boy state when … he’s a man. I think Marvel’s attempt to find some sort of balance that simply cannot exist is exacerbating all of Slott’s other problems.
Yeah, that’s been the real issue, everyone feels like they’re too much like children in Slott’s run and the typical excuse is that “they’re young”…when most of the storytelling and hardships faced in the last twenty-eight years would make SOLDIERS out of those “youthful people” and force them to grow up quicker and be more sharp-witted and responsible. There is no consequence to the “youthful” dramatics because the status quoe must be maintained at a rigid level. Say what some will about the newspaper strip maintaining a similar status quoe from time to time (only with a rosier outcome, what with the marriage of Peter and MJ maintained), but at least it offers up months worth of interesting developments that push and test characters before the reset button is hit, and there’s still a little bit of consistency, continuity, and consequence resulting from it
Here’s a good laugh: This reviewer gave Spider-Verse Part 6 the highest rating he could. “The Verdict: 10/10”
How can anyone who cares about characterization — especially Peter Parker’s — give this story a giant thumbs up? I honestly do not know how someone can give this a 10/10 rating unless they were hoping to curry favor the writer.
Not sure if you’re aware of the “chasing amazing” blog (a guy set out to purchase every issue of every volume of ASM and just completed his chase last year. It’s an excellent blog and one of my first stops outside of here and Crawlspace). He wrote an excellent post this morning, and it’s a little heartbreaking. If you have a moment, it’s a great read and I think speaks volumes of how many of us all are feeling right now in regards to Spider-Verse, and how Spider-Verse represented the larger problems with Spider-Man since the start of Goblin Nation. Essentially he’s saying, “I think I’m done with most of the books coming out the Spider office right now. I’ll collect ASM because…well it’s ASM. But I won’t enjoy it.” I always enjoy your thoughts about Spidey!
http://www.chasingamazingblog.com/2015/02/13/end-of-an-error/
You weren’t lying, man. Wow. Great stuff! That was one impressive blog post. I almost want to find that guy and shake his hand for that one.
A sound review. I agree with every point. It’s almost as if Slott wants us to reflect on this Peter as nothing short of a pale reflection (something brought up in the actual Spider-Verse story in an exchange between Spidey UK and Spidey India), and a “fake” like Mayday claims out of anger in the same story. Would Peter call himself and others “misfits?” I know he guilt trips a lot but some of those Spiders have achieved more than him and triumphed in ways he could never have fathomed (Ben Reilly in this event was so good he actually AVERTED some of the tragedies Peter could not in the BND/Big Time era according to the “Scarlet Spiders” series), I too think Slott is bored with Peter in his present form. A part of him is probably relishing the challenge of “Renew Your Vows” as much as I, despite my misgivings about him writing a married Peter, am anticipating how well he can rein himself in with that.
Just for fun we have the nut bag response that Slott uses to try to validate using minorities as a marketing gimmick.
Someone need to inform him of reverse racism or gimmick marketing, or at least about the fact they could use minority characters or make new ones.
I’m not sure if Dan Slott is just a giant troll, or a complete doofus. He starts a conversation that he knows is going to annoy people by insinuating that maybe it might be a good decision to arbitrarily make Peter Parker black or Hispanic or Asian — when generations of people associate Peter Parker with a very specific look — and then he acts incredulous when people start talking about doing the exact same thing to other characters.
If Charles M. Schulz were still alive and he randomly changed Snoopy from a beagle to a golden retriever, would it matter? A dog is a dog, right? Yes, it would matter for many Peanuts fans because the world fell in love with a very specific Snoopy.
I wouldn’t want Marvel randomly making Blade a white guy, and I wouldn’t want Marvel randomly making Peter Parker a black guy. In both instances, it would be a weird editorial move.
If Marvel really cared they would have expanded on the Falcon rather than making him Captain America for a short time. The character had more attention than ever before which the could have used to develop the under utilized character. Notice the current books and how they use minorities as a gimmick, that is shameful instead they should be integrating them as characters rather than tokens. Who in their right mind can say they are being socially responsible?
