Sunday, September 07, 2008

Discussion Topic: Amazing Spider-Man

Brand New Day appears to have been an attempt to return to the sorts of Spider-Man stories that were more common 25-40 years ago, with no marriage, freelance photographer Peter Parker, difficulty paying rent, and an alive Harry Osborn. Venom, while created in the late '80s, seems very much to be a child of the '90s with the development of his "lethal protector" phase, and general willingness to threaten to eat criminals. Venom later became a different villain, trying to be taking more seriously, perhaps marking this decade's preoccupation with showing comics aren't just for children, as well as an increased focus on legacies (or recycling of names, depending on your viewpoint.

Brand New Day has recently introduced Anti-Venom, the original human half of Venom, having previously faded into the background without powers, given new power (and new story importance) by Mr. Negative, a crime lord, similar to some of Spider-Man's past foes (the Answer, the Spot, Persuader, maybe Tombstone or Man Mountain Marko). Anti-Venom apparently can damage the symbiont half of Venom, as had attempted to do so in the most recent Amazing Spider-Man.

So, is this indicative of the larger trend towards stories emulating Silver and Bronze Age tales, by eliminating remnants of the "Marriage Era", or something else?

4 comments:

Seangreyson said...

I think the attempt with Anti-Venom is to evoke the Bronze age elements you mentioned.

If that is the case I think it's a failure, because as soon as I hear symbiote I think of the 90's. About the only thing that would be worse is if they work in a clone.

Of course I'm still holding out hope that after a year or so they'll have some sort of arc where Pete and MJ somehow undo the deal with the devil (to some limited degree most likely).

Marc Burkhardt said...

The whole Brand New Day series is basically emulating Bronze Age comics while tossing in "modern" elements - i.e. the DB,peter as a paparazzi, etc.

I kinda like Anti-Venom because the idea is so wacky and - unlike Ultimate - the comic is actually packed with action.

Still, it's more a nostalgic rush for me. Nothing blindingly new here.

Anonymous said...

I just finished the latest issue of Amazing not ten minutes ago, and I have to say the non-stop action featured in the issue left me really bored. I just can't get into two Gumby-esque symbiotes slapping each other whilst trading one-liners for 22-pages.

The under currents involving Mr. Negative, the sweat shop scandal being looked at by Frontline, and Menace rolling up directly on Norman interest me much more than the new Jesus Venom.

I've enjoyed the issues written by Dan Slott and Zeb Wells. I'm hoping for more Wells written issues very soon (C'mon, Gale and Guggenheim have had several turns while Zeb has only had one!)

And of course, it wouldn't be a BND topic unless someone says...

All this could have been done with the marriage intact!

(Except for Peter moving in with Vin, but who gives a crap about Vin?)

CalvinPitt said...

seangreyson: Maybe Menace will turn out to be a Norman Osborn clone! Or we find out that Harry is a clone. Heck, all the Harry's have been clones, the way Busiek showed us that Kang had dozens of clones of his son, trying to find one that was truly ready to take over.

fortress keeper: Yeah, they certainly seem to keep things moving in Amazing Spider-Man, I have to give them that.

troy wall: That's interesting, that the sort of background plots have interested you more. I've had that happen myself in the past, where I feel the Villain of the Month is just taking pages away from whatever overarching plot just gets a few pages.

Maybe that's because those stories have a greater sense of planning, that the foundation is being built for something larger and really cool?