no one seems to know my name, no one seems to go my way
So I, uh, fell asleep during last night's Almost Human, which does not bode well for the episode. And then Sleepy Hollow was a repeat, so I just went to bed. I don't think I missed anything.
***
12/3: our topic today is recent Marvel comics that you love for snickfic
With the caveat that I fell behind sometime over the summer and I'm not all caught up yet, let's do this thing.
Instead of talking about the usual suspects (Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Young Avengers, Winter Soldier [except for the end of the Widow Hunt arc], all of which I do recommend), I am going to tell you about Ultimate Spider-Man. Because it is awesome (and also the only worthwhile thing to come out of the Ultimateverse, imo.) and also because Spider-Man doesn't get nearly the love he deserves, whether it's Peter or Miles under the mask, and he is my very favorite superhero since I was five years old.
I mean, it's true, if you're going to read Ultimate Spider-Man, you have to not mind having your heart broken repeatedly and in many different ways (if you are a crier, as I am, stock up on tissues), but what I really love about USM is that it gives you 150 issues of Peter Parker and then, when you are heartbroken and wrung out, it gives you Miles Morales and a whole new set of things to cry over, because ♥MILES♥ (and this is why I love legacy heroes).
The thing about USM is that it gives you a quintessential version of Peter Parker - nerdy, bullied, 16 years old - and it leads you through his story, beginning, middle and end, and it's the ending that makes it work (though knowing that he gets an ending doesn't make it any less devastating). It makes so much sense that a 16yo kid who gets superpowers but has no real training or mentoring (*redacts rant*) would end up getting himself killed after a somewhat successful stretch of heroing, and USM doesn't shy away from that.
Things that make it worth reading are how early Mary Jane and Gwen are clued into Peter's identity, Aunt May's awesomeness both before and after she knows, their appearances in Miles's story, and the way everyone (even the vile Ultimate!Cap) attempts to learn from their mistakes with Peter in order to not make those mistakes again with Miles. Miles gets his own supporting cast, whom I've grown to love (Ganke, Katie, his dad) though I thought his mom's death was gratuitous, since his uncle's death gave him the impetus to continue being Spider-Man. I love that the other characters get arcs that develop them, especially Gwen and J. Jonah Jameson (!!!) and Jessica Drew, who has a completely different backstory in the Ultimateverse.
I love that they did a 616/Ultimate crossover that let Miles meet and be mentored a little by adult 616!Peter (and it was actually Peter not Otto!Peter), because one of the things 616!Peter is really good at is mentoring teenage heroes, because he's one of the few adults in the Marvelverse who was a teenage superhero. (He doesn't get to do it much, and that makes me sad. I still want the "Peter and Bucky mentor the kids" story, preferably with supervision from Natasha, who does her own mentoring, and random appearances by Wolverine.)
I think one of the things that makes USM work so well is that it has always had the same writer. I haven't read anything else by Bendis, so I don't have the same hate for him a lot of people do, but regardless of how you feel about him elsewhere, USM is his baby and it's mostly good [though there is an awful lot of fatphobia in it; I don't understand, Bendis - did a fat girl beat you up and steal your lunch when you were a kid?], and you can tell they've mostly left him alone to do what he wants - there's not a lot of retconning (at least, I don't recall there being a lot) and there is some nice continuity happening, which I think is a combination of 1. having the same writer, and 2. knowing that one story has an end (Peter) while another one begins (Miles). Also, the art is nicely dynamic, with some interesting page composition, but not so arty that it's hard for me to parse (the way, say, Batwoman can be - gorgeous art, but it takes me a lot of effort to figure out what's happening sometimes).
So, yeah, Ultimate Spider-Man. Check it out.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/620041.html.
people have commented there.
***
12/3: our topic today is recent Marvel comics that you love for snickfic
With the caveat that I fell behind sometime over the summer and I'm not all caught up yet, let's do this thing.
Instead of talking about the usual suspects (Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Young Avengers, Winter Soldier [except for the end of the Widow Hunt arc], all of which I do recommend), I am going to tell you about Ultimate Spider-Man. Because it is awesome (and also the only worthwhile thing to come out of the Ultimateverse, imo.) and also because Spider-Man doesn't get nearly the love he deserves, whether it's Peter or Miles under the mask, and he is my very favorite superhero since I was five years old.
I mean, it's true, if you're going to read Ultimate Spider-Man, you have to not mind having your heart broken repeatedly and in many different ways (if you are a crier, as I am, stock up on tissues), but what I really love about USM is that it gives you 150 issues of Peter Parker and then, when you are heartbroken and wrung out, it gives you Miles Morales and a whole new set of things to cry over, because ♥MILES♥ (and this is why I love legacy heroes).
The thing about USM is that it gives you a quintessential version of Peter Parker - nerdy, bullied, 16 years old - and it leads you through his story, beginning, middle and end, and it's the ending that makes it work (though knowing that he gets an ending doesn't make it any less devastating). It makes so much sense that a 16yo kid who gets superpowers but has no real training or mentoring (*redacts rant*) would end up getting himself killed after a somewhat successful stretch of heroing, and USM doesn't shy away from that.
Things that make it worth reading are how early Mary Jane and Gwen are clued into Peter's identity, Aunt May's awesomeness both before and after she knows, their appearances in Miles's story, and the way everyone (even the vile Ultimate!Cap) attempts to learn from their mistakes with Peter in order to not make those mistakes again with Miles. Miles gets his own supporting cast, whom I've grown to love (Ganke, Katie, his dad) though I thought his mom's death was gratuitous, since his uncle's death gave him the impetus to continue being Spider-Man. I love that the other characters get arcs that develop them, especially Gwen and J. Jonah Jameson (!!!) and Jessica Drew, who has a completely different backstory in the Ultimateverse.
I love that they did a 616/Ultimate crossover that let Miles meet and be mentored a little by adult 616!Peter (and it was actually Peter not Otto!Peter), because one of the things 616!Peter is really good at is mentoring teenage heroes, because he's one of the few adults in the Marvelverse who was a teenage superhero. (He doesn't get to do it much, and that makes me sad. I still want the "Peter and Bucky mentor the kids" story, preferably with supervision from Natasha, who does her own mentoring, and random appearances by Wolverine.)
I think one of the things that makes USM work so well is that it has always had the same writer. I haven't read anything else by Bendis, so I don't have the same hate for him a lot of people do, but regardless of how you feel about him elsewhere, USM is his baby and it's mostly good [though there is an awful lot of fatphobia in it; I don't understand, Bendis - did a fat girl beat you up and steal your lunch when you were a kid?], and you can tell they've mostly left him alone to do what he wants - there's not a lot of retconning (at least, I don't recall there being a lot) and there is some nice continuity happening, which I think is a combination of 1. having the same writer, and 2. knowing that one story has an end (Peter) while another one begins (Miles). Also, the art is nicely dynamic, with some interesting page composition, but not so arty that it's hard for me to parse (the way, say, Batwoman can be - gorgeous art, but it takes me a lot of effort to figure out what's happening sometimes).
So, yeah, Ultimate Spider-Man. Check it out.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/620041.html.
people have commented there.