Comics Is anyone actually excited for O.M.I.T?

[iloveclones]

^ Shameless, shameless plug....

 

[C. Pumpkins]

I don't care about an idiot who is obsessed with his aunt.

That's a pretty harsh statement. Peter was placed in an impossible situation for a guy who is extremely effected by loved ones dying. (No disrespect intended.)

BND has been a mixed bag for me. Some real gems and some crap, but all in all it had nothing to do with Peter being obsessed with his Aunt May. That's one characteristic Peter hasn't exhibited.

I can't wait for OMIT to be over actually. Sure, I'd like to know how Spidey got his webshooters back, how exactly the mindwipe happen, what Aunt May remembers about the Avengers Tower, etc, but I don't like being reminded of OMD. It really was one of the worst comics I've ever read.

Hopefully a big change happens after Origin Of Species. Personally I would love to see ASM become bi-weekly instead of three times a month; and have only two writers and three consistent artists. The two writers would have to work harder at making the arcs a lot smoother. I'm tired of all the different narratives on one book. And no more indy artists either. Thanks.

 

[kguillou]

All i ask is that Spider-man start becoming the more mature version he was pre-OMD. This whole neurotic, happy-go lucky, man-child thing that marvel's been doing to him just isn't doing it for me. Get writers like JMS and Dan Slott that can bring out the mature and funny side of spiderman and be able to balance it well. They're trying way too hard to copy his Ultimate counterpart these days, but Ultimate and 616 Peter Parker are two completely different people.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I really don't see any of that in the book. They are just writing a single Spider-Man now. It may be a little easier to distinguish if you had friends who were married and friends who were single. When one is married he is going to act a lot differently than someone who is single.

 

[ben_reilly_s_s]

But the thing is...
Peter NEVER acted like this, even BEFORE he WAS married....

 

[Themanofbat]

But the thing is...
Peter NEVER acted like this, even BEFORE he WAS married....

Acted like this... what does that mean?

How is he acting?

The only thing different now that we never saw before is his relationship with the Black Cat... the "friends with benefits" thing happened back then, just "behind the scenes"...

So please explain... "Peter NEVER acted like this" to me... because I'd like to understand what you mean...

Thanks...

 

[kguillou]

Its really Bendis' fault. Alot of writers are trying to ape the way Bendis portrays Spiderman in his New Avengers and Ultimate Spiderman books. Bendis writes him as this immature, man-child who never really does anything but quip jokes. These writers seem to forget that Peter is a smart scientist who can easily compete with Reed Richards and Tony Stark in terms of intellect. This more mature, more intelligent aspect of Spiderman seems to be lost nowadays. It pops us every now and then whenever Dan Slott writes him but in general writers seem to gravitate towards the "Bendis" version of Spiderman.

 

[MACH]

Its really Bendis' fault. Alot of writers are trying to ape the way Bendis portrays Spiderman in his New Avengers and Ultimate Spiderman books. Bendis writes him as this immature, man-child who never really does anything but quip jokes. These writers seem to forget that Peter is a smart scientist who can easily compete with Reed Richards and Tony Stark in terms of intellect. This more mature, more intelligent aspect of Spiderman seems to be lost nowadays. It pops us every now and then whenever Dan Slott writes him but in general writers seem to gravitate towards the "Bendis" version of Spiderman.

I actually prefer "every-man-funny-Spidey" the way Bendis writes him. Super-smart Spidey hasnt been around since WAY before Bendis' run anyway. Think its a little unfair to blame him in that "Frank Miller ruined my Batman" kind of way.

But then I do think Bendis is awesome soooo....what'do I know?

 

[kguillou]

I love Bendis too but what has Spiderman actually done in the New Avengers? He's incredibly useless for a guy who could easily take down every member on the team (maybe not Thor). But what has he done besides quip annoying jokes? I dunno maybe its just to each his own. I've always seen Spider-man as someone who could possibly lead a team like he did in the "Secret Wars" episode of TAS cartoon, not be the annoying, clown sidekick who does nothing.

 

[Dmain_Event]

Is it just me or has the art been absolutely atrocious for close to the last year. I mean damn, the art is just painfull. I don't mean to be "that guy", but I didn't like the art in the lizard arc either. I miss the days of Romita Jr and other artist from the late 90's.

 

[Captivated]

Did someone say, "hate"?t:

Kidding!

