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thankssteveditko · 4 months

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Sony's PlayStation 5 Presents Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (the third game in the series)

I beat the main story and have enjoyed my time with the game overall! I want to talk about spoilers and things that I liked and disliked in the story, so here's a post with some scattered thoughts.

(Hello! I haven't forgotten that this blog exists! Like I said, no update schedule, I will read more of the Lee/Ditko comics whenever I make time for it. I've actually been sitting on a mostly-complete version of this post since I beat the game in October, thinking that I'd finish the rest of the side quests so I could throw in thoughts on those. But... eh, I'll do that whenever the inevitable DLC rolls around. I just wanna get these thoughts posted.)

Spider-Cop No More

First off: they downplayed the cop shit!!! This was the first thing that really struck me about the game, and I'm stunned that they actually listened to criticism on this. I thought we'd just be stuck with it forever.

It'll never be completely gone, of course. Spider-Man is always going to leave criminals webbed up for the police to take to prison, hoping that they'll do their time and come out the other side as Productive Members of Society. That's just a thing I begrudgingly accept as part of the genre that will probably never go away. But Spider-Man is no longer repairing police surveillance networks. You're no longer beating the shit out of random drug dealers. Gangs of escaped convicts still wearing their orange jumpsuits are no longer terrorizing the streets of New York.

Instead, Peter and Miles are played more as firefighters. Sometimes very literally! They work with firefighters, they rescue people from collapsing buildings, they rush injured people to the hospital. In general there's a huge increase in the number of random onlookers present during the big action setpieces, and the Spider-Men frequently have to save them from harm. One of the major side quest lines is even literally about a cult of arsonists, and you'll routinely find burning fuel tanker trucks you have to extinguish with your webs. It's great! Love this for them.

I also generally liked the side missions in this. There's a lot of good stuff with the Spider-Men being neighborhood heroes willing to help out anyone in need, no matter the problem. Some of them can get corny, sure, but that street level stuff has always been the real heart of Spider-Man to me.

Gameplay

The gameplay's as fun as ever. That probably goes without saying. I will not be spending a thousand words explaining that swinging is fun.

In particular, I really liked the changes to the Focus mechanic. I never loved the way Miles' game made you choose between healing and doing your special attacks, but here your four specials have their own cooldowns, and the Focus meter is spent on either healing or finishers. It still offers that risk/reward element, but those vicious cycles where you can't do any real damage because you keep needing to heal aren't nearly as bad as they were before.

Personally I didn't turn off the swing assist or turn on fall damage, because the streamlined swinging never bothered me in these games, but I'm glad the options are there for people who want them.

Kraven

I liked Kraven in this! I liked the way they leaned into his Hunters being this weird death cult, and him wanting to go down in a blaze of glory against a worthy foe, to the point that he's actually disappointed anytime a foe can't kill him. It riffs on things people liked in Kraven's Last Hunt without being the exact same story. I like that Kraven's gang is renting out this manor or whatever and just being a complete terror to the wait staff. I liked the way Kraven hunting Peter's rogues' gallery clashed with Peter's belief in giving his villains second chances. I liked that they were willing to have Kraven kill off a couple of the minor villains from the first game to sell how dangerous he is. (I know some people hated this, but like, come on. We already fought the Sinister Six. They don't need to do that again.) I like the way Kraven pushed Peter to the absolute brink, turning him more and more aggressive with the Black Suit. Good stuff all around, even if the Hunter enemy types did wear out their welcome a little bit by the end.

The Black Suit arc

I think I liked the way Insomniac handled Peter's Black Suit arc overall, but there's a tradeoff here.

They REALLY lean into the body horror tentacle stuff, with Black Suit Peter basically just being a skinny Venom by the end. The sequence where you play as Mary Jane while the symbiote puppets an unconscious Peter's body around and goes on a rampage against the Hunters was REALLY great at selling how scary Peter is becoming, and it made me completely change my tune on the inclusion of the MJ stealth missions in the sequel. Having to beat an out-of-control Peter as Miles immediately after Peter beats Kraven was also really good. This is all cool!

BUT, the thing is... with the symbiote powers being so freaky from the start, it really pushes my suspension of disbelief when Peter and co. take so long to become wary of it. I guess when you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers, and when you live in the same universe as the Avengers and the X-Men, your perception of what's "normal" is going to be pretty warped. But they buy the whole "organic exosuit created to treat Harry's illness" story WAY too easily lmao. How do the self-aware slime tentacles help with his illness, exactly?

