What did you think of Parker Industries?

[Mister Mets]

A controversial element of the latter half of Dan Slott's run was Peter Parker's status as a Tech CEO. One of the complicating factors in the arguments is that we didn't really know the endgame.

Now that it's been about two years since the fall of Parker Industries, what did you guys think of this status quo/ period of the comics?

[CrimsonEchidna]

I like the idea on paper but the execution left much to be desired. Biggest failing point IMHO is it felt like barely any of the employees got fleshed out so there was no real since of "identity" for Pete's new found workplace.

[Jman27]

Thought it was fine Peter handle bigger events while Miles handle NYC. Peter was successful as Peter and as Spiderman but unfortunately it wasn't the stupid status quo so it had to go.

[Hybrid]

The concept is cool, and under the hands of a better writer it might have been the new status quo now. Different, yes, but this could effectively give Peter that reward he deserves for a life of struggle, and from our perspective, give us a cool take of "Spider-Man as Batman". The execution on the other hand left a lot to be desired. It just wasn't nearly as cool as it could've been.

[SuperiorIronman]

The concept was fine but the execution was more than a little lacking.

For the longest time we didn't really know what Parker Industries even did outside of things Otto was up to. I believe Parker Industries did bid on making a prison and then made light-bulbs, did some charity work, and made phones. The company as a whole didn't really play into Peter's strengths. A phone is a useful tool, but none of that played into things that had been useful to first response teams or security services, things Peter actually knew about. It came off more as just an excuse to sell some new merch and justify some gadgets Peter used more than it had anything to do with his character. Parker Industries also suffered for being the trial run for Slott's Iron man. While that isn't necessarily a problem, it comes off as more Slott wanting to write Tony Stark more than it is Peter Parker and he couldn't quite mesh the characters. The progression was definitely there even if he wasn't the greatest CEO, but Slott couldn't quite get it to work. Peter outside of his costume didn't spend much time there and so it's more a toy ad if anything.

Zodiac wasn't particularly great and the only reason I find people remember this was because it was setup for GDS, setup you can actually overlook entirely or skip.

The costume itself was actually pretty good. As a modern update I like it even if I still don't understand why it has the Halloween costume glow in the dark functionality. The downside was that it's abilities are woefully inconsistent or outright ludicrous like the fall from space which by no means Peter should've survived

I don't hate the era (that much), but my dislike of it mostly stems from its wasted potential or just the dumb things it did which seems to overshadow the good that was there.

[Celgress]

The concept was fine but the execution was lacking. I think it would have worked better if Peter and MJ were together at the time, plus if he would have drafted most of his traditional supporting cast to help him run various departments. Meanwhile, Miles could have taken over in NYC while being connected with PI so if he ever needed help or guidance Peter would be there for him.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The entire idea never really worked because it didn't have any sense of reality to it nor have anything tied to the characters.

Did Peter have plans to develop a startup before or any time leading to it? No. Since Peter never really expressed a desire for it, didn't work towards it, there was no real satisfaction when he got it, nor sadness when he lost it. In fact, the general sense and reaction was relief across-the-board. When Peter taught at high school there was tragedy to it because a) Peter liked the job, b) Was good at it, c) Lost it because of his Spider-Man stuff, d) As is clear in a moment in Back in Black, missed it when he lost it.

The entire seed of development seems to stem from "if you're so smart why aren't you rich", I mean it was started by Otto-In-Peter and the whole idea is "Otto is smart and evil so if he were in Peter's body he would start a business company because he's smart and evil". Erik Larsen said on twitter that if Otto had that kind of business acumen before how come he couldn't start Octavius Industries all by himself? So there's a kind of grade-school logic behind that conception that doesn't really work.

Likewise, Parker Industries never really dealt with any of the logical story potential in that concept. Like what would Peter Parker be like as a businessman with his sense of ethics? That was the entire point of JMS' run on Spider-Man with Peter teaching high school, it was about showing how Peter's ethics fit that milieu. If you wanted to, you could make a tragic story about how hard it's to be a good guy and be a businessman. There's a Frank Capra-like angle there. Instead Peter brazenly does deals with China without any of the ethical issues involved.

[boots]

needed more of peter snorting “the good stuff” before each board meeting

[Inversed]

I really liked the first Worldwide arc. It set up the new status quo really well, brought alot of new twists to how "Rich Spider-Man" would look like, it was fun and creative, and really had the potential to be different and new.

I think the biggest issue is the couple story arcs right after I felt weren't as interesting as they could've been (The Dark Kingdom, Scorpio Rising, Power Play), The Clone Conspiracy had it moreso in the background and had its own separate issues, The Osborn Identity thought was a step back in the right direction utilizing the status quo and telling an engaging story, but then it was followed by Secret Empire, which destroyed in a quick and ultimately underwhelming way. So didn't feel it got to live up to what exactly it could've done.

Felt like in some instances, the other Marvel books did a better job fleshing out PI's world building and connection to the rest of the universe than the main book did.

[RyanParkerMan]

A controversial element of the latter half of Dan Slott's run was Peter Parker's status as a Tech CEO. One of the complicating factors in the arguments is that we didn't really know the endgame.

Now that it's been about two years since the fall of Parker Industries, what did you guys think of this status quo/ period of the comics?

I didn't like the idea to begin with but the real problem as I see it was the execution. There was no drama or stress for Peter running a big company. I can forgive that you can't even build a company that big in 9 months and that Peter seemingly forgot Secret War. There was nothing really to Parker Industries other than big Spider-Robots. The way it ended sums up the entire story arc. It was nonsensical, silly, no drama or repercussions, no real story or stakes. After dropping the book and only reading issues here and there during BND, I read every issue of ASM starting with Big Time and outside the first 9 issues of Superior Spider-Man, I don't really like any of Slott's work, including Iron Man and FF.