Honestly, I've picked up maybe 5 or 6 Spidey issues since the reboot. None have grabbed me. They've all felt like throwaway stories so much so that I've forgotten which ones I read, except for ASM#600, which I only remember for my anger at MJ catching the bouquet...knowing nothing would become of it. There is just no sense of consequence regarding what happens to Peter and co. anymore. It's all going to fall abck to the status quo, so why bother getting invested?

Keep in mind, I'm jaded with pretty much EVERYTHING the big two do nowadays. It all centers around a big event, and individual character don't matter as they once did. Writing has honestly taken a backseat to trying to get in the mainstream news by killing/marrying/divorcing/outting a character and getting some attention. We could debate the pros/cons of this type of storytelling, but we both know it'll inevitably lead to someone saying, "Superman#75", and the argument ends.

That being said, I have NO itnerest in reading a story to give me the answers to what happened, when I have two copies of what ACTUALLY happened sitting on my bookcase at home. I despise retroactive storytelling.

That being said, I miss posting on here with you guys, but I just don't have the time to post about a character I no longer follow. I love me some Spidey, when he's written well, and when there isn't a loogie hocked into the face of the fanbase every few months, which there still is. I'd love to work for the big "M", but I just don't understand their logic. Also, that isn't a call for a million, "Spidey should be single because he works better that way" arguments either. It'll just produce an equally poignant, "Heroes don't solve their probelms by making deals with demons/the devil" arguments.

So, I don't think it's that, people love the sotries, so they're quiet, I think that, like me, they've realized that complaining isn't going to do anything. People are going to continue to buy Spider-Man books because he's Spider-Man. That's never going to change. The books can be crap, or they can be great, they'll still sell.

Anyways, miss you guys. DT, TMOB, you guys still rock. Hope all is well for you guys on here.

Awww, well said. I miss the old days too. BEFORE the OMD crapfest , I used to be on here all the time.

I truly walked away from ASM and didn't even bother with OMD because by that time we knew the marriage was going to be toast. The way it went just sealed the deal. Spider-Man, no more...

But, I do miss Spidey... I bought the latest cartoon series on DVD and it was fun. I got all nostalgic.

But like Shinlyle said, nothing will ever come of anything, so... whatever. I know how it should be and this ain't it.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Is it just me or has the art been absolutely atrocious for close to the last year. I mean damn, the art is just painfull. I don't mean to be "that guy", but I didn't like the art in the lizard arc either. I miss the days of Romita Jr and other artist from the late 90's.

So, Marcos Martin is painful? Michael Lark is painful?

Wow. Why even bother reading comics then?

 

[mre]

Hasn't Lark only done two arcs, and Martin like one and a half?

 

[kguillou]

Martin's done three arcs, Lark's done one and a half and they're easily the best of the bunch. Personally i think Paulo Rivera and Phil Jiminez are strong runner-ups.

 

[Happenstance]

Ive been reading ASM on and off since BND, just picking up an issue here or there to see if i'll start liking it yet. So far the only arcs ive enjoyed have been New Ways to Die and American Son.

I read all the hype for Gauntlet and tried and issue or two of it but I just couldnt stand the art so dropped it again.

Im the same as a couple of people who've posted in this thread, I used to post a lot more here before OMD happened but after it did my interest fell and I moved onto other books. I didnt agree with OMD and still dont. It just felt incredibly cheap and lazy the way they went about everything. If they didnt like the way Spider-Man was then they should have changed things through good story telling, not cheap magic tricks.

Anyway, as for OMIT im sure i'll probably read the first issue and see how it goes from there but im not getting my hopes up.

 

[Meehaul]

The Rhino and Lizard arcs were among my favorite of the last several years and Grim Hunt is starting out well. I understand people's mixed views though. I strongly opposed the marriage when it happened (Pete's marrying a super-model actress party-girl? WTF?) and I never liked what JMS did to the character's origins by bringing in all the mystical garbage of spider-totems and what-not. In my view, that was a far more dramatic alteration of the character than OMD. Suddenly, Pete was not some random dude who got bitten by the radio-active spider; rather, he was "destined" to take up the spider-mantel and had a mystical connection to the spider-verse. WTF? If Marvel ret-conned anything, I wish it had been all that stuff. Although I wish the marriage and the unmasking had never taken place, I certainly wouldn't have further bought into the mystical nonsense to "explain" it. I wish they'd found a simpler explanation to deal with the unmasking and just killed off MJ. Even so, I'm not sure OMIT can erase all the errors made over the JMS run. Although, they are only "errors" in my humble opinion. I know some loved all the stuff I despise. But, Marvel's been mucking with its most interesting creation ever since JR Sr. "romantacized" and dramatically altered what had been a revolutionary character back in issue 39.