Comics are filled with hypocrites as they want to change characters while claiming everyone deserves a hero, since when does the color of a skin result to who you can relate to as a hero?
I think it shows who the real racists are as they cannot get past color or gender. Readers will read good stories and characters above short term offensive marketing gimmicks as you can see more people are catching on to this and speaking out.
LOL I am sorry but this is just too funny:
https://twitter.com/DanSlott/status/566670918844682241
So Dan can make a “joke” saying F-KFC and in his head that is fine but he can’t take this?
What did they say that annoyed him?
They had a picture and asked if it was Spider-Ham or Dan Slott.
A few things:
1. My advice to anyone who doesn’t like Dan Slott’s work is to stay away from fat jokes and concentrate on the work.
2. Truth is right: Mr. Slott is good at dishing out “jokes,” but he’s not very good at taking them. What was his “joke” for a random woman on the internet who didn’t like the sound of SSM based on a synopsis she read? Oh yeah: “I just read a synopsis of your life. OMG.” Response by random woman: “I forgot a certain comic writer trolls you if you criticize Superior Spider-Man.”
3. Somehow I don’t think most industry professionals will blacklist a company because of a single Spider-Ham/Dan Slott joke.
It may have had more to do with the fact that they do not like the current book than the joke. We all know Dan can’t take it when people tell how they feel about his work.
As Stillanerd’s review points out, the Spider-Ham moment in the conclusion wasn’t even necessary. It made no sense. It was there just to make bad puns and so people could laugh at a naked Spider-Ham.
Dan Slott doesn’t write for Peter Parker fans — he writes for the kind of person who thinks Jar Jar Binks is cool. Do you know who could read a literal deus ex machina in a book like ASM, not realize it, and then not be offended even if it’s pointed out to them? Jar Jar Binks fans.
The finale was disappointing, like most of Spider-Verse. It was so incredibly rushed, too.
The only three character arcs that I really thought were interesting were those of Mayday, Gwen, and Karn. I wish they’d been fleshed out more.
I thought they were going to do a lot more with Karn. It was weird how he just showed up in the end and was essentially like, “I’m switching sides!” I know that there was some stuff in the tie-ins that I missed, but that’s a pretty big part of the story to leave out of the main title! If Karn was instrumental in turning the tide, then you can’t just have him jump through a portal and turn on his own family.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but why would he take his anger out on his siblings if it was Solus who kept him exiled? If “dad” does something incredibly mean, do you blame your sister? Maybe there’s something a missed in the tie-ins.
“Despite offering more Spider-Men than one could count, it seemed to have little to do with what Spider-Man should be about, which may be the most damning thing of all. Considering it may be the last major Amazing Spider-Man arc before the entire Marvel Universe is altered during “Secret Wars” (or at least bogged down in it for most of 2015), it certainly isn’t the best way to go out”
http://www.examiner.com/review/this-week-s-amazing-spider-man-ends-spider-verse-as-terribly-as-it-began
Interesting review. It seems like we’re picking up the same thing as it pertains to Dan Slott’s tenure on ASM:
I wrote on Oct. 14, 2013:
Mr. Widen wrote on Feb. 13, 2015:
So, overall I am reading Spider Verse was a let down, but I am interested in reading ASM, is it worth it to drop the $$$ on Big Time Collection (TPBs)? Want to get into Spider Man but fear it may go south again…..
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Chris. From what I remember, I don’t think “Big Time” wasn’t all that bad. Some of the other readers could add their two cents, but compared to what has happened since then…I think it’s probably passable.
I don’t particularly have faith that Marvel will handle “Renew Your Vows” very well. I’ll be reviewing the books, and I’m sure the guys at Spider-Man Crawlspace will have fair-minded reviews. Maybe you might want to hold off a little bit until the reviews start coming in and then go from there. I’m not sure how much disposable income you have. That’s obviously another factor at play.
