Web Warriors #3: "Electroverse, Part III: Capacity"

[superboyprime]

"Super hero comics emerged from a proud tradition of relentless optimism, unbridled imagination and—the part most often forgotten today—deep and abiding joy. And there is no more powerful joy-delivery system in super hero comics than Spider-Man." - Mike Costa















Gwen escapes the Electros with the help of that one Electro who's jealous of all the others for being more competent than him...

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Are can these? Someone check the editor, I think he might have dozed off at the wheel.

[captainbellman]

It feels odd that something so harmless and - a little - fun could be coming from the same mind that gave us the bulk of "God is Dead".

[tcampbell1000]

Some days you feel like a nut, some days you don't!

[wizardru]

HOLY SHIT. This is Mike Costa? How can this be?

This is...this is DELIGHTFUL.

[long_silence]

Why is a Strontian fighting to protect the Kree Supreme Intelligence?

Even when the Kree Empire have subjugated other species and civilizations under their heel, they've left their important military roles to Kree warriors. They're kinda racist like that.

[cainofdreaming]

It's a Strontian. You tell it to go guard the service entrance.

[locuatico]

Okay, i do have to point something that is REALLY bothering me....... did they ever mention Earth-982 Electro? the one Mayday helped out?

[yvonmukluk]

Nope!

Also fun fact: they like coming back to Mayday's Earth, and MJ has not been seen once, despite it being her house. Mayday & her whole universe solely exist as an extension of Web Warriors, now.

God, I hate everything Spider-Verse did to the MC2. Web Warriors isn't much of a consolation prize.

But a lot of stuff I'll hold off on discussing until later issues get scanned.

[lieut_kettch]

Do you suppose someone forgot that 982-MJ survived Spider-Verse? Mayday mentions Uncle Ben and Benjy but not her mom.

[deh_tommy]

Well, everything but certain Earth-616 characters were wiped from existence in Secret Wars. Didn't Spider-Girl/Woman also have a few side stories during the Spider-Island (2015) miniseries?

[tigerkaya]

I look forward to this series cancellation. Between the godawful Spider-verse and pushing Mayday aside for a white washed Anya this series should go to the cancellation chopping block.

[superboyprime]

"Pushed aside"

Case in point what I just wrote about expecting preferential treatment.

[superboyprime]

Untrue. Mayday's Earth's only made a single appearance, spread out between two issues, that in total was, what, 4 pages when added together? During which MJ was mentioned. Hardly a conspicuous absence.

And I'll point out that that's already more attention than Ham, Anya, or Gwen's worlds/casts have ever gotten in this series. (Billy's, too, but you can't really count him, given his circumstances.)

This isn't addressed to you so much as to something I see in others so sorry if I'm unloading here, but... while we all would love our favorite characters to be more prominent, that's different from feeling they're owed preferential treatment. The book is Web Warriors, not MC2.

[yvonmukluk]

I'm not asking for preferential treatment. Dan Slott rather smugly stated elsewhere on the internet that thanks to him we, the readers, are getting new Spider-Girl stories (that most of us didn't ask for). Because I guess it's meant to make everything that happened to her in Spider-Verse worth it.

Nothing I've seen of Web Warriors has made me agree with that view. Considering they never even bothered to tell the artist she was in the book (hence why, despite being a member of the team from the outset, she doesn't appear on a single cover, when Lady Spider & Uncle Ben DO despite being guest stars), I don't think they even planned for her to originally be on the team.

And they do in fact come back to MC2 later on. No MJ other than an offhanded mention - which considering the later events of this series, kind of seems unfair marginalization. There are certain events later in this book that we should have seen her reaction to, but we didn't.

I'd really have preferred they let Mayday go back to limbo after Secret Wars. Because DeFalco & Frenz managed to do a pretty good patch job of the character in their mini story, without just outright rejecting the events of Spider-Verse. But Marvel, it seems, can't leave well enough alone.

I'm not asking for preferential treatment to the exclusion of the others. I'm asking that she be written well, or not at all. Better to die as good fiction than live as bad.

[superboyprime]

What Slott did or didn't say has no bearing on this series to me.

I hadn't read the latest issue when I wrote the comment. I have now and, yeah, I see more of where you're coming from, though I still don't agree. (Big surprise there, huh?)

Bottom line, written badly might worse than not written at all, but I don't agree that "minor role" = "written badly." Especially when there are other characters in the cast with equally minor roles. Nor do I agree that "focusing on the actual cast instead of bringing in more characters" = "unfair marginalization."

[tigerkaya]

Yeah I'd rather Mayday and the MC2 was locked out and thrown to limbo than being butchered further in this title.

[superboyprime]

I still don't see this butchering you're talking about beyond "she has a smaller role than I'd like" and "her supporting cast doesn't appear (even though most of the other Web Warriors' don't either)."

