What did you think of Parker Industries?

[Bloxer]

For me, I would love to see Peter take on a no-nonsense attitude when fighting certain opponents (Carnage, Kraven, Osborn, Fisk, Knull, etc), but still cracking wise against others, but the banter would be more condescending from Parker due to both strategy and how he actually sees his opponents (imagine Peter taking some savage swipes at Rhino or Scorpion, both verbally and physically). I would also reintroduce the Way of the Spider fighting style and have his powers from the Other unlocked to help maximize his power level. On the civilian side of the equation: Peter and Parker Industries would developing cutting edge and state-of-the-art technology to help solve various issues such as mass hunger, the ongoing energy crisis, various forms of medicine and cures for different diseases. An added and unexpected twist, Parker Industries would partake in the weapons & defense business by creating and selling weapons only to countries that have no other means of defending themselves adequately. Some countries would include, Atlantis, Symkaria and most infamous of all, the isle of Krakoa.

Another major point I would like to see is that Peter start showing a backbone while dealing with other heroes. I would be hype for Peter to get along with the likes of the Hulk (Banner), T'Challa, Doctor Strange, Moon Knight, the FF, Prowler, Namor, Daredevil and Ghost Rider (Blaze), but have a more rivalries with the likes of Stark, Danvers, Rogers, Barton, heck, let Spidey have beef with a vast majority of the Avengers on grounds of Spidey seeing them as more of a liability than allies, not to mention their connection to the likes of SHIELD, SWORD and the government would make him wary of them.

Also, not making it a normal thing, but Spidey needs to loosen up on his childish "No Killing" rule regarding certain villains (all of the encounters with Carnage and the Goblins being prime examples). Simply put, set up Spidey as a loose cannon type of vigilante while Peter Parker is considered a lovable science/business maverick. And finally, MJ is out of the picture. Time for a new, and preferably, super-powered, love interest.

I really don't see the point in Peter keeping the no-kill at this juncture regarding certain villains, not to mention that it can be used as a point to expand upon a plot of Spider-Man giving a voice to the "justice system being broken" deal, which would put Peter in major conflict with many other heroes (Avengers, possibly FF), but also attract and inspire others that think along the same lines (Moon Knight, Punisher, Ghost Rider). Also, I think the MJ relationship has ran its course for years and I just think that it's time for Pete to move on with someone that can actually keep up with him in and out of costume, and Mary Jane just does not have that dynamic.

None of this sounds like Spider-Man as much as it does bad fanfiction.
Really just sounds like you want Spider-Man to be refitted in a way that appeals specifically to you, rather than in a way that's actually true to the character and makes sense for him.

[Celgress]

None of this sounds like Spider-Man as much as it does bad fanfiction.
Really just sounds like you want Spider-Man to be refitted in a way that appeals specifically to you, rather than in a way that's actual to the character and makes sense for him.

Quite so, bad fanfiction which fundamentally alters the character and not in a good way.

[boots]

None of this sounds like Spider-Man as much as it does bad fanfiction.
Really just sounds like you want Spider-Man to be refitted in a way that appeals specifically to you, rather than in a way that's actually true to the character and makes sense for him.

what's wrong with turning spider-man into a murdering weapon-monger who intentionally makes enemies both at home and internationally? it's an easy leap from wed-shooters to web-nukes. more webbings of mass destruction, please marvel.

[Lukmendes]

None of this sounds like Spider-Man as much as it does bad fanfiction.
Really just sounds like you want Spider-Man to be refitted in a way that appeals specifically to you, rather than in a way that's actually true to the character and makes sense for him.

Yeah, the idea of that Peter would be more fitting for DC's Dark Multiverse thing, although one in the tamer side.

And no, I don't think it'd be a good idea to have an evil counterpart Peter for 616 Peter to confront, evil counterparts are mostly lazy, Maker is one of the few who works, and that's because we get more than a few panels saying how bad his life was and that's why he's evil, we saw it, plus Ultimate Reed turning evil wasn't exactly expected, and not in a bad way.

Quite so, bad fanfiction which fundamentally alters the character and not in a good way.

I'll be honest, if there's a bad fanfiction out there that fundamentally alters a character in a good way, I'd wanna read it just to know how the **** they managed to do it, not being sarcastic or joking by the way, that'd be somethin' to see lol.

what's wrong with turning spider-man into a murdering weapon-monger who intentionally makes enemies both at home and internationally? it's an easy leap from wed-shooters to web-nukes. more webbings of mass destruction, please marvel.