And I'm not sure how I feel about giving Peter Anti-Venom powers in the last act. It feels like it's primarily a concession so that they can give players that branch of their skill tree back, but honestly, the designer in me thinks it would be really cool (if risky) to just permanently lock players out of Peter's most powerful skills past a certain point. Yeah, it'd definitely piss people off, but it drives home the idea that Peter's given up greater power because it's the right thing to do. It'd put you in his shoes! Instead he just gets the symbiote powers back, but it's fine because the Venom voice in his head is gone and also the slime tendrils that explode out of his body are white now, which means they're good.

I have to say it. I'm sorry. The glistening white goo... they turned Peter into the Amazing Cum-Man. I changed back to the Classic Suit after rolling the credits and forgot I still had the Anti-Venom skills equipped, so I just saw regular old Spider-Man exploding his white goo everywhere. Terrible.

Assuming Peter is just stepping into more of a supporting role to Miles and not fully retiring after the events of this game, I really hope the Anti-Venom stuff is gone. I get that he needed it to counter Venom, but that's not what I want for Peter Parker.

Miles

Miles is good in this, and I really like his arc where he struggles with whether or not he should avenge his dad by killing Martin Li. I like how all that plays out. Unfortunately, they don't quite stick the landing when it comes to making him and Peter feel like equals in terms of narrative focus. His arc is definitely the B-plot to Peter's for the middle chunk of the story, which I guess was kind of inevitable since they decided to do the Black Suit arc. But Miles does at least get a lot of moments to shine, and by the end he's very much taking the lead as the main Spider-Man.

Becoming the main Spider-Man also gets Miles a new, wholly original suit that ended up being super controversial, and honestly... I kinda like it? Or at least I like what it's going for, even if the actual design could still use some work. It's something totally unique for Miles, and I like spandex/streetwear combo suits like what the Spider-Verse movies have popularized. But showing his hair is really pushing the limits of his secret identity. He hangs around Brooklyn Visions WAY too much for his classmates to not recognize his voice and haircut. And I understand why people would be wary about it becoming his "canon" look moving forward. But I think it's got potential.

On the subject of Miles, though, I will say that while I liked Miles' side missions, it feels like he's often saddled with the game's broad, kinda touristy, kinda token attempts at Showcasing The Diversity Of New York, in a way that Peter isn't.

I like that Miles has a deaf graffiti artist girlfriend that he and Ganke sign with, and I like that there's a series of side missions that explore some local jazz history, and I like that there's a mission where Miles helps a gay classmate ask his crush to prom. I like all these things! I like Spider-Man being involved with his community, and that said community includes such a wide variety of people! I like that this game slows down to savor these types of moments instead of just being all action all the time! But when I step back, I notice some patterns.

Hailey doesn't have a big role in the main plot, especially when compared to MJ, but Miles gets a side mission where you briefly play as her with muffled audio to teach you what being deaf is like. There are no major queer characters in the story - unless you count Felicia showing up for exactly one mission to mention she has an unseen, unnamed girlfriend in Paris now - but you get a side mission where Miles helps out a gay couple at his school, who then never come up again. To put it very uncharitably, they can feel like Very Special Episode missions. It's like the devs going: we're going to give Miles a Gay Mission, and an Impaired Hearing Mission, and a Cultural History Mission, so that we can say we touched on these things, but we're gonna make them all optional and keep them far away from the full-blown Superhero Stuff like fighting costumed villains. Those flavors cannot mix. Meanwhile, Peter gets to have a whole elaborate subplot about teaming up with Wraith to track down fucking Cletus Kasady. There's an imbalance here, and I think it's part of the reason why Peter still feels like the "main" Spider-Man for so much of the story.

I think this was all written with admirable intentions, but as others have pointed out, you can kinda tell that this game was mainly written by some white guys based in California. These attempts at depicting various marginalized groups can feel kind of detached in the same way that Insomniac's map of New York doesn't quite line up with the real thing. But I dunno. I'm not really the one to dig deep into some of this stuff as a white woman from Florida. I would be curious to read others' takes on this.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical about the writers' well-meaning but corny and kinda out of touch liberal politics because of the podcasts.

The podcasters

I wish Jameson was in this more! They psyched us out by giving him a full character model for, like, two scenes. I like him being MJ's boss, but I wish we saw inside the Daily Bugle offices to get more Jameson.

