Written by 
Brian Michael Bendis wants “Spider-Man” readers to know that Miles Morales, one day, will be the most powerful superhero in the Marvel universe. How do I know this? Because the kid can take down anyone with a single touch, turn himself invisible, regenerate limbs, he’s (allegedly) immortal, and now he can randomly project giant bursts of energy.
It’s dumb, lazy, and just screams, “My Spider-Man will be the best Spider-Man ever and you will respect him!”
Spider-Man #5 exemplifies everything that is wrong and everything that is right with the title. On one hand Mr. Bendis excels at planting seeds for future conflict, but on the other his efforts are negated because there is no conflict with an immortal being with an endless string of powers.
The situation is so embarrassing that Marvel Wikia lists Miles’ one weakness as … inexperience.
Translation: Miles Morales is Marvel’s Big Dog — and and you, dear reader, just don’t know it yet.
Here is what Bendis said in a recent interview with CBR about criticism about Miles’ powers:
I already got an e-mail tonight from somebody in England who gets their comics a day early b****ing to me, and I was given this a little bit in the last volume too, that some people don’t like when Miles wins a fight with his venom blast. They think it’s bulls**t.
That’s like saying you’re mad because Thor won a fight with his hammer. I don’t understand that criticism. He has a tool and he used it. It’s not like the readers didn’t know he could do it. We’ve known since the character’s first appearance. So I’m calling bullshit on people calling bulls**t on this particular thing. It’s a very weird criticism.
Note to Brian Michael Bendis: The validity of your argument is not positively correlated with the number of times you say “bulls**t” and “b***h.”
If Miles Morales only needs to touch an opponent to beat him (e.g., the demon Blackheart, Hammerhead), then he becomes boring.
If there are no chains that can hold Miles Morales because he might decide to become a levitating burst of god-like energy, then it is kind of lame.
When the message is: “You cannot defeat Miles Morales — you can only hope to contain him!” then the book becomes a snooze-fest. That is not “bulls**t.” That is the truth.
Here is what you need to know about Spider-Man #5:
- Miles Morales is held in a warehouse by Black Cat, Hammerhead and his crew. He uses a Venom Blast on one of the goons and Hammerhead before projecting an “energy burst” to escape.
- Miles’ annoying grandma decides to hire a private investigator, Jessica Jones, to figure out what the teenager does when he is not in school.
- “Goldballs” takes Ganke up on the offer to live with he and Miles.
- Black Cat tells Miles not to interfere with her “business.” She threatens to “ruin” his life if he crosses her.
- Maria Hill meets with Miles’ father. There is an agreement made to look after the boy and she says, “Welcome back to S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Am I interested in seeing what happens when Jessica Jones tails Miles? Sure.
Does it pique my interest to know that Miles’ father is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? Sure. I think it’s weird for a husband to have giant secrets from his wife and son, but for entertainment purposes I suppose it works.
The problem Spider-Man has, however, is that it appears to be trying too hard to establish Miles Morales as “the” Spider-Man. Unfortunately, just adding power after power after power to the kid actually ends up doing him a disservice.
When it becomes apparent that a writer is desperate to have his pet creation immediately enter the upper echelons of Marvel greatness, it becomes a turnoff for readers. This reviewer may be jumping off the book soon if the trend continues for much longer.
Douglas Ernst Blog 
Wait, so they stole Static’s power* and gave them to MM Spiderman? It’s like, I get that Marvel wants to have a hip young black super hero as awesome as Static, but c’mon, he’s already bitin’ OG Spiderman’s shtick. Miles Morales: Knockoff Boy!
You’d think that after nearly a hundred years of Batman, folks would realize that more powers =/= better superhero.
*:Yeah, I know Static was basically black Spiderman with Black Lightning’s powers, but Virgil was totally how you do Spiderman without being Spiderman.
“Miles Morales: Knockoff Boy!”
Zing!
“You’d think that after nearly a hundred years of Batman, folks would realize that more powers =/= better superhero.”
Hey now, watch where you’re going there with that whole “common sense” thing you have going on. That stuff isn’t contagious, is it? 😉
So at the beginning of the series I gave Bendis the benefit of the doubt because he can do good stories and write some good characters, except for Mary Jane because she still has not apologized for the BS she said to Peter (But that is mostly due to Slott to be fair), however after reading this I have now no doubt in my mind that Bendis and Marvel in general are dead set to make Miles THE Best Spider-Man out of all and to do that they will S*&# on Peter Parker and overpower Miles until they have done it.