I mean, the Civilization games did some of that with Gandhi and it's quite popular, so maybe it'd work with Spidey too

[boots]

I mean, the Civilization games did some of that with Gandhi and it's quite popular, so maybe it'd work with Spidey too

i’m open to it

a nuke for a nuke will make the whole world fine

[Prof. Warren]

While there's still time, sure. Heck Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man had Peter talk about that in the second post-Ultimatum volume. Ultimate Peter visits the Bugle upgrading to digital and he talks to MJ about how happy he was that he got to be part of a great print paper when he still had a chance. It's like how much people who grew up in the 80s and 90s (which is where Ultimate Peter was) prize their analog childhoods.

And that nostalgia is very much in keeping with today's youth. That's why Vinyl came back in a big way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_revival). Why Stranger Things and 80s nostalgia is a thing. That was the last time people really had an analog childhood (though I grew up in the 90s so I had an analog childhood too but my family wasn't very rich so we weren't considered in the target demo).

I grew up in the '70s so I had a real analog childhood. I also know that analog childhoods are not going to be a part of anyone's memories not too far down the line.

Because of that there is a yearning for that time. Vinyl is enjoying a resurgence. VHS collecting is a thing. Young people born in the current century are attracted to '80s nostalgia.

That said, the Bugle can't play a part in Spider-Man strictly due to nostalgia. It has to have a real function to play rather than just being kept around for old times' sake.

They've found ways to keep it around and evolve it and I'm sure that will continue. But the days of it being so central to Peter's life are past.

Must be why that period was terrible. And in any case the best received new character from that time -- Norah Winters -- worked at the Bugle.

That period wasn't terrible. It was a mixed bag, which happens when you have rotating creative teams in a constant relay race with each other.

And yes, Norah is a great character - was she the "best received new character?" Debatable.

There's nothing to say that the Bugle must be phased out. It can still be a part of the book and new characters can emerge from it.

Your youthful protagonist who is poor and on the margins and as such not exactly a totally mainstream stand-in of what people think mainstream is supposed to be (which is mostly a middle-class fantasy and not representative of reality).

Point being that Peter is, whatever his financial situation is at the moment (and he's gone from flat broke to doing fairly ok to being Tony Stark rich), a young guy.

And having a young protagonist spending their free time in a newspaper office just doesn't make him seem quite as plugged into the here and now as it once did.

Peter worked while he was in high school after all, and during college. Anyway, even if print media is dying, that doesn't mean journalism will disappear. To quote Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, "We can do deadlines." The fact is the Daily Bugle is the core supporting cast - Jameson, Betty, Robbie and others. Go back to the Ditko and Romita era, most of the issues show Peter at the Bugle rather than high school or college. You can't entirely throw that away. It's built into the stories.

You don't have to throw it away. But you do have to deal with the fact that what worked then isn't going to work now. Unlike Clark Kent who is a reporter, Peter's part to play at the Bugle was as a photographer. In a world where every single person has a camera on them at all times, having Peter web an automatic camera to a street light to take exclusive pictures of himself in action is an antiquated element.

The characters that sprung from Peter's Bugle days are still important, which is why they're still around. It's also why they've evolved, with Jameson becoming mayor for a time and now being a podcaster or whatever it is he's currently up to.

[Frontier]

Again, they have updated the Bugle and Peter's role in it in media adaptions before. He wasn't even a photographer in the Marvel's Spider-Man cartoon when he worked there.

[Huntsman Spider]

Yeah, the idea of that Peter would be more fitting for DC's Dark Multiverse thing, although one in the tamer side.

And no, I don't think it'd be a good idea to have an evil counterpart Peter for 616 Peter to confront, evil counterparts are mostly lazy, Maker is one of the few who works, and that's because we get more than a few panels saying how bad his life was and that's why he's evil, we saw it, plus Ultimate Reed turning evil wasn't exactly expected, and not in a bad way.



I'll be honest, if there's a bad fanfiction out there that fundamentally alters a character in a good way, I'd wanna read it just to know how the **** they managed to do it, not being sarcastic or joking by the way, that'd be somethin' to see lol.



I mean, the Civilization games did some of that with Gandhi and it's quite popular, so maybe it'd work with Spidey too

To me, the explicitly evil counterpart is a twist on the idea of the "shadow self" introduced by Carl Jung, the idea that there are parts of our being that we hide from others, even from our own selves, due to fear or shame, and the "evil counterpart" serves as a warning of what the hero him- or herself could become if s/he wasn't inhibited by that fear or shame. Of course, the "shadow self" doesn't necessarily have to be evil, and can even serve as a means to enlightenment for the protagonist who learns to embrace the parts of him- or herself that s/he would otherwise deny.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

But the days of it being so central to Peter's life are past.

