Comics Spider-Man Reign

[iloveclones]

Yeah, I didn't care for Reign much, either. Maybe it was the testicles. (MJ was creepy too. Like "The Ring" creepy.)

 

[shinlyle]

Hey man, we were all Spidey zombies once. At least we had good reason to be, though.

I still am....when it comes to cartoons, movies, and back issues and collectibles!

I FINALLY got ASM #121 the other day! I feel like it'sa milestone in my life!!

Of course, I'll have another one coming up in the next few weeks....(points to sig)

 

[SpideyZERO]

Pretty good story. Just feel that it's too short. The final battle is too rushed and the Sandman thing is well...lame (and just in time for the movie)

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

Good to hear both sides of opinion.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

i enjoyed it. Although out of all the "future Spider-Man" stories i've seen, i like the MC2 (Spider-Girl) universe the best.

Hey, im a sucker for happy endings. Sue me.

 

[Finlandman]

This must be the first time I see you changing an avatar, Cap.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

This must be the first time I see you changing an avatar, Cap.

It's actually my 4th time.

 

[Comics N' Toons]

I liked the story when my brother let me borrow his copy! I really enjoyed it, but thought it ripped off DKR a bit!

This is the story that actually got me back into reading Spidey after years of a strict Batman diet!

Thank you Bro!

 

[arachnid-guy]

Tis a brill read. In my personal top 10 Spidey stories.

 

[JerseyJoker]

I enjoyed Reign, yeah at times it was trying to hard to be DKR, but it also has some great dialogue and art in there.

I always enjoyed the finale battle with Spidey and the Sinister Six.

 

[Meehaul]

The Dark Knight Returns was brilliant; hence all the imitators and wanna-bes. Reign (a wanna-be, in my view) was good, but not earth-shattering. Pete has yet to have a really good "year one" type treatment or a "future tense" treatment, imho. That's been my general complaints with the Spider-books, the writing has been weak and the character has been sort of irrelevant because Marvel refuses to take many chances with him for fear of alienating people or making the book too "adult." Bats has been re-imagined brilliantly (although the O'Neill/Miller re-working is starting to wear a bit too), Pete not so much. Now, some will say that BND aliented lots of folks and was taking a "chance" but not really from Marvel's corporate point of view, I don't think. They wanted a younger, single Pete for their long-term interests. This is Bruce Wayne's 70th year of existence (and he's not even Batman at the moment) and Marvel is hoping for a similar reign (pardon the pun) for Pete. Bats has had nearly three generations of fans, Pete's had nearly two, so it will be interesting to see what machinations lie in Pete's future. There were a lot of horrible Batman tales between 1939's the Bat-man and O'Neill and Miller's re-imagining. Spidey's had an easy ride, by comparison!

 

[moraldeficiency]

I actually liked reign a lot more that dkr. Similiar? Sure but based on the premise how can it not be. The news casters made more sense in reign for me as the bugle was a major component but with the exception of the talking heads (and that was probably the worst part of DKR, Miller trying to sound future punk hip) these were pretty different stories from start to finish. DKR was told through batman's eyes and was about bruce coming back to kick ass and save the world. My favorite parts were when the story changed to have two face and the joker telling their sides. With reign pete is narrating but the story focus' on the people he effects not him bending people to his will. Pete comes back not because he's a badass, it's because he is a normal guy and goes straight in head first knowing he'll die and not even trying to win, just trying to inspire others to fight. It was a lot more emotional seeing him try to inspire a crowd than just watching batman beatdown other people. But that's just me. Also the best depiction of venom ever, and the part with sandman's daughter made me cry.

 

[Meehaul]

Like I said, I liked Reign but it didn't bowl me over. I don't think it stands up well against the DKR. Without DKR, there likely wouldn't have been a Reign. That book was a genre shifter in a way Reign was not.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Like I said, I liked Reign but it didn't bowl me over. I don't think it stands up well against the DKR. Without DKR, there likely wouldn't have been a Reign. That book was a genre shifter in a way Reign was not.

Just throwing the unpopular counterpoint out there. IMO something like DKR was inevitable, it's a story after all and while unique to it's genre, DKR wasn't a new concept either, hell nothing shakespeare's ever done is original for that matter. DKR was important as a key piece in a genre shifting movement but it didn't do it alone. The idea of a serious comic was coming and would have come regardless, DKR was just one of the first.

I guess I just liked the story to Reign (the supporting cast, the villians, what drove peter parker) much better the DKR. Reign seemed to hit more to the heart of the character, while DKR had some very good batman elements but I think also missed on a few fundamental levels in terms of the character. It stopped batman from being clown shoes which he certianly was at the time, but I also feel (and have always felt) it missed some major points to who bruce wayne is and why he does what he does in favor of seeing batman just be a major badass about everything. Just my opinion though, like I said.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

Wow...this thread didn't die?

cool. I see both sides and agree that I like Reign a tad more, but am still in deep deep love with DKR as well.