I have always found the character of Miles Morales boring for a replacement of Peter Parker because he had 5 years to develop his own supporting cast, his own rogues galleries and his own storylines that could be unique to him. And you know what he didn’t do it. Most of his rogues galleries come from Peter and some other Marvel Universe’s Baddies and when he was in the Earth-1610 (Ultimate Universe) most of his supporting cast came from Peter and his storylines were/are a ripoff of Peter (Example : Death of Gwen Stacy = Death of his Mother) .
There are only three worthy successors of the mantle that I have read and have acquired their own rogues galleries, supporting cast and own storylines all under less then 5 years : The Amazing Spider-Girl, Mayday Parker, Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara and The Scarlet Spider, Kaine Parker.
One of the only reasons that this character has received such a massive attention and still is around the Marvel Universe is because he is a character of color and goes by the name of Spider-Man because, imo, if you take away one of these two aspect and maintain the other I honestly doubt people would give much attention to the character to begin with and he wouldn’t survive this long.
“There are only three worthy successors of the mantle that I have read and have acquired their own rogues galleries, supporting cast and own storylines all under less then 5 years : The Amazing Spider-Girl, Mayday Parker, Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara and The Scarlet Spider, Kaine Parker.”
I may have to check out Miguel’s adventures one of these days. People keep saying good things about Spider-Man 2099. I shunned all the “2099” titles years ago when they first came out, and for some strange reason I never just said, “You know what, I’ll give it a chance.”
“One of the only reasons that this character has received such a massive attention and still is around the Marvel Universe is because he is a character of color and goes by the name of Spider-Man because, imo, if you take away one of these two aspect and maintain the other I honestly doubt people would give much attention to the character to begin with and he wouldn’t survive this long.”
It seems hard to deny at this point that certain people are heavily invested in promoting Miles as “The One” who could truly replace Peter Parker on a long enough timeline. I think they would have a better chance if they made Miles weaker than Peter.
Limb regeneration, energy projection, and immortality is not the way to go, Mr. Bendis. Sorry. No dice.
I’m not surprised that Bendis is turning Miles into a Mary Sue. He seems awfully obsessed with having him replace and/or surpass Peter Parker in every way possible. Personally, I’ve never cared for Miles at all. I don’t understand why every character has to suddenly have a legacy like Batman, the Flash or Green Lantern.
“I’m not surprised that Bendis is turning Miles into a Mary Sue. He seems awfully obsessed with having him replace and/or surpass Peter Parker in every way possible.”
Bendis’ analogy to Thor’s hammer is specious in its own right, but it’s telling that his first comparison is with a Norse god. Haha.
Amazing how people can be so willfully blind sometimes.
Mr. Bendis, if Thor fights Blackheart, a very powerful demon and essentially the son of the devil, I don’t expect him to win by hitting him with his hammer one time. Or zapping him with one lightning strike. If he did, then it would be stupid.
The venom blasts seem to be some kind of general get-out-of-fight-free card for writers of Miles Morales. They have no set power level, and they don’t work in a consistent way. I mean, what kind of “venom” is a) transferred via touching someone without actually making contact with their skin, and b) works on a high-level demon? I wouldn’t really expect poison or toxins to work on Blackheart. He also wouldn’t have a traditional nervous system to disrupt via toxins or electrical discharges.
I know what a hammer is. I know by what means it affects someone if you use it against them. I have no idea what the venom blasts are, what they do, how they work, or how strong they are. If they can take out Blackheart in one blast, shouldn’t they kill weaker villains? Thor can’t just hit the Shocker with the same attack he uses to knock out Loki, after all. But apparently Miles can just use venom blasts on enemies of totally different power levels. Does he have to adjust their strength? Could he kill someone with them?
To add additional insult, as I recall he tends to seem a bit baffled about how they work, which I suppose is why he doesn’t just start every freaking fight with a venom blast so you don’t have to have a fight. Mr. Bendis, you can’t just give your hero a win button. There’s no drama, and it makes him an idiot if he doesn’t use it right away. I would think a typically decent writer like you would understand basic storytelling.
