'The Thousand'

[cyberghostface]

Since S_D seems to be on an Ennis kick atm I figured I'd repost an entry I did a while back for his Spider-Man story 'The Thousand' which was part of the 'Tangled Web' anthology book.

While it's more SFW than your average Ennis book, there is quite a bit of gruesome body horror that wouldn't be out of place in a Cronenberg film, so take that as a warning.

Disclaimer: Three issues, seven pages from each.

The story opens with a surly guy at a diner watching Spider-Man battle the Rhino outside his window.





We go to Peter at the Bugle where Jonah's turning down his photo of Spider-Man and the Rhino.





She attempts to mace him when she sees Carl but it doesn't do anything.







#2...

Beginning of the issue has "Miss Patton" telling Peter that she needs a place to stay for the night. Peter offers her his.







She throws Peter out the window. He manages to get dressed up as Spider-Man and takes on "Miss Patton" who identifies herself as "The Thousand". The Thousand ends up biting Spidey on the neck, paralyzing and knocking him out. He wakes up tied to a chair.



Heh, so Jessica Jones was there when Pete got bit by the spider and so was this guy. Wonder if there have been any other retconned characters present?

EDIT: And since writing this we now have Cindy Moon AKA Silk who was present.







#3...

The issue opens with Mr. Ambrose, the super, coming in and seeing Spider-Man surrounded by the spiders. Spidey tells him to run but it's too late as the spiders jump down his throat and devour him from the inside.



(Back to Silk, this is one of the reasons why "Someone else got powers from the spider" never bothered me like it did others because this guy beat her to it.)

Carl tells him that his body began to break down as his insides were being consumed by a thousand spiders with his consciousness. He eventually moves onto his own parents, first his mother and then his father. Each time he moves from a body he gets stronger.

Spider-Man tells him that all his time he's been monologuing, the poison has worn off.



The battle goes outside. Carl tells Peter he doesn't know how easy he's had it. "The death-defying exploits. The lethal array of colorful villains. The string of beautiful girlfriends -- all because some nerd gets bitten by a spider? You know what happened to my beautiful girlfriend? I had to eat her."







Carl, in his rage, doesn't realize he's about to hit a high-voltage box. Spider-Man tries to warn him but Carl ends up electrocuting himself.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Yeah, but is feeding that hatedom a wise idea. Grant Morrison managed to subvert in in less than a panel when someone refers to Kyle as "Almost as good as the real Green Lantern" and Kyle replies "You'd be surprised, save the world a couple of times and you ARE the "real" Green Lantern", which seems a much more likely progression of Kyle's public perception.

[stolisomancer]

I'm confused by what point you're trying to make here. I'm saying that Ennis's characterization of Kyle is in step with several other writers of the period, and is actually kinder than some.

Whether that's a good idea or not is irrelevant to the discussion.

[lucean]

But didn't Hitman/JLA come long after that period, when Kyle had already established himself?

[stolisomancer]

It's an adaptation of a leftover script from Hitman and is nominally set during the "Big Seven" Morrison era. It didn't come out until much later, yeah.

[stolisomancer]

Point being, that Ennis has written Kyle positively at least once, as the post I was replying to stated. The end, no moral.

[icon_uk]

I was attempting (badly I suspect) to suggest that "kinder than some" is still not much of an improvement on the tone.

Portraying him as a "generally well-meaning, inexperienced hero whose biggest problem was that he was getting shit on by the rest of his team" is still feeding the expectations of the parts of the fanbase that assumed that was all he ever was. To me that's still "feeding the haters" and isn't a good idea.

Morrison, who has confessed a deal of liking for Kyle's character ignored that take on him, and showed him as the creative, confident hero, regardless of what the prevalent trend was.

[stolisomancer]

I'm still confused as to what point you're trying to make. Somebody asked what other times Ennis had written Kyle; I said "here, and it's actually pretty good compared to how some people wrote him at the time"; you're talking about "feeding the haters."

You seem to be trying to pick a semantic argument with somebody else.

[icon_uk]

Re-reading it after a (badly needed) nights sleep, you know what, I haven't a bloody clue what point I was trying to make so I throw myself on the mercy of the court, your honour!