Cuppacafe

When Writers Probably SHOULD go on Strike

by The Perfessor Posted on Jan 10, 2008 under Funny Book City |

Nope, this one isn’t about the Hollywood Writer’s Strike, it is about what is currently going on in comics, specifically Marvel Comic’s Spider-Man. Now I know that most of you don’t keep up with (or, well care about) Spidey, but I do, you see, I’ve been reading his comics since I first discovered them back in 1962 (yes, I’m older than Walt, and right now way healthier too). I have a nearly complete collection of the numerous comics (missing a couple of years at the tail end of the ‘90s — which I’m filling in these days), as well as oodles of Spider-related crap merchandise. Oh yeah, I actually freelanced for quite a few years for Marvel, DC, Image, and some other comicbook companies,. as well as for most of the comicbook-related magazines that were being published during the ‘80s & ‘90s. Plus I’ve been a contributing reviewer and a Sr. Title Coordinator for SpiderFan for a couple of years

So, yeah, it’s safe to say that I have a vested interest in what goes on in this particular title

To cut to the chase, editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada has long (and loudly) stated that he has felt that the 1987 marriage of Peter (Spider-Man) Parker to Mary Jane Watson was a mistake, and has, for a number of years been attempting to orchestrate “fixing” (read: removing) it from continuity. He has tried trial separations, abductions, and simply writing MJ out of the series (she went to the Left Coast to become a movie — rather than a stage — actress, leaving him alone in the Big Apple).

None of it really took. Well recently, with comics (both DC and Marvel) increased desire to have world-shaking, cross-title, intra-company “events” that shake up the heroes lives, and alter the status quo of what readers have come to expect each month ostensibly in order to boost sales figures and increase the bottom line. Not a bad business plan, to be sure. Only with event after event onerollingintoeachotherlikesomanywavesonthebeachduringabitchinstorm it gets a little tiring.

In the Marvel Universe, over the past couple or three years this has meant Avengers Disassembled (2004) was followed by New Avengers (where the usually down and out Spider-Man was finally and formally admitted to this August body of Superheroes) and House of M (2005) , which were followed by Civil War (2006–2007) and The Initiative (2007–2008). It was during the Civil War Event that Spider-Man publicly revealed that he was Peter Parker. While this lead to some interesting stories, the intriguing possibilities were (unfortunately) largely ignored so as the larger (darker/intra-company) cross-over story could be told.

It was during the aftermath of Civil War that Kingpin (a long-standing criminal mastermind in the Marvel Universe, and an old foe of Spidey’s) put a contract out on Peter’s life. Well, as it turns out, the hitman’s bullet missed our webbed hero, and struck his beloved Aunt May. The stricken May subsequently lapsed into a coma, where she remained for several issues, while Spidey returned to his black costume and turned into a sort of a dark avenger of the night (Back in Black).

Racked with guilt Peter and MJ are approached by (Marvel’s version of Satan) who makes a Faustian deal with the couple: Aunt May’s life for their marriage — and (bizarrely) they agree. (I mean, sure, I’d make a deal with the devil, the guy they call the Prince of Lies, I mean, like what could possibly go wrong?) So the deal is struck, and the clock is turned back 20 (real-time) years. Aunt May is healthy as a horse, Peter is back living with her and no one (except perhaps Mary Jane herself) remember that Pete and MJ were ever married. (Apparently they had just been living together for all those years (probably between 3-5 years Marvel time).

The problem that we in the Spider-Fan community (and this writer specifically) has with that sort of a reset is that it is about as unimaginative as Sue Ellen waking up and finding Bobby Ewing in the shower after he had been dead for an entire season with the explanation being “it was all a dream.” Truth of the matter is the writers of Dallas simply ran out of things to say, and realized that they needed Patrick Duffy back, so — hey, it’s only TV, so WTF — and wrote him back in the easiest way possible.

In My Humble Opinion, that is what is going on with this current Spider-Man storyline. They simply ran out of ideas and went back to a time when they actually had ideas, so they could do that same stuff all over again (for a brand new audience that was to young to have read it the first time around). The Marvel company line on all of this is that they are trying to attract a younger audience and to keep the character fresh (and, by fresh, they mean eternally stuck in the past).

From my perspective, Marvel has completely missed the boat on all of this, because, from from all the data that I can see, there are currently more older (adult) than younger (kid) fans currently reading comics (any one who doubts this should simply go to a comicbook shop on Wednesday when the books are delivered and see who is coming in to buy comics). Plus, if the company wants to reach a preteen audience, there is always Marvel Adventures, while a teenager would probably gravitate towards Ultimate Spider-Man, with girls and young boys both latching onto Spider-Girl Why they are trying to reach a young audience with the main incarnation of the character is beyond me, Teens don’t have money, twenty and thirtysomethihgs do. Go after their dollars.

You want to pitch a college-age mentality Spidey? Why not just create yet another series entitled Spider-Man, the College Years and tell those kinds of stories there (Hell, it could be yet another alternate universe title, practically half the Marvel line exists in a series of alternate universes (Ultimate, MU2, Marvel Zombies, Marvel Adventures) Even some main-line titles cross over into their own Twilight Zones (the Power Pack series of miniseries, Exiles, House of M Avengers) with other kid-friendly fare also outside mainstream Marvel (including the Mini Marvels that run as back-ups in several titles, and the Franklin Richards series of one-shots that recasts young Franklin Richards (son of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards and Sue Storm) as Calvin to his caretaker (Herbie the Robot) cast in the Hobbes role in a left-handed tribute to Bill Waterson).

So this brings us back to the beginning? Why screw with something that is really working? there are so many unexplored possibilities that are being left on the table (and so many top-flight writers that are walking away from the character) because Editorial keeps insisting in mucking with the formula and dictating inter-title and company-wide storylines. I think that it is high time that Marvel learn to trust the people it hires to write good stories to develop good material after all they are really hiring top talent, after all, the company isn’t going to let just anybody helm their top titles.

As for me, well, this is really my second post on this subject. My first was over at my personal blog, and that posting already brought me to the attention of Newsweek which posted their own story on this topic, and quoted a number of experts in the field, including, well, yours truly.

How Cool is that?

The Perfessor