Taking a Page From Marvel, I Will Now Steal a DC Blogs Idea!

First off, posting may become more erratic starting tomorrow. The semester is kicking off, and I'm not sure yet whether it'll affect my posting. Hopefully, I'll keep up a 1 post per day pace, at least.

Anyway, if you go to Absorbascon, and go to Scipio's earliest posts (March 27, 2004) he has some posts on what he calls Dynastic Centerpieces. He gives a few examples of DC rebuilding them (Green Lantern), and makes some of his own (Black Canary, Martian Manhunter). I figured I'd give it a try with at least some Marvel characters, starting with the one I know best, Spider-Man! Let's say this is the set up for Straczynski as he comes onto Amazing Spider-Man and Paul Jenkins is still writing Peter Parker Spider-Man. JMS can still go mystical, but this gives me plenty of time to prevent "The Other" and hopefully the organic web-shooters Peter got in "Disassembled". Mary Jane is not in town. She can be dead, divorced, whatever.

Dynastic Centerpiece - Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, mild-mannered high school science teacher, plus occasional photo journalist work (maybe only during summers, or on weekends).

Junior Counterpart - Johnny Gallo, aka Ricochet. Was given the identity from some old-time hero named the Black Marvel. While I don't know where the costume came from, as Peter still has the one he used in the "Identity Crisis" storyline, the fact remains Johnny has one. He's a mutant possessing superhuman speed, agility and balance, as well as a sort of danger sense. All of which means that in a fight, he would be very similar to Spider-Man in fighting style, with lots of jumping around, hit and run style attacks, using his various throwing disks (his teammate the Hornet made some with boomerang capability, as well as some explosive ones. Hornet is dead, killed by Wolverine, but since Spidey appears to be buddies Stark, he can probably get him to make more. It's better than the new costume Tony made for Spidey. What an eyesore). Personality wise, Johnny is a lot like Peter, very jokey, and full of nervous energy. Peter would probably be good for calming him down.

Female Version - Anya Corazon, aka Arana. I'm not too knowledgable on her. Has some similar powers to Spidey, though she seems to also grow an armored carapace. Powers are mystical in nature. Works for some group called the Webcorps, which could have some relation to Ezekial and his company, or just be a similar group. Is in conflict with the Sisterhood of the Wasp, leading to speculation they are related to Shathra, the wasp creature that came after Peter with plans to use him as food for her babies. She seems to go a bit berserk at times, so she's probably too out of control to work with Peter frequently, not to mention her handlers might now encourage his presence. Still, given they both have problems with mystical things, a sometime partnership might be good. Plus she's a high school student, maybe at Peter's school? Too much coincidence?

Kid Sidekick - Mattie Franklin, aka Spider-Woman 3. Gained power by taking part in Norman Osborn's 'Gathering of the Five'. Has super-strength, agility, can fly. Can form weird psionic spider-legs. From what I've seen, not as violent as Arana, actually tried to take over for Spider-Man when Peter had given up the webs for awhile. Has worked with him successfully before.

Black Sheep - Kaine, aka the first Spider-Man clone. Stronger than Spidey, with an adhesive ability strong enough to scar people, as well as a spider-sense heightened to the level of giving him flashes of the future. He's also mildly psychotic, but if Spider-Girl is any indication, capable of being a good guy, albeit a bit of a violent one. Probably not someone Peter would work with often, but he'd at least be aware of him.

Civilian Companion - Randy Robertson. Son of Joe "Robbie" Robertson, he was Peter's rommate during the Howard Mackie written "Mary Jane is dead" time before Straczynski came onto Amazing. Provides a tie-in to Peter's work at the Bugle. If you want someone new, there was a teacher in Peter Parker Spider-Man that Peter talked in a couple of storylines.

Elder Statesman - Option 1: Madame Web, powerful psychic, rejuvenated to a younger age by Norman Osborn's 'Gathering of the Five'. Assisted and was assisted by Spider-Man in the past. Has been a mentor to Mattie Franklin. Option 2: Arthur Stacy, brother of George Stacy, uncle of Gwen Stacy, Peter's love prior to Mary Jane. Just like George Stacy was a good enough cop to figure out who was under the Spidey mask, Arthur was in SHIELD. I'm sure he has access to all sorts of intel on Webs. Would keep Spider-Man more grounded in the Peter side of things than Madame Web.

