Saturday, July 04, 2009

Daily Spider-Man - Today's Edition: Readers everywhere actually punch their computers when they see the last panel

3 comments:

JPX said...

I just got back from my trip and I can see that Horrorthon was in fine hands! Thanks for covering, Octo, I've just had a chance to catch what you've been up to. I'm lovin' the Spider-Man captions. NOw to get back to myblog reading...

Jordan said...

Can I just point out one thing? It's been bothering me for years and this particular Spider-Man strip clinches it.

When the whole thing started in 1964 (with the legendary Steve Ditko/Stan Lee collaboration), Peter Parker was a NERD. He was a TOTAL NERD, who got beaten up a lot and laughed at when he attempted to Evwn talk to girls.

The movies picked this up, by casting Toby McGuire.

At some point in the 1970s/1980s, Marvel Comics started drawing him as a standard square-jawed comic book hunk and writing him as a standard macho smartass. It's been this way for decades now: Peter Parker as the unbearable young Charlie Sheen.

And, WHY? It, like, SUCKS. Has anyone else complained about this?

JPX said...

This is a really good point. Peter's nerdiness has always been his appeal. It also set him apart from all the other popular "heroes". Although the comic strip appears permanently caught in the 60s, there have been some noticeable changes including Peter's square-jawed appearance and his marriage to M.J. When they recently attempted to negate the marriage as part of canon people complained and the writers yielded by once again having Peter married to M.J. What makes his square-jawed appearance disquieting is that he still allows himself to be bullied by J.J. Why doesn't Peter just tell him to fuck off and go to another newspaper. I'm certain the appeal of having exclusive photographs of Spider-Man in action would net him some respect.

Salem's Lot 1979 and Salem's Lot 2024

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