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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Ghost-Spider #1 Thoughts

Since I enjoyed the Spider-Geddon aftermath issue of Ghost Spider and because seeing Spider-Gwen meet Earth 616 Jackal intrigued me I decided to check out the current story arc and...um...oh dear...

So confession. I dropped Spider-Gwen’s title after reading the issue that debuted Earth 65 Kraven. The moment I saw him with his stupid Hipster look I was like ‘Noooooooooooooooope’.

So consequently I missed out on such gems as Gwenom and other great ideas I’m sure were inspired by variant covers.

What I’m saying is I’m out of the loop and therefore any analysis I might be able to provide isn’t going to be that great because I’m literally lacking in information.

That all being said I also maintain what Stan the Man said once upon a time, every comic is someone’s first. That goes for issue #1s moreso than others!

So we come to this title.

Was it good.

From where I’m standing...no not really.

Okay so first of all the art is lovely, it really is. And the scene where George’s surprise party goes very wrong was really well paced out by the art, which sold the comedy very well!

As for other positives...um...the story remembered to address the fact that Gwen can’t just show up to Earth 616 and go to school there. The idea that Iron Man established a scholarship for extra terrestrial and extra terrestrial people fixes that problem...but it opens up a boatload of questions.

Is Gwen and fellow students from other dimensions like her stealing student places from people based in Earth 616?

Wouldn’t education standards vary wildly across dimensions? After all a lot of times when it comes to education it’s less how well you did as much as where you went (or sadly who you know). I mean I know people from my university, which was no slouch, who got great grades but were passed over for jobs by people with less impressive grades but from more prestigious universities. Is a grade from Oxford or Yale on Earth 616 worth as much on the job market as it is on Earth 65? It may well be that on Earth 65 (which we know has a different history to Earth 616 and isn’t necessarily a reflection of OUR real life world) ESU is regarded as a lesser school that’s easy to pass.

Wouldn’t the subject of allowing aliens and other dimensional people to attend schools on Earth 616 open up a HUGE political debate regarding immigration? Provided it was known to the government of course and it Tony was hiding it from them then isn’t that super unethical?

What about the potential for disease and illnesses that could be brought over from a dimension with a starkly different germ history to Earth 616?

Do Gwen’s fellow students get to know she’s a foreign student from another dimension?

Are such things REALLy so common place blasé in the 616 universe? Surely the norm is to acknowledge that aliens and such things exist but to suspend disbelief to allow life to go on as normal, but if people are just actually reacting realistically to something like this doesn’t that break down the verisimilitude of the Marvel universe?

If Gwen is attending school with the legal name of Gwen Stacy and LOOKS like Gwen Stacy wouldn’t that raise a shitton of problems for her because she looks JUST LIKE A DEAD WOMAN! I mean Gwen’s clone at least changed her name. Is ESU really not going to have records of that time one of their students was murdered on a bridge? Gwen’s death was public knowledge the Green Goblin boasted about it on TV and Ben Urich wrote a book on it!

All of which is academic because even if Gwen earns a college education on Earth 616...how is that going to help her in the long run?

Think about it, she might be taught skills and stuff that she could then use in any jobs she adopts. But having skills is sadly only half the battle when it comes to getting a job. Of equal or possibly greater value is having the PROOF you have those skills. Someone can be a brilliant self-taught nuclear engineer. But if they’ve not got a college diploma to prove it they aren’t getting a job.

How is a diploma from Earth 616 going to mean anything besides a piece of paper on Earth 65. There wouldn’t be any records proving she attended ESU and even if Gwen tells them that she earned the degree in another universe they’d only have her word for it, faking a piece of paper saying you graduated is easy! Even if they did believe her no one in authority on Earth 65 has the power to verify how legit or qualified Earth 616’s ESU is. It could be an online course for all they know. Not to mention do the residents of Earth 65 even know that travel between parallel universes is even a thing?

I’m sure a lot of 616 citizens are probably vaguely aware of that but on Earth 65 that isn’t necessarily the case because they’ve not had a long history of Skrull invasions!

It’s all just so contrived to just have Gwen situated in Earth 616 because that would boost her sales in theory.

Creatively it causes problems too.

Let’s put aside how it means subplots and supporting characters are going to have to be divided between two universes where their collision will be difficult if not impossible.

Let’s even put aside how being a public figure in Earth 65 whilst she spends a huge chunk of her time in another universe entirely puts Gwen’s Dad (who’s human and at risk from heart attacks) at HUGE risk!

What is really gained creatively from having Gwen on Earth 616 where she can interact with like 616 Peter, 616 MJ, 616 Miles?

Fanservice. Sure. I mean that’s why I’m reading this.

But creatively speaking it is just...impoverishing for everyone.

Let’s first look at this from the POV of the 616 residents.

Miles gets to potentially date Gwen more easily now. This is a bad thing. Miles is already too similar to Peter and whilst this dynamic might work in the animated movies (which are themselves an AU to the comics) in an ongoing Miles story having him literally dating a version of Spider-Man’s girlfriend is reductive. Not to mention it might be a bad idea to have him date a fellow super in general, it undermines his normalcy and relative normalcy is important to Spider-Heroes. In this case it wouldn’t even be dating a hero, it’d be dating a hero from another universe!

For Mary Jane it also undermines her normalcy too as well as undermining the weight of Gwen’s death in her life because a version of Gwen, is alive and well and capable of regularly interacting with her.