 

[Themanofbat]

JMS' run was boring with a few interesting storylines...

 

[iloveclones]

The Rhino and Lizard arcs were among my favorite of the last several years and Grim Hunt is starting out well. I understand people's mixed views though. I strongly opposed the marriage when it happened (Pete's marrying a super-model actress party-girl? WTF?) and I never liked what JMS did to the character's origins by bringing in all the mystical garbage of spider-totems and what-not. In my view, that was a far more dramatic alteration of the character than OMD. Suddenly, Pete was not some random dude who got bitten by the radio-active spider; rather, he was "destined" to take up the spider-mantel and had a mystical connection to the spider-verse. WTF? If Marvel ret-conned anything, I wish it had been all that stuff. Although I wish the marriage and the unmasking had never taken place, I certainly wouldn't have further bought into the mystical nonsense to "explain" it. I wish they'd found a simpler explanation to deal with the unmasking and just killed off MJ. Even so, I'm not sure OMIT can erase all the errors made over the JMS run. Although, they are only "errors" in my humble opinion. I know some loved all the stuff I despise. But, Marvel's been mucking with its most interesting creation ever since JR Sr. "romantacized" and dramatically altered what had been a revolutionary character back in issue 39.

Defnately agree. But I doubt I would have wanted the character to stay in that mold for eternity. And certainly, as a company symbol, the Romitacized version was much more palatable to the wider public.

You know what I would enjoy seeing: you know those X-Men Forever books, that took off where the original writer left off? I would love to see what Ditko would have done with the character if he had stayed.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Hasn't Lark only done two arcs, and Martin like one and a half?

I was just giving those two as quick examples. I can understand not enjoying an artist here and there but to say EVERY artist on the title in the past year has been painful is just plain hating something for no reason.

I think that's been one of Amazing Spider-Man's strong points are the artists they have been putting on, minus Max Fiumara because I just can't get into his style.

 

[WolfCypher]

I really don't understand this whole "Peter shouldn't be married to a super-model" argument. Is it just so impossible for a nice, good-looking everyman to gain the affections of a hot chick? Should Peter have zero self-esteem? Hot girls can't fall for nice guys? Its not like she's a superstar touring to Paris every month...chick is rarely getting a gig outside of soap operas and plays...

 

[kguillou]

Its actually more realistic for Peter to get a hot chick than people think. Peter's got the one tool that almost all women fall for, he's funny. Women love to laugh and they love a guy thats funny, in my experience as long as you can do that, your in. Peter hasn't been a dork since Ditko left, there's no reason he cant have a good looking woman.

 

[Themanofbat]

Nonetheless, no matter how many women are attracted to Peter Parker, the Spectre of Spider-Man should ALWAYS come between Peter and the people he loves... it's that very dynamic that has made Spider-Man so appealing during the first 25 years of his comic book career...

 

[Meehaul]

And the whole point was that Pete was a genius/nerd/socially awkward guy. He had problems, issues, and dissapointments. What defined the Spider-Man/Peter Parker dicotomy for me was that as SM, Pete was a winner, who triumphed over everything even as he was misunderstood. As Pete, he was a tragic figure who tried to do the right thing, but sometimes failed and who lived a life filled with disappointment and tragedy. That tension made the character unique and interesting. Indeed, it was random fate that made him Spidey and his own selfish mistake that propelled him to be a hero. The JMS revisions to the origin were far more problematic for me than his decision to "re-do" history with Mephisto. Aside from just being lame, the fact Pete was "destined" to be SM and that this was all part of some "totem" denies the randomness of the original bite and negates the importance both of Pete's decision not to pursue the robber and then to become a hero. Instead of a individual dealing with the circumstances life has thrust upon him and having to live with the consequences of his own decisions, Pete suddenly just becomes another cog in the cosmic wheel. That's why Pete's "deal" with Mephisto didn't bother me that much (although bringing in the supernatural elements did bother me and the unrealistic retcon was just...stupid)--at least it was Pete making a choice, and making a choice to deny himself something (the marriage) to attain what in his view was a higher ideal (the life of Aunt May). The very definition of "sacrifice" is giving up something good for the benefit of someone else. Aside from the supernatural element, what bothers me is that Pete has no recollection that he gave up ANYTHING to save Aunt May. To me, that's "cheating" and violates what made Pete interesting in the first place.