For you maybe.

And yes, Norah is a great character - was she the "best received new character?" Debatable.

Between Norah and Carlie Cooper, I am sure most would pick Norah as the better new character. And certainly moreso than that Michelle person, her Goblin henchman brother, that Mr. Aunt May dude...and man there were a lot of lousy characters in the title then. The fact that Norah was the protagonist of Kelly Sue DeConnick's Osborn miniseries means she had the voice of one of the best Marvel writers to round her out. And Norah works for the Bugle and she's a reporter and that series makes clear.

There's nothing to say that the Bugle must be phased out.

The Bugle can't be phased out. It's too central to the stories.

Point being that Peter is, whatever his financial situation is at the moment (and he's gone from flat broke to doing fairly ok to being Tony Stark rich), a young guy.

Are you trying to say that it's more important that Peter be young than poor? Is that what you are trying to say? Or that young people don't care about news? Because today's young people are people like those Parkland kids, or Greta Thunberg. Highly informed kids very interested in the news and happenings of the world. So that sentiment and idea isn't even representative of attitude of today's kids.

And having a young protagonist spending their free time in a newspaper office just doesn't make him seem quite as plugged into the here and now as it once did.

Being in a newspaper office and so close to the action and latest events is the definition of being "plugged in".

Unlike Clark Kent who is a reporter, Peter's part to play at the Bugle was as a photographer. In a world where every single person has a camera on them at all times, having Peter web an automatic camera to a street light to take exclusive pictures of himself in action is an antiquated element.

Photography or photojournalism isn't dead as a career despite the arrival of smartphones. Most smartphone photographs aren't very good, usually only give a static distant angle (because most bystanders unless they are unfortunate) are rarely close to the action. There would be a market of good pictures of Spider-Man especially since Jameson could charge his own price and gain copyright for that (as is evident in Michelinie's World Tour arc) and not have to pay the likes of Getty Images (owned by the Koch Brothers) which tends to create a library of stock footage and charge news-organizations and others for using it.

Eventually you will have a writer come in and approach the Bugle that way because that set-up has been missing for a while now.

Again, they have updated the Bugle and Peter's role in it in media adaptions before. He wasn't even a photographer in the Marvel's Spider-Man cartoon when he worked there.

The thing is he can be a photographer. There's nothing wrong with doing that.

[Mago dos Gatos]

This topic got derailed.

I wish we could get another chance at Parker Indutries,on Peter's own terms this time.I think Chip Zdarsky is one of the writers that could make it work.

[Lukmendes]

To me, the explicitly evil counterpart is a twist on the idea of the "shadow self" introduced by Carl Jung, the idea that there are parts of our being that we hide from others, even from our own selves, due to fear or shame, and the "evil counterpart" serves as a warning of what the hero him- or herself could become if s/he wasn't inhibited by that fear or shame. Of course, the "shadow self" doesn't necessarily have to be evil, and can even serve as a means to enlightenment for the protagonist who learns to embrace the parts of him- or herself that s/he would otherwise deny.

Yeah, and that's a decent enough idea, problem is that in practice it's used as a half assed "deconstruction", which is basicaly "If this guy was evil and a different character, he'd be a horrible person", like, no ****, it's not clever to do that.

If it's well done, then it's okay, problem is that a story like that doesn't really work as well in comic books simply because the status quo is not leaving, so any enlightenment will be gone after a while.

[Huntsman Spider]

This topic got derailed.

I wish we could get another chance at Parker Indutries,on Peter's own terms this time.I think Chip Zdarsky is one of the writers that could make it work.

I like Revolutionary_Jack's idea mentioned earlier of Peter being forced to run Oscorp due to some Osborn shenanigans, but turning it around into an actual force for good, and making it more profitable in the process because the CEO isn't sinking valuable resources into feeding his increasingly psychotic vendettas. I could also see Alchemax similarly, with Tiberius Stone trying to double-cross Liz Allan and Harry Osborn and the results of that double-cross forcing Harry to bring Peter in to help run things while he helps Liz recover, with Peter trying to put Alchemax on a nobler path despite its beginnings and what he discovers about Liz's secret connections to Norman Osborn. Third idea would be bringing back Ezekiel Sims's WebCorps, but with a "last will and testament" discovered by some lawyers that names Peter as Ezekiel's successor and heir, much to Peter's mixed feelings on account of what happened the last time he ended up with a company, not to mention learning about some of Ezekiel's shadier dealings and getting entangled with the Spider Society.

