Dark Web: Rated R for rip-off
“Generally, one knows me before hating me” -Quicksilver
Ι haven't red the conclusion yet but I was not impressed with what I have seen until now.
Marvel must stop trying to pull a Venom out of Ben Reilly immediately. I just doesn't work.
So how many people want to bet the letters pages will just be 100% fawning letters about DW?
I remember during the Clone Saga they would print a variety of letters; some positive, some very negative. They weren’t scared of criticism. Those days are gone now, I guess.
I recall they dedicated a whole issue's letters pages during BND to nothing but negative feedback as a gimmick.
On occasion, they would still print the occasional letter critiquing Slott (and Spencer too), with Lowe's responses boiling down to the books being good because they entertained him and signed off with something akin to "so there, deal with it"
They're not afraid to publish criticism, but they aren't at all professional responding to it any longer.
And yes, there will still be people who enjoyed Dark Web, while I question their tastes in comics, everyone has a different experience and might not be taking it as seriously, and will give Marvel the response they're looking for.
Last edited by Matt Rat; 02-06-2023 at 05:44 AM.
I put terrible, especially as someone who was interested in Ben and Maddie since Hellions and Spider-Man Beyond.
ASM 14 and 15 were good but it's all downhill. RIP $25. Ewing's Venom and Cantwell's Gold Goblin were fantastic tho.
What's this A-game you're talking about?
He made Illyana, Scott and Havok look incompetent, had the other X-Men and Spider-Man running a comedy routine in New York, all just to kiss Jean's and Maddie's combined red-headed buttocks over a problem that could've been solved by speaking to one character (Cable).
Wells and Duggan made Maddie look bad after what happened in New Mutants.
Last edited by Triniking1234; 02-06-2023 at 06:58 AM.
"Cable was right!"
Not sure if they have a worse story, but they do have stories that have started worse status quos.
Decimation era started because of House of M, and House of M itself is an alright story (Except for Wanda fans, she's just a womb crazy character), and it has a lot of stuff that isn't liked, and it even lead to Avengers vs X-Men... Although Cyke himself got good stuff from it at least lol.
Yeah, a thing to make writing work properly is to build up stuff for the climax, if you just have constant climaxes, it feels unearned and boring.
Don't forget that after Death of X, they awkwardly tried to demonize Cyke by saying that what the Terrigen Mist did is the equivalent of peanut butter allergy... Which, is just hilarious to use that to pretend that Terrigen Mists aren't that bad, 'cause allergies kill lol.
The fact Madelyne doesn't even try to talk with Cable when heer entire motivation is about having memories of baby Cable is just so questionable, it makes her look like someone who doesn't care about Cable, only the idea of him, that is, him being a baby lol.
I'm somewhat more forgiving of her not talking with Jean, X-Men do have a bad habit of ignoring her, and she was only resurrected as a consolation prize for Havok, she kinda has reasons to believe that X-Men don't think of her much.
Although on the other hand, Illyana decided to trust her with taking control of Limbo, so she should've realized some people think of her.
Thinking of it, it's really bad that Illyana's own point of view over Madelyne's betrayal isn't shown, at least, not in Dark Web: X-Men, and if it isn't shown at all, that's just questionable...
While I haven't read everything from those issues yet, the way Madelyne comes across in the issues I read was basically "She's rude, but wants to move on".
She even made a good point about how the X-Men are hypocrites for being so wary of her when they allow Sinister to be on the Quiet Council, and then that's fired back at her since they're wary of her 'cause they wonder what could stop Madelyne if she decides to attack Krakoa, so it was two characters butting heads with no one being specifically pointed out as being on the right, which's nice to see, 'cause sometimes, both sides have a point:
(New Mutants#25 vol 4).
Although, I did roll my eyes whenever Illyana opened her mouth here, mostly because Dani has some very understandable concerns, and Illyana's reply is her vaguely saying "Bitch I got this covered, why don't you trust me?", 'cause, yeah, dodging Dani's questions is a very good way of soothing her worries...
Last part of the paragraph above was sarcastic, in case it wasn't obvious lol.
Let's put it this way; I regret spending money on it.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
A rollicking good time! Went harder on the X-stuff, than the spider-stuff, esp in the finale, but hey: That's post-krakoan Marvel for ya
4/5
(Phew! Good to be back)
Forgot to comment on this lol.
I'll say that between both, Madelyne had it better in Hellions when compared with Ben in Beyond.
Madelyne in Hellions works well enough with her established past, and so does her personality.
Ben, he had interesting ideas, but Beyond having so many writers made him into a mess, and the entire conflict with how he became a villain to begin with, urgh lol.
Although Ben was okay until the final chapters, even with the multiple writers having such clear different voices, and I remember seeing Ben fans praising the "I don't ask for help" bit that Wells used with his character.
In situations like this, it's okay to disappoint Spidey by becoming a filthy pirate man .
At least it shows Marvel is pretty good on this speedrun category.
When it came to this story, I proudly raised my Jolly Rodger and have no regrets beyond my time . Would’ve gladly supported it in trade if it had actually been good and given some hope to fixing this Chasm bullshit but, well, we all know how that went. Ah well, more money in my wallet and I voted with my wallet on this one to not support this direction.
Last edited by Kurolegacy; 02-08-2023 at 02:56 PM.