Written by It’s a rare occurrence when a Marvel comic is worth multiple blog posts, but The Amazing Spider-Man #25 has managed to pull off the ignominious feat. The anti-faith claptrap that was shoved into Peter Parker’s mouth was covered yesterday, but today I would like to address writer Dan Slott’s decision to turn criminal beatdowns into an occasion for political correctness.
Mr. Slott’s version of Peter Parker literally wonders if there is something wrong with punching Asian thugs while in China.
“Doesn’t it feel weird that we’re only beating up … Asian people? I’m just used to beating up people of all races and creeds,” Peter says after an interrogation. When Mockingbird asks if he would feel better fighting masked criminals he says, “I know it’s a cop-out, but yeah, it would.”
Yes, that’s right, an entire page of of creative real estate was dedicated to the racial dynamics of beating up Asian criminals in China. That, my friends, is Marvel Comics in 2017. Writers like Dan Slott are so concerned about shoring up their PC credibility that they will sacrifice character and plot development in favor of racial diatribes.
There is much more to say, but for that I would like to point you to my latest YouTube video. Make sure to hit the subscribe button if the format is up your alley, and feel free to share your thoughts on all-things Spider-Man in the comments section below.
Editor’s Note: I plan on doing a live discussion on YouTube on March 25th at 3:00 p.m. EST. with Mike McNulty (Stillanerd) from Whatever a Spider Can. The topic of the day will be the craft of writing — with ASM as our creative backdrop.
Also, consider this recent tweet by Mr. Slott if you doubt that the ASM creative team was thinking about Richard Spencer when they were thinking about Doc Ock’s new look, haircut, etc., as part of Hydra. When will someone conduct an intervention and tell these people that their obsession with politics is unhealthy?
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Stuff like this is just pure cringe. I get that most comic book writers harbour progressive(or regressive depending on how you look at it) views and it is only natural that those views will seep into their writing. The problem I have is when their views slip into the writing in such forced and unnatural ways for the stories being told. The biggest problem with the SJW culture at Marvel right now is that they lack any and all subtlety in how they keep crowbarring their worldviews into the stories. When you take a whole page to stop the story and virtue signal about race issues in beating up thugs, that’s just bad storytelling that rips your readers out of the story. Honestly, stuff like that is why I am taking a break from Marvel’s superhero stuff right now, I just can’t take anymore sub par storytelling that is just an excuse for the writers to virtue signal and shove their worldviews down people’s throats.
“Stuff like this is just pure cringe. I get that most comic book writers harbour progressive(or regressive depending on how you look at it) views and it is only natural that those views will seep into their writing. The problem I have is when their views slip into the writing in such forced and unnatural ways for the stories being told.”
Agreed. I was just having this conversation with someone the other day. It’s sort of baked into the cake that most stories are going to have a leftist “flavor,” and I get it…but it’s the ham-fisted stuff that is just unacceptable.
“The biggest problem with the SJW culture at Marvel right now is that they lack any and all subtlety in how they keep crowbarring their worldviews into the stories. When you take a whole page to stop the story and virtue signal about race issues in beating up thugs, that’s just bad storytelling that rips your readers out of the story.”
Boom. Exactly. If the train is moving along and then suddenly the conductor slams on the brakes and says, “Hey guys, I’m not racist!” before starting up again, then people are going to complain. When you tell guys like Dan this on Twitter…you get blocked. I just have to laugh.
“Honestly, stuff like that is why I am taking a break from Marvel’s superhero stuff right now, I just can’t take anymore sub par storytelling that is just an excuse for the writers to virtue signal and shove their worldviews down people’s throats.”
You’re not alone, AP. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to watch the video and comment. I appreciate it.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Normal person written by normal person if they heard Spider-Man:
“That’s stupid, That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. NO. It doesn’t bother me…it bothers me that you brought it up. You’re an idiot. I would be embarrassed to even let those words slip out of my mouth. I Would throw my mask away, change my name and find a profession more suited to my poor taste and stupidity…maybe a marvel comic book writer or something.”