“The venom blasts seem to be some kind of general get-out-of-fight-free card for writers of Miles Morales. They have no set power level, and they don’t work in a consistent way. I mean, what kind of “venom” is a) transferred via touching someone without actually making contact with their skin, and b) works on a high-level demon? I wouldn’t really expect poison or toxins to work on Blackheart. He also wouldn’t have a traditional nervous system to disrupt via toxins or electrical discharges.
I know what a hammer is. I know by what means it affects someone if you use it against them. I have no idea what the venom blasts are, what they do, how they work, or how strong they are. If they can take out Blackheart in one blast, shouldn’t they kill weaker villains? Thor can’t just hit the Shocker with the same attack he uses to knock out Loki, after all. But apparently Miles can just use venom blasts on enemies of totally different power levels. Does he have to adjust their strength? Could he kill someone with them?”
There is so much “win” going on with your comment that it isn’t even funny. You nailed it. Mr. Bendis seems to think if he just acts really cool and “edgy,” swears at his critics, and does it while being chummy-chummy with industry writers then people will just agree with him. Wrong.
Wow, that is like bad fanfic. I don’t suppose it occurred to Bendis that there’s really no incentive to buy a comic if a character is practically god-like. Mary Sue, creator’s pet–whatever you wanna call it, it sucks. I mean, books like Superman and Thor always tried to find some way to limit the heroes and present them with credible threats; the writers knew the stories would be boring otherwise. I mean, the only way you could use him (other than mostly de-powering him) is play into his inexperience and that would just make him look pathetic. I don’t think Bendis has thought this through at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if a future issue has Miles beat Galactus in arm-wrestling.
“I don’t understand that criticism.”
If nothing else, Bendis has made that appallingly clear.
“Does it pique my interest to know that Miles’ father is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? Sure. I think it’s weird for a husband to have giant secrets from his wife and son, but for entertainment purposes I suppose it works.”
It’d be more interesting if Peter’s parents hadn’t been established as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents decades ago. Instead, it just looks like Bendis was reading some old Stan Lee issues for ideas. “Meet the new Spider-Man, just like the old Spider-Man… BUT A MILLION TIMES BETTER, B**CHES! ‘Cause Thor’s hammer or something. Yeah!”
“It’d be more interesting if Peter’s parents hadn’t been established as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents decades ago. Instead, it just looks like Bendis was reading some old Stan Lee issues for ideas. “Meet the new Spider-Man, just like the old Spider-Man… BUT A MILLION TIMES BETTER, B**CHES! ‘Cause Thor’s hammer or something. Yeah!”
Good point on Peter’s parents.
On some level I think making Miles’ father a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent less interesting. A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent has been trained and knows how to protect himself, he has resources to protect his family, etc. If Miles’ father was just a regular guy trying to deal with having a super-powered son, then I think it would be a lot better. He knows his son’s secret and knows the boy will often be in over his head, but at the same time his fatherly instincts will prompt him to want to protect the child.
How far would a normal father go to protect his son? Would he take the law into his own hands? Would he kill? Would he do those things and still keep it from his wife? I know the S.H.I.E.L.D. thing sets up new stories as well, but to me it’s like, “Eh. I’d rather this be just a dad who loves his son and tries to do the right thing.”
Another Marvel series that starts low and keeps going lower.
Second verse, worse than the first…
I knew about the venom blast and the invisibility, but not the limb regeneration stuff. It’s like Miles is in a video game and has all the cheat codes turned on. Invisibility code! One-hit instant-kill code! God Mode! With all of his amazing powers, Peter still has limits and weaknesses. I remember stories where he’s fighting for his life because of cracked ribs. Although he’s strong, he’s not as strong as a lot of others. He’s fast, but not as fast as some. It’s his use of all his abilities and his unpredictable style that keeps him fighting and allows him to win, not breaking out an overpowered ability. And even then he has enemies that can counteract some of his abilities, whether his Spider-Sense is dulled by chemicals or symbiotes, or he is out-classed in strength, he doesn’t have a single-touch KO power or be able to turn invisible, or fire energy bursts.
