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scans_dailyWay back in Amazing Spider-Man #601, Peter Parker got blackout drunk at the wedding of his Aunt May, supposedly because he needed that much alcohol simply to summon the courage to talk to Mary Jane Watson again, in spite of her being one of his oldest and closest friends, and he woke up in bed the next morning with his roommate, Michelle Gonzales, with no memory of what had happened, or whether they'd slept together, although the fact that both of them were all but naked hinted pretty heavily at the probability that they had.
At the time, I offered my thoughts on this plot development, and its attendant characterizations, in the calm and restrained manner for which I am known throughout the Internets.
And at the time, I heard from a number of supporters of the NuSpidey status quo, who urged me to stop complaining, on the grounds that my whining was accomplishing nothing, and that it certainly wouldn't have any sort of impact on the stories that the NuSpidey "brain trust" would choose to tell.
Which brings us to Amazing Spider-Man #612, in which Peter and Michelle revisit the events of that evening in Amazing Spider-Man #601 ...
... Which serves absolutely no constructive purpose and makes absolutely no coherent sense whatsoever.
After all, Peter still believed that he was chugging down a dozen flutes of champagne, just to work up the nerve to talk to Mary Jane, which is still stupid, immature and irresponsible to a degree that's completely out of character for him.
But now, as an extra-nonsensical bonus, it's been established that Peter gets BLACKOUT DRUNK from a single glass of champagne - and in case you doubt my interpretation, Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker has already flatly stated that I'm right - in spite of the fact that past stories have established that his super-powered metabolism can shrug off SNAKE VENOM.
Oh, and guess which character once again comes across as an even WORSE human being than she did in all of her already extremely unflattering previous appearances?
If you said IT'S THE SPITEFUL AND HOT-TEMPERED LATINA BOOTY-CALL AMIRITE, you'd only be mostly correct, because thanks to this revelation, we can add "money-grubbing" and "manipulative" to her list of traits that in no way correspond to negative stereotypes associated with Hispanic women.
And then, there's the letters pages, which show how totally unimportant and insignificant the online objections were to the scene between the Chameleon and Michelle in Amazing Spider-Man #603, which is presumably why Marvel felt the need to devote more than a full page of text to covering its ass on that issue:
... You know what? I think I'm just going to let the Fail speak for itself here, and outsource my Nerd!Rage to you all.
ETA: Quoth![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
goodfellow_puck:
At the time, I offered my thoughts on this plot development, and its attendant characterizations, in the calm and restrained manner for which I am known throughout the Internets.
And at the time, I heard from a number of supporters of the NuSpidey status quo, who urged me to stop complaining, on the grounds that my whining was accomplishing nothing, and that it certainly wouldn't have any sort of impact on the stories that the NuSpidey "brain trust" would choose to tell.
Which brings us to Amazing Spider-Man #612, in which Peter and Michelle revisit the events of that evening in Amazing Spider-Man #601 ...
... Which serves absolutely no constructive purpose and makes absolutely no coherent sense whatsoever.
After all, Peter still believed that he was chugging down a dozen flutes of champagne, just to work up the nerve to talk to Mary Jane, which is still stupid, immature and irresponsible to a degree that's completely out of character for him.
But now, as an extra-nonsensical bonus, it's been established that Peter gets BLACKOUT DRUNK from a single glass of champagne - and in case you doubt my interpretation, Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker has already flatly stated that I'm right - in spite of the fact that past stories have established that his super-powered metabolism can shrug off SNAKE VENOM.
Oh, and guess which character once again comes across as an even WORSE human being than she did in all of her already extremely unflattering previous appearances?
If you said IT'S THE SPITEFUL AND HOT-TEMPERED LATINA BOOTY-CALL AMIRITE, you'd only be mostly correct, because thanks to this revelation, we can add "money-grubbing" and "manipulative" to her list of traits that in no way correspond to negative stereotypes associated with Hispanic women.
And then, there's the letters pages, which show how totally unimportant and insignificant the online objections were to the scene between the Chameleon and Michelle in Amazing Spider-Man #603, which is presumably why Marvel felt the need to devote more than a full page of text to covering its ass on that issue:
... You know what? I think I'm just going to let the Fail speak for itself here, and outsource my Nerd!Rage to you all.
ETA: Quoth
goodfellow_puck:So, uhhhhhhhhhhh... I'm just going to pass along what I and my man thought (independantly of each other) which is:... Yeah, this is pretty much the definition of "digging yourself deeper."
Are they saying Michele raped Pete, then? Because, um...she "supposedly" tricked him with the drinks and then called his black-out a COLD.
REALLY?
