Spider-Man: Life Story #2

[WebSlingWonder]

Or maybe people have different opinions and levels of enjoyment.

Let's just agree to disagree on this one.

[Scott Taylor]

The costume and other cosmetic differences are minor, to me, in light of the sweeping and overarching changes the entire story has made to the mythos. I mean, when you are seeing real life Gwen get destroyed in a clone chamber by a pumpkin bomb thrown by Harry Osborn, you kind of forget that he's wearing a black costume and Peter has shoulder-pads.

[WebSlingWonder]

The costume and other cosmetic differences are minor, to me, in light of the sweeping and overarching changes the entire story has made to the mythos. I mean, when you are seeing real life Gwen get destroyed in a clone chamber by a pumpkin bomb thrown by Harry Osborn, you kind of forget that he's wearing a black costume and Peter has shoulder-pads.

Exactly my thoughts.

[stillanerd]

Two issues in and I'm REALLY enjoying Spider-Man: Life Story. I'd even say the second issue may be slightly better than the first, primarily because no matter how crazy the departures it takes from continuity, these still feel like the characters we know. Okay, so they're into Disco, sure. Nobody's perfect.

Stillanerd Reviews: Spider-Man: Life Story No. 2 review

[stillanerd]

The costume and other cosmetic differences are minor, to me, in light of the sweeping and overarching changes the entire story has made to the mythos. I mean, when you are seeing real life Gwen get destroyed in a clone chamber by a pumpkin bomb thrown by Harry Osborn, you kind of forget that he's wearing a black costume and Peter has shoulder-pads.

Exactly my thoughts.

Same here. Granted, Spider-Man's costume does looks like something made in 2019 than 1977, but it's easy to overlook considering the emotional impact of the story and how the characters are affected by it.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Two issues in and I'm REALLY enjoying Spider-Man: Life Story. I'd even say the second issue may be slightly better than the first, primarily because no matter how crazy the departures it takes from continuity, these still feel like the characters we know. Okay, so they're into Disco, sure. Nobody's perfect.

Stillanerd Reviews: Spider-Man: Life Story No. 2 review

Great review.

I do wonder if Life Story appeals mainly to Spider-Man continuity nerds. Can this comic be an introduction to Spider-Man for a general reader? Like you kind of need to know who Miles Warren is and what he did to grok the major plot twist. Or I guess maybe you need to get readers to check up and read the original clone saga and other stories. OTOH, the Clone Saga is still popular, and the Clone Conspiracy sells well on marvel unlimited so maybe no introduction is needed.

X-Men Grand Design for instance really can work as an introduction to X-Men. It streamlines the entire history and continuity into a single chronicle but it tells you and explains everyone and their place and tell a full story in it.

[stillanerd]

Great review.

I do wonder if Life Story appeals mainly to Spider-Man continuity nerds. Can this comic be an introduction to Spider-Man for a general reader? Like you kind of need to know who Miles Warren is and what he did to grok the major plot twist. Or I guess maybe you need to get readers to check up and read the original clone saga and other stories. OTOH, the Clone Saga is still popular, and the Clone Conspiracy sells well on marvel unlimited so maybe no introduction is needed.

X-Men Grand Design for instance really can work as an introduction to X-Men. It streamlines the entire history and continuity into a single chronicle but it tells you and explains everyone and their place and tell a full story in it.

Thanks! And you raise an excellent point. On the one hand, I agree that Spider-Man fans who know their continuity inside and out will definitely have a greater appreciation for this series. On the other hand, you really don't need to know that Miles Warren was the Jackal to understand that he has a very creepy fixation on Gwen, which I think Zdarsky did really well in getting across with this issue.

I also agree about X-Men: Grand Design, especially given how convoluted X-Men history can really get, even without all the time travel.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Thanks! And you raise an excellent point. On the one hand, I agree that Spider-Man fans who know their continuity inside and out will definitely have a greater appreciation for this series. On the other hand, you really don't need to know that Miles Warren was the Jackal to understand that he has a very creepy fixation on Gwen, which I think Zdarsky did really well in getting across with this issue.

I also agree about X-Men: Grand Design, especially given how convoluted X-Men history can really get, even without all the time travel.

Grand Design really inserts the X-Men into the decades in which the story was published. Just like here. Zdarsky is quite bold having Peter age in real-time and inserting different Spider-Man runs into the actual decades. So it's the 70s, and so you have the Drug Trilogy and you have Conway's Night Gwen Stacy Died, The First Clone Saga (and also a bit of Parallel Lives) but the characters are now 30 rather than early 20s they were in 616. Next issue will have a mid-30s to 40 Spider-Man in Secret Wars, and may KLH. Of course once you get to the 2000s and you have Peter as a high school teacher circa-JMS it will maybe have greater resonance than before.