Animal Companion - This smelly cat. Peter found it right before JMS came on board, defended it from some men who were after it for unknown reasons, and the cat bonded with Peter, or at least decided to use Peter as protection (cats are evil like that). I'd have at least liked to have found out what the deal with it was. Oh, yeah it's smelly. Or we could go with Kevin, the piece of cheese Peter was keeping in his fridge, that apparently developed low-level sentience.

Authority Figure - At the Bugle, let's say Robbie Robertson, give Peter a more friendly boss than ol' JJ. Could function as the civilian who knows his identity, if we go with Madame Web instead of Arthur. Robbie's smart; with all the thousands of Spider-Man photos Peter's shot, plus the odd bruises, there is NO WAY Robbie hasn't put two and two together. At school, the principal, I can't remember if they were ever named. In his personal life, I suppose Aunt May, who should definitely still know Peter is Spider-Man. It's much better than her not knowing and hating Spidey (Bendis whiffed on that in Ultimate I feel)

Romantic Interest - Well, I guess it almost has to be Mary Jane. But if we've gone back to Peter being roomies with Randy, that would mean MJ isn't there, so let's bring in Felicia Hardy. She's still interested in Peter, I believe he still likes her, but is too faithful to MJ to consider anything. But if MJ is out of the way (which is what some people believe Quesada is pushing for from House of M and The Other), why not Ms. Hardy? She could watch his back out in the field.

Contextualizing City - Look, it's New York alright? I thought about moving him to Chicago, another city with enough skyscrapers for web-swinging, but I think it's probably too windy for effective web-slinging. Seattle is too rainy, Peter isn't an angry enough person for Philly (I base that strictly off their sports fans). He doesn't strike me as a SoCal kind of guy.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Do you have people you think would fit better? If you have a good city for him, by all means. Scipio, if you read this, have I got the right idea here?

The Team Role

This stems from a conversation Len and I have had the last couple of Fridays. Comics did a lot of things wrong in the '90s by most accounts. On the Marvel side, there were entirely too many books and crossovers with "X" or "Maximum" in the title. But one thing Len and I agreed was that Marvel did the right thing with their teams, mainly keep them separate entities. Think about it, for those who read them, what is the difference between Uncanny X-Men and X-Men right now? Multiple characters seem to appear in both books, and is there really anything different about what they're doing?

When X-Men originally started, it was set up as different from Uncanny. Look at the rosters:

Uncanny - Jean Grey, Storm, Colossus, Archangel, Iceman, Bishop
X-Men - Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Psylocke, Rouge, Gambit, Jubilee (sometimes)

Uncanny seemed to deal with more social and political aspects. There was more talking, more diplomacy, and then at the end of the story, a BIG explosion. By contrast, X-Men seemed to take the style of "Diplomacy? Screw that! We've got Wolverine and Jim Lee art! Let's have battles and curvy women!" Or as Len put, 'X-Men was lots of Sentinels getting destroyed constantly.'

You had X-Factor, the government team, going where the U.S. told them to, including to a Middle Eastern country to defend a regime the government apparently supported from the Hulk and the Pantheon. Granted that was in Incredible Hulk, but Peter David was writing both books, so it could have just as easily taken place in X-Factor.

Meanwhile, X-Force is the hardcore team that deals with Cable's crap. They find the Mutant Liberation Front, they stomp on it. If it's in Antarctica, fine, go there, shoot some people, blow stuff up. If it's in the Statue of Liberty, or Prague, fine there too. In fact, they would seem to be the kind of threat X-Factor would be called in on.