At least his podcasts are better than the ones in the Miles game, though. Him completely trusting in Roxxon was just too much for me. Here he condemns Oscorp for the symbiote shit, and he also gets some moments where he takes the ongoing crises seriously and isn't just ranting about the Spider-Men. He isn't just a conspiracy theorist crackpot here. Shit like his "fuck Spider-Man, we have a justice system for a reason" speech makes him feel more like a human being with a point of view, rather than just a caricature. Definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, I still find The Danikast grating. I'm sorry, Ashly Burch. It's not your fault. The quirky heckin' wholesome millennial podcaster lady who catches you up on current events and then reminds you to drink 64 ounces of water a day in the same breath is just too much for me. At least she doesn't have any lines as bad as her throwing in a "damn" and then going (direct quote here) "That's right - no censoring! That's how REAL I'm being right now!" like in Miles' game. Instead they give her this, like, almost psychic insight into the main plot to try and make her the angel on Peter's shoulder. The second Peter gets the symbiote she's like "Wow, y'all. Have you seen Spider-Man's new black suit? Something's different about him. He's been giving me such bad vibes lately. #NotMySpiderMan" Also she's supposed to be this, like, underdog independent podcaster who started her show on a whim and has become the voice of the people... but she's got billboards plastered all over the fucking city. Which makes her feel like an industry plant lmao

Again, there's a detachment with the writing. This is, like, some middle aged white liberal game dev guys' idea of what a modern leftist teenager would think is a Cool Activism Podcast. Unfortunately, because Insomniac thinks Danika's a hero, Mary Jane's triumphant ending is that she quits her job at the Bugle to become a podcaster, too, delivering a thinly veiled monologue about the pandemic to kick off her new podcast literally titled "The New Normal." She's going to save the world with podcasting, because that's the highest form of activism, I guess.

Venom

So! Venom! Venom was... okay.

Surprising no one, Harry Osborn is Venom. Harry's okay both as himself and as Venom, but I'm not sure his arc is a smooth one. He starts out as Peter's comically perfect best friend who returns to reminisce about the good ol' days and hand him his dream job on a silver platter, and then later he becomes a little ball of rage over the fact that Peter gets his symbiote and can't/won't give it back. I'm not sure that pivot is handled the most convincingly. You kind of have to write it off as the symbiote messing with their heads, I guess.

When he actually becomes Venom, I'm... mixed on the execution. On the one hand, the cool factor is absolutely there. He's a very cool big monster, and Tony Todd is great in the role. But he also wants to take over the world and make everyone a symbiote, and aside from any lingering resentment towards Peter, that's really all there is to him. It makes for a good video game to have a bunch of symbiote enemies and creepy symbiote nests and symbiote tentacles climbing up the sides of buildings in the last act... but is that really what I want out of Venom? Probably not. But he sure does look cool as a big monster guy to fight, and I was happy he was briefly playable.

Suits

Part of me feels like there's something lacking about the suit selection here, but almost every suit I liked in the previous games is back, and also I'm the type of person to give Peter the Classic Suit the second I unlock it and use that for most of the game. So does it really matter for me?

Peter's selection feels dominated by the various live action movie suits, but I get that those are going to be some of the suits people want to wear the most. I wish he had the Peter B. Parker skin to go with Miles' Spider-Verse alts, though. No idea why it's missing. Really I think I mainly just want more of the Spider-Verse designs.

Also I've complained about how most of the original suits designed for these games make Peter and Miles look like they were bitten by radioactive Alienware products, but I can just, you know. Wear other suits.

Misc thoughts

Everyone's already made this joke, but it's extremely funny that the Avengers didn't help with the symbiote invasion. Took one look at that and decided it wasn't their problem

On the subject of other superheroes, I do wish these games would acknowledge the Fantastic Four more. Peter's close relationship with that team feels woefully underutilized in his various adaptations

I like the trope of a boss fight that's a heightened version of a personal conflict between two people who are close, where throughout the fight the boss is airing out their grievances while the hero tries to get through to them emotionally. That especially works for Spider-Man! But WOW has Insomniac played that card a lot of times by the end of Spider-Man 2 lol

They're teasing the addition of Silk, I guess? I'm gonna be honest, I don't know shit about Silk, but I guess it was inevitable that they'd give us some form of Spider-Woman at some point. Gotta work all those costumes in somehow, and they're not brave enough to let one of the boys cosplay as Spider-Gwen.

They WERE, however, brave enough to let Harry say he loves Peter. I liked that little moment. They presumably meant it platonically, but clearly ol' Yaoi Lowenthal knows what's up

Post-leak addendum

So, obviously, by the time I got around to finishing this post the big Insomniac leak happened. I wish the game industry wasn't so secretive that it took a massive, dangerous data breach just to get our hands on some very basic info that would be public knowledge if Insomniac was a film studio, but here we are.

We now know that Insomniac spent somewhere around $315 million making Spider-Man 2 - triple what the first Spider-Man game cost to make. A quote about this from a leaked presentation has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it on Twitter. “Is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?”

To be honest, I'm not sure it is.

