Spider-Man: Reign #1

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

 

Given the discussion on this mini a couple of posts back, I thought I'd give this a shot. The story seems to be well-known on the internets for a dick shot of Peter that was censored in subsequent printings (really, it's less detailed than Bart Simpson's on The Simpsons Movie)  in the first issue and for the fate of Mary-Jane. Chances are you know what I'm talking about, but I won't get into details just yet.

For those who don't know, Reign was a Spider-Man miniseries that dealt with Spider-Man as an old man in a possible "future". It was written and illustrated by Kaare Andrews. The story was obviously inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in a number of areas, and Kaare Andrews makes no attempt to hide that;  a character's named Miller Janson. Still, having been a fan of Miller's work, I think Reign is far from being a ripoff when you get past the basic concept of the title characters. For example, just compare how Batman was portrayed as to how Spider-Man is. Batman, despite being old, was portrayed as grizzled and larger than life. Spider-Man, on the other hand...well, you'll see.

For the record, the full issue is about 40 pages. 

The story opens with the rhyme of "the itsy-bitsy spider" with the focus on a, well, spider. The camera zooms out, and...



Peter Parker is working at a flower shop. It turns out he gave a customer white roses instead of cream ones, and now the customer's refusing to pay.



Outside, Peter runs into the kids from earlier being chased by the "Reign" officers. He's knocked over and his flowers are stepped on. One of the kids identifies himself as Ben Taykit, middle name "Doverand".





We see a clip from the "Daily Bugle News Channel" (with the aforementioned Miller Janson) celebrating the anniversary of the city's independence and a decade of no attacks from super-powered crime.



A brief scene from Mayor Waters reveals that he's the opposite. We see that Waters is taunting a once-fat man on an IV-drip with some steak. This man hasn't eaten solid food in ten years, and Water takes him out each year for this "annual tradition" before taking him back to the "Vault". Although he isn't named, this man was revealed in an interview to be the Kingpin. 

Peter returns home with the flowers, and tells an unseen person that he left his job. When the unseen person doesn't respond, he yells for them to "say something".







Peter wakes up from this dream to hear someone knocking on his door.





Jonah drops a package on Peter's doorstep and tells him he's been holding it for him a long time. When he gets outside, he goads on the Reign agents by damaging some property with his walker. Inside, Peter finds his old camera and doesn't get it, when he realizes what the black fabric holding it is... Peter gasps. "It has eyes." Outside, poor Jonah's getting the crap beaten out of him.





Spider-Man makes quick work of the Reign officers. One of the criticisms that the series gets is that Spidey's portrayed as a sad old man with none of the humor that makes Spidey who he is. I have to wonder if they're reading the same series I am. As soon as Peter puts the mask on, he's making jokes and egging the officers on with witty banter.

Comments

[batcookies.insanejournal.com]

http://www.cracked.com/article/151_5-superheroes-rendered-ridiculous-by-gritty-reboots/

[darkblade.insanejournal.com]

It was discussion of that article that caused discussion of this story earlier.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I'm posting this. That author completely missed the point.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

Also, to anyone who's unfamilar with the story, stay away from the article as they spoil a number of major plot points.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Not completely.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

The bulk of it, at least.

For example, the line about "a bitter, depressed old Spider-Man humorlessly fight bad guys in a perpetual state of mourning" couldn't be farther from the truth. He cracks jokes throughout the duration of the series. One of the story's arcs is Spidey finding his true self again--he's hardly a depressed old codger the whole time.

I could discuss the rest of what they say, but I'm abstaining for now as I don't want to spoil anything for those who want to see what happens as the story unfolds.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Pretty much a description of every Cracked list. Some of them get the funny, anyway, but rarely ever actually from an accurate description of what they're talking about.

[blakeyrat.insanejournal.com]

It's a comedy site. They post things that are funny, not true.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

Not necessarily. I haven't read every Cracked article, but a lot of what their articles write about are true, just written in a snarky/humorous fashion.

For example:

http://www.cracked.com/article/133_7-dogs-that-accomplished-more-than-we-ever-will/

Either way, the article was clearly meant to represent the author's opinion. Which is fine, he's entitled to it. And in my opinion, a lot of the stuff was either wrong or went over his head.

[darkblade.insanejournal.com]

While the story is not bad and the art style kind of reflects the mood it is very very very very ugly.

Particularly the CGI-looking cityscape backgrounds those just look so out of place and wrong there.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I may have to pick this up.

