Spider-Man March 2021 Solicitations

[HypnoHustler]

the idea that keeping spider-man looking and functioning like vanilla spider-man is not safe is certainly a take

Yes, and that “take” was explained. Every shake-up to status quo comes with a sales boost. Spencer and editorial have resisted those easy sales gimmicks so far. Hell, ASM hasn’t even been relaunched into another volume yet (I dread the day it is).

[Revolutionary_Jack]

It’s not the safe route. Maybe 40 years ago it would be. Nowadays the “safe route” is ironically imposing gimmick after gimmick on your character, whether that’s costume changes or new powers or even legacy characters taking over.... anything to get that small sales blip that all comic companies crave like “the spice” in ‘Dune.’

Yes, and that “take” was explained. Every shake-up to status quo comes with a sales boost. Spencer and editorial have resisted those easy sales gimmicks so far. Hell, ASM hasn’t even been relaunched into another volume yet (I dread the day it is).

To chime in on HypnoHustler being right and on point...

Nick Spencer's ASM has been a very high-selling title, with #850 (#49 confusingly in VOL.5)
(https://bleedingcool.com/comics/top-...-october-2020/) being the most ordered comic in October.

So it seems what audiences really want isn't gimmicks or costumes but issues filled with character and action and so on.

Nick Spencer's run has done really well for so long without big gimmicks and obvious ambulance chasing.

[Snoop Dogg]

audiences really want spider-man
cuz he's spider-man
the most popular marvel character
you can write a successful, safe, and slow comic like the spencer run because it's spider-man
changing something like the costume is the definiton of risk because it can either pay off and get the book more attention and a sales spike, or it won't and it'll be disliked by readers
playing it safe is not changing anything because you don't have to, odds are the most popular character functioning like the most popular character will maintain his book's popularity

[Snoop Dogg]

To chime in on HypnoHustler being right and on point...

Nick Spencer's ASM has been a very high-selling title, with #850 (#49 confusingly in VOL.5)
(https://bleedingcool.com/comics/top-...-october-2020/) being the most ordered comic in October.

So it seems what audiences really want isn't gimmicks or costumes but issues filled with character and action and so on.

Nick Spencer's run has done really well for so long without big gimmicks and obvious ambulance chasing.

is the implication that recent spider office anniversaries and #25s, which pad out their length with superfluous content to justify a $10 price point, as part of a manufactured scheme by editorial and sales to boost business because they know collectors are more likely to jump on anniversaries (as supported by #49's position above last remains issues), is not a gimmick

[Revolutionary_Jack]

changing something like the costume is the definiton of risk...

Not when changing the costume is a common industry trend across the board.

[Frontier]

For me I just don't see the need for another new costume that will probably last maybe 25-40 issues before we get the traditional look back again.

[Jman27]

For me I just don't see the need for another new costume that will probably last maybe 25-40 issues before we get the traditional look back again.

more suits for Spider-man 2 cmon you know why

[HypnoHustler]

audiences really want spider-man
cuz he's spider-man
the most popular marvel character
you can write a successful, safe, and slow comic like the spencer run because it's spider-man
changing something like the costume is the definiton of risk because it can either pay off and get the book more attention and a sales spike, or it won't and it'll be disliked by readers
playing it safe is not changing anything because you don't have to, odds are the most popular character functioning like the most popular character will maintain his book's popularity

Well, that’s certainly a take.

Changing a costume is not risky because it doesn’t represent a permanent change to a status quo like a character having a baby. If readers don’t like it, the book simply changes the costume back. But if it takes off, then the book milks it for all it’s worth. In any event, even if the costume is lame, readers will still be curious enough to buy the issue where Spidey changes into it for the first time. So it’s low stakes/ high rewards. Surely by now, you’re familiar with Marvel’s event-focused strategy to increase book sales.

