Fortune & Glory: The Musical

[cyberghostface]

'In the midst of the unprecedented success of Brian Michael Bendis’s character-defining run on Ultimate Spider-Man, and the box office record-breaking Spider-Man films, the writer received a phone call that no one could have predicted. Spidey was going to Broadway, and Bendis was being tapped to collaborate with rock royalty to help the webslinger “find his voice” on stage. Could he overcome his own ignorance about musicals, or would he exit stage left before production began?' - Dark Horse

Comments

[alan2099]

I'm sure this could have been an interesting story and I wanted to read it, but I just couldn't. I'd completely forgotten how annoying his dialogue style was.

[mastermahan]

You'd forgotten how annoying his dialogue style was?

[zachbeacon]

His dialogue style was annoying?

[super_fly]

His dialogue style.

[cyberghostface]

[zachbeacon]

The part where Bendis found out the director wanted him because she had poor reading comprehension? Hilarious.

The part where Bendis found out Marvel wanted him because they wanted to prove a point to the director? Terrible.

Also this book is worth reading just for the post-Marvel Bill Jemas story.

[thanekos]

The " That doesn't mean anything " page looks like Bendis taking that parody of him from Invincible and replaying it himself.

[jkcarrier]

"Are you fucking kidding me? Man, who are you? Why are you here? I don't even know what you're about!"
Oddly enough, this was my exact reaction to reading "Avengers Disassembled"...

You do have to wonder if Taymor tried to pull these same kind of shenanigans with "The Lion King". I can imagine Disney being less than amused.

[animalplanet86]

For anyone interested in a more detailed account of the whole debacle, I'd recommend Song of Spider-Man by Glen Berger, the writer who worked on Turn Off the Dark for six years. If nothing else, it does seem to back up Bendis' characterization of Julie Taymore's refusal to compromise and volcanic temper (Berger also writes that he hates being yelled at, and I can sympathize)

[scorntx]

Well, that was interesting. And a little horrific in some areas.

(Guessing Taymore did not actually re-read that monologue at any point because... I mean, it's been quite a while since I've re-read Ultimate Spider-Man but I'm pretty darn sure Norman - and by extension Bendis - did not call Arachne the god of spiders.
She never took the time to even do a quick once over? It's not like it's a very long monologue.)

[zachbeacon]

The FIRST call between the two went pretty well up until the ending.

She comments on needing to change "outdated" elements of the character and he agrees.

(There's a reason the first Rami movie and Ultimate Spider-Men kicked off the trend of genetically modified spiders replacing radioactive ones)

Then she blindsides him with the Arachne thing and he realizes why she wanted to work with him.

At that point she had gone through so many writers who didn't see her "vision" that she thought she had a kindred spirt in the guy who mentioned Arachne in his comic. She doesn't seem to have done a particularly close read on Ultimate Spider-Man #1 or Greek mythology.

The meltdown in these scans is the final call after Bendis realizes he can't make the Arachne thing work.