At least put some limits and rules on Mile’s powers. Make it so instead of his venom blast affecting those with genetic irregularities more, make it so it affects them less, so it’s effective against street punks but not against like the Lizard or something. And define it, can he use it in rapid succession? How big a target can it affect? I have no idea. Give him like a recharge time or make it so using the venom blast weakens and tires him out so he only use it as a last resort. Same with invisibility. What is the limit on this? How long can he stay invisible? It should be that he’s only able to effect it on skin-tight clothes (so he can’t just turn invisible in regular street clothes), and he can’t use some of his other abilities while he’s cloaked or it turns him visible. And if he’s hit with enough impact while cloaked, it shuts off. Or maybe just do it that he can only cloak when staying still, and if he moves he becomes visible until he’s still again, Kind of like a worse version of the Predators’ cloak in the films. Or severely weaken some of his basic spider-abilites so he has to use these new ones in conjunction with them to survive fights
When he can take massive amounts of damage, turn invisible, destroy technology with a touch, KO with a touch and destroy matter with a blast generated from himself on top of the standard Spider-powers I don’t see how any regular enemy could be a serious threat. When his weaknesses are more than “I don’t know my own strength, so I’m not even as powerful as I could be,” I might be interested. When you are capable of knocking out the literal son of the devil by touching him, I’m gonna say you really don’t need much experience.
“I knew about the venom blast and the invisibility, but not the limb regeneration stuff. It’s like Miles is in a video game and has all the cheat codes turned on. Invisibility code! One-hit instant-kill code! God Mode! With all of his amazing powers, Peter still has limits and weaknesses.”
Maybe Miles is going old school and using the Nintendo Game Genie. 😉
“When he can take massive amounts of damage, turn invisible, destroy technology with a touch, KO with a touch and destroy matter with a blast generated from himself on top of the standard Spider-powers I don’t see how any regular enemy could be a serious threat.”
Exactly. And with the powers he does have, they can just invent more. “Hmmmm, Miles can control the electricity in his body and randomly generate energy bursts. Let’s say he can focus that energy in his head so he’s immune to telepathy, too! He has an electric ‘web’ around his mind that no one can get through!”
Sigh.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read and comment, carnage. I appreciate it.
I don’t think it’s selling well, is it?
Stillanerd was kind enough to cover it in his recent sales charts. Bendis’ Spider-Man is a ship that is taking on water.
February 2016: — Spider-Man #1 — 99,951
March 2016: — Spider-Man #2 — 60,627 (-39.34%)
April 2016: — Spider-Man #3 — 59,789 (-1.38%)
May 2016: Spider-Man #4 — 49,167 (-17.76%)
“Now you might think that the new Miles Morales/Spider-Man solo series being ranking 28 out of 300 comics is a great showing, and you’d be right. That said, the series has now dropped below 50K in the sales estimates within a span of four months, and I suspect it will fall even lower until we get to the Civil War II tie-ins. This isn’t to say the quality on the series has necessarily diminished, but I do wonder if these figures are reflective of a possible jumping-off the Miles Morales bandwagon by the readers, especially they’re convinced Marvel is giving Miles better treatment compared to Peter Parker. Still, in light of the current comic book periodical market, Spider-Man is still doing okay.”
Boom. It will be interesting to see when the bleeding stops.
Even the left-wing AV Club admits that certain Marvel titles, namely the ones that are “diverse,” aren’t selling very well. I think that includes this book. http://www.avclub.com/article/frustrated-superhero-comics-unbeatable-squirrel-gi-239010
P.S. I also think that Bendis has passed into the “used to be the nu thing but now is old hat” zone. Kind of like Claremont after his prime had long passed. But Bendis has burrowed his way deep into Marvel Publishing’s leadership structure.
“P.S. I also think that Bendis has passed into the ‘used to be the nu thing but now is old hat’ zone. Kind of like Claremont after his prime had long passed. But Bendis has burrowed his way deep into Marvel Publishing’s leadership structure.”
I think that at some point in time writers/artists start believing their own hype and then it’s the beginning of the end. There is a certain level of humility that is required to a.) be your own harshest critic, and b.) allow yourself to listen to the legitimate criticism of others. Once these guys get a couple good runs under their belt they get out of that psychological sweet spot for producing memorable work.
“Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read and comment, carnage. I appreciate it.”
You are welcome! I’ve been reading your site for quite awhile now, but just never have commented until now.