Yeah, and that's a decent enough idea, problem is that in practice it's used as a half assed "deconstruction", which is basicaly "If this guy was evil and a different character, he'd be a horrible person", like, no ****, it's not clever to do that.

If it's well done, then it's okay, problem is that a story like that doesn't really work as well in comic books simply because the status quo is not leaving, so any enlightenment will be gone after a while.

Point taken.

[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.

[Prof. Warren]

For you maybe.

Yes. But more importantly, for Marvel Editorial.

The Bugle was Peter's part time high school job. How many people still stick with that part of their life into their adulthood?

The Bugle can't be phased out. It's too central to the stories.

Of course it could be phased out, if that's what Marvel wanted to do.

It was central to stories in the past. Doesn't mean that it has to remain so. That's obvious by the way its importance has diminished in recent years.

For the record, I don't think the DB will ever be completely phased out. But it could be.

Are you trying to say that it's more important that Peter be young than poor? Is that what you are trying to say? Or that young people don't care about news? Because today's young people are people like those Parkland kids, or Greta Thunberg. Highly informed kids very interested in the news and happenings of the world. So that sentiment and idea isn't even representative of attitude of today's kids.

Well, as someone who is raising a high school age kid, I feel fairly connected to the concerns of today's kids.

And while they do care about current events, that really isn't what Spider-Man is about - current events.

Peter's connection with the DB was more about being able to know when, say, The Beetle was up to no good and not about global issues.

As for whether it is more important for Peter to be young than poor, clearly it's the former. He's been rich but he'll never be old, except in AU's.

Being in a newspaper office and so close to the action and latest events is the definition of being "plugged in".

It's more important to actually be in the action itself, which Peter can do without making a stop to the Bugle first.

Photography or photojournalism isn't dead as a career despite the arrival of smartphones. Most smartphone photographs aren't very good, usually only give a static distant angle (because most bystanders unless they are unfortunate) are rarely close to the action. There would be a market of good pictures of Spider-Man especially since Jameson could charge his own price and gain copyright for that (as is evident in Michelinie's World Tour arc) and not have to pay the likes of Getty Images (owned by the Koch Brothers) which tends to create a library of stock footage and charge news-organizations and others for using it.

Eventually you will have a writer come in and approach the Bugle that way because that set-up has been missing for a while now.

Peter was never a great photographer. He just happened to be the only one who was able to get the kinds of pics he did. It didn't matter that they were poorly framed or out of focus at times because he snapped pictures that no one else was able to get. That's just not the case anymore. Photography isn't dead as a career but the way that Peter earned his bread and butter through photography is not as valid as it was.

The thing is he can be a photographer. There's nothing wrong with doing that.

It doesn't have the same appeal that it used to. That's just a fact. Getting exclusive pics of himself in action doesn't work like it used to in today's world.

[Frontier]

Yes. But more importantly, for Marvel Editorial.

The Bugle was Peter's part time high school job. How many people still stick with that part of their life into their adulthood?

He usually still has it in adulthood though.

Of course it could be phased out, if that's what Marvel wanted to do.

It was central to stories in the past. Doesn't mean that it has to remain so. That's obvious by the way its importance has diminished in recent years.

For the record, I don't think the DB will ever be completely phased out. But it could be.

I mean, Marvel could feasibly phase out Aunt May but I don't think people wouldn't at least acknowledge her narrative importance even if it's not the same as when Peter was a teenager.

Well, as someone who is raising a high school age kid, I feel fairly connected to the concerns of today's kids.

And while they do care about current events, that really isn't what Spider-Man is about - current events.

Peter's connection with the DB was more about being able to know when, say, The Beetle was up to no good and not about global issues.

As for whether it is more important for Peter to be young than poor, clearly it's the former. He's been rich but he'll never be old, except in AU's.

Current events have factored into Spidey stories before...

Well, he'll be in his 20's, which comparative to other Spider-Men is old .

It's more important to actually be in the action itself, which Peter can do without making a stop to the Bugle first.

Yeah, but then we miss out on the great character interaction with the Bugle staff .

It doesn't have the same appeal that it used to. That's just a fact. Getting exclusive pics of himself in action doesn't work like it used to in today's world.

You can update it though.