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Tweak says, "Roaring cleavage!"

cyberghostface (cyberghostface) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-16 16:21:00

Entry tags:

char: betty brant, char: flash thompson, char: human torch/johnny storm, char: invisible woman/susan storm, char: j. jonah jameson jr., char: may parker, char: mr. fantastic/reed richards, char: spider-man/peter parker, char: the thing/ben grimm, creator: dan slott, group: fantastic four, publisher: marvel comics, title: amazing spider-man

Amazing Spider-Man #591
Four pages from yesterday's Amazing, highlighting the points that will likely have people talking.

So, last issue ended with the Human Torch unmasking Spider-Man and looking shot. The opening page of this issue has Spider-Man--with no head. So much for it being a cop out like we all thought, right? RIGHT?

One of the subplots throughout the issue is what's going on with Peter's friends and family outside of the macroverse. That is, lots of time (two months) is going by. Scans_Daily members pointed out that the logic is completely wonky--that is, time should be going slower outside, not vice versa. But whatever...

So MJ tries calling Pete but the message is erased? OH, THE TYPICAL PARKER LUCK!

Also, the old guy with Aunt May is none other than Jonah's dad.

Back with the Fantastic Four...

And finally...the big reveal of who's going to be the Mayor of New York? Is it Mr. Negative? Norman Osborn? Or is it...

(Post a new comment)

On Jonah as Mayor of NYC:

box_in_the_box
2009-04-16 03:37 pm UTC (link)

What's really sad about this? This would actually qualify as an entertainingly good story idea - and even something approaching a new one, at least by NuSpidey standards, in spite of a certain bald billionaire already making it to the White House in DC Comics - except that Marvel is so inept that they somehow managed to upstage themselves, by already putting Norman Osborn in charge of all of America.

When the Green Goblin and his team of unrepentant supervillains already have full government license to arrest and execute every unlicensed superhero in America, how much worse can J. Jonah Jameson make Spider-Man's life, just by being mayor of New York City? That's like finding out that the guy who raped and murdered your wife just got elected president, and has already repealed the Bill of Rights, but then being told that your new boss at work was one of the teachers that you simply didn't like back in high school. Somehow, I suspect that first revelation is gonna sting so much more than the second one that it might even succeed in numbing the pain of that relatively lesser trauma.

Which is why, from a dramatic standpoint, this actually fails on two fronts.

On the first front, it's an anti-climax to have Jonah, an unbearable asshole who nonetheless possesses some bare minimum standard of basic human decency, be the follow-up "villain" to Norman, who's been transformed over the years into the most singular and powerful personification of pure sociopathic evil in the entire Marvel Universe. After all, even Mephisto is considered less of a credible threat than Norman, in spite of the universe-altering powers that Mephisto demonstrated in "One More Day," and only the Red Skull is more personally detestable than Norman, and that's only because I'm pretty sure that saying that any other Marvel character could be as bad as the Red Skull technically falls under the heading of Godwin's Law, given the Red Skull's politics.

And on the second front, since it doesn't make Spider-Man's life any more dangerous than it already was (and it doesn't), then it just comes across as yet another way of hammering home the Charlie Brown theme of "Boy, Peter Parker's life sure does suck, to a degree so extreme that it completely defies all the laws of probability!" At this point, you might as well follow it up by revealing that Mary Jane broke up with Peter because he has a small penis, and given what we've already seen from Quesada and the "brain trust" on NuSpidey, I seriously wouldn't be surprised if that actually happened, especially since the Quesada-approved Spider-Man: Reign already gave us a full-frontal nude shot of Peter looking less well-endowed than Jude Law on a cold day, and also revealed that his radioactive spider-sperm would wind up giving Mary Jane terminal cancer, AND NO, I AM NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP.

It's really a shame, because at another time, and with better writers and editors, this really could have been something fun, but as it stands, it's nothing more than another "meh" moment in the NuSpidey era.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: On Jonah as Mayor of NYC:

shadeedge
2009-04-16 06:01 pm UTC (link)

Actually, I can sort of see this working, but in terms of Jonah having one of his "Hey, Spider-man isn't all that bad after all" fits. I'd like to see him start off getting on Spidey's case, but get pressure from (way) above to fuck around with the guy even more, beyond what Jonah's willing to do, and ending up sticking up for him on the basis of being against a greater threat.

Like you say, J.J.J. has a minimum standard of decency - let's see him actually using that decency to protect Spidey, because the guy may be a menace but some people are worse.

	box_in_the_box 2009-04-16 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	Neither does the "Time moves faster in the Microverse than in our universe, so if we stay here in the Microverse, much more time will have passed in our own universe than has here!" plot point. Let's not forget, they justified one of the largest changes to one of their most prominent characters' status quos with the words, "It's magic ..." (Reply to this) (Parent)

	neotoma 2009-04-16 09:48 pm UTC (link)
	Didn't this already happen -- in The Flash, when Wally accidentally got the Spectre to erase everyone's knowledge of his secret identity (including his own... oops)? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	zegim 2009-04-17 12:37 am UTC (link)
	No. It just ~~ makes sense ~~. If they see him unmasked, it makes sense for them that Peter is Spider-Man. Other wise it doesn't and they can't connect the dots. Fuck me if I understand how this works. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	aaron_bourque 2009-04-16 03:49 pm UTC (link)
	Okay, so gratuitous panel of "fuck you" to the fans who want this to be over: check. Yup, they're still pricks. (Reply to this) (Thread)