Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Whatever happened to Spider-Man?

I’m trying to be fair, I really am. I mean, I love the character, and in spite of what I think about most of the stories in Amazing Spider-Man’s post Brand New Day world (any one else notice that editorial has stopped referring to Spidey’s life in that fashion. I can only guess that want to stop bringing attention to the fact that these aren’t real Spidey adventures, as they are the result of a Mephisto-induced world).

I really don’t go out of my way to publicly state how much I hate most of the stories, but lately, I have to say the past couple of issues of ASM have had what can only be described as some of the worst art I’ve ever seen in a Spidey comic in my entire life (and I’ve been reading since Amazing Fantasy #15.

The art in ASM #611 (with Deadpool) blew chunks (no disrespect to the artist, but his style just does not belong in Marvel’s Signature series. It looked rushed, muddy, and amateurish. And when did Deadpool become such a jackass. I mean I know that he is a smart-mouth mercenary, but seriously, the writing was crap too. I mean, When John Byrne was writing She-Hulk, and all that goofy crap was going on in that title (the silly stories, breaking the 4th wall), that was all fine and good, but when she appeared in any other title, it was business as usual and things operated pretty much they way they did in the “regular” marvel Universe. Here Deadpool’s stupidity exploded all over the pages of Amazing, completely ruining my reading pleasure).

Then in ASM #612, the back-up tale with Pete, MJ and that girl reporter from Front Line, the art there was equally bad. I mean, after the atrocious (and confusingly badly-written) Who Was Ben Reily? storyline (ASM 608–610), this title is seriously hitting the skids (there is even a retcon in #612 regarding events in 600/601, it just makes me shutter.

Now I’m not telling anyone to stop buying this title. I want everyone to make up their own minds, but the writing of late is just bad. I am urging everyone to write into the Spidey offices to tell them what they thing (bad or good), as this is the only way that anyone in that office will know what we really think.

5 comments:

Sol (Frederick) Badguy said...

You wrote the wrong numbers on purpose? Cause those are issue #611 & 612 you wrote them as #111 & 112 respectively

Did you at least enjoy the "Fred Van Lente" Chameleon story? Even a little? I find it to be 'RAD'

One of the protesters on "Comic Book Resources" Spider-Man forums opened a thread having plenty of pictures with comments against that most infamous retcon, real funny images

rjsodaro said...

Thanks for the catch, Sol, I did mistype the issue numbers (If you followed the links, you’ll see that they lead to the correct covers — 611 & 612 — you’ll see I’ve fixed the references).

I like Fred’s writing, and — to be clear — I generally don’t actively dislike the writing (or the art) on the series. I just hate the cheat they used to get her, and that simply colors everything that follows.

On Law & Order they call that “The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”

rjsodaro said...

Oh yea, Sol, if you had a link to those posts, feel free to put them here, I’d love to see them.

Sol (Frederick) Badguy said...

Here are some:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949525&postcount=1

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949541&postcount=3

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949548&postcount=4

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949559&postcount=7

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949582&postcount=9

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949600&postcount=12

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949634&postcount=15

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949642&postcount=16

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949662&postcount=18

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949677&postcount=20

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=9949738&postcount=21

rjsodaro said...

Thanks, Sol, these are all very good, and quite funny.

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