Parker industries speculation

[rward777]

I get the feeling after the mysterious villian storyline wraps up, Peter will rebuild PI. It probably won't be at worldwide status like it was on the Slott era, but as a struggling start up.

[Snoop Dogg]

Spencer will take Peter along the same road he was on. Running a bar, being a politician, and then writing high-concept Image comics.

[Miles To Go]

I get the feeling after the mysterious villian storyline wraps up, Peter will rebuild PI. It probably won't be at worldwide status like it was on the Slott era, but as a struggling start up.

I don't want him anywhere near starting a company again.

[Snoop Dogg]

aw wouldn't peter forming a startup company with curt just be the cutest thing

aw what if adrian joined them awwww so cute

[oldschool]

Nah, I don't see that at all. Regardless of whether or not one liked the idea of PI (or Peter owning/running any sort of company), I think that was a means to an end for Slott to end his run by having Peter rise as high as possible before returning him to a street-level status quo. And Spencer excels at street level stories; moreover, with Tom Taylor telling stories in a similar tone in FNSM, I don't think a new PI is coming anytime soon.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The biggest problem I had with Slott's run in general, and Parker Industries is that outside of the more-Randian-than-Ditko idea that Peter's end-game goal is to become a businessman/entrepreneur which Slott and the story kept hyping up, it's that the minute Peter becomes an ex-billionaire he has at one time ceased to be a working-class or lower-middle class hero, he has become permanently unrelatable, and you have also killed the idea of a future for Peter.

Before writers focusing on a Peter in his 20s to early 30s could project that somewhere Peter would have some amount of academic success or do something to monetize his gifts. Now you can't do that when he's done it and moved past it in his mid-to-late twenties. You also have him guilty of plagiarism and that kills his academic credibility and his sense of ethics. The minute Peter walked by a frame showing a graduate degree he didn't earn and didn't turn in right away, he is a plagiarist pure and simple and academically that kind of stuff kills your integrity and standing.

One thing that nobody discusses is that the entire time Slott wrote Peter, he never once wrote a street-level Peter. He initially wrote him as working at Horizon Labs which okay was still a job that needed office politics and so on, and it was Peter going to a middle-class space which is fair. But then you had Peter written out of his books for a year and a half during which Parker Industries is formed, and then Slot writes him as a rich douchebag for the rest of the run, until his final issues where he perfunctorily ends that entire status-quo.

[oldschool]

The biggest problem I had with Slott's run in general, and Parker Industries is that outside of the more-Randian-than-Ditko idea that Peter's end-game goal is to become a businessman/entrepreneur which Slott and the story kept hyping up, it's that the minute Peter becomes an ex-billionaire he has at one time ceased to be a working-class or lower-middle class hero, he has become permanently unrelatable, and you have also killed the idea of a future for Peter.

Before writers focusing on a Peter in his 20s to early 30s could project that somewhere Peter would have some amount of academic success or do something to monetize his gifts. Now you can't do that when he's done it and moved past it in his mid-to-late twenties. You also have him guilty of plagiarism and that kills his academic credibility and his sense of ethics. The minute Peter walked by a frame showing a graduate degree he didn't earn and didn't turn in right away, he is a plagiarist pure and simple and academically that kind of stuff kills your integrity and standing.

One thing that nobody discusses is that the entire time Slott wrote Peter, he never once wrote a street-level Peter. He initially wrote him as working at Horizon Labs which okay was still a job that needed office politics and so on, and it was Peter going to a middle-class space which is fair. But then you had Peter written out of his books for a year and a half during which Parker Industries is formed, and then Slot writes him as a rich douchebag for the rest of the run, until his final issues where he perfunctorily ends that entire status-quo.