The same holds true but a thousand times more for Peter. Unless you quarantine off this series as ‘Spider-Gwen continuity’ any time Peter feels mournful over Gwen now is going to feel rather hollow because you know he is regularly chatty with Spider-Gwen and literally helped her get into the same school as him!

That’s another bad thing about the comic by the way. Isn’t being on record as helping an other dimensional version of his dead girlfriend going to seriously put the spotlight on Peter in a big way? Does he even have the clout to help her get into ESU given how he’s only recently returned there himself? And what was with the dialogue implying he works there? When did that happen? He attends school there but he’s not got a job there last I checked??????????????

Also...isn’t Peter like seriously waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too chill about Gwen? Remember how in the 1970s Clone Saga (the story this comic actively references) he was seriously shaken up when Gwen’s clone appeared? Remember when he had varying degrees of similar reactions EVERY time one of Gwen’s clones showed up, including when Spider-Gwen was impersonating one of Gwen’s clones in Clone Conspiracy?

Now he’s face to face with a living breathing version of Gwen Stacy who is arguably more real than any of those clones and he’s all smiles and meh. He doesn’t even think about it in the other titles! Like dude if Spider-Man came face to face with a living Gwen Stacy that would dwell on his mind somewhat!

Now let’s consider this from Gwen’s POV.

What does she gain from interacting on Earth 616?

Well she gets to be comparatively more normal than on her own Earth where she is a celebrity. Okay cool...couldn’t you just get to the same ends by mindwiping her identity from people on Earth 65? I mean we already did this with Peter Parker why is the integrity of Spider-Gwen’s narrative more precious?

She gets to interact with Earth 616 Jackal...which is really more interesting from the Jackal’s POV because does she even know who the hell Miles Warren is? It doesn’t seem like it based on this issue. I mean that’s why I’m reading this arc right now. Because seeing Miles Warren react to a living Gwen Stacy is an interesting idea to me. But why move the main character in this direction to do something interesting with a villain. Not even one of her own villains either, another character’s villain. Oh but Earth 65 Jackal is also doing stuff. Why is he even evil in her universe she’s not dead? Was he in love with Peter in her universe?

This basically applies to every villain and supporting character Gwen could bump into on Earth 616. Norman, Harry, Jameson, Curt Connors, Jill Stacy, etc.

The most interesting characters she could interact with from her POV are Peter and Mary Jane. But with Mary Jane you have to think the mileage doesn’t go much further than “Wow you are much nicer than my Earth’s Em Jay (who’s name has apparently changed now) who’s a total diva b-word!”.

And with Peter...well this issue already basically dispelled the drama from that. She regards him as a older friend but not a peer, not her Peter and someone she can chat to and fight crime with sometimes. That’s it really. There was more emotion and drama derived from that Conway backup story where she met the Goblin Peter back in Spider-Verse.

Meanwhile her own supporting cast and villains are very much left in the lurch. I mean the Man-Wolf is getting released on her Earth and I’m just like ‘so what she’s not even there right now!”

And like Peter and Miles this torpedoes the idea of Gwen being relatively normal. Juggling normal life problems with superhero problems flies out of the window when you are commuting between dimensions, one of which you are famously dead and the other of which you are just famous.

What else is there to talk about.

So Gwen’s costume is apparently composed of spiders but is also a symbiote...um...weird. in fairness maybe that’s addressed in older issues.

What’s weirder was the random giant rat...what was that even about?????????????

The only other positive I have to say about this issue was that at least it wasn’t as pretentious and not as obnoxiously zany as Latour’s run.

Finally...what was up with that opening page saying Gwen got her powers a few months ago??????

You telling me Gwen got her powers in high school, became famous as Spider-Gwen, Peter got crazy and turned himself into a lizard before dying, Gwen changed her world view, a campaign to capture her happened, she went to college, THEN Spider-Verse happened, THEN everything in volume 1 happened, THEN everything in Secret Wars happened, THEN everything in volume 2, Clone Conspiracy and Web Warriors happened (including the Spider Women crossover), then everything in volume 3 including Spider-Geddon happened and all this shit happened...in under a year?

What the fuck was everyone on speed or something that’s ridiculous!

I’m gonna pick up the next few issues but if they’re more of the same I hope the Jackal story wraps up sooner rather than later.

#Ghost-Spider #Spider-Gwen #Gwen Stacy #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #George Stacy #Captain Stacy #Spider-Verse #Spider-Geddon #Em Jay #the jackal #jackal #Miles Warren #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #mjwatsonedit

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 4 years

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Abramazing Spider-Man #2 Thoughts

More crap.

Let’s deal out some of the minor positives I have.

The art continues to be nice.

Having a Spider-Man get into heroing via the influence of their love interest is something different for whatever that is worth.

Ben burning the suit only to then immediately regret it was a funny subersion of expectations. It made me chuckle.

The only thing I noted as derivative of older Spider-Man stories was the cliché burning of the costume in the backyard.

The recap page did a good job of catching up new readers. Yes. I’m praising the recap page. Let that sink in.

Okey dokey that’s enough now.

Whilst last issue initially made me vaguely interested before chatter surrounding me converted me into hating it, this issue was more bland and going by through the motions.

The thing is last issue so utterly tainted my (and everyone else’s) experience that I am struggling to look past the fact that this is obviously amateurish and actively deceptive of the readers.

That’s perhaps made me resentful to most of the things in the story, I know I’m probably not being fair and balanced in my approach to it.

But all I can say here is how I felt about the book and how I felt about it was supremely unimpressed.