[stillanerd]

Grand Design really inserts the X-Men into the decades in which the story was published. Just like here. Zdarsky is quite bold having Peter age in real-time and inserting different Spider-Man runs into the actual decades. So it's the 70s, and so you have the Drug Trilogy and you have Conway's Night Gwen Stacy Died, The First Clone Saga (and also a bit of Parallel Lives) but the characters are now 30 rather than early 20s they were in 616. Next issue will have a mid-30s to 40 Spider-Man in Secret Wars, and may KLH. Of course once you get to the 2000s and you have Peter as a high school teacher circa-JMS it will maybe have greater resonance than before.

Indeed, and that's what I'm really looking forward to about how Zdarsky could incorporate stuff like "Kraven's Last Hunt" into this version of Spider-Man. Especially when you consider how Kraven would very likely be twenty years older than he was in the original story. Also, what if Peter has a kid next issue? How would that impact this potential version of "Kraven's Last Hunt?"

[boots]

I loved the first issue. I found it extremely well written, "remaking" important stories and packing a lot of classic subplots in just one issue.

This one took more liberties with the source material and most of them I found lackluster.

The good:
- Heroes fighting in Vietnam
- MJ marrying Harry is an interesting take
- Peter actually having a career and working with Reed
- Little insights such as Sue with Namor and Dr Connor's cure

The bad:
- The new costume is ugly and unnecessary
- Black Goblin? What does that add to the story?
- Gwen's death being so uninspiring compared to the original
- Peter marrying a clone and that clone leaving him for HIS clone. Or was the Peter we followed the bearded one in the ending? F*ck, I don't even care, it doesn't make sense anyway.

my take on peter's new costume and the black goblin is that they're fairly natural developments in a "real time" type story. without the perpetual need to give the audience "same same but different on repeat" decade after decade, things like peter's costume would go through different phases that are sustained. like any celebrity, singer or even wrestler...look back over photos of their careers and you can (roughly) define their decades by a "look". i'm not so sure introducing armour for this decade was the most appropriate style but i still appreciate the effort.

same goes for the black goblin, without marvel needing to create a sensational "omg return of the x" character story, it makes more sense for harry to put his own stamp on the identity and for norman to want to retain the original mantle since he ain't dead. in that way, it's a bit of a nod towards hobgob too.

and, it seems like in this universe if you go to jail...you stay there. that was the biggest revelation to me.

[boots]

Two issues in and I'm REALLY enjoying Spider-Man: Life Story. I'd even say the second issue may be slightly better than the first, primarily because no matter how crazy the departures it takes from continuity, these still feel like the characters we know. Okay, so they're into Disco, sure. Nobody's perfect.

Stillanerd Reviews: Spider-Man: Life Story No. 2 review

one thing i'm finding is that the "crazy" departures still make sense and feel familiar, hitting many of the same beats.

chip has all the pieces of 616 history but he can see another picture within that picture.

[boots]

I do wonder if Life Story appeals mainly to Spider-Man continuity nerds. Can this comic be an introduction to Spider-Man for a general reader? Like you kind of need to know who Miles Warren is and what he did to grok the major plot twist.

honestly, i think half the appeal is the knowledge of 616 prior. it works as a riff for fans, it also works as a bit of postmodernism.

but i reckon it could be difficult for a fresh reader (outside superheroes) to get invested in the story, and they might find its pace and time jumps confusing.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

my take on peter's new costume and the black goblin is that they're fairly natural developments in a "real time" type story. without the perpetual need to give the audience "same same but different on repeat" decade after decade, things like peter's costume would go through different phases that are sustained. like any celebrity, singer or even wrestler...look back over photos of their careers and you can (roughly) define their decades by a "look". i'm not so sure introducing armour for this decade was the most appropriate style but i still appreciate the effort.

same goes for the black goblin, without marvel needing to create a sensational "omg return of the x" character story, it makes more sense for harry to put his own stamp on the identity and for norman to want to retain the original mantle since he ain't dead. in that way, it's a bit of a nod towards hobgob too.

and, it seems like in this universe if you go to jail...you stay there. that was the biggest revelation to me.

I actually think that's what Life Story is really fun in doing...I see it more or less as what was advertised, 616 without Comic Book Time, and what Zdarsky hit on was, not only would the stories be different, the characters would be different, the resolution and conflict would be different too. There's a lot of cool ideas that is presented there.