I think it's been pretty much accepted that Slott's biggest deficiency as a writer for Spidey is that he didn't have a good feel for Peter at all. Never got his voice exactly right and certainly didn't write him as an everyman; frankly, JMS didn't either after his first year on the title (having him teach was great although it didn't make it easy for him to take off at a moment's notice to save the city from Rhino's latest rampage)----once JMS (and Marvel editorial who I assume was calling the shots) had Spidey become and Avenger and move into Avengers Tower a lot of the street-level and everyman feel was also gone. It's refreshing to see both Spencer and Taylor rediscovering that charm which is an essential element of Spidey IMO.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think it's been pretty much accepted that Slott's biggest deficiency as a writer for Spidey is that he didn't have a good feel for Peter at all. Never got his voice exactly right and certainly didn't write him as an everyman; frankly, JMS didn't either after his first year on the title (having him teach was great although it didn't make it easy for him to take off at a moment's notice to save the city from Rhino's latest rampage)----once JMS (and Marvel editorial who I assume was calling the shots) had Spidey become and Avenger and move into Avengers Tower a lot of the street-level and everyman feel was also gone. It's refreshing to see both Spencer and Taylor rediscovering that charm which is an essential element of Spidey IMO.

Not sure about "first year on the title"...because JMS took over in 2000, and New Avengers #1 came out in January 2005. High School Teacher Pete in both main titles and Jenkins' Spectacular and also Millar's Marvel Knights did produce a lot of stuff. And Dan Slott wrote Teacher Pete in the final issue of Spider-Man/Human Torch. And you returned to the everyman world in Back in Black and towards the end of Sensational Spider-Man where the cop character who was Peter's friend shows up again. The Avengers Towers was a fairly small part of that era numerically and as novelty it's not so bad especially since before they did the whole "Tony is Peter's Dad" thing which always felt forced to me, they had Peter voice resentment about living on Tony's dime and so on.

Spencer after TASM#1v.5 heavily downplays the whole Parker Industries thing. Like in that entire scene in the villains' club, everyone says Peter is the photographer of Spider-Man who wrote that book of pictures (which I always liked, its an example of Peter getting some success but it not sticking...since a book of photographs isn't by nature a bestseller and given that Spider-Man's approval ratings ebbs and flows, its easy for it to go out of print) but Peter was this famous renowned businessman. He also employed some ex-villains...he is basically attained a celebrity status similar to Mary Jane. Tom Taylor in FNSM#1v.2 has one of Peter's neighbors call him a "national disgrace" so he's either famous or notorious, a Martin Shkrelli-like figure or a disreputable type at the very least.

Not to put too fine a point at it, but Peter becoming a plagiarist businessman ruins more toys in the box than Peter being married ever did.

[Frontier]

I'd be very surprised if the Parker Industries era is ever bought up again outside a nod or reference, probably emphasizing just how ridiculous it was.

I think it's been pretty much accepted that Slott's biggest deficiency as a writer for Spidey is that he didn't have a good feel for Peter at all. Never got his voice exactly right and certainly didn't write him as an everyman; frankly, JMS didn't either after his first year on the title (having him teach was great although it didn't make it easy for him to take off at a moment's notice to save the city from Rhino's latest rampage)----once JMS (and Marvel editorial who I assume was calling the shots) had Spidey become and Avenger and move into Avengers Tower a lot of the street-level and everyman feel was also gone. It's refreshing to see both Spencer and Taylor rediscovering that charm which is an essential element of Spidey IMO.

I think it became apparent the more Slott was on the title that he was trying to make Spider-Man be more like the books he ended up leaving ASM to write.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'd be very surprised if the Parker Industries era is ever bought up again outside a nod or reference, probably emphasizing just how ridiculous it was.

Actually in ASM#14v.5 the recent one, Parker Industries is referred to but in a way that points out the problems it creates. So far it's mostly being used to reset stuff to the more traditional roles these characters once had.

But basically it creates problems if Peter had success, went up the social ladder and came back again. He loses a lot of his relatability and losing all that money and opportunity is kind of a little too saddening, since it's not believable that for someone of Peter's background to get such a chance, then lose it to ever get there again. In real-life, corporations are too big too fail, and stuff like Parker Industries and so on is more reminiscent of the Dotcom Bubble or in the video game industry, John Romero's company that went bust when they made Daikatana and invested heavily in these facilities and so on and since then Romero has never gone back to who he once was.

The editors should have nipped that in the bud and told Slott not to take the story there because it definitely ruins a few toys in the box.