Then you've still got the Avengers (for your everyday Earth-threatening problems), and the Fantastic Four (I think Mark Waid had the best idea, that they're explorers, with the others coming along to help Reed. Plus fighting the Skrulls). Actually, I liked that each major team sort of had their own primary alien problem. Avengers had the Kree, FF had the Skrulls, and the X-Men have the Shi'ar. The New Warriors dealt with typically smaller stuff, closer to street level, while serving as a learning opportunity for what is supposed to be the next generation of heroes (I know, Teen Titans rip-off). I mean, the differences aren't huge, but they are there, so each team can sort of fill a niche.

Anyway, that still exists to some extent, though not so much with the X-books, though X-Factor may be an exception to that, but in theory New Avengers and Fantastic Four still play different roles within the Marvel U.

Anyway, this brings me to a question for my DC-oriented readers: How would you define the roles of the teams in DC right now? JLA (if they still existed. It's down to what Black Canary, Dawn, and Green Arrow)? JSA? Teen Titans? Outsiders? Where the Freedom Fighters turned into cannon fodder because their team showed no recognizable purpose? Am I missing teams? What do you think?

Things I Think About #7

Here's a hypothetical for you. Say Didio or Quesada comes up to you. They tell you either they're going to start a new team book, or change the lineup on an existing one. You get to choose the seven character roster, no limits, any hero, villain, alive or dead, although if they're dead, story arcs will have to be devoted to the resurrection. Whoever you pick, the writer and artist will depict them properly.

Here's the question: Would you take this as an opportunity to put seven of your favorite characters in the same book together, or would you include some you don't like as much, maybe even despise (Cyclops), because you feel they would best fill an important role on your team?

Whatever Happened to . . . Things I Think About #6

Ahh, the joys of chocolate chewy Chips Ahoy. As if they weren't delicious enough, they made the whole cookie chocolate.

Here's a question for you: What happened to thought balloons? Nowadays, the character's inner monologue goes on in the caption boxes in the corner. But that used to be reserved for the writer/narrator to say things like "and at the speed of thought, the Scarlet Speedster creates a giant tornado that . . ."

So does anyone know when thought balloons died out? Who's responsible? 'Cause if it's Grant Morrison, well then he and I are gonna have words. Something like:
Me: Hey Mr. Morrison.
God of All Comics: Who the hell are you?
Me: I saved you from those cows wrapped in barb wire, remember? I trapped them in a barn and burned it down.
God of All Comics: Security.

Actually I'd bet they were phased out because certain fanboys felt they were too childish, but my story is better.

One final question: When you narrate your life, do you see your thoughts in balloons or in caption boxes? Because mine are in boxes, which surprises me seeing as I grew up with thought balloons.

Destiny vs. Responsibility: Has JMS's Mysticism Destroyed Spider-Man?

I gotta confess, I kinda like it when my titles look like something you'd see on a dissertation, or at least a master's thesis. Anyway, this isn't about "The Other", so relax. If you remember, I did a post last month, right before Christmas, where I suggested Uncle Ben be reborn as a Green Lantern. At the time, I mentioned that train of thought came from a different inner monologue I was having, related to a discussion at Comics Should Be Good (kelvin probably remembers this), about whether Straczynski's recent stuff tainted his early Amazing Spider-Man. A fellow by the name of Matthew Craig had some opinions on that, which he shared, and I wasn't sure at the time whether I agreed. Here are the comments that stood out the most:

'It's (Spider-Man's story) about determining one's own identity in the face of the realization that the world is a cold and potentially dangerous place that might try to decide things for you. The World! Not a MYSTICAL SPIDER-GOD.'

Also:

'If it (Peter getting bitten and receiving the powers) was meant to be, how is it a story about a fairly ordinary guy like the rest of us. If Uncle Ben was meant to die and the ability to save him taken out of his hands by Destiny, how can it be Peter's responsibility?'

So, is Mr. Craig right? Has Straczynski taken control out of Peter's hands, and in the process destroyed part of the core character? I went to Amazing Spider-Man #507 for some help. In the issue, Peter meets a roughly eight-foot tall mass of brown spiders called the Gatekeeper. Peter gets bitten several times and falls into a sort of dream state where the Gatekeeper explains things to him, specifically why Peter? A few excerpts:

'There were so many other on that day, in that room, together, there - with the spider.' That's certainly true.