I’m waiting until this exchange takes place in the comics:
Peter: “Miles, you have abilities so far beyond my own, I don’t think there are any limits to what you can do.”
Miles: “But I can already dodge bullets,..”
Peter: “No, Miles. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”
Miles: “Whoa… also, I just learned Spider-Kung Fu.”
Miles: “Whoa… also, I just learned Spider-Kung Fu.”
You’re “The One,” Miles! You’re…The One. **sniff**
“You’re a wizard Har- Miles.”
Seriously, have they learned nothing from Superman? Now they’re just outright making Spider-man Marvel’s Superman?
How can someone like Bendis, WHO SHOULD HAVE THE SKILL AND EXPERIENCE, not see the corner they’re painting themselves into? It should have been easy: Miles’ “venom blast” can numb most ordinary people, but grows less and less effective against targets of increasing power. Thus you have an excuse for Spidey quickly taking out a random gang or bunch of hoodlums while leaving the stronger bosses available for the action packed throwdown. Heck it makes things interesting with Doc Ock who Miles only needs to “tag” to win but Doc has those arms to keep Miles away so you could get some interesting panels out of that.
Oh wait, he can take out electronics. You know, given what I read of ultimate Spider-man (and now this), I just think Bendis really hate having to write action sequences. Or even give up too many panels to allow the artists to show off.
But still all this SHOULD require a huge amount of energy, where is he getting it from? At least Superman has the excuse of being solar powered.
“Oh wait, he can take out electronics. You know, given what I read of ultimate Spider-man (and now this), I just think Bendis really hate having to write action sequences. Or even give up too many panels to allow the artists to show off.”
It’s hard not to think about his current run on Invincible Iron Man and not come to the same conclusion. He is good at figuring out ways to create tension between characters, but it does not appear as though he spends much time mapping out really cool action scenes.
I like Miles better than present Peter Parker (not classic Peter Parker mind you) but I do admit the venom blast is a tad to powerful and now this energy burst just sounds dumb. I mean what kind of spider can do that in the first place? Venom burst ok with some comic book logic makes sense, but energy blast? Haven’t read this issue yet so I’ll have to check it out personally but the power sounds dumb, but the story sounds interesting.
“I do admit the venom blast is a tad to powerful and now this energy burst just sounds dumb. I mean what kind of spider can do that in the first place?”
Miles has the proportionate speed and…energy-projection capabilities of a spider? Hmmmm. I think Mr. Bendis went bit off more than he could chew with that one. Heh.
Also immortality was a stupid move (worse imo than the energy blast), a healing factor sure but immortality? I kinda hope that he lost it with Secret Wars but I doubt it.
“Also immortality was a stupid move (worse imo than the energy blast), a healing factor sure but immortality? I kinda hope that he lost it with Secret Wars but I doubt it.”
Brian Michael Bendis is going to use new superpowers for Miles the way that Dan Slott uses new (never before mentioned) technology to get Peter Parker out of a jam.
Peter: Miles, your arms just grew back! I thought for sure I’d need to make a web-tourniquet.”
Miles: Nope. You never knew my limbs grow back? Haha. Yep. They do. Hey, thanks for flying us out of here with those spider rocket-shoes. I never knew you had those.
Peter: Yeah, I figure if Iron Man has thrusters to fly then I should, too.
Miles: Good point. Parker Industries needs to show Stark who’s boss.
Sigh.
I’m just gonna say some controversial things because they are true.
First Miles, like most characters that get covered by an overeager liberal end up like this. Just like the patronizing instinct to save the ‘dumb little brown people who can’t make it on their own’ among liberal politicians, comic book writers feel the need to pump up the guy and give him more power or unrealistic moral superiority.
The idea of a minority character overcoming great odds because of his will to succeed, brilliance, or character? oh c’mon! how is he going to win lame ‘who’s more powerful’ contests on the internet! ‘Sides, how can they get anything done without them to lead the way.
I know exactly what Bendis means when he says criticism of his work is ‘strange’ or ‘weird’:
it means, if you’re a critic, your a sexist, racist, homophobe. period.
As for Bendis’ writing? I think he’s awful, but thats a difference of opinion based on how people read nowadays. I still think a writer should be able to create a complete, credible plot with a beginning, middle and end…and obviously most people would rather be endlessly entertained with scattered garbage as long as the characters are ‘entertaining’. Sorry, that’s just me.