 

[Meehaul]

Batman has been blessed with some very, very good writers who revived the character and re-imagined him. They also returned Bats to his roots by making him a detective again and providing a non-homosexual reason for having a "Robin." That was a pretty tall order and O'Neil and Miller pulled it off well (pardon the pun). Because of the way Bats has been positioned, they can continue to mine the detective/mystery/supernatural thing for years to come. Mysteries, in particular, have a lot of staying power in the market place (think Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie). Even so, Bats is still likely to go through several future iterations (until DC loses the copyright on him, like poor ol' Popeye the Sailor Man). If you notice, most Batman books are about Batman, but as reflected off other characters. Those characters (the Joker, Catwoman, and what-not) are the stars, but something about them, the way they are, tells us something about Batman.

ASM is much more about Pete, front and center, it always has been. Bruce Wayne was pretty much a blank slate upon which writers could force meaning. It's much harder to do with Pete, as he has a more well-defined character. It also has made it tough for Marvel to re-invent the character or to allow him to "age" much. In the end, the marriage didn't really "evolve" Pete. He was just as stuck in the marriage as he was when he was single. He wasn't ever going to have a teenage daughter in 616 continuity. If they really wanted to develop him, they would let him age, marry him off, have him lose a leg, stop crime fighting, le his daughter take over, etc. That would make for a more interesting character arc, but it can't happen. Batman can change to meet the era, because no one cares about Bruce Wayne, he's little more than a charicature. We don't "identify" with Batman, we fantasize about being him or we are entertained by him. We can have dark Bats, clown Bats, gay Bats, whatever. Spider-Man's not about Spider-Man, at its core, it's about Peter Parker. Originally, high school kids and college kids were supposed to identify with Pete. And they did. But when kids grow up, they can't identify with him as much anymore. It's like your friend who can't stop talking about how great high school was. But if Pete's suddenly a married guy with teenage kids, kids don't identify with him so much. Suddenly it's about paying bills and keeping a marriage together, the territory of serious adult fiction. Any story about a human being gets tricky when that person doesn't grow and develop. But corporate interests prevent that from happening. How long has Bart Simpson been whatever age he is? Will Pebles and Bam-Bam (aside from that one awful cartoon) always be babies? Maybe Marvel will, one day, go the route of Wolverine, and make non-aging part of Pete's deal, and just allow certain cast members to age around him. Hard to say. But it WILL be interesting, when all of us on this board have entered our 70th decade of life, to see what Pete looks like, just like it's interesting for an older generation to see Bats and Supes all grown up (not).

 

[Comics N' Toons]

I actually like Reign and DKR equally. I mean sure DKR was more epic as it changed the entire image of said character, Batman, but Reign is just a great Spidey story!

 

[Comics N' Toons]

I just bought this for myself for X-mas & having read my brother's copy about a year and a half ago. I GOTTA SAY IT STILL HOLDS UP!

I love seeing a possible future for Pete... although it is a bit boggling because he's old & he works in a photo/camera store.

I wanna kind of figure that Pete would be a teacher or at least be retired with a pension. Oh well, great story anyhow!

Also, when JJ brings Pete the Spidey outfit to his apartment!

That was beautiful...

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

I had heard a while back that there might be a continuation story of this. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

 

[Comics N' Toons]

I had heard that as well, HELL N' SPIDERS, but cannot confirm. If so, I hope it is not some sort of a Spidey adaptation of The Dark Knight Strikes Again. That was a terrible sequel to DKR. If they do do it, let it be a continuation of the Reign story with more villians and Peter's death at the end (he's old in it, so he can die)

 

[mre]

I don't think we need a continuation of Reign.

 

[MACH]

I liked Reign(I think a continuation would probably be silly) but I read it way too many times....in such a short space of time....that I literally am gonna have to leave it for a few years before I can properly enjoy it again lol. Great story though.

 

[Ugfugly]

Ok I just re-read the last issue of this in the can this morning (not that y'all needed to know that), and the scene where MJ was saying goodbye to Peter and telling him why she loves him, gorram it got me.

I was blubbering like my wife watching Greys Anatomy. That's how a beautifully written Pete/MJ story should be. It just reignited my Quesada hate which sucks because I was finally going to accept OMD and start reading again.

On with my boycott

 

[Themanofbat]

Read ASM... it's great!!!

 

[SpideyInATree]

That's how a beautifully written Pete/MJ story should be. It just reignited my Quesada hate which sucks because I was finally going to accept OMD and start reading again.

On with my boycott

He killed her with his cancerous sperm. Right?