Daily Scans - Amazing Spider-Man #603
August 20th, 2009
01:35 pm
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Amazing Spider-Man #603
After last issue, Chameleon is impersonating Peter. He doesn't know who Peter really is. He attempts to get a grasp of Peter's life by looking through his old yearbook and photos. Among them is a photo of Gwen, and a message from Flash in his yearbook where he tells him to "stay puny".

As posted before, Chameleon!Peter has sex with Michelle. I have to ask--is this rape? Personally, I think it is as Michelle probably wouldn't have given consent to Chameleon otherwise. But some fans of the issue on Spider-Man Crawl Space are arguing that it isn't because she gave consent. Is there a legal definition on this?

Anyway, Chameleon!Peter has his meeting with MJ.








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From:[info]mullon
Date:August 20th, 2009 05:57 pm (UTC)
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I don't think it's rape. It's sex under false pretenses, which is very bad in it's own way, but doesn't sound as bad.
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From:[info]felinephoenix
Date:August 20th, 2009 07:08 pm (UTC)
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Sex under false pretences is a form of rape.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:August 25th, 2009 03:05 pm (UTC)
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That's rape.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:06 pm (UTC)
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so does MJ still know that Peter is Spidey after brand new day?
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From:[info]cyberghostface
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:10 pm (UTC)
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It's been hinted that she does but not explicitly confirmed.
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From:[info]sandoz_iscariot
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:12 pm (UTC)
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She does.
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From:[info]goblinthebamf
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:09 pm (UTC)
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yuck. I think I'll just stick with calling this whole thing "unpleasant" and try not to think anymore about the other horrid implications like what happened to Michelle.
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From:[info]ian_karkull
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:13 pm (UTC)
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Heh. I kind of like this, actually. It's like Peter Parkers Evil Twin has been set loose upon the world.
It works for me because deep, deep down inside, in his darkest hours, Peter probably sometimes has thoughts and feelings like this. He is, after all, the archetypical flawed character.
Struggling to rise above these base urges is what makes him a hero.
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From:[info]ar_feiniel_
Date:August 21st, 2009 10:50 am (UTC)
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I agree.

Besides, at least this Parker has the balls to be a real dick, instead of the current one who just eats wheaties and gets wasted at weddings to cope with his ex.

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From:[info]icon_uk
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:18 pm (UTC)
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I google "what crime is impersonating someone for the purposes of sex?" and got this link.
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From:[info]ashtoreth
Date:August 20th, 2009 09:42 pm (UTC)
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Please don't feel I'm being an ugly American, but isn't that British law? I can't find anything to specifically say.
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From:[info]sandoz_iscariot
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:18 pm (UTC)
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What happened to Michelle was rape. She was consenting to have sex with Peter, but that wasn't Peter--it was a stranger who broke into her home. She was not consenting to have sex with the Chameleon, and would not have if she had known who he really was. The fact that this is probably going to be played off for more whomp whomp whomp sitcom-y mistaken identity hijinks is terrible.
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From:[info]darklorelei
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:55 pm (UTC)
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Exactly.
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From:[info]felinephoenix
Date:August 20th, 2009 07:02 pm (UTC)
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This.
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From:[info]jaybee3
Date:August 20th, 2009 07:06 pm (UTC)
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It was rape. She did not consent to have sex with Chameleon. She consented to have sex with Peter. They are not the same person. If we are were talking about all the people who had sex with Skrulls (i.e. Tigra and SkrullHankPym) thinking they were someone else we wouldn't even think to question it ... I hope.
From:[info]punishermax
Date:August 20th, 2009 09:10 pm (UTC)
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Or it could be played like it was rape, we don't know,neither of us can see into the future.
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From:[info]colonel_green
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:23 pm (UTC)
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If we're talking in a legal sense, flawlessly impersonating another person in the way the Chameleon does is so outside the scope of our reality that it's hard to match it with current laws. Realistically, she would probably feel like that if she found out (which she won't), but fiction involving shapeshifters rarely delves into that sort of thing, preferring to just let shapeshifter stories like this get played for humour (though it can also be played for horror/drama; see Abby Arcane). I remember how the JLU episode where Flash ends up in Lex's body and then is implied to have romanced Tala (though she was the one making the moves there) generated a bunch of discussions about whether that made the Flash technically a rapist; it's probably one of those storytelling conceits that should be left alone.

A reviewer (IGN, I think) had a good analysis of this issue, in that it uses Chameleon's impersonation to frame the things Peter isn't as a result either of being Spider-Man or just his personality: Fake-Peter is punctual, as MJ notes; he insults Flash; he's reasonably good at recognizing attraction and seducing women, etc.
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From:[info]colonel_green
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:28 pm (UTC)
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Oh, and poor Flash.
From:[info]fredneil.livejournal.com
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:49 pm (UTC)
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Shouldn't someone notice that Peter's acting strangely? Even if he is a jerk in this universe, he's still being a lot more of a jerk than usual. Bring up high school in an especially cruel way a decade or so later, despite years of friendship inbetween should seem old. At least after Flash gets over the immediate desire to shoot fake peter, and while telling Mary Jane that it never worked because she's not Gwen might be brutal honesty, she should wonder why he brought visual aids to make his point. (Again, after she gets over the desire to shoot him.) If Mary Jane still knows he's Spider-Man, she should be especially sensitive to this kind of thing.
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From:[info]cyberghostface
Date:August 20th, 2009 06:49 pm (UTC)
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Anyone know why Chameleon doesn't remember building robotic replicas of Peters's parents? This was before he found out who he was, so there's no reason why he shouldn't remember.
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From:[info]jaybee3
Date:August 20th, 2009 07:13 pm (UTC)
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So when we see MJ hooking up with some wildly inappropriate guy/enemy of Peter/using her to get to Peter whatever we can blame it on her seeing lipstick on NotPeter's collar and NotPeter saying she wasn't Gwen right? Because I could totally see that coming.
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From:[info]steverodgers5
Date:August 20th, 2009 07:53 pm (UTC)

You know what really bugs me about this tale..

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Yeah I get all the horrible implications of what the villain is doing with Michelle, but I have to ask how is that even possible with the Chameleon?

Is he now officially a shape changer? I mean I know he's used image inducers in the past, (On his belt and so forth..) but in this story he seems to be using the old Mission Impossible molded-mask routine. And y'know I can just about buy that it might look real, but would it really feel real? With all the hinted at carnal activities you'd think that might become apparent..

But I suppose it is the Marvel Universe, and that they could have some technical reason for it being THAT believable. I just wish they'd explained it more clearly in the story..

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From:[info]zegim
Date:August 20th, 2009 08:32 pm (UTC)
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This arc went downhill fast. Real fast.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:August 21st, 2009 02:39 am (UTC)
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"you weren't her"

Wow that's cold, even for this writing staff. And watch them not even attempt to have peter later clarify that those weren't exactly his feelings at all, but someone else's


and part B, the gwen mention got me thinking...this staff pre-BND was really strongly considering bringing Gwen back in the reboot/retcon/whatever, like I know I've seen they almost were going to multiple times. Now these guys in charge grew up with their 1st 10-20 years of comics being Gwen still alive...

you think perhaps this is mirroring their feelings? They dislike mary jane b/c she's not gwen, and they grew up thinking she was the only one for peter?
From:(Anonymous)
Date:August 21st, 2009 02:43 am (UTC)
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apparently they want everyone to hate peter like they did in high school...that's the only sense I can make out of all of this
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