I think it became apparent the more Slott was on the title that he was trying to make Spider-Man be more like the books he ended up leaving ASM to write.

The general problem is that Post-OMD without actual change or possibilities and a demand from readers for change...you need to start elaborate spinning of wheels and so on. And Slott stayed on the title for too long. Slott also by his own admission doesn't know how real science and tech companies operate and so on...so he said that Peter Parker is like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, forgetting that neither Musk or Jobs actually invented any of that stuff. In real-life there aren't many examples of inventors-businessmen. The Tesla car and Tesla Motors which everyone associates with Elon Musk was actually built by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Steve Jobs was more about presentation and aesthetics than actually programming and so on which was done by Woz. The one big exception is James Dyson but he's British and he designed vacuum cleaners.

[Snoop Dogg]

PI wasn't done because he didn't want to do Spider-Man, that's his favorite character. It was done because it was weird and off-concept, which is why it was temporary. To do a fleshed-out version of a What If? type scenario where he reaches his full potential, only to end the arc with him sacrificing that because of who he is. It's not an arc you can tell with Iron Man just because they're both rich.

[your_name_here]

Teacher-Pete was a great choice and probably my favourite adult-job he got. I wish they’d stuck with that. The scene in Millar Marvel Knights where, despite his world going to ****, he still takes time to help a kid with homework was great.

As Snoop Dog said, though, it was a concept to show what Peter would sacrifice because of what he believes in. But I think it’ll be glossed over in the future. Spencer seems to be doing a good job of downplaying it and erasing it from our memory.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I never believed that Peter reaching his full potential involved/needed/required him becoming a businessman-entrepreneur and the overall assumption that this was so is one reason I saw Parker Industries/Worldwide as "more Randian than Ditko". In so far as Peter had ambitions as a scientist, it involved being Reed Richards and not Tony Stark, and as per ASM#246, his fantasy involved winning the Nobel Prize for his papers. So Peter never had ambitions to be Tony Stark or any such thing in canon.

Sacrificing something for what you believe in would have worked better if Peter divested Parker Industries and turned in his fake degree the minute he got hold of his body again. The minute Peter accepts both he has morally compromised himself, and undermined his integrity.

And Tony Stark has had at least two stories where for the greater good he has given up his stuff and gone poor and then crawled back on top. Iron Man 3 was all about Iron Man showing that, "You can take my house, my tricks and toys, but one thing you can't take from me, I am Iron Man". So I don't agree that this wasn't a story you could do with Iron Man.

[Mister Mets]

I never believed that Peter reaching his full potential involved/needed/required him becoming a businessman-entrepreneur and the overall assumption that this was so is one reason I saw Parker Industries/Worldwide as "more Randian than Ditko". In so far as Peter had ambitions as a scientist, it involved being Reed Richards and not Tony Stark, and as per ASM#246, his fantasy involved winning the Nobel Prize for his papers. So Peter never had ambitions to be Tony Stark or any such thing in canon.

Sacrificing something for what you believe in would have worked better if Peter divested Parker Industries and turned in his fake degree the minute he got hold of his body again. The minute Peter accepts both he has morally compromised himself, and undermined his integrity.

And Tony Stark has had at least two stories where for the greater good he has given up his stuff and gone poor and then crawled back on top. Iron Man 3 was all about Iron Man showing that, "You can take my house, my tricks and toys, but one thing you can't take from me, I am Iron Man". So I don't agree that this wasn't a story you could do with Iron Man.

It's a different story with Iron Man since he was born rich. But he has bounced back each time.

The earlier parts of the Parker Industry story are also different from Iron Man since Peter isn't used to the idea of running a major company.

[Frontier]

PI wasn't done because he didn't want to do Spider-Man, that's his favorite character. It was done because it was weird and off-concept, which is why it was temporary. To do a fleshed-out version of a What If? type scenario where he reaches his full potential, only to end the arc with him sacrificing that because of who he is. It's not an arc you can tell with Iron Man just because they're both rich.

Is that why it felt like he was trying to write Iron Man ?