The Show Must Go On

[mizerous]

Noticed the old threads of this story lost the images, so I figured I would use a different source for the comic pages because this very human comic involving real depression needs to be read again.

The story came up in Webspinners - Tales of Spider-Man #10-12. An anthology run that ended up canceled after eighteen issues. This was written by Paul Jenkins who later took on Peter Paker Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man. Enjoy.






































Then, he came back to life because comics...

Comments

[commodus]

That's a really strong little story. I love how Spider-Man's tendency to mock his villains isn't played off always as being comedic, but a character flaw which can make things worse when dealing with people who are already very vulnerable.
And this is probably one of the most human stories I've seen featuring the Chameleon, and really runs with the idea of him losing his own identity after mimicking so many people.

[zachbeacon]

This is why Jenkins may be the best Spider-Man writer since DeMatteis.

Poor, Demitri.

[thenicochan]

Never seen this before, and so glad I had the chance to see it now. This is a great take on a character I've never given to much thought to, despite the awesome potential for storytelling. Thanks so much for sharing!

[mizerous]

No problem.

[silverhammerman]

My only previous experience with this story was when Cracked.com, I think it was Seanbaby writing, wrote off this story as having ruined the character because "Chameleon turns out to be gay and then kills himself". In retrospect, not only was that a pretty clear mischaracterization of the actual text of the story, but also really quite homophobic.

Anyway, now that I've had a stark encounter with some formative interenet texts which were maybe not super great, this is pretty good.

[zachbeacon]

Chameleon's perceived sexuality is pretty interesting to me. IIRC part of the reason they made him and Kraven brothers is because fans noticed connections between the two and drew thier own conclusions. If anything having a crush on Spider-Man (the OTHER guy who beats him up and calls him names) seems like a return to a previous status quo.

Plus this is a character who has been shown to have struggles with his identity since at least the 90s.

[sarahnewlin]

Aunt May knocking on the door just reminds me of that infamous contextual scene where she finds the web goo coming from under the door and its all sticky