This Is All A Big Damn Conspiracy

So it's Thursday. Time for comics, right? Wrong. Due to some sort of snafu between UPS and Diamond, Ken (and if what they told him was correct) all the other shops that get their wares from the Memphis distribution center, got jack all today. So, no new comics today. Another day of waiting.

So what to discuss to fill the gap. Well, I would like to say that The Dane was correct, and Ultimate Spider-Man reads a lot better when you read large chunks all at once. I went from #2 to the end of the Warriors arc, which was about #82, yesterday, and the pacing does feel better that way. I think it was better off when the title for each issue was different, even if they were part of the same arc, because when I was reading "Warriors" and I noticed I was on Part 7 I had this reaction of "Jeezo this arc seems too long." When the cover doesn't tell me it's a specific chapter in a single story, I don't notice it as much.

One thing I noticed was the changing role of Patsy Walker in the book. Her first appearance (that I noticed) was #12 when Peter's contacted the company the supplies security cameras for Fisk's building. He gets a e-mail with an attached video presentation, and Patsy was the chipper presenter. Then she showed up on the cover of a Maxim Kong was reading when he first concluded Peter was Spider-Man*. Sometime after that, she was an on the scene reporter (I forget which arc), and the last time I saw her was #113, when she was the correspondent listening as Norman Osborn portrayed himself as a victim of that awful Nick Fury. I kind of like her moving between professions (assuming these are all meant to be the same human**), given 616-Patsy Walker's varied careers prior to being Hellcat.

I still wish he hadn't killed off Gwen Stacy. Really, why can't Peter Parker have a friend, who happens to be a girl, but is absolutely not a romantic interest? It's not like Pete was Mr. Popular at the time. He had MJ and Gwen, maybe Liz as friends, Flash and Kong as tormentors, Jonah and Urich as mentors, and Fury as that jerkass "friend" that's always trying to bum a couple of bucks or a ride from you. What's really curious is they kill Gwen, then follow it with that 2-parter where Jean Grey pulls a Freaky Friday on Peter and Wolverine***. Then the story where Johnny Storm tries to go to normal high school****, then back to dark with that Dr. Strange/Nightmare story that left Peter a bigger emotional wreck than usual. I'd say that he was trying to mess with Peter, let him get past Gwen's death a little, then sucker punch him, but it didn't seem like there was enough time for Pete to start getting past it, so instead you just had these abrupt tonal shifts.

* Which was #14. Geez, I'd forgotten he put it together that early on. That led to Pete letting Kenny boot him right in the hind end to allay his suspicions, which lead to Gwen threatening to shiv Kong.

** I say that, because I noticed in the first Doc Ock story that there was a reporter for the Globe named Eddie Brock, then about 20 issues later we meet another Eddie Brock, a childhood friend of Pete's, and he winds up as Venom. I recall Bendis really wasn't interested in bringing Venom into play, but the fans wouldn't stop asking for him. I wasn't one of those fans, for the record, and I kind of wish Bendis would have stuck to it.

*** In true teenager fashion, it didn't occur to Jean that putting Wolverine in someone else's body, and leaving that person stuck as Wolverine, is really a pretty crappy thing to do to that other person, until after she'd fixed it. Twit.

**** And looking back, can't believe I didn't see Liz as having fire powers. MJ told Johnny that Liz thought she made him light on fire.