ONE MORE DAY: Love It or Loathe It?

[MasterWhedon]

I want to slap the shit out of whichever @$$hole conducted that interview. Those guys bitch more than anyone about Marvel, but when it comes time to interview two of the guys responsible for the new scuttlebutt, they ask the same bland, generic questions that have already been asked by twenty other sites.

Where's the in-your-face, hard-hitting, muck-raking take-it-to-'em?

[Leckomaniac]

I want to slap the shit out of whichever @$$hole conducted that interview. Those guys bitch more than anyone about Marvel, but when it comes time to interview two of the guys responsible for the new scuttlebutt, they ask the same bland, generic questions that have already been asked by twenty other sites.

Where's the in-your-face, hard-hitting, muck-raking take-it-to-'em?

I find the @$$holes to be some of the worst reviewers and worst reporters on the web. AICN comics coverage is laughable.

[DennisMM]

They are assholes. What should we expect?


ETA: They should consider asking some of the Zoners to contribute to the comics coverage.

[WalterBunny]

Where's the in-your-face, hard-hitting, muck-raking take-it-to-'em?

Damn the liberal media!!!

Okay, I admit, I got nothin'.

[Leckomaniac]

They are assholes. What should we expect?


ETA: They should consider asking some of the Zoners to contribute to the comics coverage.

You are 1000x the writer that any of them are. Dennis, you should totally be contributing to AICN.

[burlivesleftnut]

I hate those creeps.

[Leckomaniac]

I hate those creeps.

I want to be on a comic book panel with Burl and Dennis. Oh the good times we would have. Much more entertaining than those guys from The Stack or whatever on Newsarama.

[burlivesleftnut]

Nah, we are creeps too.

[bluebottle]

I just read BND, and *gulp* I really liked it. I am still peaved at the shear stupidity of OMD, but if you can divorce yourself from that, then it's a pretty fun ride. I still don't get why Pete thinks 30 is too young to get married... maybe he was just lying to cover up his fear of committment. Just skip the May story and the Osbourne story... YAWNS.

I don't know you.

[burlivesleftnut]

god damn it! there goes my last friend.

[Leckomaniac]

god damn it! there goes my last friend.

But...but...

what about our comic book panel*?!?!?! I THOUGHT WE WERE CLOSE!!!!




*it only exists in my mind.

[burlivesleftnut]

*leaves quietly*

[Leckomaniac]

*leaves quietly*

I honestly don't blame you.

[bluebottle]

LOL

[The Garbage Man]

Yeah , but you're just looking at the small picture, and not what's really going on...

How would you like it if all the X-Men titles were erased, and First Class became the main 616 book?

Would you be thrilled if they destroyed all of Scott Summer's development from the last 30 years?

The truth of the matter is I have HUGE problems with the way mainstream comic books refuse to allow their characters to grow and change in significant ways. I quite honestly don't know if I could ever write for one of the "core" titles because all I'd be interested in doing is shifting the status quo, making character arcs where at the end our hero is vastly different than he was at the start.

But that's not how Marvel and DC operate, for better or worse.

I completely understand the frustration in the idea that years and years of continuity--fan-purchased continuity--are suddenly swept away, but I think Joe Q is right in that at some point Spider-Man veered a little too far away from the original mission statement. He grew up, got a job, got married... and suddenly he was Peter Banning when he should've stayed Peter Pan. Making some sort of "fix" to take things back closer to the original idea without having to reboot the entire universe to do it is a big, ballsy move--and I still think it's the right one.

And, yes, I suppose I would be a great deal more pissed if they had done this with the X-Men. (If that makes me a hypocrite, then it's one of a great many things to do so.) But Joe Q & Co. already put the "fix" on the mutant world by radically decreasing the number of mutants, getting the X-books back to their place as outcasts. That was the right call to make, as otherwise the X-Men were and are still very close to their original model.

Maybe I sound a little confused: "I wouldn't work this way, but he's right to do so." But that's just how I feel. Joe Q will be gone within the next few years, no doubt, and all he's trying to do is to make sure the Spider-Man he leaves behind hasn't changed so radically that it isn't recognizable to new readers who vaguely know Spider-Man. That's his job, and I think he's doing it well. Sucks that it took such a drastic, continuity-scrambling move to do so, but that's what it took.