I want to address some tiny points before diving deeper. So Peter is a super scientist but somehow he couldn’t find or design a camera that would work better for him as a one handed man?

Benny clearly never used the webshooters before and yet he’s swinging around with a degree of experience that doesn’t make sense when it’s literally his first try. Hell he’s even carrying someone while he’s at it.

I also don’t get the passage of time or the physics of the web swinging scene. So they are standing on the ground, he shoots a webline, smash cut to a splash page of them swinging, with the dialogue clearly conveying the latter clearly follows the former. Comic books are sequential storytelling. One scene or sequence should lead into another, in particular when conveying movement. Ron Frenz was a master at this, rarely if ever, were you questioning how characters moved from Position A to Position B. I don’t know if this was Pichelli’s fault or if it was Henry Abrams just wanting a cool shot but it sucks.

The recap page claims that Ben accidentally hit the bully from last issue harder than he meant to, and maybe I’m just forgetting something, but I did not get that impression. So good job telling me stuff about last issue that the story itself failed to convey.

Finally Faye Ito/Ito Faye/Asian Michelle Jones/Benny’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype collides face first mid swing into a billboard. But she’s fine. She’s not even scratched or banged up? What? Would that have made her less pretty or something? Also I guess that scene was a callback to Spider-Man 2002, but I’m not griping about that.

Let’s move on to the more significant problems with the comic book.

I’m not the first person to point this out, but I think it bears repeating, this comic book feels like a movie, and I mean that in a bad way.

The panelling feels like a fill storyboard more than a comic book, it’s not making great use of the things you can do with the medium or the space provided. You want a great example of the opposite check out the art in Absolute Carnage: Seperation Anxiety #1.

Tied in with this criticism is the idea that the Abrams (well Abrams the younger) have developed this story like a film.

I am going to slightly disagree here. I think it’s more as though they’ve designed this as a prestige TV mini-series with a Hollywood film budget. I say this because the way this issue starts and finishes feels like a Netflix episode more than the second half hour of a movie.

Part and parcel of that was the obnoxiously incremental advancement of the Cadaverous and Peter subplots. Cadaverous spewed random cryptic nonsense that existed more to remind us he existed than actually accomplish anything.

Peter’s job overseas...again, why is he not just a scientist if he’s retired altogether? He’s not even a science photographer, he’s basically a grizzled Jimmy Olsen or something. Peter became a shutterbug because it was convenient, he didn’t really want to do that long term as a career, his ambitions lay in science, a job that if anything would be far more accommodating for his disability than going to dangerous parts of the Middle East to awkwardly snap photos. It’s not even like being a scientist would preclude him from getting away from NYC or his son if that’s the idea. He could be travelling for conventions and conferences. I also don’t get why we needed as many scenes of Peter overseas as we got nor why it bothered to linger on the tragedies experienced by the people there. It wasn’t like it was a lot but it’s panel time that could be put to better use. At best it felt like a pretentious attempt at being deep, at worst it might be set up that plays into the story later. The thing is the Middle East doesn’t really make for great Spider-Man stories, nor indeed most international conflicts.

Getting into the meat of this issue...Faye...fuckign Faye.

She’s a cliché.

In fact lots of stuff in this story is cliché, it’s just that unlike last issue they aren’t cliches specifically drawing from older Spider-Man stories, they’re more general clichés.

The thing that really annoyed me with Faye and Benny’s interactions was that she was obviously being played up as a kind of remixed Black Cat/Catwoman due to her costume. Like she’s supposed to be a bad influence on him or something, exemplified by the fact that she shoots down and subverts Peter’s famous motto about responsibility. It didn’t even make sense. Having responsibility gives you power...what?????????????????????????

Benny himself continues to be bland and boring as a protagonist to follow. Like so much of this story thus far he feels like a typical film or TV protagonist having issues with their Dad and in that regard is just going through the motions. I dunno if I’d call him passive per se, but he’s not too far removed from being passive that’s for sure; but not as passive as Aunt May.

I mean blaming his Dad for abandoning being Spider-Man and his mother’s death. I practically predicted the dialogue from the moment that scene started up and whilst okay it’s never been done in Spider-Man before strictly speaking it’s so generic to countless other forms of media, including other superhero comic books, it’s just banal.

His belief that he is a freak is also questionable, specifically it brings into question the world building of this universe. Were this a world where only Spider-Man existed as a hero (more or less like the Raimi movies) then that’d be fine. Even in a world of mutants that’d also be fine, though you’d imagine mutant acceptance would’ve 10+ years removed from when Peter was active. But so far this version of the Marvel Universe feels very generalized in regards to the MCU.

It’s like the Spider-Man and MJ of this universe were generalized versions of the Raimi films iteration, jammed into a generalized version of the MCU where mutants do not exist and the 2012 Avengers are THE Avengers. But if that’s the world Benny grew up in, why would being born with powers make him jump to ‘freak’? He’s just a superhero, that’s cool in a world where there is no mutant stigma and where the Avengers are revered fallen heroes.*

My final criticism is in regards to the final sequence. It was just weird.

Benny and the civilian he was rescuing had dialogue that was far more casual than the situation demanded. Like dude, you’ve been blown up, buried alive and rescued by a bona fide superhero who’s not been seen in 10 years and now killer robots are surrounding you. Who is that chill in such a scenario? Who goes through all that and at the end basically says ‘lol classic Spidey lol’?????

The civilian also had odd dialogue where it was as though Henry was throwing shade at the premise of the book itself, about how lame an older, disabled Spider-Man with a beard and a kid would be.

