2011 Reading #70: Spider-Man, various
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
61. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.
62. Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky.
63. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin.
64. Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord.
65. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
66. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone.
67. Meeks: A Novel by Julia Holmes.
68. Fagin the Jew: A Graphic Novel by Will Eisner.
69. Baby Is Three: Volume VI: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.
70. Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski and Ron Garney; The Amazing Spider-Man: The Book of Ezekiel by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna; The Sensational Spider-Man: Feral by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Angel Medina, and Clayton Crain; The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Final Curtain by Paul Jenkins, Mark Buckingham, and Talent Caldwell. Basically I was at the library and, on impulse, I picked up all the recent Spider-Man trades on the shelf. I had read a couple of the Civil War issues, but otherwise this was all pretty new to me. On balance I like Straczynski's comics work; I liked what I've read of his recent run on the rebooted Thor, and I like his take on Spider-Man and the Parker family. I also like that, despite the fact that Civil War was a mess from start to finish, they made Spider-Man the crux of the moral and legal dilemmas that the event posed by having him start on the side of Stark and the pro-registration forces, only to change his mind and side with Cap and the rest. The fact that he mostly changes sides because Tony Stark is an asshole undercuts this a bit, but, well, Tony Stark is an asshole. It's axiomatic.
I don't like Straczynski's mythic take on Spidey quite as much, though. There is this unfortunate tendency among comics writers, when taking over a title, to want to fix or explain things, or otherwise to make them less embarrassing, because they are comic books and they are silly, and that is somehow bad and must be mitigated. On the one hand, this can result in genius work, like Peter David's run on The Incredible Hulk, where he deepened the character by looking into his origin and giving it a psychological justification that was always lacking in the character's "SMASH" incarnations. But sometimes this need to explain goes down blind alleys, as with this, Straczynski's attempt to make Peter Parker the intended recipient of a sort of essential trickster spider power. It's not just that it feels forced; it's also that it runs up against the character's history, because Spidey has always, from his origins to his work to his rogue's gallery, been more about science (at least, comic-book science) than about magic or mysticism. It's an interesting attempt, but it's not convincing.
Feral, on the other hand, is not really an attempt to do anything with the character. That's fine in and of itself, but it reads like a throwback to '90s NON-STOP EXTREME ACTION comics, complete with the McFarlane-inspired art of Angel Medina. It's all too exaggerated and "dark" (except not really) to work. Similarly, the stories in The Final Curtain are mostly not very ambitious, except for the last; there's a three-part Doctor Octopus story that doesn't go anywhere interesting, a one-shot about a superhero poker game that should be duck soup but is in fact pretty dull, and a story about a minor Spidey villain that starts out interesting but never takes the extra step into compelling. The last story here, an imagined visitation between Peter and his Uncle Ben at the latter's gravesite, has some interesting elements, particularly a Calvin-and-Hobbes-inspired aesthetic for the nostalgic bits; Jenkins seems to be trying to say something profound about the character in his last issue on the title, but it ends up feeling like a highlight reel of things that have been said about Spider-Man through the years.
What's perhaps most interesting here, though, is that there's one thing that all of these creative teams get at least somewhat right, and that's the fierce love and strength among the triumvirate of Peter, Aunt May, and MJ. I will never understand or agree with the editorial decision to retcon the Parker-Watson marriage in the One More Day storyline. Peter Parker as a character is not better as a bachelor; he's different, certainly, and I'm sure that there are good stories to be told about him. (I've boycotted all post-"One More Day" Spider-Man comics on principle, and I'm sticking to that--although, to be honest, my comics budget has been non-existent for a while now, so I'm sure Marvel couldn't care less.) But the Quesada hate-on for the Spider-marriage ignores not only that MJ herself is a rich character, but that the MJ/May relationship adds a fascinating dynamic to Peter's stories. Maybe it's just that Marvel is still such a boy's club--for all that DC has taking heat recently for having so few women on their creative teams, Marvel is actually significantly worse. You would think that someone there would realize that the idea that marriage somehow either emasculates heroes or makes them boring is problematic even without a female creator around to call bullshit, but apparently this is giving Marvel too much credit.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
61. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.
62. Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky.
63. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin.
64. Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord.
65. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
66. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone.
67. Meeks: A Novel by Julia Holmes.
68. Fagin the Jew: A Graphic Novel by Will Eisner.
69. Baby Is Three: Volume VI: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.
70. Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski and Ron Garney; The Amazing Spider-Man: The Book of Ezekiel by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna; The Sensational Spider-Man: Feral by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Angel Medina, and Clayton Crain; The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Final Curtain by Paul Jenkins, Mark Buckingham, and Talent Caldwell. Basically I was at the library and, on impulse, I picked up all the recent Spider-Man trades on the shelf. I had read a couple of the Civil War issues, but otherwise this was all pretty new to me. On balance I like Straczynski's comics work; I liked what I've read of his recent run on the rebooted Thor, and I like his take on Spider-Man and the Parker family. I also like that, despite the fact that Civil War was a mess from start to finish, they made Spider-Man the crux of the moral and legal dilemmas that the event posed by having him start on the side of Stark and the pro-registration forces, only to change his mind and side with Cap and the rest. The fact that he mostly changes sides because Tony Stark is an asshole undercuts this a bit, but, well, Tony Stark is an asshole. It's axiomatic.
I don't like Straczynski's mythic take on Spidey quite as much, though. There is this unfortunate tendency among comics writers, when taking over a title, to want to fix or explain things, or otherwise to make them less embarrassing, because they are comic books and they are silly, and that is somehow bad and must be mitigated. On the one hand, this can result in genius work, like Peter David's run on The Incredible Hulk, where he deepened the character by looking into his origin and giving it a psychological justification that was always lacking in the character's "SMASH" incarnations. But sometimes this need to explain goes down blind alleys, as with this, Straczynski's attempt to make Peter Parker the intended recipient of a sort of essential trickster spider power. It's not just that it feels forced; it's also that it runs up against the character's history, because Spidey has always, from his origins to his work to his rogue's gallery, been more about science (at least, comic-book science) than about magic or mysticism. It's an interesting attempt, but it's not convincing.
Feral, on the other hand, is not really an attempt to do anything with the character. That's fine in and of itself, but it reads like a throwback to '90s NON-STOP EXTREME ACTION comics, complete with the McFarlane-inspired art of Angel Medina. It's all too exaggerated and "dark" (except not really) to work. Similarly, the stories in The Final Curtain are mostly not very ambitious, except for the last; there's a three-part Doctor Octopus story that doesn't go anywhere interesting, a one-shot about a superhero poker game that should be duck soup but is in fact pretty dull, and a story about a minor Spidey villain that starts out interesting but never takes the extra step into compelling. The last story here, an imagined visitation between Peter and his Uncle Ben at the latter's gravesite, has some interesting elements, particularly a Calvin-and-Hobbes-inspired aesthetic for the nostalgic bits; Jenkins seems to be trying to say something profound about the character in his last issue on the title, but it ends up feeling like a highlight reel of things that have been said about Spider-Man through the years.
What's perhaps most interesting here, though, is that there's one thing that all of these creative teams get at least somewhat right, and that's the fierce love and strength among the triumvirate of Peter, Aunt May, and MJ. I will never understand or agree with the editorial decision to retcon the Parker-Watson marriage in the One More Day storyline. Peter Parker as a character is not better as a bachelor; he's different, certainly, and I'm sure that there are good stories to be told about him. (I've boycotted all post-"One More Day" Spider-Man comics on principle, and I'm sticking to that--although, to be honest, my comics budget has been non-existent for a while now, so I'm sure Marvel couldn't care less.) But the Quesada hate-on for the Spider-marriage ignores not only that MJ herself is a rich character, but that the MJ/May relationship adds a fascinating dynamic to Peter's stories. Maybe it's just that Marvel is still such a boy's club--for all that DC has taking heat recently for having so few women on their creative teams, Marvel is actually significantly worse. You would think that someone there would realize that the idea that marriage somehow either emasculates heroes or makes them boring is problematic even without a female creator around to call bullshit, but apparently this is giving Marvel too much credit.