PREVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man #2

[XMLXXs Man]

I don't mind writers inventing new cast members; I think you eventually need to do that, unless you're writing some sort of Untold Tales series. You at least try to create a lot of interesting new characters, and maybe only one out of ten sticks. Out of the BND time we only still have Norah Winters, and that was it. All the rest fell by the wayside. Vin and Michelle Rodriguez were not compelling, and the latter was a sexual stereotype. Carlie Cooper was something of a Gwen redux. No one liked that Alpha kid. Personally, I liked Max Modell and Grady. Sajani is immensely annoying and one-dimensional, but Anna Marie Marconi was the best new character to come out of SSM -- though her shrugging obliviousness about what an evil mass-murdering madman Otto was, including her blithe acceptance of the fact that he deceived her sexually, is weird. It makes sense to me that Peter would one day stop working for the Daily Bugle, or only work for them occasionally. But it is a shame to shelve good cast members.

[boots]

I can't speak for anyone else but for me the latter rather than the former. Black Cat has always been morally grey but never an out and out super villain seeing people killed for fun. So yeah it suspends my disbelief a bit.

Like I said previously I could still totally buy Peter not being happy with Silk hanging out with her and being concerned about it with Felicia as she is. She didn't need to become the wannabe Kingpin to prove that.

Plus she was always one Peters major love interests and I could never see him falling for someone who was inherently evil no matter how good looking she was.

trying to look at this from all angles and i’d agree that a heel turn has to be handled well in order for the readership to buy into it. ideally, you want to be able to show the full process and not make it a sudden right angle turn. the plutonian in “irredeemable” is a pretty good example of a heel turn done well in comics- but that’s an entire series devoted to exploring his change of heart and fall from grace. monthly comics most likely try to expedite the process- sometimes to their own detriment.

then again, sometimes you can have 3 whole movies and still eff the process up (anakin skywalker).

on the flipside, with that ol’ emo attachment we’ve been discussing- some people will never accept a heel turn (or change) no matter how well executed, simply because of how they prefer to see the character.

is it possible that there is still more to be revealed as time goes on? f’rex- when a relationship ends one party often expresses surprise and that it seemed like a sudden decision made overnight when in reality the other partner had been slowly breaking up with them for a year or so- they just didn’t notice.

[XMLXXs Man]

Just to show how old I am....there was an old story in which the monster Despay're got into Felicia's head, and drove her to the point of almost slaughtering Peter. It would be easy to pull out a thread of that type, because at least it preceded the current scenario and so wouldn't be an effect with no cause.

[jimishim12]

Felicia should stick to villiany just to make the story more unpredictable when having a long lasting frachise like Spider-Man. I feel like the cast is too predictably safe from changes in the way the story sets them up.

[Von]

Didn't Peter learn that if he went about crime fighting in a more structured, organized way, he could be far more effective, and didn't Otto learn that he lacks an inherent nobility and pluck (somewhat more nebulous admittedly) that makes Peter the superior hero?

In fact, let me answer that for you, they absolutely did.

This is what I'm sayin'.

Putting 'our hero' in unfamiliar or even opposite circumstances outside of their comfort zone is an opportunity
to contrast the hero's familiar reactions with the way they respond to the new circumstances ..

"What happens when our beloved street level hero FINALLY gets his spot on the world stage ... RIVALLING Tony
Stark as the worlds preeminent corporate genius?!

WILL become an arrogant douche as well!? CAN he resist the lure of big money without becoming arrogant and
irresponsible with the powerful technologies he and his team conjure for the worlds population!? WHAT will
Peter do, when he finds old flame (and secretly former wife! shhhh!) MJ in the employ of Tony Stark himself!??!

Gasp! Heaven forbid!!:

WILL HE REMAIN THE SAME OLD PETER PARKER FROM FOREST HILLS QUEENS THAT WE HAVE GROWN TO LOVE!?
OR WILL HE SUCCUMB TO THE LURE OF DOUCHE!?

Lets find out! Stay tuned!"

That's comics.