“That’s stupid, That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. NO. It doesn’t bother me…it bothers me that you brought it up. You’re an idiot. I would be embarrassed to even let those words slip out of my mouth. I Would throw my mask away, change my name and find a profession more suited to my poor taste and stupidity…maybe a marvel comic book writer or something.”
Pretty much. I’d look at a real-life Spidey who said that and say, “I think it’s time to give up the mask, dude. You’re done. You’re not thinking clearly on the job and you’re going to get yourself killed if you’re doing weird race-quota calculations in your head during battle. You’ve had a good run, Pete, but it’s over. At least, it is until you get your head on straight.
I like how Dan Slott took the joke in the Deadpool movie pointing out the absurdity of worrying about hurting a bad guy because of their gender, changed it to be about race instead and tried to make it serious to push an agenda. Oh wait, I don’t like that at all.
This is a joke and is hilarious:
Deadpool: “This is so confusing, is it sexist to hit you? Is it more sexist to not hit you? I mean the line gets really blurry.” *Proceeds to execute female baddie with his pistol*
This is serious and is pathetic:
Spider-Man: “Doesn’t it feel weird that we’re only beating up … Asian people? I’m just used to beating up people of all races and creeds.” *Proceeds to feel really bad about himself*
This was put into the story so ham-fisted and lazily it might as well have been Spidey looking directly at the reader in a 5 panel monologue about how racism is bad and then rattle off links to websites if you would like to know more.
Also, thanks for the mention in the video!
“Also, thanks for the mention in the video!”
No problem, man. Thanks for consistently offering insightful (i.e., kick butt) analysis and feedback. 🙂
“This was put into the story so ham-fisted and lazily it might as well have been Spidey looking directly at the reader in a 5 panel monologue about how racism is bad and then rattle off links to websites if you would like to know more.”
Exactly. If Marvel had professional editors, then someone would pull Dan aside and say, “Do you think it’s your job to make Public Service Announcements in ASM? It’s not. It’s really not. Get your act in gear and stop shoehorning this junk into the books. It’s not cool.”
Your last paragraph captures exactly how I felt upon reading that page in ASM #25. It was pathetic and I want my 9.99 back. Not even a slick cover or any sick pinups inside.
Marvel seriously needs help…this is coming from a Marvel Zombie of thirty years. They are so out of touch. Everything seems so ham-fisted. It’s become a monthly occurrence for Marvel titles to drop off my pull list.
“Everything seems so ham-fisted. It’s become a monthly occurrence for Marvel titles to drop off my pull list.”
Marvel is like some guy who keeps saying “this is fine” after an injury, despite massive blood loss. He keeps getting paler and paler and you’re like, “No, dude. You’re not fine.”
The beating up Asian people thing reminds me of Resident Evil 5 and the controversy around all the bad guys being black because the game was set in central Africa. It was hilarious and damned if you do or damned if you don’t. If they change the game to make it more diverse (which they did) then you are whitewashing, but if you leave it than you are making some statement about black people and crime. I wonder if Det Tequila stopped to think about all the Asian people he killed as a Hong Kong detective.
Don’t like Richard Spencer or anyone he represents but I am really starting to loathe the constant stream of real world people being used for the artistic bases for characters in comics. Especially from the same people who cannot take any amount of criticism for their work.
Doesn’t it seem weird that Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos were only fighting German soldiers? And that Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders were always getting into fire fights against Japanese soldiers and sailors?
Yeesh.
“Yeesh.”
That’s a good way to put it. 🙂
Why would Peter even ask an idiot question like this? He’s so incredibly stupid that he didn’t think Taiwan would have Asiatic bad-guys? He needs Bobbi Morse to point out the obvious?
This is part of what people mean when they say that Slott writes Peter Parker to be an imbecile.