Holy shit...


Did you just reference Hook?


With a straight face?

[Leckomaniac]

Holy shit...


Did you just reference Hook?


With a straight face?

That made me laugh.

[burlivesleftnut]

Hahahahaha

[DennisMM]

I smiled when I realized what he'd said. Good idea, bad movie.

[bastard_robo]

DAMN YOU ALL AND YOUR HOOK BASHING!

[RogueScribner]

I smiled when I realized what he'd said. Good idea, bad movie.

Exactly. And I really did enjoy Dustin Hoffman's portrayal, even if he is only 4 feet tall. The original script for the movie was a little darker, but they blanded things up real good in the final form. Even so, there are moments of that movie I just love. Sadly, there's a lot of humdrum in between.

[burlivesleftnut]

I think we should make a new rule for the interweb:

When a discussion or idea eventually devolves into byte sized reviews of Hook, said discussion or idea is totally dead.

[MasterWhedon]

Holy shit...


Did you just reference Hook?


With a straight face?

BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[bluebottle]

Holy shit...


Did you just reference Hook?


With a straight face?

HHAARRR HARRR HARR ARRRRRRRRRARRR MATEY!!!

[DennisMM]

Over at the main site, the @$$holes - aw, fuck that - the ASSHOLES had a round table on "One More Day/Brand New Day." One said what a junior assistant editor should have said to Joe Q - while beating him with a stick and reminding him that he's an artist, not a writer.

That's what really seems to bug me about this: you have the superhero character who out of all the big franchise characters is supposed to be the most "relatable", the guy that goes through the same pitfalls we're supposed to see in our lives and overcome like he does. So, when it comes time to finally break off something that apparently the higher ups find a little stifling to storytelling with him, what do they do? They don't deal with it like it tends to happen in real life--that sometimes people just grow apart and can't be together anymore, even though they still deep down love each other. They don't have something like all the recent trauma in Peter's life with his unmasking, constantly being on the run because of the Initiative act, and the shooting of Aunt May cause MJ to finally say she's had enough and can't deal with it anymore... instead we go to a stupid deus ex machina.

The story should have been called "One More Deus."

[burlivesleftnut]

Oh fuck... the ASSHOLES didn't like it? It must mean I love it more than anything.

[bluebottle]

Oh fuck... the ASSHOLES didn't like it? It must mean I love it more than anything.

you know, you can not like it... you're not being disloyal to dan slott.

i'll bet you any money that even he doesn't like it. i'll bet you he thinks, "darn it, all my life i wanted to write for spiderman and now i have to write this shit... darn it!"

[DennisMM]

He says "shit" but not "damn"? Interesting.

burl, the ASSHOLES mostly agreed with the idea of simplifying Peter's situation but thought it was done very poorly.

[burlivesleftnut]

Oh fuck... the ASSHOLES didn't like it? It must mean I love it more than anything.

you know, you can not like it... you're not being disloyal to dan slott.

i'll bet you any money that even he doesn't like it. i'll bet you he thinks, "darn it, all my life i wanted to write for spiderman and now i have to write this shit... darn it!"

Actually I really do like Brand New Day. I have not been feeling a lot of Slott love because She-Hulk turned to shit and The Initiative is a mess. But I am finding his work on BMD to be really well done. More energetic and clever than alot of the stuff he's done before.

[MasterWhedon]

Yeah, I'm really digging BND so far. I get that a lot of folks are "voicing" their dissatisfaction with OMD by not buying it, but it's pretty classic Spider-Man and pretty damn good. Despite the means of getting to it, I still say BND is the right place for the book to be, from both business and creative perspectives.

And between buying BND and Messiah Complex every week, I'm hooked on weekly comics. (Still won't try Countdown though...)

[DennisMM]

You'd need a whole buncha spoilers to catch up, anyway.

[bluebottle]

"hey, are you a casual fan? do you not want to be bothered with all the character development from over the last 30 years? is your spiderman knowledge basically a handful of Stan Lee era books and the Toby McGuire (seabiscuit) films? Then boy have we got the comic for you! It's called ULTIMATE spiderman! But if that's too confusing for you, then we've also flattened regular Spiderman's arc out into one giant straight line! Read Amazing Spiderman #1, then the issue on stands now, and you won't notice a lick of difference!"