But like Henry...YOU came up with that? If you think it’s lame why are you making 5 issues worth of it????????????????

My final point is that whilst the artwork is praiseworthy, it’s also far from Pichelli’s best work. It’s in fact noticeably lower quality than the work she was producing on the 2016 Miles Morales titles or even the debut of that character.

My recommendation?

Don’t read this. If you are truly curious wait for the trade to come out and then buy it as cheaply as possible?

As for me, I’m sticking this out to the end but I’m also going to be saving my money and reducing my order to just one copy and have cancelled my pre-order of the trade.

Ever since Spencer showed up I’ve made a concerted effort to support the spider titles I like and want to see more of (that’s code for the titles featuring MJ) and since last issue deceived me and this issue failed to impress, I don’t want more work like this from Marvel in the future.

*Also I’m going to be pissed if it turns out a chucklefuck like Cadaverous wound up taking out the Avengers somehow. Like really, this clown did them in?

#Spider-Man #Abramazing Spider-Man #j. j. abrams #henry abrams #peter parker #Ben Parker #aunt may #may parker #Cadaverous #mjwatsonedit #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Spider-Man: Far From Home Thoughts Part 2.5 a.k.a. Spidey: Far From Homecoming?

This is a short instalment discussing Far From Home as a follow up to Homecoming (and to a lesser extent Spider-Man’s appearances in other movies). I couldn’t decide where to put these thoughts in the other parts so I decided to separate them out like this.

What is so striking about Far From Home is that in a lot of ways it simultaneously is better and worse than Homecoming in a lot of ways. By this I don’t just mean some elements unambiguously improve things and some elements worsen them, what I mean is some individual elements do both.

For example the action is unambiguously better than Homecoming’s mostly forgettable affair. Spider-Man’s first and final encounters with the villain are undeniably better than in Homecoming. Where the Vulture showed up and we got a frantic scene of Spidey simply being assaulted here we get Peter trying to fight back but ultimately failing as Mysterio unleashes the best scene of the movie. Where in Homecoming Peter doesn’t beat Vulture so much as he survives hard enough against him to the point where Vulture lost, here Peter 100% beats Mysterio.

However the wacky humour and hijinks as well as the Stark worship is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much worse. The teachers are utterly insufferable (and break some laws as well) but their humour is also just poorly crafted. Everyone saw one of the teachers dropping his camera in the canal so far ahead of time it hurt.

Mysterio compared to Vulture though is one example of a grey area.

Where we comparing both to the comics Mysterio and Vulture both being so connected to Iron Man hurts their standing an awful lot. But of the two Mysterio gets it worse. Mysterio’s entire plan revolves around Iron Man, his tech stems from Iron Man, his backstory has 0 independence from Iron Man. The Vulture at the very least started off briefly as his own man before Tony Stark wrecked his life and thus forced him to become a villain, a villain who is a dark reflection of Iron Man.

Mysterio is as well but in a very different way and more abstractly. Ironically even though there are clearer cut comparisons between Iron Man and Vulture, Vulture’s driving motivation isn’t to literally all about replacing Iron Man. In fact if you tweaked Vulture’s character or story arc you could make his character work independently of all the Iron Man stuff, but that’d be impossible for Mysterio. Mysterio’s whole goal is wrapped up in Iron Man, whereas the Vulture’s arc was merely set in motion by Iron Man’s.

Now that’s a complaint that’s really more applicable to comparing this to the comics. When viewed in the context of the MCU in isolation there is no issue with either of these guys being connected to Iron Man exactly. In fact it’s consistent within the bounds of these Spider-Man movies. The problem is...it’s also consistent with the MCU. In the MCU Vulture was the FOURTH ‘dark reflection of Iron Man’ villain we’d encountered and Mysterio is the fifth. Were we to look at the Spidey films on their own that’d be fine, but would make a third villain like that cliché, but in the MCU as a whole it’s incredibly unimaginative. In fact Mysterio might be the worst example because the movie is blatant about his motivation to literally be the next Iron Man and derives his motivations and henchmen from old Iron Man appearances.

Moving on we have Spider-Man’s suits.

I didn’t actually think about this whilst watching the movies but this movie wonderfully downplays the tech incorporated into Spider-Man’s suits.

Across the film we see five suits specifically.

The hoodie outfit (which is an illusion).

The Civil War suit (which in one scene is also an illusion).

The Infinity War armour.

The Night Monkey Stealth suit.

And finally the new red and black costume debuting in this movie.

For most of the movie Peter doesn’t wear the second or third suits and when he does he doesn’t fight in them. Yes folks that trailer of Peter webbing up bad guys and then chatting with the cops is a trailer exclusive.

As such Peter doesn’t have access to the advanced tech functions of those two suits, mitigating one of the biggest criticisms of Homecoming. It’s not even clear if the advanced protocols Ned hacked in Washington were still enabled after Homecoming. We do learn however that down to Earth everyman Peter Parker has a friggin nanotech suspension unit in his bedroom to house his Infinity War armour.

The only tech really on display from his suits that I can remember are the web wings and the parachute from his new outfit. Peter makes personal and effective use of the parachute, symbolizing I guess how he’s grown more competent and experienced as in prior films he was made to look childish and bumbling as a result of them.

That’s another vast improvement over Homecoming. Peter in terms of being a fighter and a hero in general is not the incompetent bumbling fool he was in the last solo film.

And as much as I love this as a Spidey comic fan both these changes raise some questions.

