Spectacular Spider-Men #3

[brerrabbit]

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

Peter's greatest unfulfilled fantasy requires his life to have taken a left turn many years ago, definitely before the death of Captain Stacy. Miles's greatest unfulfilled fantasy could be happening right now, if only one person saw him a bit differently. Says a bit about their different phases of life, even if narrative forces keep Peter hovering somewhere in his thirties.

[cainofdreaming]

How very fortunate, since that seems to be the Marvel editors' fondest wish too.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I feel like I lost the plot somewhere...

[numeronone]

Look at the cover. It's Arcade (and, unfortunately, Mentallo - going from working with SWORD to a partnership with one of the X-Men's recurring villains was an easy slide for him, apparently? Oh, Floyd, you little weasel.)

[cainofdreaming]

Arcade probably offered him money. What was he going to do, say no?

[zylly]

Always sad to see a redemption fail, but given everything with the fall of Krakoa, can’t much say I blame him.

[cainofdreaming]

Was it really redemption or just a regular paycheck for him?

[scorntx]

Well, he wasn't really trying to redeem himself, he was just working for a shadowy manipulator with a fiendish plan to 'do what they had to do', but actual evil acts he personally committed while doing that were pretty low...

[zylly]

...honestly, given some of the things Brand got up to in that run, that's really an excellent question.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, okay, thanks.

I did look at the cover, but I was able to glean none of that from it.

[numeronone]

Guess that indicates how much of a dork I am - I saw the silhouette and immediately got "Oh, it's Arcade". I was actually hoping it'd be a fakeout and turn out to be Mysterio or the Jester or something.

[scorntx]

... has Kamala always been shorter than Miles?
I know the spiders tend to be a bit taller and ganglier than the average superhero, but I didn't think he was that tall.
(Or is it just an artistic choice so Kamala can gaze up adoringly at him?)

[brerrabbit]

Looking back on some of the comics where the two appear together Kamala is in fact shorter than Miles.

[scorntx]

Oh, well, fair enough then.

[gnarll]

She is a shapechanger. Does she want to be shorter than Miles? Or think it appropriate? Thenh she can be.

[zachbeacon]

I don't love the take that Peter and Gwen would have actually worked out in the long term but the most unbelievable thing about this fantasy is that May would date a cop.

[zylly]

I’ve always said that Gwen loved Peter, Felicia loved Spider-Man, but only MJ loved both of them.

[zachbeacon]

I get what you're saying but ... is it love if you reject half of who someone is? Everyone but MJ was in love with the IDEA of Peter or Spider-Man.

But the important thing is May would never date a cop.

[zylly]

It's complicated. I've actually read surprisingly little with Gwen, so I can't speak there, but enough of Felicia to know it was as much about thrills as anything.

And absolutely correct about May.

[zachbeacon]

Without unpacking the other issues with Peter/Gwen... any hope for a happily ever after died when she started blaming Spider-Man for George's death.


Heh, I was thinking about this exact same panel for May.

(Also the mobster and the supervillain she dated. May likes bad boys.)

[super_fly]

Aunt May says ACAB

[zylly]

I know it’s a parallel to Peter’s Gwen that, but Miles’s fantasy being someone other than his actual current girlfriend is probably telling…

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I couldn't even tell you who Miles is with now but Ms Marvel seems like the one he wants to be with.

(Not sure if he's even in her top three, though)

Feels like the funniest version of this is Peter with Classic Gwen and Miles with Spider-Gwen.

[zylly]

He's currently dating the Vulture's granddaughter. His relationship with Kamala has always seemed platonic to me, but, eh, she's more in the public eye right now, so for a story like this, I reckon it works.

[tcampbell1000]

I feel like the key here is "greatest UNFULFILLED fantasy."

[cainofdreaming]

It's always nice to see Arcade interact with teen heroes. And in no way problematic.

[badtakegoesbrrr]

As much as I like Greg Weisman's writing, and as much as I've liked this book so far...yeah, I'm not digging the crack pairings on display.

Gwen meant a lot to Peter. She was his first real love (I'm not counting Betty because the two of them were a mutual trainwreck), and her death left Peter with trauma. But Peter has made his peace with Gwen's death. Several times. Even when she "came back from the dead" for the Clone Conspiracy Peter was like "yeah no sorry, you're dead." Moreover, Peter was MARRIED to MJ. Yeah, OMD happened, but they were still BASICALLY married. They had a child (even if it was stillborn, which I have opinions about). MJ knew Peter's secrets. Peter gave his full self to MJ, and he was still into her before Paul came into the picture, which in turn left him a wreck until a few issues into the latest ASM run. I refuse to believe Peter would imagine his perfect life as being with Gwen as opposed to MJ at this point, because it simply does not feel believable or consistent with where Peter is mentally/emotionally at right now. Plus House of M did it already. If I had to guess why Peter is imagining a life with Gwen, it's because USM already has Peter and MJ together with kids, and slotting in Gwen is just less confusing. But still, it feels wrong. And it speaks to the issues of oversaturating the market with a character instead of letting the main version of that character have good stories IN HIS OWN MAIN BOOK.

Miles and Kamala just seems like baseless fanservice. This isn't the first time someone shipped these characters in-universe, although I've never gotten the impression these two had feelings for one another. And now it's going to be awkward since Miles is with Starling, because either he'll explore these feelings and end the relationship or ignore it ever happened and leave fans feeling unsatisfied. Honestly, why couldn't Miles have just hallucinated being with his current girlfriend? But then, I shouldn't expect anyone at Marvel to resist writing in drama for the sake of drama. Further proof that superhero comics really are just soap operas with more hitting.

[brerrabbit]

The synopsis for next issue makes it clear why it had to be Miles/Kamala instead of Miles/Starling:


"The world comes crashing down around Peter and Miles.

Someone has just ticked off the wrong Spider-Men.

The gloves have come off, and people are going to get hurt."


Both Spider-Men are fucking pissed and it doesn't make much sense for Miles to get that mad if the illusion was just about him going on a date with his current girlfriend rather than the girl he has hidden feelings for.

[badtakegoesbrrr]

I guess? But why do they both need to be mad? It's not even like they'll both be equally angry anyway. Miles' reaction will be "you've made things with me, my close friend, and my current girlfriend complicated, and that's not cool." Peter's reaction will likely be "you made me imagine a life I can never have and children who I'll never have with a woman who died because of me, and I will drop you like Mike Tyson's mother down a flight of stairs." Either way Miles will need to be the one holding Peter back from mashing Arcade like a pro Street Fighter II player. So why bother doing the love triangle stuff with Miles at all if Peter's fury stands to eclipse his?

EDIT: Also that machine brought Captain Stacy back, whom Peter also cared about as a father figure, so it's really a triple-whammy for him.

[thumbs13]

There's no evidence at all that Kamala likes him back, but Miles being written as liking Kamala goes back as far as Mark Waid's Avengers annual, where he wrote fanfiction about her being into him.

[knight_moves]

[super_fly]

Cover art Gwen looks like she's been running on nothing but caffeine 72 hours straight