Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day #5

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[insolent_one]

And here I thought Jason Todd had somehow crossed over...

[thanekos]

" Idiots. The both of you. Your impractical ways.. now I gotta go buy more bullets. To shoot every crime ever in the face. "

[cainofdreaming]

A guy named Turncoat who seems to know Mister Negative's operations like he was there when Negative planned them probably wouldn't seem suspicious at all. Nope. Not at all.

[numeronone]

Remember when Batman was dating a woman named "Jezebel"? Who could have seen HER betrayal coming?

[scorntx]

"My name is Turncoat. How did you not see this coming?!"
"I thought you were being ironic! (or at the very least making some sort of tortured wordplay on your trenchcoat.)"
"Well, I'm not!"

[numeronone]

They're calling him this generation's "Alpha"...

[cainofdreaming]

Alpha of the Alpha generation? How does that help differentiate him in any way?

[numeronone]

When he gets told "your lifespan will last precisely as long as this comic after which you will disappear into limbo, possibly forever," he can smile smugly and say "That's so AI" while tears pour out of his eyes

[starwolf_oakley]

Alpha was part of a group of would-be sidekicks in a fan-comic posted to this board. Since Peter was a young teen, the "sidekicks" were even younger. Alpha, then Arana/Spider-Girl, The Spectacular Spider-Kid/Steel Spider, and the Fabulous Frog Man. Alpha is the youngest and has a pacifier.

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4074785.html

[cyberghostface]

I think they mean the Alpha character that Dan Slott created. Slott’s admitted he sucked and wished that it had been a single giant-sized issue. Otherwise though he’s created some solid OCs; Silk and Mr. Negative for example.

[mastermahan]

Honestly, I thought that sucking was the whole point of Alpha. That the pitch was: Spider-Man gets a sidekick, but he's an irresponsible little shit.

[cyberghostface]

Slott explained it like this:

“The Alpha story did not work as a 3 part story. I've gone on record about this many times. And I agree. I think if we'd followed the original plan of one over-sized issue, the story would've been better received. I still believe the premise of Alpha was a good one. Peter Parker hosts a science experiment. A high school class attends. The experiment goes haywire. A kid gets zapped. He gets super powers. Now Peter/Spidey feels that training this new teen super hero is his responsibility. The problem is… the kid's a jerk. He keeps using his great power irresponsibly. The kid's power grows, till he's more than a match for Spidey. Now Spidey has to take him down– AND since the kid WON'T use his great power responsibly, Pete finds a way to take it away. The End. That's NOT a bad anniversary story. Here's how everything went horribly wrong: We tried to trick the readers (and not give the story away) by selling the story as: "For his 50th Anniversary Spidey gets a Teen Sidekick!" (Which he technically does… for PART of the story.) But, because of budgetary reasons, we weren't able to generate all of those NEW pages of material for that issue. So the story was split into 3 parts. So for ONE month, readers believed Spidey's sidekick (a kid who was designed to be a jerk) was a jerk. And they HATED him. Then, while we were working on Part 2, sales came in on the 1st issue. And they were HUGE! So we were told to change the ending of the story. Peter could NOT take ALL of Alpha's powers away BECAUSE Marvel wanted to try an Alpha mini-series. But that messed up the entire arc. It's frustrating, but sometimes these things happen. Hopefully w/ all missteps, if you live through 'em, you learn from 'em.”

[numeronone]

I did, but so did starwolf. The fancomic is just another instance in which Alpha has appeared that they were adding for fun.

And sure, Slott has made some lasting characters, but I think the comparison to Alpha is earned by Turncoat being aggressively pushed as "ready for the big time!". It seems, to put it politely...forced.

[shakalooloo]

"Ready for the big time!"
Smash cut to Turncoat being stomped flat by the Rhino.

[cyberghostface]

I got the impression when they said “Alpha was part of a group of would-be sidekicks in a fan-comic” that they thought Alpha originated there. I agree the “Big time” line is cringey but it’s in part because the title is being changed to “Spectacular Spider-Man: Big Time” because we’ve since moved from the BND era to ‘Big Time’ arc when Slott took over ASM as the main writer. It’s Slott’s attempt a name drop. Imo I think the title was better off called BND even if it wouldn’t have been as accurate.

[numeronone]

This is Mattie Franklin erasure! (Sobbing)

[scorntx]

Someone deciding Spidey is too lenient / ineffective / delete-where-applicable on crime and vowing to "do what you can't"...
Haven't we seen this at least once before?


(oh, hey. It's one of U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.'s goons, and they're still wearing those berets.)