I liked Spider-Man 2, but I'd probably say that overall I liked it about as much as the first game. It's certainly a somewhat bigger game, with marginally more realistic looking graphics thanks to the power of the PS5. But I think I could do without ray tracing and more realistic hair rendering and whatnot if it meant that these games didn't take like five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. I could not give less of a shit if the swinging animations were recycled between games. I'd be fine with them being shorter, too.

I like these games, but as we look at that leaked project lineup and realize that Insomniac is turning into The Marvel Game Studio, I think about how many smaller, more original games that those resources could go towards if they scaled back the Marvel stuff just a bit. How many Ape Escapes or Patapons or Gravity Rushes could get made for the budget of just one of these massive AAA tentpole games of Sony's, which are apparently barely even breaking even? How many could be made for the budget of the "smaller, cheaper" Miles Morales game, which somehow cost $156 million to make despite using an updated version of the same Manhattan map from the first game? Hell, how many smaller games could have been made with the $39 million that went into remastering the first Spider-Man game for PS5 a mere two years after launch? How many people will lose their jobs if any one of Insomniac's upcoming Marvel games underperforms - which, in this case, could mean selling "only" 5 million copies? And would hardcore PlayStation fans even accept those smaller games at this point, now that they've been trained to only appreciate mega-budget Prestige Games with cutting edge graphics and treat everything else with disdain? How much worse will this get as the graphical arms race continues?

I think I just miss Japan Studio. Fuck Sony. Uhh but anyway the Spider-Man game this post was supposed to be about was good, some writing complaints aside. 8/10

#tsd post #other media

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hobiebrownismygod · 6 months

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Let's talk about Miles G./Prowler Miles and his characterization in fanfics/headcanons

I'm gonna refer to him as 42-Miles throughout this analysis btw

Fairly short post, about 1.1k words with pictures and gifs to help explain <3

Summary: I'm gonna analyze his characterization as being angry/aggressive, I'm gonna talk about his backstory a little bit and compare him to the original Prowler and then I'm gonna rant about his sexualization a little bit as well.

1. Characterizing him as angry/aggressive

Most of the fanfictions/headcanons that I've read treat 42-Miles like a thug. They act like he would be overly aggressive toward the reader/y/n and often characterize him as slightly misogynistic and a bully. One question. HOW? I genuinely don't understand where people get these headcanons from. You're telling me that this guy, who is literally the exact same person as Miles Morales, would be a cheating, narcissistic asshole who needs to be fixed by some random girl? Are you kidding me? Do y'all think RIO MORALES would've allowed that to happen to her son? HELL NO.

This hispanic lady?? BFFR

In the scene between Miles and 42-Rio, we see her asking him to get groceries, cracking jokes with him and just having an absolutely lovely mother-son dynamic. Its because of this that I think that he's actually a sweet, kind boy who's just trying his best to take care of his family. This little thing that he and his mom have going on proves that 42-Miles is not a bad kid. He's a genuinely nice guy who was thrown into a crappy situation.

As for his whole "You can call me the Prowler" persona, that's obviously just a setup. Miles did the same thing in the first movie when he met Peter B. Parker. He tied him up to a punching bag and put on a slightly deeper voice to confront him. 42-Miles did the exact same thing. He tied up Miles to a punching bag and did his best to intimidate him with the claw and the voice. He's just trying to look cool in front of his twin, guys. He's not that way normally. If anything, he's just gonna be a slightly more depressed version of Miles, but he's still Miles.

Its practically the same scene.

This type of characterization happens a lot towards edgy black males in the media. The same thing happens with Hobie Brown. He's portrayed as cool, a rule-breaker and a punk and immediately, people characterize him as dirty and violent which are nasty stereotypes targeted towards African-Americans. 42-Miles is portrayed as intimidating and edgy and immediately people are quick to say that he would be an asshole and that he would be a bad boy which are also horrible stereotypes. This is blatant racism and its not cute or fun to read. If you want him to be aggressive in your fanfictions, give him an actual reason to be aggressive. Don't just assume that he would be, because if you really think about it, he wouldn't.

2. Calling him a murderer (The original prowler didn't kill people)

A lot of the fanfictions/headcanons that I've read that involved 42-Miles treat him like a murderer and romanticize the idea of him being a criminal. Authors write stories about him violently murdering thugs and beating people up for no reason. Any f.f. involving his identity as the Prowler usually has a killing scene written in or an implied murder scene.

It has been confirmed that 42-Miles is gonna be an anti-hero. Now the Aaron Davis version of the Prowler did kill people. However, he wasn't an anti-hero. If we're going to compare 42-Miles to a Prowler, we need to compare him to Hobie Brown, who was the original Prowler.

Hobie Brown was also an anti-hero who actually helped Spider-man multiple times throughout the comics. He never killed anyone and after trying to lead a life of crime, he actually ended up quitting. This suggests that 42-Miles would be similar if not the same, because its confirmed that he's fighting against the Sinister Six, and isn't a "villain" and therefore would not kill anyone.

