The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man #1

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[walkingthroughforest]

.....excuse me while I bleach....everything.

[alicemacher]

Is it just me, cyberghostface, or did you get a strong "Batman/Joker fucked-up bromance" vibe from the scene with Spidey and Doc Ock? :-)

[lordultimus]

Christ, has this guy ever written something that wasn't mean-spirited, cynical garbage?

[tcampbell1000]

I enjoyed his Hate in doses, but it's for that reason that I feel confident in saying this isn't really that different. Only because it's written over characters we actually care about, it doesn't work so well.

And honestly, I think the Joker has pretty much exhausted the potential of the "superheroes and supervillains are sort of dating" gag.

[zachbeacon]

I bought this when it came out because I'd been hearing that Bagge was a very popular indy creator.

There are a lot of major comic people whose work I don't care for but I get why others do. Pete Bagge is not one of them. I really don't understand why anyone would enjoy this.

[tcampbell1000]

Bagge's work works a lot better on his own characters. He's trying to satirize Ditko and Objectivism here, but he's really just turning Peter and Gwen into people more in his wheelhouse. And if you're not already invested in his work, it's a little like seeing them matched to The OFfice characters without knowing anything about The Office.

[zachbeacon]

I didn't pick up on the Ayn Rand stuff the first time I read it. Now it's impossible for me to miss.

Understanding the reference doesn't make it good.

[starwolf_oakley]

Weird.

And somehow "Ben Parker was killed over money he owed criminals" sounds familiar. Did they consider using that over the years?

[ozaline]

I don't know about that, but the Telltale Batman series did something similar with Thomas Wayne... revealed he was very dirty, and that Alfred had let Bruce believe he was a saint.

[jgeils]

If it wasn't already screaming "old Parker is Steve Ditko", the Ayn Rand reference sealed it.

[starwolf_oakley]

People who worked with Steve Ditko said he had a "We work before we play" attitude, according to a randon podcast I remember.

[commodus]

Ehh...I don't think the US Government lied about the Kennedy assassination.
Also, I hate this.

[icon_uk]

Wait, Marvel published this?

Out of the many questions floating in the air after reading this, let me grab "Why?"

[lego_joker]

I did a little Googling, and apparently Startling Stories is some special "mature" division of Marvel's, perhaps analogous to Vertigo/Black Label for DC. I guess its writers are allowed to get away with shit most Marvel writers never could?

[filthysize]

This was the worst of them. The FF one, "Unstable Molecules," was fantastic.

[lordultimus]

I remember a back-up story from that Amazing Spider-Man Family book they had right after OMD that left me convinced that Marvel secretly hates Spider-Man and only continues to publish him just to see him suffer.