Namely how and when did Peter grow in his skills exactly and why didn’t he incorporate any of his advanced tech into his new red and black suit? It doesn’t make sense within the context of the MCU Spider-Man’s universe. This of course equally applies to his feelings for MJ which are totally out of nowhere.

It also just inconsistent with the message of the last movie. This Spider-Man is gonna be more tech focused but not in this movie.

And yet he still is because he gets Tony’s magic science sunglasses, his holographic workshop and his...soundtrack?

Going back to Michelle, she’s more likable in this movie than the last one but her softening feels rather forced, like it’s happening just to hook them up. Equally Ned’s role as confidant is lessened and he gets demoted to a more comedic sidekick than anything else. So he’s hardly the man in the chair the last movie built him up to be. I hated that angle for his character of course, but I’m saying for the MCU Spidey fans who DGAF about the comics it’s inconsistent.

Unfortunately just about the only thing regarding the supporting cast remaining consistent is Aunt May being irrelevant beyond making Peter feel awkward that men lust after her. The only difference is it’s one man particularly in this movie.

We have other issues regarding Peter’s characterization, the Spider Sense and his relationship with Tony but that’s talked about in other installments of this series.

P.S. there was also far less quips and far more annoying humour

#Spider-Man #peter parker #Spider-Man: Far From Home #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #Iron Man #Spider-Man: Homecoming

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years

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Spider-Man: Homecoming Review Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

I’ve talked about Homecoming as just a movie, but what about as an adaptation?

So...here’s the thing.

An adaptation has to and is entitled to change things from its source material. There are some things that might have worked in a 1960s comic book that wouldn’t work in a modern day live action movie.

However all adaptations should at the very least respect the spirit of the source material it is adapting, the essence of the story, in particular when it comes to the lead character(s) in question.

A prime example would be the film that in fact introduced Spider-Man to the MCU, Captain America: Civil War. The spirit of the comic book story boils down to Iron Man championing regulation and security compared to Captain America who champions freedom and autonomy dividing the super hero community and pitting them against one another. Fundamentally this spirit is retained in the film. But it also makes countless changes to said source material in order to make things work for the MCU (and for the better might I add).

When it comes to this movie there isn’t exactly one specific storyline that the film draws upon as an adaptation throughout the movie. Spider-Man 2002 for example was clearly basing itself upon Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #39, Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2, ASM #121-122 and other sources.

Off the top of my head the only specific stories this movie could be said to draw direct inspiration from are Straczynski’s Mr. Parker Goes to Washington arc (due to the Parker/Stark relationship and the high tech suit Peter has) and the Master Planner Trilogy (for that rubble lifting scene). Beyond that it takes more general inspiration from the concepts present in Miles Morales’ stories and the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. Yes I am dead serious about that last one.

This film of course features several classic characters such as the Vulture and the Shocker but the plot isn’t really derived from either of their debuts or any given stories about them. It’s mostly just the idea of some bad guys called Adrian Toomes and Herman Schultz with flying wing tech and super science gauntlets. And the latter doesn’t even really ‘shock’ or vibrate anybody. In fact both villains’ powers and the visual spectacle they could provide are really underutilized. They’re cool for what they are but you could do way more with say the Shocker than they did.

Now such changes aren’t necessarily unforgivable. After all Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 was not featured in a storyline specific to any cut from the comics, sans perhaps his origin in ASM #3. The movie simply took the idea of Doc Ock as a character, did their own thing with it and then built its own original plot around his role. And it was hardly an uninteresting character they created. In fact when he was out-and-out villainous he was most certainly recognizable as the Doc Ock of the 616 comic books.

The same cannot be said of the Vulture or Shocker here. That being said both characters are comparatively far thinner than Doc Ock and more or less operate as career criminals out for wealth or revenge most of the time; they just have cool gimmicks is all.

So changing them up in order to tie more into the wider MCU, serve the needs of the movie and make them more interesting as villains is hardly a betrayal of the characters. In fact this is arguably the most compelling rendition of the Vulture ever. He is a bad guy but a working class bad guy in it to support his family above all else after Tony Stark puts him out of business. He’s not particularly vindictive, he just takes people out as needed because he’s just trying to do right by his family. He’s a bad guy for sure but not unsympathetic. Keaton really brings it all together for the character and his performance is possibly the strongest in the entire movie. In fact Vulture by rights is perhaps the strongest MCU movie villain in a long time, possibly since Loki.

To an extent changes to the supporting cast can even be forgivable; especially since this is the first movie where it really feels like Peter even has a true supporting cast.

After all Liz Allan is such a minor character in the grand scheme of the Spider-Man mythology and the hearts of the fandom that she amounts to little more than Peter’s high school crush, the Veronica to Betty Brant’s Betty, Harry Osborn’s eventual wife and Normie Osborn’s eventual mother. That was kind of it. So it’s not exactly a sin to change her role, relationships and general character so that she’s now more academically inclined and the daughter of the Vulture; even if the latter was more to serve the plot than her character. It does not however justify casting her with an actress who was not Caucasian...because that was justified by virtue of it being the 21st century and there is nothing about Liz’s character requiring her to be white.

When it comes to ‘Ned’ well...that is a weird case. He is an immeasurably bad adaptation of Ned Leeds from the comics...but that’s because he is obviously not Ned Leeds at all. He’s Ganke from Miles Morales’ adventures as Spider-Man. And as an adaptation of that character he isn’t all that bad. He is however arguably less vitally important to this movie than he is to Miles’ adventures. Among other things, in the comics Ganke is vital to Miles’ decision to become Spider-Man and even recommends he study footage of superhero fights in order to prepare himself. Here such relevance is grossly diminished because Peter was operating alone as Spider-Man before confiding in him and had tech gifted to him from Stark. But it still isn’t a bad adaptation of Ganke besides his name.