He's also 15 years old. Why are people acting like a 15 year old would be a murderer? There is no way this 15 year old kid is going out into the streets and beating up thugs. This guy was supposed to be Spider-man, remember? He fights for justice and he fights against real villains, like Doc Ock, Scorpio, Rhino, all villains who are confirmed to exist in Earth-42.

This headcanon is extremely inaccurate and people really need to chill out on the whole "Prowler" aspect of his character, because he's still Miles. He isn't a whole new character. He's literally Miles Morales in a different font, and he's not gonna be a murderous maniac.

3. Sexualizing him (he's a minor!?!?!)

I'd say about 70-80% of the 42-Miles fanfictions that cross my feed contain smut. People age up Miles, not for the plot, not for the headcanons, but just to write smut.

Personally, when I read a fan fiction or a headcanon about a character, I imagine them in my head when I do. I genuinely read the fan fiction like it would be played out with the character. So to me, people who are writing these smutty fan fictions are imagining a minor in their head while doing these things. This is absolutely insane to me.

Now I know a lot of people are gonna come for me for saying this because "if you don't wanna read it then just scroll" and "he's aged up so its okay" but this is normalizing pedophilia.

Once again, I see the same thing happening with Hobie. Why? Once again, casual racism. People see an edgy black male and they immediately assume he'd be super sexual. The people writing smut about Miles are the same way. They see an attractive black teen and the first thing that pops up in their mind is "I'd let him fuck me." He's 15 years old. No one should be writing smut about this kid. He doesn't do anything sexual in the movie, he doesn't have a confirmed love interest, he was literally on screen for two minutes. Stop treating black characters like sex toys and enjoy their damn storylines.

I explained more on the sexualization of black characters in the media in this post here if you want to read more into it or still feel a little unsure about my analyzation. I included sources as well <3

This guy is a tired CHILD. LOOK AT HIS EYE BAGS

As for the whole "aging up" thing, aging up a character for a fan fiction and aging them up for smut are two very different things. I've read 42-Miles fanfictions where they age him up, but they actually add to the plot. This one fanfiction I read (I'll link it if I find it) aged him up to create a officer x criminal trope, which I found absolutely adorable. They were able to write an amazing story with zero smut. Compare this to people who are saying "I'm aging him up to 18 <3" and its just 4000 words of straight, gut-wrenching smut.

This genuinely disgusts me. I don't know if its just me who feels this way about his sexualization, but its so icky to think about. You're taking a literal child and imagining yourself doing all these things with him and posting it for the rest of the world to see. A lot of the people who write these fanfictions are 18+ which baffles me as well.

Stop sexualizing minors and stop aging up characters just for smut. It's messed up.

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baiabay · 10 months

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No Role Modelz (ATSV Black Cat Variant! Reader Insert)

Chapter 1: Scaredy-Cat

Prologue

Chapter 1: Current Chapter

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

^^links 2 chapters!! this story is also on ao3, wattpad, and quotev under the same name ! <33

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A/N: Spot is here!!

Hey all! Okay so first things first thank you so much for all the support of the last chapter! It honestly means alot given that ive never written before lol. Alsoooo sorry for the radio-silence after the last release, i just graduated highschool! So yay for me :) also means that ill have much more time to write since its summer break for me now. Lastly,sorry if this chapter seemed kinda slow, I wanted to try to incorporate what this universes’ Felicia Hardys “canon events”(or what would be of her canon events) would look like in this chapter to set up a bit of backstory, as someone who doesn’t read the comics nor play the games, pls forgive any inaccuracies in Felicias lore as I am only going based off of wikipedia (plus in this story reader is a minor so I wanted to exclude the nsfw trauma that Felicia goes through in og story) I also wanted to find out a way how to integrate reader into the main plot which is why i decided to feature Spot in this chapter :D thanks again for the support and don’t forget that this chapter along with any future ones will be posted to ao3/tumblr under the same title!

P.S. Much more Spider-Miles/Black Cat interactions next chapter!!

Word Count: 1844

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You remembered it like it was yesterday.

Seven months ago, Brooklyn, New York.

Your father - The Black Cat’s face on every screen in the country, but most importantly yours.

BREAKING NEWS: WORLD-RENOWNED CAT BURGLAR CAUGHT IN THE ACT : IDENTITY SHOCKS THE NATION

…huh?

LIVE ON THE SCENE: ‘BLACK CAT’ REVEALED TO BE MULTI MILLIONAIRE WALTER HARDY AFTER RUN-IN WITH SPIDER-MAN

…no, this-

THIS JUST IN: CAT BURGLAR WALTER HARDY PRESUMED DEAD AT HEIST SCENE - POSSESSIONS TO BE TURNED IN TO OFFICIALS

This can’t be happening.