“I’m just gonna say some controversial things because they are true.”
This is the right place for that! 🙂
“First Miles, like most characters that get covered by an overeager liberal end up like this. Just like the patronizing instinct to save the ‘dumb little brown people who can’t make it on their own’ among liberal politicians, comic book writers feel the need to pump up the guy and give him more power or unrealistic moral superiority.”
I just got an email last night from a reader who responded, “This came to mind when you were talking about Super-Spider-Man Miles.”
“I know exactly what Bendis means when he says criticism of his work is ‘strange’ or ‘weird’: it means, if you’re a critic, your a sexist, racist, homophobe. period.”
Heh. This is another instance where a good reporter would have pushed him to be a bit more specific. Those don’t really exist within the comic book industry…
“As for Bendis’ writing? I think he’s awful, but thats a difference of opinion based on how people read nowadays. I still think a writer should be able to create a complete, credible plot with a beginning, middle and end…and obviously most people would rather be endlessly entertained with scattered garbage as long as the characters are ‘entertaining’. Sorry, that’s just me.”
I was willing to give him a lot more leeway in the past regarding some of these drawn-out storylines, but I can’t anymore. His “event” projects have three distinct acts, but the regular titles (e.g., Invincible Iron Man) just sort of meander all over the place. It’s incredibly frustrating. Maybe they should just relaunch the book as The Incredibly Frustrating Iron Man.
I can totally understand why someone would not like his work, although I think his best qualities are sorely missing among most Marvel writers at the moment.
It’s Bendis that is frustrating because he truly could be a great writer. In fact many of the Marvel writers could be. I’ve been reading Soule’s Inhumans work, and I think he’s potentially great (thanks for recommending him). I think this is a problem of writing culture, I’m no expert, but I’ve read a great deal of GK Chesterton, Orwell, CS Lewis, Tolkein, etc. and They always wrote to ‘finish’ if you know what I mean. Even the older comic writers did this, writing story arcs with a finality and leaving some plot threads to explore later, but at least leaving a feeling of satisfaction.
To me it seems the fat needs to be cut from these stories, some editorial control is needed and most importantly a respect for the reader with an aim toward entertaining him/her. As seen here, Bendis has little respect for the reader and feels nothing about wasting their valuable time. I dislike that quite a bit.
This is one of the reasons why I dislike Superman. The writers kept on giving Superman abstract upgrades to his powers when Superman is plenty strong already. It’s one of the reasons why those Superman vs comparisons never make any sense.
I remember reading some interviews with some Superman writers and I remember them saying things like they don’t like it when Superman loses (hence the power upgrades). They apparently dislike the modern “evil businessman” version of Lex Luthor and prefer the golden age version where he is a wacky mad scientist that always loses.
It could be worse though. Mile Morales could use his enhanced speed to speed-read a book on heart surgery and then use his energy blasts to perform said heart surgery (this happened in a Superman comic).
I think at the end of the day a superhero should have simple and easy to understand abilities with some sort of key weakness. I think one of the reasons why Peter Parker (pre-OMD version) was so popular is because his powers are so simple – enhanced agility, spider sense and mechanical device for web swinging.
“It could be worse though. Mile Morales could use his enhanced speed to speed-read a book on heart surgery and then use his energy blasts to perform said heart surgery (this happened in a Superman comic).”
That’s pretty funny. Actually, would Superman really even need to read a book on heart surgery if it was only a clogged artery? He could just fine-tune his X-Ray Vision and laser-beams to break apart the arterial plaque. Heh. 😉
“I think at the end of the day a superhero should have simple and easy to understand abilities with some sort of key weakness. I think one of the reasons why Peter Parker (pre-OMD version) was so popular is because his powers are so simple — enhanced agility, spider sense and mechanical device for web swinging.”
Agreed.
Thinking of cool ways to get a hero out of a jam requires a writer to work his creative muscles. It’s easy to just say, “Well, I’ll have Spider-Man just pull some random new technology out of his butt.”
It’s easy to say, “Nuts. How does Miles get out of this? I got it! Levitating energy power. I’m a genius!”
It’s hard to craft a story where the reader closes the book and says, “I want to shake that writer’s head. That was awesome.”