'Because you were a hunter without teeth. You were chosen for your rage.' Ok.

'Why you? Because of all those who were there that day, there was only one hunter.'

Ok, I can see how one could interpret this to mean that it was destined. But here's the phrase I'm seeing: "there was only one hunter." To me that suggests, that on that day, Peter was simply the only qualified candidate present. Maybe it was that spider's job to pick someone to be the 'totem' as Ezekial described it, but there was nothing that said it had to choose that very day. At least not until it got hit with the blast of radiation. At that point, the spider had no time left to search for the person who best exemplified what the spider-god was looking for, so it chose the best out of the limited field it had available. And on that day, in that place, the field of candidates was one: Peter Parker.

And what was the qualifier? That he had rage. Specifically, that all these years Peter has been picked on and bullied, beaten and humiliated, and he's just had to take it, because he's too weak or there were too many of them. He lacked the power to do anything about. Well, I'll be honest, that description could fit any number of other kids in high school, probably millions, worldwide. Hank McCoy, the Beast, was a smart guy. Before his mutation emerged, there's probably a real good chance he got picked on, being a nerd and all. So couldn't he have sufficed? Maybe, maybe not, but it raises - to me at least - the idea that Peter just drew a good (or bad) hand.

So does all this mean it wasn't destined to occur? No, for all we know, a Celestial altered events so that the spider got hit with radiation leaving Peter to get bitten. Different force behind it, same result. But there's no evidence of that. Another thing there isn't any evidence of is that Uncle Ben was destined to die, at that time, anyway. We've got no proof that a spider-god with only enough power to have one true totem (or is it two? Does Arana count?) has sufficient power to twist things so The Burglar would wind up at the Parkers', so that he could shoot Ben. If you start saying that was predestined, then where do you stop? Captain America was destined to be trapped in ice for how ever many years before the Avengers found him. Bruce Wayne's parents were destined to be shot. I suppose it all boils down to how much control you want to believe you (or your comic characters) have over your (their) life.

One other idea: Who says the Gatekeeper is telling the truth? I brought this up in the original discussion, that spiders in mythology are typically tricksters, and when Spidey teamed up with Loki to fight the chaos goddess, Morwen, she states that Peter, not Loki, is the person she wants to enlist, because Spidey 'has much of the trickster in him'. And she's right. Peter does fight evil a lot, but webbing Jameson's pants to his chair? Playing pranks on the Human Torch? Making fun of the Vulture being bald, or those ugly green and yellow outfits Doc Ock used to wear? None of that is what I'd call fighting evil.

The Gatekeeper said Peter was given the power because once he had it, he would never stop fighting to protect those weaker from harm. He would fight to protect them from the evil. I said it in the original discussion, and I say it now: How does a being of chaos benefit from someone fighting evil? Now kelvin pointed out that chaos is not inherently evil, and he's right (and I've played enough D&D to have remembered that), but it isn't inherently good either. So isn't it more likely that the Gatekeeper told Peter what he wanted to hear? To someone like Peter, "We gave you the power because we knew you'd protect the innocent and fight evil" sounds a lot better than "We gave you the power because you will bring more chaos into the world", which is what you figure a being of chaos would actually be striving for. At the time, though Peter didn't know it, Ezekial was planning to sacrifice Peter, in order to save his own hide. But which one better represents what the spider-god would want? Peter fights evil, but does a lot of things that wouldn't be defined as 'good', because he finds it funny. Plus having enemies who want to keep striking back, or keep trying for world domination, introduces different variables into the world at large. Ezekial uses the power with one goal in mind: furthering his own power. Around Peter he pays lip service to trying to start charities and help people, but he moves with a plan, a definite purpose, not chaotic at all. He's like Loki, who for all his talk about being the God of Mischief, is still only interested in one thing: furthering his own power. Sound familar? Loki might occasionally just try to make Thor's life hard, or even aid Thor at times, but in those cases Loki is still just looking out for #1. Like Morwen said, not a true trickster.