Even Betty Brant isn’t really unforgivable in this movie because the character is a bit player at most. The filmmakers simply had a character in mind and named her Betty Brant as some fan service.

But then...you get into other characters.

I never had a problem with Marisa Tomei playing Aunt May, nor the idea of de-aging Aunt May in general. But it is at the very least going a little bit too far when ‘the joke’ surrounding the character is that she is Peter’s yummy Mummy that people are giving freebies to because she is just that attractive. I’m 90% sure those who value political correctness would have more than a few words to say about the character being used this way in the movie and I’m not sure I’d disagree with them.

May learning his secret this early on doesn’t bother me either. The way she learns it though is played for light laughs when in the Raimi movies, ASM #400 and JMS’ run that moment was so dramatic and powerful. This is because those moments were treated with respect and not played as a joke. After all Spider-Man’s mother learning his greatest secret and thereby his role in her husband’s death should be a big deal. But then again, the movie treats the character less like Peter’s mother and more like his cool big sister, even opting to have Peter refer to her as just ‘May’.

Moving on, Flash Thompson in this movie is incredibly frustrating because half of his character is very much on point. He is the arrogant, bullying jerk rival to Peter with a certain amount of clout within the school. But the other half of his character is not because he isn’t a meathead jock which is very much vital to who he is and his overall character arc as someone who peaked in high school and matured away from athletics in later life. It really is a case of if he bulks up, drops the books and takes up some sports he’d make a solid Flash Thompson.

And then there is Michelle ‘my friends call me MJ’ Jones...God...Michelle is a quiet, studious, cynical, politically minded character who’s mostly just in the background of events not drawing much attention to herself. In other words whether you are going Ultimate or 616 Michelle is unbelievably wrong as an adaptation of Mary Jane. And that is really not okay to do when you are handling one of Spider-Man’s equivalent of Lois Lane.

But here is the thing...is she even Mary Jane is the question? She’s in the movie, she has comments and looks in Peter’s direction that indicate she knows or suspects something about him (so kind of like Parallel Lives) and she’s obviously going to be featured in future films. But is she honestly the MCU’s version of Mary Jane or is it just a cute reference? Kevin Feige has claimed she really isn’t Mary Jane it was just a reference but is she going to effectively be the equivalent of Mary Jane for this version of Spider-Man? It all depends upon the sequels. If she isn’t then that’s fine. If she is then that’s a huge blight upon the MCU Spider-Man franchise.

This Schrödinger's cat situation with MJ is actually pretty evocative of various elements of the film.

The movie has within it the potential to move forward telling great Spider-Man movies that make use of the character’s rich history and classic stories.

But that’s the thing. Right now it’s all just potential. We didn’t see any of that in this movie. We in effect didn’t see much of Spider-Man.

Oh, I do not mean there was little screen time where the character was in costume. There was plenty of that and whenever he was just swinging around and addressing regular crime in Queens (like during the start of the movie) the film looked and felt great.

No what I mean was there was precious little screen time in this movie where the character you could see on the screen acted or felt much like Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man.

I said in part 1 this movie was inspired by Miles Morales and the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. That are the biggest sins this film commits, although in fairness I don’t want that to sound perhaps as harsh as it does.

Peter’s journey and personality in this movie is honestly not Miles’, not exactly anyway. Holland’s Peter Parker is this find of blend of Ultimate cartoon Peter Parker with Miles’ desire to live up to the older established heroes. But mostly it’s more like he has elements surrounding him that belong to Miles. Ganke is the biggest of course and there his attendance of a STEM school that is not dissimilar to Miles’ Brooklyn Visions Academy. Although the latter does have the unfortunate and unnecessary effect of making Peter seem far less intelligent than he is as he is now a smart kid amidst a whole school of smart kids, including Flash whose whole point is supposed to be that he is a jock.

These elements from Miles are discourteous to both characters as Peter is swiping Miles’ stuff thus undermining future film projects starring him and all unnecessarily. After all Peter has had 55 years of continuous publication as the greatest Marvel character of all time. He really doesn’t need to borrow stuff from a spin-off Spider-Man.

But honestly beyond that I cannot myself honestly call this a Miles Morales movie that substitutes in Peter Parker.

It would be far more accurate to say this is the best movie adaptation of the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon anyone could ever asked for, regardless of how nobody was. Don’t get me wrong this was an enjoyable and likable movie whilst the cartoon is painfully insufferable...But that makes it no less forgivable that this movie take cues from that show. And no, I’m not just talking about giving Spidey merchandisable toys to play with like voice activated taser webbing.

I mentioned in part 1 about how Spider-Man spends a lot of the movie bumbling about and how the core idea presented is he’s young, inexperienced and eager to join the big leagues.

This is essentially what the character is like in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. In that show the core idea of Spider-Man is a ‘hero in training’ who has to learn lessons on how to be a hero and so someday ascend to the Avengers’ ranks. He is almost always cocky and in over his head, stumbling around and routinely humiliated in his efforts, learning his lesson the hard way, alongside team ups of course.

Holland’s Spider-Man is a toned down rendition of this albeit he has no teammates and is trying to specifically impress one particular hero Iron Man who lectures him, saves him when he is in over his head and reprimands him as a parental/teacher figure would, teaching him a lesson about himself when he removes his gadget laden suit (or his ‘toys’ as it were).