[yvonmukluk]

It's not so much she's gotten a minor role. If you've read the latest issue, I guess you don't see any problem with Anya in Mayday's house, interacting with Mayday's family (with Mary Jane only mentioned - they don't even show her on panel as a cameo - it feels like Uncle Ben has become the head of the household, which feels pretty damn unearned), and doing the exact same thing that Mayday might be doing in that situation. I see that and I wonder - why was Mayday the one written out, again? Because it feels like her, Anya & Gwen have almost entirely the same cookie-cutter personality.

Honestly it feels like they only used Mayday out of obligation, because that's where Uncle Ben showed up. Hence why they wrote her out of the book to focus on the actual main cast of characters. And hey, I'd have no problem if they wanted to have a Mayday-less Web Warriors - just have her, you know, focus on her responsibility to her family & stay in her own universe. Anya & co. could stop by to ask for help & guidance from Uncle Ben and she could maybe have the odd cameo but otherwise not feature. So, hey, they can instead focus on the other members of the team AND Mayday would be acting in character!

[superboyprime]

But Anya/Ben is a single, brief scene. It's not like she'll be taking over Mayday's life. Plus, it's the nature of ensemble casts to mix and match characters up to see how they interact. In that sense, there's a certain value in that scene that we wouldn't have with Mayday/Ben because those two have already interacted in previous Spider-comics, while Anya and Ben haven't. It's giving us an idea of how these two relate. (Same for Gwen and Ben earlier.)

Also, I really don't see Gwen having anywhere near the same personality as the other two. Could you imagine either Mayday or Anya doing the whole "freedom" speech, for example?

"So, hey, they can instead focus on the other members of the team AND Mayday would be acting in character!"

So what do you consider out of character? She's made it clear from the start that her responsibility to her home reality's important to her, more so than the other Web-Warrior's homes are important to them. And she didn't choose to get stuck in steampunk world.

[superboyprime]

Also:

"And hey, I'd have no problem if they wanted to have a Mayday-less Web Warriors - just have her, you know, focus on her responsibility to her family & stay in her own universe."

You know... I wonder if that's exactly where it's heading, with being stuck in steampunk world being the wake-up call to make her realize alternate reality hopping is too risky. By that point, there might be a few new number to the team too (Octavia, Lady Reilly, Spider-Punk? Uncle Ben?) so she could safely leave without feeling she's leaving them understaffed.

[yvonmukluk]

The fact she would actually run off willy-nilly into the multiverse at all. I can't see her hanging out for tacos on an alternate earth with Spider-Gwen when she has friends in her own universe, and her own responsibilities. Gwen, I can see, because she seems to like taking vacations to 616 whenever.

Then again, that's the overall issue with all of this. With the exception of Anya & Billy, they should all have other things to occupy their time. Not that being Spider-Exiles isn't a job that needs doing, but honestly I'd see Mayday politely turning down full-time membership in the first place, rather than going through this largely superfluous character arc.

Mayday has been reduced from being 'The Amazing Spider-Girl' to 'Spider-Woman of Earth-982'. All of the Web Warriors have.

I think this quote sums it up:
'I’ve never read an issue of Spider-Gwen that lived up to her first appearance in Edge of Spider-Verse. My suspicion is that there isn’t one. My further suspicion is that that’s because that first appearance was the only time she was ever on the edge of the Spider-Verse.

[...]

Spider-Gwen was awesome because she was a version of the Spider story in which Gwen was the Spider-Person and Peter the beautiful corpse. She got to be that for most of one issue, and then she crossed the edge of the Spider-Verse. Thereafter she was the Spider-Woman of Earth-65. It couldn’t be helped, given the circumstances of her creation, but her interaction with the multiverse came disastrously early for the character. It robbed her of her right to establish herself as a version of the story and instead established her as something that only makes sense as a component of a structure that houses her alongside the original.'[1]

Mayday, Pavitr, and yes, even Spider-Ham had their own distinct histories before they were hammered into being Web Warriors. Gwen, too, had so much rich potential, but now she crosses over with the 616 so often I'm surprised she's not got dual citizenship. Aside from brief nods to remind us, yes, they do in fact exist, those rich backgrounds are ignored outright. I guess Mayday's kind of fortunate in that sense. I am partisan in her favour - she was the first comic I ever read - but nobody else comes off well. Ironically the only person not really being solely focused on being a Web Warrior is Anya - but she's the only one who explicitly severed all ties with her home world to be a full-time Web Warrior. But now she's doing homework, because I guess she's still got to go to school.

[1]https://graphicpolicy.com/2016/04/12/have-them-fight-god-spyral-versus-spider-girl/

[starwolf_oakley]

"Super hero comics emerged from a proud tradition of relentless optimism, unbridled imagination and—the part most often forgotten today—deep and abiding joy. And there is no more powerful joy-delivery system in super hero comics than Spider-Man." - Mike Costa

Well, that's better than stories that say being Spider-Man is Peter Parker's never-ending punishment for Ben Parker's death.