Unpopular Comic Book Opinions - Part 1

[Anubis]

Now that's an unpopular opinion. I liked it too

 

[fifthfiend]

It was totally great up through that one arc that was right before Sins Past, where it was like, hey, you can look at it this way, or you can look at it that way, whatev!

Once it got to the Other and became this huge idiotic ultraliteral mess it was terrible.

 

[Anubis]

Yeah that last arc, and then the other really killed it. Sins Past didn't help matters either, even though it had nothing to do with that story line.

 

[Mario_Galaxy]

If they just said Norman raped Gwen, I think some of the damage could have been relieved. The consensual thing killed it. That and you know, the bastard Goblin kids

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The core idea of the Clone saga - that the real Spider-Man came back to replace the clone we had been reading about for years - is a fantastic idea and should have been stuck with.

 

[Manic]

Now you're just trying to be controversial.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I actually liked the concept of the Totem stuff in Spider-Man

I am not opposed to it per se, but the problem is it takes away from the idea of Peter as an everyman if he has always been destined to join a centuries old mystical lineage of spider-men.

 

[SuperFerret]

Peter Parker being the everyman is a dumb idea in the first place, especially since he never was the everyman.

 

[The Question]

Peter Parker being the everyman is a dumb idea in the first place, especially since he never was the everyman.

How so?

 

[SuperFerret]

Let's see... social outcast, scientific genius, orphan, extraordinary amount of hot, intelligent women throwing themselves at him, freelance photographer, research assistant, RESPONSIBLE. Doesn't sound like anything average to me.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Now you're just trying to be controversial.

Not at all, it was a great way to refreshen the series. Everything you knew is wrong-! When it was revealed Ben Reilly was the clone after all, I found it incredibly lame of Marvel, despite the inevitability in retrospect.

It wasn't like changing Bruce Wayne for Azrael or Hal Jordan for Kyle Rayner - this WAS the original Spider-Man, he'd just become Ben Reilly for years and NOW HE WAS BACK-! Tell me that's not awesome. The Spider-Man we had been reading about for years was not the genuine article...that's a great idea. I love it.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Let's see... social outcast, scientific genius, orphan, extraordinary amount of hot, intelligent women throwing themselves at him, freelance photographer, research assistant, RESPONSIBLE. Doesn't sound like anything average to me.

But when he was bitten by the spider, he was none of those things.

 

[SuperFerret]

He wasn't a social outcast? He wasn't a genius? He wasn't an orphan?

That's a hell of a spider bite.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Unless the spider upped his intelligence, he was still basically a junior genius, and that really didn't have anything to do with all the hot women he attracted.

Honestly, I tend to agree with SF on this; the everyman aspect of SM is fairly overblown. When Lee was writing it and had him dealing with some more common teen problems, maybe it was, but after awhile it pretty much vanished pasted just a sheet of reliability that almost any character has.

 

[Watchman]

His parents were secret agents.

 

[SuperFerret]

So are mine! EVERYMAN!

 

[Shockdingo]

Maybe not strictly an everyman in EVERY sense, but I always saw Pete as more relateable and closer to us normal schmoes than other heroes. Sure he's a genius, but he's not Tony Stark living in a mansion, slinging back martinis, he was troubled by "normal people problems". At his youth it was money problems, dealing with school, girl troubles etc. As he grew up it was still money problems etc.

I think the whole thing is that he's closer to us in certain aspects rather than huge heroes:
- He's a super hero, but for years he was dogged on and never looked up to universally like Captain America or Superman are
- He had the dual identity problems, but didn't have the luxury of riches or a realistic, but successful job (Bats, Tony, Daredevil, Supes) to finance his adventures. (While he could pay for things, he still had to budget and be careful)

I dunno, I think saying he's an everyman isn't really the best way to describe Pete now, but I think the whole thing is that even wrapped up in the fantastical he's still or was intended to be closer to us folks than some of the others heroes.

 

[SuperFerret]

Eh. The "everyman" label tends to sap any individuality from a character. And being literally like the reader doesn't necessarily make them more relatable to us. I'm human, and so is Batman, but why then do I relate more to Superman?

 

[Watchman]

Eh. The "everyman" label tends to sap any individuality from a character. And being literally like the reader doesn't necessarily make them more relatable to us. I'm human, and so is Batman, but why then do I relate more to Superman?

Because you move planets around in your spare time?

 

[SuperFerret]

That fact is beside the point.

 

[The Question]

Let's see... social outcast, scientific genius, orphan, extraordinary amount of hot, intelligent women throwing themselves at him, freelance photographer, research assistant, RESPONSIBLE. Doesn't sound like anything average to me.

Then what is your definition of an everyman? Because mine is generally a person who, at the start of the story leads a very ordinary, unspectacular life and retained that point of view through their story even as the events of their lives change. I think that escribes Peter very well.

 

[SuperFerret]

Then what is your definition of an everyman? Because mine is generally a person who, at the start of the story leads a very ordinary, unspectacular life and retained that point of view through their story even as the events of their lives change. I think that escribes Peter very well.

That describes most characters. To me, the "everyman" is your average, unremarkable person.

 

[Anubis]

Yeah, as a black dude growing up in Chicago, I never saw Spidey as an Everyman. Relatability is overrated anyway.

 

[The Question]

That describes most characters. To me, the "everyman" is your average, unremarkable person.

And how does that not describe Peter Parker before he became Spider-Man? Yes, he was highly intelligent, and the experiences he went through were not the experiences everyone went through, but it would be impossible to create an everyman character who truly relates to everyone in every way. I mean, the idea of an average, unremarkable person doesn't really exist, everybody has a specific combination of traits and circumstances in their lives that makes them unique from everybody else. Peter pre-bite seems about as average as a human being is capable of being while still displaying a personality of any kind.

 

[Anubis]

Actually, there is a most Average, Unremarkable person.


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/chatter/2011/03/worlds-most-typical-person-national-geographic.html