I think Zdarsky's take is more tragic and in keeping with Spider-Man, while 801 is kind of obviously manipulative...I mean "Uncle Ken" and so on. As always with Slott, it's unorginal. The whole idea of the countless lives Peter saved and how that counts and validates was done in Sacassia's "The Book of Peter" which was a great one-and-done finale to end a run in ''The Sensational Spider-Man''.
Both are trying to go for the humanism of Stern's "The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man". The thing people forget about the story is how Timothy Harrison (which is the name of that kid but nobody remembers that) clarifies an essential part of Peter Parker. He's utterly lonely, and is looking for some kind of validation and love, but when it does come it always comes from the people whose validation hurts him more than it would if they hated him. Captain George Stacy on his death said that he knew Peter was Spider-Man, he was proud of him, and is happy to have him date Gwen...it's what Peter wanted from Uncle Ben, from a guy who is basically Uncle Ben II...and it completely f--ks him up. It ruined his relationship with Gwen, and made his life worse. In ''The Book of Peter'', The One Above All tells Peter in his darkest moment that he did good, but even that doesn't cut it or makes his life better.
In ''The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man'', Timothy Harrison is a kid whose death Spider-Man is in no way responsible for. He would have died no matter what Peter did. And yet this kid loves Spider-Man, and Peter meets him and unburdens him and confesses about abandoning Uncle Ben and revealing his secret. The key line is this, when little Timothy (who isn't presented as a sentimental victim but a brave, honest, and likable kid):
Basically, Spider-Man gets love and understanding, and it just makes him feel worse.
spoilers:
So in Chip Zdarsky's story with this documentary, the story of that woman and child, that woman who considers Spider-Man brave, amazing and noble even if ultimately he couldn't do enough to help her kid. The fact is that he tried more than anyone did, and that she doesn't hold it against him...again makes things worse. |
end of spoilers
That's basically the neglected truly tragic and heartbreaking side of "parker Luck" that easily gets sentimentalized and softened into self-pity. And Zdarsky touches on that more than Slott which is basically simple reader-stand-in projection and wish fulfillment and again it's unearned. He spent a long run showing Peter as a womanizer, as a capitalist, as a plagiarist and basically this psychotic jealous guy who punches Iron Man out of petty jealousy and starts a superhero-on-superhero fight for no damn reason...and then at the end of it, he has his cake and eats it too. Whereas Zdarsky has consistently focused on the human side of Peter until this.