[quietprofanity.insanejournal.com]

Sorry, not sold. The art is terrible and so is the writing. ("My arm pops like a bar of soap" - WTF? "I taste sunshine" - Gag.) The villain is also way too obvious for a charismatic would-be dictator and I can't see Peter ever punching Jonah in the face like that.

[mr_fig.insanejournal.com]

Actually you'd be surprised as to who really the "villain" really is.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

I don't get the ending. Why does Peter attack Jonah?

[cainofdreaming.insanejournal.com]

Jameson purposefully got into a situation where Peter had to put on the mask again, which he had given up. Which put him into a bad place mentally and legally, since masks (superheroes and just masks themselves too) had been made illegal.

In other words, Jameson was being an ass. With the best of intentions, though.

[fredneil.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

If the point of this was to show that Reign was better than the "radioactive sperm" jokes suggest, it didn't work. Peter Parker beating up a 90+ year old man who came to him for help isn't any better.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

I didn't post it to convince anyone of anything. I posted it because I liked the story. That's it.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, if its any consolation: I, some random person on the internet, agree with you. I enjoyed this story for what it was and found it interesting/entertaining how Peter is reborn once he puts the mask on again.

Kind of shows at the end of the day how much Peter needs Spidey.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it. At least posting this wasn't a total waste of my time. :D

[comicoz.insanejournal.com]

"Kind of shows at the end of the day how much Peter needs Spidey."

This.

[felinephoenix.insanejournal.com]

Earth X had some interesting things to say about Peter and being Spidey, too. Overall, I didn't like that series, but the subplot between Peter and his daughter was good.

[starwolf_oakley.insanejournal.com]

Some elements of this series was guessed at being references to Peter Parker being "Self-Loathing Emo-Man" during the Steve Ditko era, without Stan Lee's dialog making him a bit more optimistic.

It looks like New York City is completely cut off from the rest of the country in this story. You have to wonder why anyone stayed, unless they figured the smiling fascists at least kept the trains running on time.

(Warning: political rant.) You have to wonder if someday comic historians will look back on this decade and think, "All comic creators and readers thought the Bush/Cheney Administration was unrelentingly evil and they were the only ones who knew it." I mean, comics continued being dark and depressing under the Clinton Administration, with only the artwork more colorful and Liefeld-esque. (Political rant over.)

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

I am glad you showed us the JJJ bits. One thing I did really like about the series was how Jamerson had flipped, now wanting for a Spider-Man.

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

This couldn't get any more "inspired by" if it was traced.
(Though I guess the artist didn't want to work in a teeny-weeny panel grid between splash pages.)

[zechs27.insanejournal.com]

Of course not he even stated this was TDKR for Spidey. That was his entire intention behind this project. Honestly, I do like this because in a way some of these elements do kinda make sense. Also what can I say I enjoy the later half as well and Jonah's confession here with him being the reason Spidey is reborn in this future.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

I have to agree with the other posters. I read the article, and formed an opinion on the story based on that -- and these scans have only reinforced that.

The art is terrible. The dialogue is mind-numbing. And "inspired" by DKR? If this was any more "inspired", Frank would have the right to sue for plagiarism.

Tell me that the article was wrong, and Pete didn't actually fuck MJ to death with radioactive sperm, and I'll keep following this out of curiosity if nothing else.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

Tell me that the article was wrong, and Pete didn't actually fuck MJ to death with radioactive sperm, and I'll keep following this out of curiosity if nothing else.

That part wasn't wrong, but it's part of a larger context that people are taking it out of and going "Huh-huh-huh, radioactive sperm". I was referring to other aspects of the article which I either A.) already explained or B.) and planning on explaining later because they spoiled significant plot elements from later in the series. Not that it matters, as it seems that people are already spoiling the heck out of it here.

But I could really care less if you decide to follow it or not. You're not doing me any favors either way.

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

For my money, I didn't really get interested in this until the second half, with Otto, the Sandman subplot, and the MJ-Peter conversation. While I'm not quite sure what I feel about the rest of the series, those really got my interest. So if you do decide to brave ahead posting scans of the rest of the series, hell, I'll be behind that.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

There are a few nice bits here, but between the more-darkitty-than-Dark-Knight-ness and the radioactive poisoning angle, which is not new (Gruenwald used it in his Squadron Supreme mini nearly a quarter-century ago), still not impressed, sorry.

[mcity.insanejournal.com]

Someone needs to take thie writer's copy of The Dark Knight Returns away from him. Those squinty politicians are about as subtle as anvils.