the thing is...

[schmevil]

Peter Parker is too awesome a character to be reduced to the team mascot, everybody's kid, or the comic relief. He has one of the all time great superhero origin stories. In almost every continuity, he's one of the heroes most likely to come through for you. He's self-sacrificing, experienced, really, really smart, and all around too great to be an

Comments

[sandoz_iscariot]

I saw some of Ditko's original art for Amazing Fantasy #15 at an exhibit last week, and it reignited some of my old love for Peter Parker. Oh comics, why do you break my heart so.

[schmevil]

One day we will have good Spider-Man comics again. One day.

[sandoz_iscariot]

Somedaaaaaaay. *shakes fist at the heavens*

But yeah. The older I get, the less interested I am in stories where Peter is perpetually a teenager, or characters like Nightwing and Kitty Pryde aren't allowed to age past 21. Like, look comics, I am NOT older than Nightwing, okay? old, so oooold....

[schmevil]

This is basically what Skalja and I have been talking about lately.

I think this a problem with serial comics generally. It's hard to keep on reading them indefinitely, when the writers and editors aren't interested in exploring new angles. And even worse, they're interested in the most childish versions of the characters.

[littlepunkryo]

I enjoy all those tropes as much as the next person, maybe even a little more (I have a thing about Tony and Peter and how their relationship was awesome before it got ruined), but this :( I would love to read more stories where he's around to do more than just quip a line or something. And I'm only now reading his actual comic line but from what I understand, most Peter fans are quite displeased with where it is now, so he should get better comics, too. Although who isn't that true for these days? :/

[schmevil]

I get why people enjoy those tropes but they give me nerdrage. I don't consider myself a big Peter fan, but the character has too much history to be 'the kid'. And making him the kid, or the junior member (as he is in some iterations of Avengers), just annihilates everything at the core of the character. Uncle Ben, great responsibility, Gwen Stacy, yada yada. He's nobody's sidekick, you know? For stories where Peter is an Avenger, I strongly prefer him to be an equal member, someone the older heroes rely on, just as much as him relies on him. MA Avengers does this well, actually. They play around with the idea of Jan and Peter as the kids, but they don't indulge in it. Jan and Peter are showcased as much as any other character.

Oh man, FEELINGS ABOUT SPIDER-MAN!

[littlepunkryo]

I actually haven't read MA yet! I am saving that for being my reward for getting through this Ultimates line (it will be quite awhile before I can look at Hank the same way again which I feel awful about because it's a different Hank but DAMN). But I mean really guys: if he's a strong enough character to SUSTAIN HIS OWN BOOK FOR LONGER THAN MOST OF YOU HAVE BEEN AROUND, then treating him as a little kid who has no idea what he's doing just...doesn't make sense to me? Like he's young, and you're older, but he should be treated as an equal ESPECIALLY IN THE FIELD.

[schmevil]

Confession, I've read very little of Ultimates. I kind of cherry-picked my way through it, and my memories of it aren't very fresh. It's ALMOST my least favourite take on the Avengers. Some of the 90s stuff is actually less to my taste. I just kept thinking, "I liked this better when it was called Supreme Power." Which probably isn't fair, but there you go.

[dlasta]

Also, Peter Parker does not need to be more cool or more 'special'. QUIT FUCKING WITH SPIDERMAN DAMMIT!