[Lukmendes]

"Marriage and/or divorce will age Peter." What planet does these idiots live on? Are you going to tell me that no one in this forum comes from a Jewish culture where you graduate high school, you immediately either get married and have children or you go to college and then immediately get married or have children? I specifically bring up the Jewish culture because I live in Rego Park/Forest Hills Queens and this neighborhood has a large Georgian Jewish and Bukharian Jewish population. Everyone I went to school with was already married by 24 and had 2-3 kids by 26.

Well, the obvious thing to point out here is that Spidey isn't jewish.

Second thing is that marriage brings extra responsibilities, and unless Spidey is a deadbeat husband, then he'd have to mature to properly be in a marriage, and that limits the kind of "youthful" stories to be told with him.

While I think that aging up Peter to that point isn't a problem, and those guys have this toxic nostalgia to keep him young, but they're still not wrong, it's a fact that getting married does age him up, the thing is that they talk like that's a bad thing, which isn't necessarily the case.

And yeah, the supermodel point is to keep this idea of Peter being an everyman, and while a model dating a normal guy is very possible, it's not something that happens usually, problem is, saying that Peter can't date someone who's a model is a dumbass arbitrary point, guy's a pussy magnet for women who could easily be models, so Peter failed at being an everyman in that point a long time ago, hell, even back in Ditko's era he was in a love triangle with Betty and Liz (Who were attractive enough, and when MJ shows up in ASM#25, she's said to be gorgeous, and she was a potential love interest for Peter too, so even Ditko was okay with Peter having really hot women into him), and then got into another one with Gwen and MJ, not a very everyman thing...

Do the eyes look like goggles to anyone else?

They do yeah, either that, or that outline on the lens is bigger this time around.

-- JMS introduced two new suits, the "Last Stand" suit (the more sporty outfit that Spider-Man got designed for him at the tailor in Queens who also presses Doctor Doom's stuff, and which in one alt. timeline he passes in ASM#500, he wears before going down against the cops), and of course you have the Iron Spider outfit.

The Queens tailor guy being the one who designed the Last Stand costume was interesting, wonder if JMS was planning to have Peter wear it at some point, 'cause Spidey was staring at it in ASM#502, and maybe he was interested (Of course, he could be staring at it 'cause it's the costume he saw in the ASM#500 future).

For me I just don't see the need for another new costume that will probably last maybe 25-40 issues before we get the traditional look back again.

I think it's nice to change looks once in a while, let an artist be creative with designs, as long as it's good of course lol.

more suits for Spider-man 2 cmon you know why

Also that .

[HypnoHustler]

"Marriage and/or divorce will age Peter." What planet does these idiots live on? Are you going to tell me that no one in this forum comes from a Jewish culture where you graduate high school, you immediately either get married and have children or you go to college and then immediately get married or have children? I specifically bring up the Jewish culture because I live in Rego Park/Forest Hills Queens and this neighborhood has a large Georgian Jewish and Bukharian Jewish population. Everyone I went to school with was already married by 24 and had 2-3 kids by 26.
.

I’m a Jewish guy from New York. I got married at 33 and had my first kid at 34. Almost everyone I know got married in their late 20s or 30s (with 1 or 2 exceptions). I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe that’s Hasidim, because Reform Jews in NYC definitely aren’t getting married and having kids in their early 20s.

Also, as the other guy pointed out... Peter isn’t Jewish. Unfortunately the number of Jewish Marvel superheroes can be counted on one hand... Moon-Knight, the Thing, Kitty Pryde and one or two others. It’s a sad situation considering so much of the old Marvel talent was Jewish, but that’s the reality!

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I’m a Jewish guy from New York. I got married at 33 and had my first kid at 34. Almost everyone I know got married in their late 20s or 30s (with 1 or 2 exceptions). I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe that’s Hasidim, because Reform Jews in NYC definitely aren’t getting married and having kids in their early 20s.

Also, as the other guy pointed out... Peter isn’t Jewish. Unfortunately the number of Jewish Marvel superheroes can be counted on one hand... Moon-Knight, the Thing, Kitty Pryde and one or two others. It’s a sad situation considering so much of the old Marvel talent was Jewish, but that’s the reality!