That is so much comics - that anyone who does not find this familiar in any way, or see why the author(s) are doing this,
has never actually read comics at all.

They have scanned comics. Maybe thousands of them. But if they think this plot device is a 'betrayal of the spirit of Parker',
and they are going to turn him into Tony Stark .. then they have not actually read any of them.

[Von]

Every time we shake something up on the book, one thing is guaranteed: There will be a section of the online community that will scream bloody murder about it WHILE it's happening.
It happened when people thought we beheaded Roderick Kingsley at the start of the Big Time run.
It happened when it looked like Spidey lost his spider-sense "for good" during the 2nd Big Time arc.
It happened when Flash got the symbiote.
It happened when Kaine was "fixed" and became the Scarlet Spider.
It happened when Peter "died" and Otto became the Superior Spider-Man.

And over and over again, I've met or been contacted by fans who screamed the loudest during those events/changes, who later pulled a complete one-eighty to say that in hindsight those parts of the run were now their favorites.

Yeah, ok... well ..

But .. but this time will be different! ADMIT IT

[Mauled]

I don't mind writers inventing new cast members; I think you eventually need to do that, unless you're writing some sort of Untold Tales series. You at least try to create a lot of interesting new characters, and maybe only one out of ten sticks. Out of the BND time we only still have Norah Winters, and that was it. All the rest fell by the wayside. Vin and Michelle Rodriguez were not compelling, and the latter was a sexual stereotype. Carlie Cooper was something of a Gwen redux. No one liked that Alpha kid. Personally, I liked Max Modell and Grady. Sajani is immensely annoying and one-dimensional, but Anna Marie Marconi was the best new character to come out of SSM -- though her shrugging obliviousness about what an evil mass-murdering madman Otto was, including her blithe acceptance of the fact that he deceived her sexually, is weird. It makes sense to me that Peter would one day stop working for the Daily Bugle, or only work for them occasionally. But it is a shame to shelve good cast members.

Sometimes that works really well. Look at Harley Quinn, she wasn't even a comic book character. I remember Mark Hamil saying once (in an interview) she didn't even have a name in the script, she was just Jokers hench woman. She's now the most popular character behind Batman and is an iconic Anti-hero she's not even a villain anymore.

TBH I don't think it's Spiderman (the universe I mean) not having enough characters. It has lots of characters, they are just underused. They just need to be dusted off and will be good to go.
Like Iv said, it's been done before with Kraven, a joke character that was used for one of the best Spiderman comics around Kravens last Hunt.

It was one of the things that annoyed me about using Felicia as the villain on SILK, there were so many others they could have used for that.

[Mauled]

trying to look at this from all angles and i’d agree that a heel turn has to be handled well in order for the readership to buy into it. ideally, you want to be able to show the full process and not make it a sudden right angle turn. the plutonian in “irredeemable” is a pretty good example of a heel turn done well in comics- but that’s an entire series devoted to exploring his change of heart and fall from grace. monthly comics most likely try to expedite the process- sometimes to their own detriment.

then again, sometimes you can have 3 whole movies and still eff the process up (anakin skywalker).

on the flipside, with that ol’ emo attachment we’ve been discussing- some people will never accept a heel turn (or change) no matter how well executed, simply because of how they prefer to see the character.

is it possible that there is still more to be revealed as time goes on? f’rex- when a relationship ends one party often expresses surprise and that it seemed like a sudden decision made overnight when in reality the other partner had been slowly breaking up with them for a year or so- they just didn’t notice.

In regards your points I agree, sometimes it doesn't even have to make sense or be developed in order to be fun. I mean they brought Darth Maul back to life on the TCW and it made no sense whatsoever (he has a talking snake and Spiderlegs WTF) but it was still good fun regardless.

But with Felicia do I think the heel turn makes sense either in terms of her as a character or how it was handled within the story ?: No I don't. Though in fairness I think Dan made it sound better (in how it was handled) a few posts ago I just don't think it translated well to page.

Though I still don't think it works for Felicia as a character even if it does make sense.

Do I enjoy it anyway: ? No I don't, though you already knew that