Its been a while since I posted and I apologize. Its been a busy, turbulent month or so and I haven’t had a lot of down time or had many topics to discuss. There are a few things I want to do with this blog but they all require time and money I don’t presently have.
Today instead, I want to rant about Marvel’s direction and use of one of their key and possibly most famous characters: Spider-Man. As the blog title suggests I am a huge fan. I take my name from my love of the character, and its been disappointing in recent years to see what’s been done with the character.
Much of the disappointment was supposed to be washed away when they rebooted his whole world one Brand New Day. I was reluctant to jump on board at first, but have since changed my mind and loved the series. While I am not up to date because I can’t afford to buy comics with the same passion I used to, I can say without a doubt that the change was necessary and took the character back to his roots, instead of letting him meander in material that wasn’t suited for him.
And ultimately I agree with Marvel’s change of the status quo, not for the sake of change but for breathing new life into the character. So I have to ask why the fuck are they still using him wrong everywhere else in the Marvel Universe.
The inclusion into the New Avengers has always been an iffy thing. I like that he’s higher profile and is a key figure in some of the bigger events of the Marvel U. But he is so out of place. First, he rarely has much of a role to play anymore. He was a central figure in Civil War which had a wonderful complex and difficult arc for him as he stood between the two ideals of conflict and eventually jumped ship when he saw the bigger picture. But since then he’s been little more than present in each event not contributing much or even being anything beyond comic relief. While his funny bone is a key element of the character he’s not slouch as a superhero and they simply bring him a long for the ride.
Marvel seems to have forgotten that not only is he powerful as a physical character and comes with an array of useful talents that could be key to any battle or mission (stealth, agility, spider-sense etc) he’s also a brilliant mind. True, he is no Tony Stark or Reed Richards, he’s still crafty and intelligent and often uses this to his advantage. I don’t see any of that. He just comes off as a foolish wise cracker in tights.
And I can see the point that in a lot of instances he’s not necessarily a central figure, nor would he be appropriate as one. In situations like Secret Invasion I quite agree. But when you take his most personal adversary Norman Osborn, a man responsible for so many tragedies in Peter’s life, and make him the most powerful man in the world, you would think that Peter would be a key figure in taking him down, especially when said villain goes drunk with power and crosses the line.
I understand that the Siege storyline is mostly about the ending of the dark period of the Marvel U and moving towards “The Heroic Age” so the focus is on the Avengers, namely the three principles all of whom are returned to the Marvel U after something of a hiatus (two being dead, or lost in time, the other being the most wanted man in America). But Spider-Man has intimate knowledge of the Osborn family and knows better than anyone how Osborn thinks and acts, having tussled with him on countless occasions. You would think there would be SOME use of this relationship for the hero’s advantage. But there’s been nothing. Nothing at all. What’s the point of using Osborn, a villain whose sole occupation for decades was the ruin and death of Spider-Man, when there is no cross-over what-so-ever. You could use any villain for the purpose of being power hungry and going over-the-top, causing a crisis that requires the heroes attention and the results would be the same. Why use Osborn?
For a long time Osborn was unique in that he didn’t cross-over into other comics or storylines unless Spider-Man was involved. He was his sole focus. I can understand Marvel wanting to use him for something more, but to completely ignore a very unique and personal relationship between hero and villain, especially when the villain has ascended to the highest power in the land and gone over-board with his madness, it just seems like such a violation of the character’s core and history. Again I ask… what’s the point?? Why Osborn? Why not Spider-Man?
It’s not like the web head was busy. He’s there on the front line. But instead of focusing on his mortal enemy they instead distract him with a second rate Gargan/Venom character, who requires him to team up with Ms Marvel to take out. Really?? If Osborn was responsible for the chaos and destruction that he was causing in Siege, do you think Parker would really sit back and squabble with a second string character or go after the big dog himself?? Would Superman be content to let the rest of the Justice League take on Luthor while he battled Gorilla Grod or Lobo?
Spider-Man doesn’t belong on the front lines of major conflicts, and when he’s there he should be there for a reason. If you establish that HIS villain is the cause of a major conflict, you should expect him to be no where else but front and center. Spider-Man’s role should be a thankless one, risking his neck on a daily basis, on the street level trying to deal with everyday crime, not global crisis, and the crisis he is involved with should be because he’s a unique asset to the team, not because he’ll sell more books. It’s absurd.
Now they have a street level war, that he will barely be involved in.
Am I to understand Marvel that you go to all this effort, alienate your existing fanbase, and hit the reset button, in order to establish an older style of Spider-Man story where he’s become a street-level warrior now, but in no way try to reflect this in the events of the larger universe that continue to completely misuse him??
I am growing impatient.
Spider-Fan's Web 