With respect to MJ, giving him a gorgeous, super-model wife made it a bit harder to identify with him or all the "poor me" *****ing he engaged in. It's tough to empathize with a guy who's got super powers, a great brain, a hot wife and who lives in a posh apartment. Even if he'd married Gwen, also a science student, or Betty, a receptionist/journalist, it would have been a bit easier to digest. But here, I agree with the Bats Man: the job, the responsibility, should always come between Pete and living a wholly "normal" (ie, wife & kids) life. His identity as SM has to force him daily to choose between being a "hero" and having a normal life. He has to choose. He has to decide what he is and will be. He has to sacrifice something to be SM--that something had always been a "normal" life. Giving him everything took a lot of steam out of the book.

But, that's just MY version of the character and I have no monopoly on "what's right." Other folks like different versions of Pete. I'm sure some pefer him to be the one-legged retired dude whose daughter is the real superhero. It's all just a matter of preference. I just get annoyed when some lay claim to "knowing" what the character should be/do or that he's suddenly become some reprehensible "man-child." We all have our preferences.

OMIT won't likely cure any of the problems created by the odd way in which Marvel chose to ret-con things, but hopefully it will at least be interesting.

In the words of the inestimable DT, Spidey Rules, however.

 

[WolfCypher]

With respect to MJ, giving him a gorgeous, super-model wife made it a bit harder to identify with him or all the "poor me" *****ing he engaged in. It's tough to empathize with a guy who's got super powers, a great brain, a hot wife and who lives in a posh apartment.

That's just it though. MJ may have the looks, but she doesn't have the lifestyle. She's not a supermodel. She's not touring the world. She's not an ultra-celebrité. We'll never see them in a posh apartment or high-rise. At the most, she's had a starring role in a soap opera. If she was constantly traveling the world, being chased by paparazzi, owned some jets, had her own fragrance line, and was on the cover of fashion magazines, I would be against the idea of someone from her world being romantically involved with someone like Peter. But she's not living the life of a celebrity. She's pretty down-to-earth. I doubt she'll ever get beyond an occasional gig on TV. So seeing these two together doesn't cause suspension of belief.

Peter being a down-on-his-luck guy is nice, but come on! Let the guy at least have a love life.

 

[Meehaul]

MJ's lifestyle, regardless, was that of a celebrity. She did have a posh apartment and certainly had been successful (and was on the cover of mags, etc.). She was a supermodel, in the theater, and in a soap opera. Not exactly the stuffs of real world or a down-on-his-luck guy. As I said, I could have seen Gwen or Betty; MJ was just a poor choice. Although, Marvel did transform MJ's character quite a bit over time to something different from the way she'd started out in the books. But the very nature of her chosen profession represented something about the nature of her character and the vapid way she was used in the books. It was just bad for the nature of Pete's character. Pete's not even "down on his luck" so much as his life is fraught with tragedy. I thought that crucible was interesting.

I don't want Pete to have a stable life because my view of Pete is that he's all about tragedy--and the difficulty of making moral choices in an amoral world. As MOB noted, the specter of his power as SM remained a wedge between having a "normal" life and being a hero. It's not that want to let the guy have a love life or not, it's just my preference that Pete have the tension of being a superhero or having a normal life front & center. Having him married to a beautiful woman, being a teacher, having a stable life robbed the character of what made him interesting to me. You have a different view, I understand that and have no problem with it. I just find it far less interesing. I know many ppl like the idea of Pete as a stable, married guy, working as a teacher and balancing a "normal" life with being a superhero. But that stopped being interesting for me about a year after the marriage. Ultimately, its Marvel's character and it will have to decide what it wants to do with him. The problem with an on-going, years long series like this is keeping it interesting. Batman and Superman gave up on true continuity ages ago. Marvel made opt to do the same for its stable of characters at some point. Attempts to replicate what made SM successful have been made, but met with only limited success--likely because they copy SM and comics are no longer the dominant medium they once were.