So what does all this mean? Probably not too much, in light of the destruction they're wreaking on Spider-Man right now. But I think that there isn't really enough evidence to support the claim that Straczynski destroyed the idea of guilt and responsibility in Spider-Man by venturing into a more mystical realm. Oddly enough, I think JMS had the best way of putting it, during the conclusion of Spidey's first fight with Morlun, where Peter is pummeling Morlun, while wondering where his powers come from: the spider or the radiation? Was it fate, or not? Peter's conclusion: It doesn't matter, he is who he is. He's going to use the powers the way he always has, regardless of their origin, or of the intentions of anyone who may have had a hand in his getting them. Too bad JMS couldn't just leave it at that.

Hopefully, that's coherent. Thanks to samruby.com for having a complete Spider-Man cover archive, so I'd have some art to break up the long and boring text.

What I Bought 1/11/06, But First A Message From My Angry Self

Two books this week, not so good, plus highlander over at The Miserable Annals of the Earth has a post - titled "The Abyss Gazes Back" - that set me off a bit. It's not that I disagree with him that the Silver Age, as a whole, had better work than what he calls the Modern Age. I couldn't tell you, I haven't read enough Silver Age to make a fair judgement, plus what I have read is mostly characters, such as Superman, that I don't care for, so objectivity is not really possible. It's more the shots he takes at kalinara, as he apparently feels that if someone does a post about slash fanfic between sentient planets, then it's okay to paint them with a broad brush, describing her as having a taste for 'mindless carnage, and contemptible non-heroes'. I've read basically every post kalinara has made, I've seen little, if any, evidence of that. She's shown an interest in the strong familial bonds present between characters and their parents throughout DC, or in Robin's ability to adjust his personality to mesh with whoever he's around, be it Batman, Nightwing, the Titans, etc. Yes, she likes that Ron Marz often left Kyle Rayner tied up, or in a tattered costume. And yeah, she does posts (that I think are mostly humorous) about Ben Grimm and Sand hooking up. But mindless carnage? Not so much.

Mostly though, it's his comment that 'it's all very well to say with enormous if unconscious smugness, while still in one's teens or early 20s, sitting in one's happy comfortable little bed or dorm room safe within the sheltering wings of daddy's paycheck, with all the heroes one has treasured since childhood still being happily and cheerfully published pretty much exactly as they have always been, that "times and audiences change". And yes, I just removed that one paragraph, I know how much highlander loves that.

Still, he wants to talk about unconscious smugness? Well, that right there is conscious condescension. Really, all he's saying is "You'll understand when you're older." Boy, didn't we all love hearing that when we were kids? Well, you may have, as for me, not one of my favorite phrases.

The sad thing is, highlander is probably mostly right about the state of comics. Hell, I suppose as someone in their early twenties, though I live in a two person apartment where my half of the bills are covered by me getting an assistantship, I'm one of those fans who eats the crap the comics shovel. I even know I am. I'm reading "The Other". I know it's bad, but I keep reading, hoping they'll get back to the Spidey I liked, from either the late '80s (pre-Venom/Macfarlane), or the first few years of Stracynzski and Jenkins doing the writing, on Amazing and Peter Parker, respectively.

The problem is, that when you post your feelings/beliefs in the way he did, I'd say you risk alienating people who might agree with you, or be willing to listen, but are put off by the feeling that you're looking down your nose at them, which was my gut reaction.

But you want to know the really sad part? Kalinara laughed it off. Had no problem with it, but me, I'm going off the deep end. I guess I just don't like that he decries that comics are being written as if the readers are morons, but he then proceeds to write a post from which I infer he believes that Modern Age comic readers are morons for reading what's put out today. What can I say? I hate feeling talked down to. Anyway, on to the reviews of the crap that came out this week.

Ultimate X-Men #66 - Oh crap. Not the Phoenix saga. This is one of those things I've had enough of, right up there with "Hank Pym beat the Wasp". It's done to death people, go somewhere else. And the Shi'ar show up. And everybody is out on dates, and it looks like Jean is messing with people's minds. Great. I think I may need to drop this book until this story arc is over, but to be fair, I'll see what happens next month. 1 "oh boy here we go" out of 5.