To quote my man, "So he was drugged???" Yeah, if it was a gal I'd be looking for the date-rape drugs too. What the HELL is going on with these writers and this storyline??
*shrugs*
One thing that should be obvious though, as has been pointed out numerous times...
Peter wouldn't have to out himself as Spider-Man to tell Michelle that she was kissing the Chameleon. Chameleon didn't know who he was, and impersonating Peter had nothing to do with Spider-Man. This should have been a non-issue for Peter to explain.
Sorry. I feel bad now. :(
Peter wouldn't have to out himself as Spider-Man to tell Michelle that she was kissing the Chameleon. Chameleon didn't know who he was, and impersonating Peter had nothing to do with Spider-Man. This should have been a non-issue for Peter to explain.
FUCKING THANK YOU.
Yeah honestly I'm judging so hard right now I'm afraid my judging muscles are going to cramp.
(The caps-abuse was not directed at you, but at Marvel, if that makes any sense.)
I mean, I can understand, to an extent, what Breevort tried to say. I can understand, but not sympathize. It's just not the Spider-man I grew up with.
GETTING DRUNK DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY
Are they saying Michele raped Pete, then? Because, um...she "supposedly" tricked him with the drinks and then called his black-out a COLD.
REALLY?
To quote my man, "So he was drugged???" Yeah, if it was a gal I'd be looking for the date-rape drugs too. What the HELL is going on with these writers and this storyline??
That being said, if you want an awesome cover, break out the concept artists like Marko and Adi. Nice stuff.
What the hell is this you don't even I don't what the fuck are you violence is inherent in the why the hell would you just stop it stop it
Spider-Man having the flu, a cold or other infectious ailment happens often enough to be considered a trope, if if not a cliche. I'm not sure how Peter Parker would have such a crap immune system.
And a funny picture!:
Not to mention that, unlike normal crimes which are one killer-one victim--extreme generalization here, but I think you get my point--super-villains are likely to kill or attempt to kill many people in a short amount of time. Spider-Man might miss a couple of murders while he was otherwise occupied with sleep or work, but he'd miss more deaths by super-villain if passed out. Because he might somehow hear about about the super-villain attacking if doing something normal, but would not be able to if he was FRICKIN' PASSED OUT.
I have very little respect for Marvel and even less for Peter. The only reason I have any left at all for him is because MA Spider-Man is so amazing. This guy is just a loser.
Let me see if I understand this. They make things look outrageous to get people 'talking', then get offended that people get outraged, dismiss all online concern--Wacker in particular was highly abusive to readers--then get a paper letter and it's "OMG someone misinterpreted our story and took it at face value! Better write that guy a calm and evenhanded note! We wouldn't want to offend him!"
And hey, even though years of characterization have shown Peter Parker as begrudging EVEN FIVE MINUTES (hence the title of the short story 'Five Minutes') cut off from news lest someone die and be on his conscience just like Uncle Ben blah blah blargh, isn't it great that Mr. Wacker took time to tell us 'times have changed' and Peter isn't so hung up anymore?
These guys so need a letter writing campaign on the definitions of rape and sexual assault.
You should see Wacker on the CBR forums.
If it was anyone else insulting fellow posters as much as he does, they would have been banned by now.
Even the NuSpidey supporters are telling him that he should knock it off.
The sad thing is that it seems to have gotten worse since then, not better.
I mean, Peter still got drunk, he just did it on half a glass of bubbly instead of twelve combined with extreme nervousness on his part - which, as we've seen from past examples of his low alcohol tolerance, is perfectly plausible. And he still slept with Michelle, and all that still happened.
The confusing part to me is just how this reflects on the character of his roommate. I mean, on one level, it actually makes her seem a bit nicer, because her initial motives were to keep him from getting drunk and making an idiot of himself - but then she kept on doing it, even when she saw that he was STILL getting drunk, basically because she thought it was hilarious. Which does NOT make her look nicer - it makes her look like a bitch. So, yeah, more or less back to the status quo.
As for her comments about 'it was nerves', I'm reading that as the words of someone who DOES have a more or less high alcohol tolerance talking to someone who does NOT. In other words, she CAN hold her liquor, and therefore has a hard time comprehending to ANYONE could get piddled off a half-glass of bubbly, let alone get a hangover. But as we know, Peter HAS gotten drunk in the past off not much more than that, and one may assume that he had a hangover afterwards, so he knows what it feels like.
So, yeah - he still got drunk, and he still slept with Michelle. I'm not really seeing any significant changes here. What I WOULD like to see is a replay of the scene through Mary Jane's eyes. After all, she knows Peter pretty well, and would probably be pretty sensitive to whether was drunk or not.