All this...is very much a massive betrayal of Spider-Man’s character. And not even a betrayal of what he was specifically like in the comics, but of the guiding philosophies Ditko and Lee had when creating him.

An enormously important aspect of Spider-Man’s early creation was that he was the anti-Robin. He was the teen hero who was nobody’s sidekick, junior team mate or had an adult overseer of his superheroic activites. Though a student and under Aunt May’s care as a superhero Peter Parker was self made, self taught and truly independent. He made his own costume, he learned how to fight on his own, he learned from his mistakes on his own and he did things his own way. This is especially poignant in the context of the times he was created in. The 1960s were after all the era of the counter culture, a time where young people rejected the authority represented by their elders.

Oh and he was also cash strapped to the point where his equipment was typically homespun.

Whilst Iron Man’s involvement in Peter’s life, Peter’s fancy gadget suit and his desire to become an Avenger and impress Stark makes sense in the context of the MCU it wasn’t strictly demanded by the ongoing narrative of the MCU. It was not unavoidable that the film series take Spider-Man down this particular direction. Nor was it justified by virtue of needing to do something novel with the film or showcase what can be done with Spider-Man now as a part of the MCU.

I said above that adaptations are ultimately obliged to respect the spirit of the things they are adapting if nothing else. The reason for that is after all because whilst it might be fresh and original to go in such a drastically different direction the price for the novelty is the selling out of the very thing you are adapting (undermining the point of adapting the thing in the first place).

If Spider-Man can only be fresh and original by becoming far less recognizable then it’s not a price worth paying. Essentially I am saying the spirit of Spider-Man as a character is honestly more important when you are doing a Spider-Man movie than anything else.

If that would be compromised because the reality of the character’s existence in the MCU makes something more realistic then audiences should be asked to suspend their disbelief.

If strengthening Spider-Man’s ties to the wider MCU requires making his whole motivation a desire to join the Avengers then another way to integrate the wider MCU should be dreamed up.

If there is an idea to generate novelty by emphasising the character as ‘young and inexperienced’ (read over eager, stupid and bumbling) and give him lots of cool high tech gadgets then dear God dump that idea hard and come up with something else!

There are three key scenes that quintessentially embody this approach to the character and the problems therein.

The first is the opening scene where he is recording a video diary on his phone and is hyper excited and exclaiming at how cool everything is...even during battle!

I’m sorry, but even if Spider-Man was a 15 year old in the modern day I don’t believe for a solitary second that Peter Parker would be like that.

Granted the film never gets worse than that when it comes to characterizing Spider-Man but it also rarely gets too close to a viable rendition of the character. Ignoring how Garfield and Maguire’ s Spideys were clearly more competent in their initial use of their powers, even Josh Keaton’s Peter Parker in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon was more together, reigned in and capable than Holland’s comes across in this movie. And his Spidey had been in action for far less time.

The second scene is when Ned/Ganke debates unlocking the suit’s full features with Peter. Ned isn’t supportive of the idea but Peter bounces up and down on the bed claiming he wants to prove that he isn’t a kid to Tony Stark. The moment is meant for humour and taken on its own it is funny.

Taken in the context of who Spider-Man is supposed to be as a character it is frankly insultingly infantilizing. And the scene of course leads to Peter further bumbling about with the new unlocked features of his suit (including getting into embarrassing discussions with Karen) clearly showcasing how ‘he isn’t ready for the big leagues’ because he isn’t really ‘grown up enough’ to play with his Big Boy toys properly.

Finally the scene where Stark takes away his suit is possibly the single most infuriatingly insulting moment for anyone who knows the Spider-Man of the comics. It further emphasizes the infantilization of the character by literally having his allegorical teacher/father (did I mention Uncle Ben isn’t mentioned once in this movie) come to bail him out of the trouble he caused and consequently scold him, take away his toys and basically ground him.

To make matter worse Peter says that line I’m sure we’ve all seen from the trailers about how he’s nothing without the suit Stark gave him. Firstly as I mentioned in part 1 it makes little sense for Peter to say this given how he had been operating as a hero on his own before Civil War and how before unlocking his suit’s special features the suit was just a fancy pair of spandex and long Johns. Before Karen and all his other gadgets Peter still had all of his super powers and was still helping people. Second of all again this is so, so, so, so wrong for who Spider-Man is and is supposed to be for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain to anyone who knows much about Spider-Man.

The scene is also representative of a fundamental problem with the movie over all. The destruction from the ATM robbery. The chase scene following Peter’s departure from Liz’s party. The truck robbery in Washington. The elevator crisis at the Washington Monument. The destruction of the ferry. If you watch the movie...Spider-Man pretty much either made these situations worse or outright caused them.

Even if you were to argue that had he not intervened Toomes (who’s never called the Vulture to my recollection by the way) would have gotten or distributed more dangerous technology, Spidey’s efforts actually prompted him to attempt a far more daring crime that would have resulted in far worse consequences.

Now my problem isn’t that the movie fails to show us Peter feeling guilty about these things (I think we’ve all seen enough Parker guilt to last a lifetime) it’s that the movie is using these instances to show Spider-Man’s incompetence/inexperience and how ‘he’s not ready’ to do the stuff we’ve seen him do in the other five Spider-Man movies basically. This is a Spider-Man who is not really operating on the same level of competence as he was in the previous two origin movies!

I doubt most critics or viewers will pick up on that though because it is often played for chuckles. Which actually brings up yet another major problem with the movie.

