Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "death"
On the Death of a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man
So, it's on the news *spoiler alert* that Peter Parker dies in Issue #700 of the Amazing Spider-man.
Fans are outraged as Marvel continues its multi-year struggle with being able to properly manage its marquee character. I've written about the One More Day story line before but it appears that Marvel's gone even lower-killing Spider-man in the cancer-ridden body of Otto Octavius, Spider-man most dangerous foe going back to Amazing Spider-man #3. This same supervillain who has spent decades endangering human lives realizes how noble Spider-man really was after seeing all of Peter Parker's memories and becomes the "Superior Spider-man."
Really?
The appeal of Peter Parker as the hard luck every man who struggles and at times fails and comes back to do the right thing is replaced by Dr. Octopus, a supervillain who murdered Peter Parker and decides after it's too late that Parker's a noble guy after all and decides to carry it on but is determined that he will be superior in every way to the original Spider-man.
I mean really?
And if you go back to the horrific One More Day story line, you'll recall that the whole point of that was to make Spider-man younger by dissolving the marriage.
And what can make a hero younger than having him possessed by an elderly supervillain?
Of course, as my brother Josh mentioned, in the superhero world, the pearly gates have a revolving door. Some of the heroes that have died and returned have included Superman, Batman, The Flash (Barry Allen), The Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Captain America, and the Human Torch, so there will most likely be a return for Peter Parker, although right now Marvel's acting like there's some finality in this.
Marvel has taken a title that prior to "One More Day" sold 120,000 copies an issue down to one that sells less than 60,000. Once the hoopla over Issue #700 is over and the Superior Spider-man is launched, what will the sales be? I think Aquaman will be selling more copies. (Aquaman sells about 53,000 copies a month.)
To me, this re-iterates two key points. First, the comic book companies really don't deal well with characters like Spider-man and Superman who aren't meant to be dark anti-heroes. Marvel and DC respectively have managed to crash the comic books of two of the most popular superheroes on Earth.
Secondly, the comic book companies are poor guardians of superhero heritage. There's are a good reason why smart young comic book writers are increasingly going indie/creator owned. To aspiring young comic artists, the smart advice if you get about your character and world integrity remains the same: Go Indie Young Man.
Fans are outraged as Marvel continues its multi-year struggle with being able to properly manage its marquee character. I've written about the One More Day story line before but it appears that Marvel's gone even lower-killing Spider-man in the cancer-ridden body of Otto Octavius, Spider-man most dangerous foe going back to Amazing Spider-man #3. This same supervillain who has spent decades endangering human lives realizes how noble Spider-man really was after seeing all of Peter Parker's memories and becomes the "Superior Spider-man."
Really?
The appeal of Peter Parker as the hard luck every man who struggles and at times fails and comes back to do the right thing is replaced by Dr. Octopus, a supervillain who murdered Peter Parker and decides after it's too late that Parker's a noble guy after all and decides to carry it on but is determined that he will be superior in every way to the original Spider-man.
I mean really?
And if you go back to the horrific One More Day story line, you'll recall that the whole point of that was to make Spider-man younger by dissolving the marriage.
And what can make a hero younger than having him possessed by an elderly supervillain?
Of course, as my brother Josh mentioned, in the superhero world, the pearly gates have a revolving door. Some of the heroes that have died and returned have included Superman, Batman, The Flash (Barry Allen), The Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Captain America, and the Human Torch, so there will most likely be a return for Peter Parker, although right now Marvel's acting like there's some finality in this.
Marvel has taken a title that prior to "One More Day" sold 120,000 copies an issue down to one that sells less than 60,000. Once the hoopla over Issue #700 is over and the Superior Spider-man is launched, what will the sales be? I think Aquaman will be selling more copies. (Aquaman sells about 53,000 copies a month.)
To me, this re-iterates two key points. First, the comic book companies really don't deal well with characters like Spider-man and Superman who aren't meant to be dark anti-heroes. Marvel and DC respectively have managed to crash the comic books of two of the most popular superheroes on Earth.
Secondly, the comic book companies are poor guardians of superhero heritage. There's are a good reason why smart young comic book writers are increasingly going indie/creator owned. To aspiring young comic artists, the smart advice if you get about your character and world integrity remains the same: Go Indie Young Man.
Christians and Superheroes
I'm a Christian who writes superhero fiction (some parody and some serious.)
On this blog, we'll take a look at:
1) Superhero stories
2) Issues of faith in relation to Superhero stories
3) Writing Superhe ...more
On this blog, we'll take a look at:
1) Superhero stories
2) Issues of faith in relation to Superhero stories
3) Writing Superhe ...more
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