Ghost Rider #5 - And this is what happens when you decompress. Now that we get to the fighting, everything is rushed. What was going on in that elevator with Ruth (don't say tentacle rape)? Why did she go back out and fight Hoss? Why not focus on her primary objective Kazaan, then trash Hoss after. And this Father Adam just managed to show up at the right time to take a shot at Ghost Rider? How? Oh well, at least Blaze is back on his bike. Still, remember how I said Ennis would have to completely screw this up for it not to take 2nd on my "Best Mini-series of 2005" list? Looks like Garth is going to test that. 3 out of 5.

Man, it's bad enough "The Other" is terrible. You'd think they could at least keep it on schedule. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Creature #4 was supposed to come out this week, and of course, it didn't. Perfect.

Pointless Indulgence

Man, nothing like a season premiere of The Shield to get you in the mood to post.

First off, relating to my earlier post about Robin, I forgot to mention I do like that Willingham has tried to give Robin some enemies of his own. Sure Johnny Warlock, the Rising Sun Archer, and the Dark Rider won't be challenging Flash's Rouges anytime soon (not if they value their health anyway), but as Robin establishes his own identity, he needs a few villains of his own. That being said, the title is 'Pointless Indulgence', so these were just a couple of ideas I'd have like to have seen explored, had the characters involved not, you know, died.

1) Jack Drake does not die in Identity Crisis, and Tim is back being Robin. How do they interact? Does father try to limit Tim's crimefighting (no crimefighting on Sunday night, so he's rested for school?) Does Jack try to spend more time with Tim, either in an attempt to draw him away from Batman's siren song of vigilantism, or because he's figures Tim is on borrowed Tim, so better go to the ballgame with him while he can. What about Tim's stepmom, Dana? Tim clearly has no problem keeping her in the dark, but can Jack do that to the woman he goes to bed with every night, especially when he told her he was sure Tim was involved in something dangerous? If he thinks he is going to tell her, what does Tim (or Batman) do?

2) Stephanie Brown survives 'War Games'. When Batman fired her as Robin, he told her to drop the vigilante stuff entirely. She ignored him then, just like she did the Birds of Prey and her father, the Cluemaster. But in the event the gang war actually occurred, maybe she gets herself and her mother out of Gotham, and follows Tim to Bludhaven. Tim is going to know she's still being Spoiler. If she doesn't outright tell him so, then he'll notice some injury she'll got from being out there one night. Does he tell Batman? Does Batman try to get Tim to make her stop. . . again? If he does, would Tim go along with it, or ignore Batman and just try to work with Stephanie, improving her chances of survival? In fact, why couldn't Tim or Batgirl train Stephanie, assuming Cass would also move to Bludhaven? Tim could teach her (and Cassandra for that matter) some of the more detective-related aspects of the job, while Cassandra works on Steph's fighting technique (Tim could benefit from that teaching as well). I'm not saying Batgirl, Robin, and Spoiler would all being appearing in Robin and Batgirl each month, but training together or comparing information on something large every few months shouldn't be out of the question. This is the first time any of them have tried to handle an entire city without the Bat's guiding presence, so a little teamwork wouldn't be a bad idea.

Steph can also serve as a morale booster for Tim if he gets depressed, like she did when he was out of sorts because he believed he killed Johnny Warlock. With Spoiler, the problem has never been a lack of determination, rather it's been a lack of skill, or a matter of being overeager, too gung-ho to prove herself. With people who regard her as a friend, and not a pupil/novice, that wouldn't be as much of a problem, so she'd be less likely to repeat old mistakes of throwing herself into situations too quickly. And as the girlfriend, Stephanie would get Tim out there on dates, forcing him to get out in public and interact with people as Tim Drake, not just spend all his time as Robin, which I think is a vital part of the character as a whole.

Clearly, I think there's more ground to be covered if Steph were still alive than Jack, but really having either character (or at least giving Tim some new people to interact with) would probably have helped Willingham out, if he had thought along these lines. Oh well, it's all moot now, but I feel better for having put this out there.