It was all too much at once.

He never kept it secret from you. You knew about your father’s job.

You knew all about what he did. The planning, the heists, the reselling, he had done it for years. And you knew all about it. But he had been doing this for years. Long enough to allow your family to live very comfortably. Long enough that you believed he would never be caught.

But yet there you were, all that you knew burned to the ground in a matter of minutes.

You remembered it like it was yesterday. Frantically packing everything you could into any bag you could find; clothes, money, pictures, weapons, anything - before they could take it away from you.

And when they did, it was brutal.

Live-streamed news coverage of men raiding your home, rummaging through your stuff- your father’s stuff- as if he never existed.

Soon enough there were auctions. Bids, worth millions, on your father’s items, broadcasted across the nation, with drinks and music and finger foods - they made a fucking sport out of it.

You remembered it like it was yesterday, the cheers in the street after the big-bad-black-cat was pronounced dead. The endless praise Spider-man received, that of which he took with a smile on his face. You had wished you could kill him.

You remembered it like it was yesterday, the day Peter Parker died.

You laughed.

. . . . . . . . . .

Seven months later, Brooklyn, New York.

Ugh.

Muscles aching, you stretched up in your bed, and groaned. Ruffling the bedhead out of your hair, you reluctantly trudged out of your mattress to open a window. Coincidentally, one of your many cats was perched perfectly on its sill, wide-eyed and tail flicking in your direction.

“...This whole heist stuff is really catching up to me, huh?”

The cat stared. You sighed. You really had to get yourself some friends.

Ever since your fathers passing, you’ve basically been on your own. Shortly after all his (and your) possessions were seized, you hopped around until you managed to find shelter in a shitty apartment on the west side of town. You, fueled purely by spite (with a tasteful teeny tiny dash of vengeance on the side), inherited the criminal persona of your father, along with his criminal tendencies, and took upon yourself the name of The Black Cat.

All this time you’ve managed to keep your identity completely secret, not even your resellers knew who you were. That came with one major drawback though… you were extremely lonely.

Even with your frequent charity rounds around the community, noone really knew who you were. Even though Black Cat was nonviolent, the name was widely feared seemingly everywhere you went. Even with your days at school, the school you’ve been going to for months now, you made your way around the halls unnoticed.

Speaking of school, you were late.

Shit.

Spending ample time dazing out your window, you’ve completely lost track of time. You disregarded your hair and rushed to pull on your uniform. Stumbling around your complex you hastily dumped too large of a portion of cat food into the automatic feeder, something you’re sure the cats will be grateful for. Shoving a few snacks into your bag, you simultaneously shuffled into your school shoes, proceeding to dash out the door.

Sprinting down the stairs, nearly tripping once, twice, you whipped out your phone to check when the next bus route would arrive. 35 minutes.

Shitshitshit.

You paused, still in the stairwell, before turning to sprint in the opposite direction, towards the rooftop terrace. Creaking open the door, you checked to make sure noone else was up there before making your way towards the edge of the terrace. To anyone else but you, it would look like a young student was about to make an unfortunate decision and jump. And jump you did.

You fell for a few seconds, relishing in the way your stomach dropped. You’d never get tired of that feeling. Seeing the ground get closer, you released your grappling hook and latched onto the nearest building. Pulling and releasing, you quickly fell into a swinging pattern, towards Brooklyn Visions.

Hidden from the eyes of civilians, you swung yourself through the shadows. Everyone looked so small from up there, and for a brief second, you found power in your lonesome. In the corner of your eye you noticed what seemed to be a lanky white figure clumsily flying through the air. (You paid it no mind).

Dropping down into a dark alleyway much closer to campus, you continued your mad dash towards the main entrance. Winded, you finally made your way inside the building, a thin layer of sweat shined on your forehead. The hallways were empty, class must be in session. You took a few steps forward, making your way towards your classroom until being knocked over by a student, very evidently in a hurry.

“Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t mean to-I’m just in a rush, I didn’t mean…”

The boy reached out his hand to help you up.

“Hey, it's no problem, I get it.”

You smiled, and took your hand in his. He hesitated for a moment, staring, brows furrowed at your now interlocked hands, before nodding and continuing his sprint down the hallways.

You took in his disheveled appearance, his wonky tie, his half-tucked shirt, untied laces, dark eyes, curly hair, brown skin, sweaty palms…

Your thoughts were quickly interrupted with the shrill ringing of the school bell. Suddenly, the hallways flooded with students rushing towards their next classes, you decided to follow suit.