Hey any blog that can go from IS to cholesterol, to ASM deserves my full attention. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I bought the first Big Time Ultimate Collection and will go from there. I try to keep a balanced viewpoint when reading other reviews. Income is a huge factor, not that I am on the poor side, but I HATE wasting money (it is what pushed me out of comics originally. Got tired of chasing after quality and coming up short). Your blog on ASM emasculation was on point as well. Again, another reason I find it difficult to buy into ASM despite wanting to love the character. Thanks man.
Semper Fi!
Haha! Thanks. I’ve had a few people over the years say that they enjoyed the eclectic nature of this blog, although I’m sure there have been a few that ran far away for the exact same reason.
I totally hear you on not wanting to waste money. At $4.00 a pop, I wouldn’t want to spend my hard-earned cash on spotty work, either. These days I’ll often wait until the TPBs come out and then buy those.
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to read and comment. I hope to see you again on future blog posts.
“Big Time” has just as many problems as Slott’s later work,particularly lazy off-point characterizations and the prescense of mary sue Carlie and Gary Stu Alpha, the peak of the whole thing is “Spider-Island” which is probably the most genuine story Slott’s ever helmed, it’s loved by fans and “haters” alike for putting Peter’s mentality and smarts ahead of everything else, and for giving us a more on-point MJ that hasn’t really been replicated since. Try it out for yourself and see if you like it.
If you jumped in now, you wouldn’t catch Slott at his best. He’s burned out, and the characterizations and mary sues are even more off-point and persistent as ever.
Alpha! Haha! 🙂
Whatever happened to our old buddy Alpha? My goodness, that was bad. I almost want to find some old Dan Slott interviews with him talking up Alpha just for a laugh. Didn’t Marvel want to give him his own book? Yeesh.
He did get his own mini-series. And nothing of note happened and nobody spoke of him again.
Oh, and I had a peek at the solits for May, you’ll be glad to know Silk’s moving on from Peter and seems to be flirting with Johnny Storm now.
I’m not happy to know that because that means it’s only a matter of time before the Dan Slott-mandated Johnny Storm/Silk/Peter Parker love triangle happens. Noooo!
Yea i don’t think I am going to follow current title. Superior Spider Man run may be on my horizon (no single issues anymore). Spider Man (as much as a I want to love him) has always come up short. I am not saying I want an ASM that “goes all Christian Bale Batman” but a little confidence and moxie wouldn’t hurt. Thanks guys.
To be fair, Slott wanted the Spider-Verse to be a Superior Spider-Man event. Maybe Marvel should have let him make it so, whereby the Spider-Verse took place in the pages of Superior Spider-Man from issue #33 thru issue #50.
And the Spider-Man x Silk relationship is just plain dumb. Peter Parker x Jessica Drew is a far superior pairing as an alternate to the Black Cat….
Thanks for the comment, Dan. I appreciate it.
The problem with acknowledging that Dan Slott wanted Spider-Verse to be a solo-Otto affair in many ways makes it worse — it sheds light on the fact that he didn’t want to bring Peter Parker back anytime soon. As I’ve said before on this blog, Dan Slott may love the idea of “Spider-Man,” but his actions indicate that he does not love the character Peter Parker. He’ll have a story with all of NYC with Spider-powers … he’ll kill Peter Parker and put a megalomaniac behind the mask … he’ll make Peter a supporting character in his own book upon his return … and he’ll have Peter get lost in a sea of “every” spider-hero ever. Heck, anyone can see that he enjoys writing Otto more than Peter. We can debate why Dan Slott struggles to write Peter, but it seems hard to deny that he does indeed struggle.
And yes, I agree with you on Silk. That character’s introduction into the Marvel universe is a joke.
I don’t think you can grasp the Peter Parker character, if you are an unprincipled cynic. Rather like atheistic Joss Whedon does not grasp Captain America.
Zing! That one left a mark.