[burlivesleftnut]

Hey that's good copy. Do you mind if I use that to promote Brand New Day on my blog?

[MasterWhedon]

"hey, are you a casual fan? do you not want to be bothered with all the character development from over the last 30 years? is your spiderman knowledge basically a handful of Stan Lee era books and the Toby McGuire (seabiscuit) films? Then boy have we got the comic for you! It's called ULTIMATE spiderman! But if that's too confusing for you, then we've also flattened regular Spiderman's arc out into one giant straight line! Read Amazing Spiderman #1, then the issue on stands now, and you won't notice a lick of difference!"

Now you're gettin' it...

[bluebottle]

i miss MY spiderman.

[DennisMM]

You may have created a new comics meme with "flattened arc." I'll try to sell it to Warren Ellis. My cut is 20 percent.

[burlivesleftnut]

:(

i miss MY spiderman.

You're incredibly selfish.

[MasterWhedon]

:(

i miss MY spiderman.

You're incredibly selfish.

Ergo, kill yourself.

[bluebottle]

i'm no coward!

[burlivesleftnut]

Face it, Bulbittl... you just can't accept change. I bet those whole Spider-Mania business has you back on the sauce.

Think of your fucking dog, blue.

[Spifftacular SquirrelGirl]

"hey, are you a casual fan? do you not want to be bothered with all the character development from over the last 30 years? is your spiderman knowledge basically a handful of Stan Lee era books and the Toby McGuire (seabiscuit) films? Then boy have we got the comic for you! It's called ULTIMATE spiderman! But if that's too confusing for you, then we've also flattened regular Spiderman's arc out into one giant straight line! Read Amazing Spiderman #1, then the issue on stands now, and you won't notice a lick of difference!"

Now you're gettin' it...

I actually prefer Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane but to each their own and you're absolutely right. If Joey Q wanted things back to the way they were why not push Ultimate Spider-Man more?

[bluebottle]

Spider-Man loves Mary Jane is great... And between that and Ultimate Spider-man, there's enough "classic" Spider-Man to go around.

[bluebottle]

ok, i read the latest issue of ASM, finishing out the first BND arc.

i have to admit, Slott's writing is fantastic and I love McNiven's artwork... it DOES feel like classic spidey again...

damnit.

DAMNIT.

those bastards.

they could have still done this without the retcon...

but i'm in... make mine marvel.

[burlivesleftnut]

Hahaha SUCKER. We just pretended to like BND to see if you would give in to peer pressure. AND YOU DID.

[bluebottle]

bastards.

and i bought a whole lot of copies in case they got valuable too...

[MasterWhedon]

ok, i read the latest issue of ASM, finishing out the first BND arc.

i have to admit, Slott's writing is fantastic and I love McNiven's artwork... it DOES feel like classic spidey again...

damnit.

DAMNIT.

those bastards.

they could have still done this without the retcon...

but i'm in... make mine marvel.

[bluebottle]

yeah, yeah, fuck you...

i was waiting for you to read that...

heh.

[Leckomaniac]

So, I remained firm in my "I won't buy Amazing Spidey" stance. I will not support Marvel for making an uber shitty story like One More Day just to satisfy some silly editorial wish.

But I did borrow the first three issues of BND to see what was up. And I have to say it was quite good, but the thing is I am not at all convinced it was good because of OMD. More accurately, I think it was good because Dan Slott is a damn fine writer who was born to write Spidey.

The only real changes that made any difference were the return to web shooters and a down on his luck Peter (still not convinced he needed to be single). The return of H@rry is just fucking silly, the new female characters are totally lame, and making no one know Spidey's identity is pretty much a none issue at this point. The bottom line is they should have never had Pete reveal his identity so much in the first place...and they should have NEVER had him unmask in Civil War if they were just going to retcon it like this.

After reading this arc I am more convinced than ever that they could have made minor changes to the character and still made him fresh. No need for Mephisto. No need for magic. What they really needed was a solid writer orchestrating the whole thing and not Joe "I love the Mets" Quesada shoving all these mandates down the writer's throats.

So, in the end, I will still maintain my embargo on Spidey...because BND proves one thing and one thing only: Dan Slott is a damn fine writer who was born to write Spider-Man.