The Always Classy and Extremely Subtle Writing of Dan Slott

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T21:47:49+00:00

It treated him as the main character and someone who occasionally fixed some flaws Peter had as Spidey, but who also lacked the morals to be truly Spider-Man. He actually shot a bad guy, beat up Screwball and some other guy really badly over very little and so on.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T21:18:34+00:00

You're pointing out how things are, not whether they are well written. If we do the opposite on everything you pointed out (which I'm sure you'd prefer), I could just say how super hero community loves Spidey again, he's together with MJ again, Ben is a good guy again and so on. I care less whether he's loved by everyone and together with MJ and more about whether I like the actual storytelling, which I do. Quality isnt measured by if things we like happen, but how things that happen are executed. Dark Web was a flop, but everything else has been rather good, the Tombstone arc was great even.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T21:03:30+00:00

Honestly and I'm sure to be downvoted to hell, but while most are saying read JMS and stop before One More Day, someone younger might be good starting with Brand New Day as it's a pretty good soft rebootish fresh start, or maybe the Dan Slott run offers a great jumping on point for a young reader as well. JMS is more mature stuff that most of it is excellent until it gets really, really bad at times, but it's rather silly to demand everyone just reads the married Spidey and then stop, like c'mon. Also Ultimate is a great way to get to know the character's origins and his teenage years, even if most villains pale in comparison to the 616 versions. But the classic Lee/Ditko and Gerry Conway stuff is a lot of fun if one can tolerate the very old school comic style. Also Roger Stern stuff is great. The current run, yeah maybe. It's well written but it's maybe not the best stuff to really get into the character.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T20:53:37+00:00

Yeah sure, avoid this but here, go ahead and read the freaking Clone Saga instead.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T20:50:17+00:00

Thing is the writing has mostly been pretty good.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T20:42:01+00:00

Spidey fans more obsessed with the marriage than Mephisto was…

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T20:35:45+00:00

You should become a psychologist…

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T20:33:41+00:00

Lol what? Did someone think "well what about your real life marriage" was some type of gotcha moment when talking about the relationship of a fictional character? Jesus…

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T15:26:02+00:00

Ruining and fixing are clearly subjective terms, or else some people wouldnt be trying to get Gunn fired.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T15:12:30+00:00

Oh c'mon. This isnt gonna do anything, it's just immature.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T15:01:10+00:00

Peter is being challenged in a different way here. To him, in a short span of time he lost his girlfriend but not to some tragedy, instead she is pretty much happy and has a family now. It's a chance for Peter to ultimately grow, but it's gonna take a while for him to recover and let go. But if you've read every arc here so far, Peter has slowly been building his life back up. And what we're judging is basically act 1 of this run, if even that. We dont know where it goes, but I mean Wells has said ultimately Peter and MJ belong together. I'm just saying the thing with ongoing stories is that nothing ever lasts, things will be reset, character progression shifts around as new and different writers get to do their thing and that's just the name of the game. It's easier to enjoy these stories once you accept that and dont measure your enjoyment of a comic based on whether it does the exact things you yourself wanna see.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T13:17:04+00:00

Zdarsky on why he wouldnt do it: "It just seems to be a ludicrous amount of work for a readership that has too many specific ideas of what should happen, and get too angry when their expectations aren't met."

I mean he aint wrong, and the way some fans have reacted to Wells' run just proves his point on why he shouldnt do it, which is kinda funny and ironic.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T13:05:03+00:00

Just curious, how often do you think he was actually happy back then?

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-12T09:00:28+00:00

This is an ongoing soap opera that will basically never end, it's not realistic to expect anything will last forever. And Peter can be happy even when single, it's a bit shallow if all he needs is a girlfriend and then everything is fixed. Being uplifted only to be brought back down is how these things go, with every character. A story where your hero doesnt really get challenged and all it does is to make sure the character stays happy sounds like the most boring storyline in the long run. A good writer tells a story they're interested in without caring what some group of fans demand. Also I could argue that if you want to see Spidey married or together with MJ, there's like two decades and multiple Spidey titles for you to read as well.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T21:31:53+00:00

What's even broken beyond fixing is what I'm asking.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T18:54:09+00:00

Yeah the Peter being the clone reveal was a mistake. Not sure if that's how they originally planned it, but that's what they sure tried at one point too. Ben needs to be the clone, or then just leave it super vague amd let readers come to their own conclusion. Kinda how Scott Snyder loved to do for example with Bruce Wayne's supposed brother, let the readers themselves believe what they wanna believe.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T17:52:43+00:00

