With the points you've chosen to address, you seem to be skipping the main one that I brought up in the first place. So here it is again:
Are you telling me that your bias against OMD hasn't colored your perception of ANYTHING the new creative teams have done post-OMD? Don't you think your take on the bickering relationship between Spider-Man and Jonah to be a little bit absurd-- and VERY symptomatic of a bias you might have?
All right. Onto your new points:
Justification is a personal thing. I'm not going to argue with you over what you personally feel is justified and what is not. What I am going to talk about is FEASIBILITY and REALITY. The book is where the book is. We're going forward. It would be nice if you could look forward too, instead of looking back on a story that took place over 50+ issues ago. I am very proud of the work that myself and the new team have produced starting with our run at ASM #546. I am even more proud of where we are going post ASM #600.
For those who choose to constantly complain about a story from over 50+ issues ago, I don't see anything convenient about it. Convenience? No. Personally, when I read those kinds of commentswith many of them just the same thing repeated over and over again for over 18 months-- I feel the odd moment of frustration. Sorry if my reaction to that came off too harsh or in any way offended you.
I don't really see this as much of a debate. I just pointed out the absurdity of one of your statements, have held you to it, and am pretty much telling you how I feel about the subject as a whole. There's no right or wrong here. There's no "victory" or "defeat". There is the way two different people feel about a certain subject.
Swear to God, I have no recollection about what you're talking about. My plate is pretty darn full and I don't keep track of old internet message board threads. If I did, I wouldn't get anything done.
Read that again and say that with a straight face.
Now read that again and say that with a straight face.
Support it with your money or don't. That's your choice. What I'm asking of you, as someone who's a reviewer who is supposed to review things on their own merits, is that you keep an open mind-- that you TRY to read the current run of Amazing Spider-Man for what's it's creators ARE writing.
Ever see the movie HOOSIERS? This is kinda' what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0nv0UxI0xY
Replace the phrase "We want Jimmy" with any of the Anti-OMD talking points that are still being repeated 50+ issues later... And the Gene Hackman speech is pretty much how I feel. From the second ASM #546 came out, we've been your ASM team. Support us or don't, that's up to you.
Sorry, never meant to skip over your main points. Let me try to address them here. Let me know if I miss anything. On a quick sidenote first though: I'd certainly call this a debate. You have one perspective, I have another, and we're going back and forth with our reasons as to why each of us thinks our side is correct. That's pretty much an exact definition of debate. Some people think that debates have to include some kind of hostility or a victor and a loser, neither of those are necessary though. Civil debating is one of my favorite things to do actually. Anyways....
-The main issue for you regarding me seems to be that you think I can't be unbiased in my comic reviews because of my open dislike for OMD. You seem really really really set in thinking it's impossible to present an unbiased view of any new ASM material because of it.
-In regards to the JJJ/PP thing, you think it's a big deal because you see it as direct evidence that I am biased and therefore nitpicking even things that should most obviously be kept as the spider-man mythos. For some reason you seem insistent that my dislike of OMD makes it completely
impossible for me to be unbiased. The fact is that that is just not a logically
necessary connection, it's simply an assumption you've made and are insisting upon. You could put out the most amazing Spider-Man issues ever (get the pun?), and I would certainly, were I to review them, rate them very highly. Would I buy them? Probably not. But that's for multiple reasons, including things such as: I believe there should be consequences to companies doing something as stupid/offensive as OMD;
In regards to your claim that I am unable to be unbiased, I will respond with an example:
- When ult wolv/hulk was left hanging for YEARS I was royally pissed off and consider that to have been an insult to every fan who bought the first few issues (not to mention it being completely unacceptable from the world's most successful comic company). Yet, when the next issue FINALLY came out, I gave it a positive review. Yes, of course I mentioned how ridiculous the long wait between issues was, but I then went on to review the actual issue based on its plot, dialogue, art, etc.
Now, as you can tell, I still even now think it's pretty ignorant for a world-class company and comic producer like Marvel to have done that to their fans, but nonetheless I looked at the issue on its merits and and rated it accordingly.
- To use another example, I really dislike John Travolta. I find his acting mediocre at best and usually find he makes roles that could be good into an irritation (such as his role in Punisher or in Swordfish), but despite that even I will admit that he did an exceptional job in the movie
Phenomenon and made his character both interesting and likable, as well as adding a good amount of dramatic depth to the movie.
I don't know how to explain it any simpler. Your assertion that dislike of one thing automatically makes it impossible to look on related things in an unbiased fashion is simply illogical (an example of the deductive fallacy, to be specific).
In regards to reviewing ASM, I've put it on my list of possible issues to review a few times now, but haven't been assigned it yet. If my editor thought I'd shown any sign of bias on the many other reviews I've done, I definitely would have heard about it.
As for the JJJ/PP thing, again, that wasn't any kind of main point from me, it was a simple side comment. I agree it's part of the spider-man mythos and I'm happy to see it stay that way. As for my dislike of it lately, it is OMD related, but not because I hate everything ASM that I see these days. It's because clearly you guys chose to consciously change things about Spidey for BND. One of the things changed is his maturity level.
All I was saying about the JJJ/PP thing is in the issues I've read Peter's banter toward JJJ has gone down to a level of childishness. Perhaps it's simply that the number of jokes has gone up (density-wise) to the point where I found it irritating (perhaps due to the focus on the two in view of the wedding), or perhaps the jokes just weren't to my taste, or perhaps the jokes have intentionally been written more juvenile of late to fit in with the less mature, loser Peter that Quesada seems to want, I don't know. Either way, I found it irritating. But perhaps I'm not allowed to because it means that I'll be accused of being blindly biased towards everything.
I'd love to give you an example of what I found irritating, unfortunately I've only had review copies to read which I only have access to for a few days, so I can't.
).