And it's also really subtle. Like on re-reading the issue, that scene between MJ and Harry in that apartment just by body language, not so much by dialogue, shows that Harry was jealous of MJ's obvious attraction and interest in Peter. He asks her if she's upset over him, and instead she's upset over Peter. And it's just so subtly done.

stillanerd in his review for #2 also picked up a cool bit. MJ brings up Flash and about the fact that Peter just made a scene and didn't stop him. If you go back and look at Issue #1, one of the panels shows MJ and Harry talking in the background while Peter and Flash are having a row, and her eyes are darted at Peter. This is Gibbons-Moore kind of stuff in terms of economy in each panel. Like the next panel shows MJ talking to Flash right away.

Life Story Panel MJ.jpg

If Zdarsky sticks the landing, this has the potential to be Spider-Man's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.

[Orbus]

Can't say I'm feeling this.

Bagley's art will always be fine with me especially on Spider-Man but it feels too contemporary even when drawing period specific fashion. I think this is a book that could have benefited from painted art to give it a more a timeless quality.

The first issue had an interesting premise of Peter who is all about responsibility actually doing the responsible thing and turning in Norman for being the Green Goblin but Zdarsky lost me with #2. I know that the point of this series is not necessarily to replicate the writing styles of the eras they are representing but I just can't imagine the characters in the 70s being this way and the Clone Saga angle seemed like an even worse version of the Spider-Man TAS episode were it was revealed the Mary Jane Peter married was actually a clone. Also the more immediately practical interpretation of responsibility that led to Peter turning Norman in doesn't ring true in the second issue, like if Peter believed that there's a moral duty to being in Vietnam then why isn't he fighting alongside Iron Man and Hank Pym? At very least doing he should be doing something more than working for a guy who believes is wrongly hoarding his innovations.

Speaking of which given the plans Marvel has for more Life Stories I wonder if they are all set in the same universe. Will we see Iron Man and Captain America fighting in Vietnam? Will we see the breakdown of Reed and Sue's marriage?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Also the more immediately practical interpretation of responsibility that led to Peter turning Norman in doesn't ring true in the second issue, like if Peter believed that there's a moral duty to being in Vietnam then why isn't he fighting alongside Iron Man and Hank Pym?

Cap told him that he should follow his heart. He got married and has a wife and a job, and is settled in middle-class comfort. So Peter did do responsible things it's just that he's always going to be divided and regretful about the things he didn't do, especially given that Flash died and that Captain America's intervention in 1968 didn't end the war. So maybe he feels guilty and thinks Cap was wrong. I mean part of it might be "why didn't Cap save Flash" and so on. Peter's character is always indecisive, regretful, second-guessing, schismatic. He would never really be satisfied or ever be comfortable that he has done the right thing. He is fundamentally insecure.

At very least doing he should be doing something more than working for a guy who believes is wrongly hoarding his innovations.

I actually am more on Reed's side on that.

Peter Parker: "Why do you always act like you're from some other planet? Like you can't — can't interfere with "humans"? These are our people, Reed. We're human!"
Reed Richards: "But Pete...I'm not. And neither is Giant-Man or Iron Man or any other "super hero" with "man" in their name. Like they're trying to convince the world they're still just like them. Things have changed. The wellspring of powers, the growth of mutants. We need to be careful or we'll end up ruling the world, creating a massive level of inequality."

I love that implication "any other 'super hero' with 'man' in their name" which is such a random tidbit to drop in. It's basically a hint that Reed knows Peter is Spider-Man. But anyway, Reed's point that superheroes could end up ruling the world if they unleash their bleeding edge stuff is valid, we saw that in Alan Moore's Miracleman.

In the real world we see this anxiety about automation and other stuff, where the political and social systems aren't keeping at pace with technological innovations. Like obviously with more automation, and the rise of a more creative economy you might need stuff like an UBI, or health care and so on. But there's fierce resistance to doing that, and in a capitalist system, all that stuff is IP and patents owned by a few top tech firms who consolidate, merge, and earn an hoard more and more money.

And Reed's Future Foundation apparently is innovating on a lot of stuff like mobile communications that's slowly seeping into the market.

I actually do like the fact that Zdarsky is making something gray in his story, where you aren't always sure who is right. Sure Captain America looks like he did the moral and good thing in Issue #1 but you also understand where Peter is going with his criticism. Between Reed and Peter, you might think Pete

Speaking of which given the plans Marvel has for more Life Stories I wonder if they are all set in the same universe. Will we see Iron Man and Captain America fighting in Vietnam? Will we see the breakdown of Reed and Sue's marriage?

There aren't any real plans. All it's been said is that if this sells well, there might be more. But nothing definite is confirmed. Zdarsky originally wanted this to be a maxi-series that was a Marvel Universe wide thing but Tom Brevoort felt it was too unwieldy and said to just focus on Spider-Man, the stuff with the other heroes is based on left-over traces of his original plans.