Early 20thC. Jewish artists and writers, were generally into assimilation, i.e. they tried to assert themselves as Americans and as citizens rather than hyphenated Americans (which is more of a '60s thing, and in general a Post-Holocaust thing). Jewish people, especially Jewish men saw USA as the one country that hadn't shanked the Jewish people en masse unlike everywhere in Europe and that fueled their sense of American-ness. So not all Jewish artists and writers of the Golden Age would have been into "representation". For instance Bill Finger was Jewish but he said many times that Batman and Bruce Wayne had to be an Old Money WASP, a patrician descended from the American Revolution-era general (and actual real-life guy) "Mad" Anthony Wayne.

Jack Kirby was the real exception, he was religious and practised his faith, and had a real sense of Jewishness. He intended Ben Grimm to be Jewish and it would take sometime in the mid-2000s during Karl Kessel's run before that became Marvel canon. In terms of publication history, Kitty Pryde is the first openly Jewish superhero in Marvel, and American comics as a whole, co-creation by Chris Claremont who had a strong sense of Jewish identity and a real post-Holocaust sensibility (as apparent with Magneto).

Stan Lee was secular Jewish from what I read, very much typical of Pre-War mentality (he was born in 1922 remember). When he decided to have Peter and Mary Jane get married, whether in the newspaper strip, or in the actual 616 Annual, or at Shea Stadium publicity, he insisted on a secular wedding where the word "god" wasn't mentioned anywhere.

[xpyred]

I’m a Jewish guy from New York. I got married at 33 and had my first kid at 34. Almost everyone I know got married in their late 20s or 30s (with 1 or 2 exceptions). I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe that’s Hasidim, because Reform Jews in NYC definitely aren’t getting married and having kids in their early 20s.

Also, as the other guy pointed out... Peter isn’t Jewish. Unfortunately the number of Jewish Marvel superheroes can be counted on one hand... Moon-Knight, the Thing, Kitty Pryde and one or two others. It’s a sad situation considering so much of the old Marvel talent was Jewish, but that’s the reality!

As I mentioned; I am specifically talking about Georgian Jews and Bukharian Jews. They are definitely not reform Jews and the majority of people I grew up with all got married and had their kids immedaitely after college in their early to mid 20's. I am aware Peter is not Jewish (but then again it depends on who you ask) but the point I was trying to make was that most of the arguments about age and marriage and what not and it making Peter older and unrelatable is complete bull.

[HypnoHustler]

As I mentioned; I am specifically talking about Georgian Jews and Bukharian Jews. They are definitely not reform Jews and the majority of people I grew up with all got married and had their kids immedaitely after college in their early to mid 20's. I am aware Peter is not Jewish (but then again it depends on who you ask) but the point I was trying to make was that most of the arguments about age and marriage and what not and it making Peter older and unrelatable is complete bull.

It doesn’t depend who you ask. He’s not Jewish. He seems like a non-practicing or semi-practicing Christian. He’s been seen multiple times celebrating Christmas, he was married by a priest in a Chapel iirc, and he’s been seen in a Church a few times over his six decade run.

I agree with you that the notion that marriage “ages” Peter is ridiculous. But I also think Peter being 30 (or even older) and married is fine too. It seems that’s also a red line with Marvel. I really miss the Marvel of my childhood (early to mid 90s) when they weren’t terrified of aging Peter gradually and actually changing his status quo from bachelor to married man to expectant father. Alas, that’s been over for a while and now Peter Parker is more like Peter Pan, a kid who won’t grow up.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

...he was married by a priest in a Chapel iirc...

He was married at City Hall by a Judge.

ASM Annual #21 - Wedding at City Hall.jpg

[HypnoHustler]

He was married at City Hall by a Judge.

ASM Annual #21 - Wedding at City Hall.jpg

My mistake. He is still seen celebrating Christmas many times though.