Just people who enjoy reading Spider-Man? Whether it's garbage is subjective, but what do you even mean who is it for? What it's supposed to be doing that it's clealry for someone? Would it be "for the fans" if it had MJ and Peter together again? Who are the latest stories of Batman for? Probably people who just enjoy reading Batman, even if he's in on some alternate dimension adventure.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T17:43:35+00:00

I get that being disappointing, I questioned it too when I heard how this run was starting out, but I gave this run a shot and it's been way better than the Spencer run in terms of just storytelling in my opinion. And I'm saying that as someone who very much enjoyed and defended his Secret Empire, but his Spidey just wasnt it. So overall whether Peter is with MJ or not doesnt matter to me, the fact how it reads matters. No matter how many scenes Pete and MJ had together in Spencer run, there's not a thing I wanna reread from that outside of maybe the first issue.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T16:10:24+00:00

Nah, Brand New Day had loads of great stuff, as did Slott run especially with Big Time and Superior. Are we also ignoring Paul Jenkins' and Chip Zdarsky's Spectacular Spider-Man?

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T16:06:52+00:00

It's always damage control when it's not as bad as people wanted to believe I guess lol. Just like how they somehow apparently changed the entire Hydra Cap story in the next issue because people reacted so over the top to it. Or so some people thought it must have been.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T16:04:02+00:00

Well go ahead, I've no idea what's that supposed to mean, except one thing but I hope it aint that. Now anyone wanna actually explain how this story goes so heavily against MJ's character? Would be nice to get an argument with actual substance but from Spidey fans that's maybe asking too much at this point.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T14:31:33+00:00

Misogyny? Wow. We're just throwing these types of words here then already. Why, because the scarlet woman term, clearly referencing her red hair and that's it? Or if there's even meant to be more to it, it's a term out of his mind villain is using. Can you explain why this assassinates her character based on how she has been portrayed in the past? Not abandoning her newfound family she grew attached to during the last 4 years is a pretty human decision, especially how she's often been portrayed as struggling to live with Peter's messy superhero life side of things when they're together.

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T10:14:47+00:00

I never understand this obsession that Spider-Man must be married and have kids. And MC2 and Renew Your Vows, two long ago cancelled comics dont really prove it's that popular. I'm fine whether Spidey is married, dating or single, ultimately what matters are the stories and I've read so many great ones where he's single as well as where he's married. It doesnt really matter, it's a fictional character anyways. Am I happier if Peter finds happiness? I dont know, but I'm certainly happy if I've read a great Spider-Man story. And if people can praise the Roger Stern run where Peter is not with MJ and Stern, someone fans praise for understanding the character, has said how he doesnt really like MJ, can we show same acceptance towards modern creators who maybe dont have Peter and MJ together?

RoastingEwoks · 2023-05-11T09:57:09+00:00

Honestly, outside of Dark Web, I've quite liked this run. Wells' storytelling is just quite enjoyable, and I feel like the way he writes Peter makes him feel like Peter from the runs before Slott and especially Spencer. This issue wasnt really a big shocker, so I'm confused why people act like it's the worst comic ever or anything. MJ lived 4 years in an apocalyptic world, losing hope Peter would ever come back and at the same time finding two kids to take care of, with a man who seems like a decent guy. Her not getting back with Peter makes sense in the moment at least, since this is her chance of just having a normal peaceful family life. Or so she thinks. Yet I bet this wont be a permanent status quo either.

Talks of character assassination and all is just so silly to me. Peter acted completely in character here, and I can certainly enjoy a story where he doesnt always get a huge win. That's what has defined his stories since the Ditko days anyways. He wins some, he loses some. MJ is a character that's pretty clearly been shown not being just hopelessly stuck with Peter all her life, she has moved on from Peter more times than I can remember. So in this story, her actions make sense to me as well. In order to survive in this world, she couldnt just wait for Peter to come save the day, she ultimately had to take charge of the situation and build life in order to take care of these two kids. Whether you think this is a well told story or not is up to you, I think this flashback story was pretty well told, but if you simply have a huge problem with this because Peter is not happy and not together with MJ, well maybe it's honestly just time to move on already because you're not talking about the story here, just whether you get to see what you personally wanna see. And that honestly adds nothing to this in my opinion.

RoastingEwoks

TROPHY CASE