The Amazing Spider-Man #38: Breaking News, Part One

[superboyprime]

Comments

[janegray]

I want to like this, because I've always wanted to see a story where JJJ supports Spidey. But I just hate this. The whole thing is bringing out of me the visceral response of "ok boomer."

I don't even disagree with the evils of clockbait. But the whole tone of "internet journalism sucks, it lacks the integrity of real journalism!" makes me want to pull receipts about how "real journalists" kept the camera pointed at Trump's empty seat while Clinton was in the middle of a speech during the 2016 Campaigns, and how "real journalism" has been so terrible for so long that, since the Bush years, the most reliable source of information were comedy shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Meanwhile Buzzfeed uses the revenue from its crappy clickbait articles to fund legit investigations into serious issues.

[draganoche]

The tone seems more to be that Jonah is being a hypocrite when he complains about them because Norah is basing her clickbait off of Jonah's spiderman vendetta.

[mazway_75]

Plus, him ready to complain about their "low pay no benefits" then remembering his massive lowballing of Peter and others on salaries and such. I remember when the staff threw Peter a wedding party with a big check supposedly from Jonah. Peter said he knew it wasn't his idea and tried to give it back, JJJ saying no...and then telling his secretary "make a note of every person here, I'd hate to dock the pay of someone who didn't attend."

[mazway_75]

It does seem they paint so many sites with the same brush as all horrible when so many are good. Deadspin was doing actual fun sports journalism alongside some clickbait stuff. Likewise a bunch of other places, they're not all about just "listicles" and gossip.

Meanwhile, you got legit print media spots going in hard times with Sports Illustrated's new bosses turning it into a monthly print and their (always crummy) website a content farm. It really seems too many fall into "new media is pure evil" off just the worst examples.

But I do like how they approach the idea of JJJ facing up to his own issues in the past with his Spidey bias and treatment of workers. And it makes sense his attempts to help just make it harder for Spidey.

[bravest_spinja]

Also, it should be mentioned that Jonah's always been depicted as cartoonishly old-fashioned and cantankerous even in his day, so I think they're just making him squirm around millennial quirks for comic effect. This isn't like Captain America wifstfully musing kids don't like playing Cowboys and Indians anymore.

[cainofdreaming]

So, Jameson is working at a troll factory?

He must be so conflicted, it should feel like home but all these kids...

[starwolf_oakley]

Given the "end" of the Daily Bugle and Peter's photography career, (Amazing Spider-Man #624 by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta), this might be the only way for Peter and JJJ to have a relationship: Jonah being "in" on the Big Secret.

I've speculated J Jonah Jameson was a warning against William Randolph Hearst and tabloid journalism on Steve Ditko's part.

[tinygaylaura]

Silver Age Jonah definitely felt like that.

Later writers definitely did show that aside from his desire to blame Spider-Man for everything from the assasination of Arch Duke Ferdinand right up to trying to pin the planning of the Hatton Garden job on him he was actually a good journalist who cared both about important issues and the staff of his paper

He's just weirdly paranoid about spidery men

[zachbeacon]

I know Norah is unpopular with a lot of the fandom but I didn't hate her until this moment.

[donnblake]

This probably doesn't matter, but those dice are wrong. On a standard d6, the three and the four are on opposite faces.

[wizardru]

Yeah, it's a little distracting to me, too. Opposite sides on a normal die add up to 7: 3-4, 2-5, 1-6.

[zachbeacon]

Weirdly I think I first noticed this because it was a plot point in one of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.

[tinygaylaura]

Jonah: These dagblasted kids know nothing about REAL journalism!

You call this a news office?

Where's the mad scientists who are going to bond sleazy PI's with arachnid themed super suits?!

Where are the crackpot inventors building homicidal robots?!

And I bet not a single person on this staff is secretly a crime lord!

YOU!

(Points angrily at terrified intern)

Are you putting on a leather mask and having people murdered in a gang war with a South American immortal!?!

Intern: Are...are you asking me out or...

Jonah: INCOMPETENTS