Hey Brother, long time no comment. I’ve been stalking your blog of course but finishing up a dissertation. Hope you’re well!!
Not sure if you caught this or if you’re reading DC or not, but Miles’ new Energy Burst power that leaves him exhausted is a direct rip off of the New 52 Superman “Solar Flare” power, where basically Superman detonates and can take out a small town. No idea’s original. It’s also a rip off of Thor’s “Godblast” power where he would do the same thing (be incapacitated after detonating himself).
The ONLY Marvel book I’m picking up currently is Spider-Man 2099, so I would definitely advise looking at that one. Coincidentally this seems to be the only book not directly related to Civil War II. I haven’t picked up anything at all related to Civil War II because it’s a cash grab and I think you’ve covered that a lot on this site (e.g. how many mutants are running around the MU and have the power of precognition? That hasn’t started a war but this Inhuman has??). When I see stuff like this on your blog, I just think about how Marvel’s putting everything into the cinematic side of things but the comic side is going way, way, down. Did you hear the news today that they are replacing Iron Man Tony Stark with a 15 year old Black Girl? As a Black comic reader who has loved the medium for years, it’s disheartening to see Marvel shoehorn weird stories for the sake of making the reader accept that they can do anything they want and you’ll still buy. My only form of protest has been to drop all my comic books except Spider-Man 2099. I’ve long has issues with Bendis as a writer and visionary. But I think he illustrates the biggest problem with Marvel these days— failure to tell good stories. Civil War II is not a good story. This volume of “Spider-Man” is not a good story. Capt having his history rewritten by a cosmic cube… again… is not a good story. The jackal wearing a red suit and unleashing clone copies of dead characters has so many problems wrong with it… not a good story. Banner getting killed soon, War Machine dying for the sake of selling comics. Even this “Champions” book coming out— makes no sense. “Secret Wars” just ended and they JUST joined the Avengers so when I see that they are leaving to form a new team I just think “cash grab”. This is what Marvel has become.
So now my comic book fandom has changed quite in a manner that I would predict a lot of people’s might. Now when I think of comic books I think of going to the movies to watch the characters I grew up with interpreted on the screen. I think that’s how the medium will change. People will gravitate towards the movies but won’t pick up the comics so Marvel will continue to do stunts like this to try to gain readership. Not sure if you remember but I posted last year under my Orange Mask moniker that I was going to give “Secret Wars” a chance to reel me in. It was okay but almost a year later and you see that the event was done literally only to bring in two characters from alternate dimensions into the current universe— Miles and Old Man Logan. I’m glad you’re posting updates but it’s a sad time to be a Marvel fan right now.
“Hey Brother, long time no comment. I’ve been stalking your blog of course but finishing up a dissertation. Hope you’re well!!”
Hola! I’m glad to hear everything is going well on your end. Good luck with your dissertation.
“Not sure if you caught this or if you’re reading DC or not, but Miles’ new Energy Burst power that leaves him exhausted is a direct rip off of the New 52 Superman ‘Solar Flare’ power, where basically Superman detonates and can take out a small town. No idea’s original. It’s also a rip off of Thor’s ‘Godblast’ power where he would do the same thing (be incapacitated after detonating himself).”
I haven’t been reading DC, but people keep telling me it is much better than Marvel these days. I may finally just break down and make a switch…
“The ONLY Marvel book I’m picking up currently is Spider-Man 2099, so I would definitely advise looking at that one.”
I don’t think I’ve heard one bad thing about Spider-Man 2099. You’re probably the fifth person to tell me I really need to check it out. I just dropped Black Panther form my pull-list, so that might be a good replacement.
“When I see stuff like this on your blog, I just think about how Marvel’s putting everything into the cinematic side of things but the comic side is going way, way, down. Did you hear the news today that they are replacing Iron Man Tony Stark with a 15 year old Black Girl?”
I did! 🙂
“As a Black comic reader who has loved the medium for years, it’s disheartening to see Marvel shoehorn weird stories for the sake of making the reader accept that they can do anything they want and you’ll still buy.”
You sound just like the guy who runs my local comic shop! He said the same thing today. That’s telling. Very telling.
“I’m glad you’re posting updates but it’s a sad time to be a Marvel fan right now.”
I really wish you could sit in on a conversation or two with me and the guy who owns my local comic shop. I think it would be incredibly cathartic.