Comics New Chapter One comment from Byrne

Can you post exactly what he said? Or was that it?

 

...It was a waste of truffula trees, I don't care who points the fingers where.

 

You know, it does sound like Byrne's doing a little bit of a CYA, but it's certainly a justifiable explanation. Interestingly enough, if Chapter One was supposed to be a "Heroes Reborn" type scenario for Spider-Man, I'm surprised they didn't try something like that when the actual Heroes Reborn took place. After all, there were technically TWO Spider-Man running around, so it's possible that one of them could've ended up in the pocket universe along with the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Doom, and the part of the Hulk.

Anyway, the problem with Chapter One was because A. it made some unnecessary elaborations--such as the Burglar thinking Spidey was casing his own house or Peter being caught in the same explosion as Doc Ock and THEN being bitten by a radioactive spider, etc.--that really didn't do expand what Stan Lee/Steve Ditko had set up, and B. the context in which it came out. Remember, it came on the heals of the Gathering of Five, which was a lously way to temporaily "halt" the Spider-Man books. Plus people still didn't get the bad taste of the clone saga out of their mouths, and the reboot (especially how the 616 books attempted to force them to conform to Chapter One and MJ's supposed death) certainly didn't help. It was a classic case of bad timing. Ironically, Bendis pretty much did a "Heroes Reborn" type setup for Spidey in his Ultimate Spider-Man series and is praised to the hilt, while Byrne is vilified trying to do the same thing with Chapter One.

 

Oh, I understand your position. Peter Parker in Ultimate Spider-Man is, in no way shape or form, the same character as he is in 616, and in some ways he's a watered down version of the character in the same vein as the Sam Raimi movies. And yes, one of my big gripes with "Power and Responsibility" was that its "decompression" with repeated silent panels, scenes which really didn't add to the overall story, and that, towards the end, it tried to cram way too much in.

Byrne, of course, was working with the original Spider-Man as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko envisioned him but instead of what he did with Superman: Man of Steel, his tweakings of the origin didn't really simplfy anything. Granted, the first Spider-Man story was only 15 pages, but it got the point across and Stan Lee and Peter David once wrote a prose reimaging version of the origin that connected Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, but the way Byrne did it made it come across as even more convulted that the original origin. The gaps Byrne tried to fill in didn't really equal the sum of its parts and could have been much better, especially if he tossed that reasoning as to why the Burglar showed up as Parker's house.

Still, given the editoral management at the time, Byrne certainly can't get all the blame. Most of that dishonor belongs to Bob Harras.

 

Yes, Hippie-Ben and especially Hulk-Goblin were really unnecessary (why oh why Jemas and Bendis didn't make the Green Goblin be intelligent initially I cannot for the life of me understand). However, while I compliment Byrne for trying to reduce the number of radioactive accidents, it just came off badly executed. And if you wanted to know what the motivation of the Burglar was for robbing a house in Queens, he could've always tied in and streamlined Marv Wolfman's explanation in Amazing Spider-Man #200, or he could've had Ben killed outside his home similar to the carjacking version we got in the films.

 

IS CHAP. 1 in continuity?

 

Actually, I hated Chapter One fer th' simple reason that th' stories sucked complete ass. And they only got worse as it went.

I liked Ultimate Spidey 'cause it started off great and was really, truly fresh. And then Bendis began to suck and become repetitive.

 

It still pains me to see Pete's "new" origin in a double page splash of Kevin Smith's Daredevil run.

 

Actually, lemme rephrase:

Chapter One's changes; unecessary. Ultimate's felt updated at least and was a tad more realistic.

Also, Electro's costume in CO? C'mon.

 

As opposed to his "costume" in the Ultimate U.... PULease

There was no need to "update" Spidey, and if you think a Spidey comic is realistic, then you need to be placed in a rubber room..

... bub.

 

I really enjoy the long drawn out writings of Ultimate. I know it can be tedious as a month to month wait, and hard on the wallet, but the quality of the story is greatly improved. I loved being pissed that Uncle Ben was killed, not just saying, "Oh, Look. His... uncle? Yeah, his uncle is dead." I think reading them back to back is just great. Basically, the more Ultimate you read in one sitting, the better it is.
As for the Hulk Goblins, Sure it's different, but I really did the way that the Ultimate Universe has tied together in that way, with the Super Soldier formula and all.

 

Well, it made a helluva lot more sense than th' coincidence that Doc Ock an' Spidey came about th' same ways and Sandman was Norman's cousin 'cause they have th' same hairstyle.

Jerk.

 

Yes... I am a jerk, all because I think that Ultimate Spider-Man is required reading for ******ed children.

Sue me.

And for the record, the idea of linking Spidey's origin with Doc Ock's goes further than Byrne's telling of it in Chapter One. Stan Lee himself mentions it years before CO, and it's been in a few Spidey novels as well.

Bub.

 

Oh no, I agree with ya on Ultimate.

Yer a jerk fer other reasons. Figger it out.

 

The difference being the writing and art sucked donkey balls on Chapter One.

Bryne plan sucks.

 

Thats still does not justify it sucking.

 

No it does not.