Whilst there are quips to be found from Spider-Man’s mouth it’s really not nearly as much as you would think. Most of the humour is to be derived from laughing at Spider-Man’s slapstick antics or stumbles in life. This wasn’t devoid from previous films but it was never laid on this thick. And it is also not how humour in Spider-Man traditionally operates.

In good Spider-Man stories humour in regards to Spider-Man himself is derived from his witty banter as well as the misfortunes he goes through in life (often as a result of being a superhero). However the humour whilst derived from Peter’s problems tends to be ironic and laughing at the character whilst also feeling sorry and solidarity with him. It’s almost as though you chuckle at Peter’s misfortunes but then want to pat him on the shoulder and say ‘There there dude’.

It wasn’t a case of pointing and laughing at him for being a clown or incompetent. This is in fact a major problem with modern comics’ depictions of Peter Parker too. There like in this movie Peter’s incompetence causes or exacerbates crises rather than resolving them at the cost of his personal life.

Now in the interests of fairness the final third of the movie where Peter dons the costume he made himself, is no longer under Stark’s eye and does things for himself is where I really began to see Spider-Man on screen. That was where Holland really sold himself to me and I felt that yeah, this kid is Peter Parker.

Too bad the final third has its own problems.

I mention in part 1 how Spidey doesn’t beat the Vulture so much as he survives him and that in and of itself is a legitimate flaw.But perhaps the single biggest problem and the moment that shows how colossally Marvel Studios dropped the ball when characterizing Spider-Man, is the rubble lifting scene.

Now of course this is taken from the Master Planner Trilogy. It is the most classic of classic Spider-Man moments. It is the climax of a three part story where everything has been thrown at Peter, everything has piled on top of him and gone wrong and now he’s buried under tons of metal debris under water in a room that’s quickly flooding, all with Aunt May’s life running out fast. So he digs deep and draws upon his own will power to free himself.

It is for many people THE definitive moment for Spider-Man, as proven by the endless homage and references it’s had over the years. But in Homecoming, as in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, the moment is mishandled. It happens too quickly, it fails to build up to the moment throughout the film and makes it about proving Peter is more than just a suit (which he should already know) as motivated by Tony Stark rather than Peter motivating himself (through Uncle Ben’s memory) to never give up and ultimately come of age. It essentially wastes the only moment the film drew from classic Spider-Man lore, and unfortunately it happened to be maybe the greatest moment of all Spider-Man lore.

So yeah...Peter Parker’s characterization and depiction in this movie suck hard. I don’t care if you want to try and defend it on the grounds that in the context of the MCU Spider-Man’s admiration of the Avengers would make sense. Because in 616 he sure as Hell wasn’t gushing over Cap or the Fantastic Four despite them also being big names that preceded him in the universe.

Even the argument that his awe over the Avengers is a result of him growing up in a universe where they are the biggest celebrities in the world doesn’t really add up. We do not see Spider-Man’s origin but it’s presumed to be essentially the same story it always is. Which is to say in the MCU 15 year old Peter Parker got super powers and obviously didn’t immediately try out for the Avengers, contact them or otherwise try to emulate other superheroes. He still resolved to use his powers to help people solely because his Uncle died and he blamed himself for it. Which egregiously undermines the awe he feels over Iron Man and the other characters because they never really factored into his dedication to heroism.

Regardless though, his awe over the Avengers cannot justify the bumbling nature of this version of the character.

I mean honestly what does it say about a Spider-Man movie when the most competent protagonist wasn’t Spider-Man himself but Ned/Ganke, a character who doesn’t even belong in Peter’s story! Putting aside how it robs Miles of his most vital supporting character, Ned’s inclusion here gives Peter a friend and confidant which is also not part of his story in his early days. I don’t even oppose him as a friend for Peter, just not someone in on the secret, let alone Peter’s own version of Microchip.

Now there is a possible silver lining to all this though.

My own personal biggest concern with the film is that Marvel Studios’ fundamental defining idea of Spider-Man is guided by the notion of youth. This would be very much in line with the utterly misguided and toxic philosophy that has shaped Spider-Man’s comics since at the very least 2008 and probably guides him in television too (hence the USM cartoon).

However it may well be the case that actually the characterization they went with resulted more from the mere fact that they opted to begin Spider-Man as a kid to provide something fresh for him and the MCU at large and that going forward they will write him in a way appropriate to his age. That is to say he will not necessarily be like this in future instalments and will develop into a more appropriate interpretation of Spider-Man. In fact all that bumbling might not be a case of Marvel Studios believing Spider-Man should be like this definitively but rather it just being (as I said in part 1) a general MCU thing.

Heck most things in this movie could transition into a more traditional interpretation of Spider-Man or else (like Michelle) be ignored in favour of going with tradition.

But then again...they did give him back his stupid gadget laden suit at the end of the film.

Some final points.

· I find it weird that Feige would claim Peter Parker is just a kid from Queens in criticism of ASM 2 but allow him to be granted a super gadget laden tech suit in this movie.

· Spider-Man said ‘Whoa awesome!’ or ‘This is so cool!’ or something along those lines way too often in this movie.

· Pepper and Tony’s reunion was weirdly tacked on for this movie and kind of undermines Civil War.

· Cap’s scenes were hilarious and stole the show.

· This is easily the Spider-Man movie with the least dramatic heft or power to it.

So overall from an adaptation point of view this movie gets a great big fat D.

But it’s a probationary D because it may well be the case that they did what they did out of necessity and going forward things will be okay. In which case I will retroactively amend this.

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