On the other side of the hallway, Miles Morales lingered on how his spidey-sense flashed alarms in his head when his hand touched yours. Every nerve in his system telling him to run, fight, dodge, anything to get away from you-he couldn't put his finger on why. (He paid it no mind). Blaming it on nerves, Miles shoved his way through the packed hallways, dreading the meeting waiting for him in the guidance counselor's office.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

School was a bust, as always. Nothing new, you made your way through the rest of the day unnoticed. As always. But you didn’t have time to think about that right now.

At the moment, you were in the middle of going through numerous number-codes on a padlock blocking the vault door to an extremely expensive gemstone. You’ve been salivating over this stone for weeks now, planning out how and when exactly you would strike to get this thing in your hands. You could see it now, the headlines, the chaos, after some rando millionaire’s little rock was taken from him…

“Woah, hey, you’re new!”

You flinched, hard. Whipping around towards the source of this unusually chipper voice. You were met with… a cow? … Man?

You stared, hard.

“Okay, hey. The ogling isn’t necessary… I just-”

The cowman’s sentence was cut short with a quick lash of your whip, that of which he caught…? Your whip seemed to phase right through a large black hole on his torso, the opposite end appearing in a similar black hole right behind you, the whips end striking your back. You cried out, hit with the full force of your lash.

Sinister giggles emerged from the spotted figure, pointed towards your pained form. You trembled, in shock.

“It’s rude to interrupt.”

Spot stepped slowly towards you, his…well, spots, whirring aggressively, pointedly. You were frozen on the ground. Staring up at him, your lips trembled open.

“What,” You coughed. Once, twice. “-what are you?”

The black and white figure straightened, only to then fold over into a dramatic, hilariously unthreatening pose.

“You, can call me… The Sp-”

“Some sort of cow?” You snickered. It was now his turn to flinch, hard.

“I am NOT a-” The cow cleared his throat. “I am not a cow…whydoeseveryonesaythat…I, am the most dangerous villain you’ve ever seen, The Spo-”

“I mean, what’s with that getup?” The grin on your face grew. “Is that… is that supposed to be a costume? Orrrr…”

The Spot sighed, defeated. “...it’s skin.”

“It’s skin?”

“Yes, yes, now I-”

You stood up, energy back and eyes crinkled.

“Wow, that’s…hm, interesting…skin, that’s skin? Sorry, sorry-listen man, I uh, I really gotta get back to this, so if you don’t mind?”

Stepping backwards in offence, the spotted figure shook in anger before swinging out his arm, releasing numerous dark voids around the room. Hitting practically every surface, but one most importantly, landing on the vault door, separating you, from your stone.

“Ah-wait-”

Swiftly, The Spot weaved his way through his holes, limbs popping up and out around the room in a way you couldn’t even begin to reach for your whip.

No way was he about to take it from you.

But take it, he did.

In what felt like seconds, the whole room was engulfed in black. Stumbling backwards, you fell through one of the voids, flailing ungracefully, swimming through nothing.

It was hard to breathe.

A shrill crackling terrorized your ears, and before you, appeared a very disheveled Spot, now fully black with white spots, facial dot whirring and trained on you.

Gem in hand.

Panic.

You were panicking. The sound of blood thrummed in your ears as you squirmed around in nothingness. Fuck the rock, you just had to get out of here.

A cold hand grabs your wrist, dragging you upwards, towards the crackling form.

For the second time today, you were frozen.

“I am not a cow,”

The form spoke lowly.

“I am not some villain of the week”,

Frozen still, you did nothing but stare straight into his glare.

“I. Am. The Spot”.

Suddenly, you were dropped. For the second time today, your stomach dropped with you. Next thing you know you’re falling through another void, leading not into darkness, but through the city skyline. Seeing the ground get closer, you released your grappling hook and latched onto the nearest building.

As soon as your feet reached a solid surface, your legs buckled. Heaving, you failed to process what just took place, heart pounding in your ears.

“...the fuck was that?”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miles received word of commotion taking place downtown, something to do with spots. He had hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was, and it was. It was, and was so much worse.

Dark spots littered a large manor, maniacal cackling emerging from its center. In the corner of his eye a familiar masked figure hunched over, breathing rapidly, staring straight ahead at the mess of spots.

(He paid it some mind.)

------------------------

Ppl that asked me to tag them!(thxx 4 the support!)

@nightshxdex

@itszzmoon

@blackcat-kittyblogs

@vxxxb

#miles morales x reader #atsv x you #atsv #reader insert #atsv x reader #atsv reader insert #spider-man: across the spider-verse #across the spiderverse #across the spiderverse x reader #black cat! reader #hobie brown x reader #gwen stacy x reader #pavitr prabhakar x reader #miguel ohara

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patheticmenscuffle · 1 year

Text

Drum rolls, please...

We're happy to reveal the roster for the Pathetic Men Scuffle! Thanks again to everyone who submitted characters, and we hope everyone's looking forward to this as much as we are.

We will begin posting the polls around 10pm GMT (4pm US CST) tomorrow 3/10. Each poll will be open for one week.

With this announcement, we will now be accepting propaganda! Feel free to send some in or tag us in any posts you'd like and we'll share them on here. Propaganda posts will be tagged as #propaganda and each character will also have their own propaganda tag.

Click the Read More below to see all of the contestants and their first matchups in text form as well as where they're from!

Izzy Hands (Our Flag Means Death) vs Lord Farquaad (Shrek)

Edgar Allan Poe (Bungo Stray Dogs) vs Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown)

Pastor Daniel (Scarlet Hollow) vs Ron Stampler (Dungeons and Daddies)

Earl Harlan (Welcome to Night Vale) vs General Ultimax/General Fuff (Bug Fables)

Hunter Noceda (The Owl House) vs Asgore Dreemur (Deltarune)

Saint (Rain World) vs William Afton/Purple Guy (Five Nights at Freddy's)

Vash the Stampede (Trigun) vs Zote the Mighty (Hollow Knight)

Shin Tsukimi (Your Turn to Die) vs Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein)

Peter B. Parker (Spider-Man (Marvel Comics)) vs Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)

Anders (Dragon Age) vs Cyrus (Pokemon)

Mikoshiba Mikoto (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun) vs Ron Delite (Ace Attorney)

Inigo (Fire Emblem) vs William Graham (Hannibal)

The Narrator (The Stanley Parable) vs King Dice (Cuphead)

Five Pebbles (Rain World) vs Satan/The Dark Prince (Madou Monogatari/Puyo Puyo Tetris)

Sebastian Debeste (Ace Attorney) vs Johann (The Adventure Zone)

Luigi (Super Mario Brothers) vs Charlie Kelly (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

Stede Bonnet (Our Flag Means Death) vs Magolor (Kirby)

Dwight Fairfield (Dead By Daylight) vs Wes (Don't Starve) vs Linebeck (The Legend of Zelda)

Plankton (Spongebob) vs Spamton (Deltarune) vs Courage the Cowardly Dog (Courage the Cowardly Dog)

Father Paul (Midnight Mass) vs George Costanza (Seinfeld) vs Loki (Marvel Comics)

Harry du Bois (Disco Elysium) vs Darkrai (PokePark 2 (Pokemon)) vs Vlad Masters/Plasmius (Danny Phantom)

Reigen Arataka (Mob Psycho 100) vs Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How To Train Your Dragon)

Jon Arbuckle (Garfield) vs Wheatley (Portal 2)

Paul Matthews (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals) vs Jonah Simms (Superstore)

Buggy the Clown (One Piece) vs Abner Krill (Suicide Squad)

Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion) vs Tamaki Amajiki (My Hero Academia)

Rincewind the Wizard (Discworld) vs Rouxls Kaard (Deltarune)

Giovanni Potage (Epithet Erased) vs Clippy (Microsoft Office XP Advertisement (Microsoft))

Bruno Madrigal (Encanto) vs Kaname Date (AI: The Somnium Files)

The Devil (Cuphead) vs The Ice King (Adventure Time)

Alcryst (Fire Emblem) vs Starscream (Transformers)

Miles O'Brien (Star Trek) vs Spirit Albarn (Soul Eater)

Jonathan Harker (Dracula) vs Ethan Winters (Resident Evil)

Tsukasa Tenma (Project Sekai/Colorful Stage) vs Kendall Roy (Succession)

Mike Wheeler (Stranger Things) vs Dr. Eggman (Sonic)

Larry Needlemeyer (The Amazing World of Gumball) vs Saul Goodman (Better Call Saul)

Alador Blight (The Owl House) vs Andy Bernard (The Office (US))

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives) vs The Cabbage Seller (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Jedidiah A. A. Martin (Camp Here and There) vs David Ward (I Am In Eskew) vs Randy V. Jade (Dial Town)

John Gaius (The Locked Tomb) vs Gilear Faeth (Fantasy High (Dimension 20)) vs Filbo Fiddlepie (Bugsnax)

Dick Gumshoe (Ace Attorney) vs Zenkichi Hasegawa (Persona 5) vs Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)

Larry (Pokemon) vs Steven Universe (Steven Universe) vs Fujimoto (Ponyo)

#announcements #yeehaw #mod knight collected the images while mod dragon set up the layout #we wound up with a bit of an odd number of characters but we've made it work #you DEFINITELY have to open it in a new tab to see though #it's a bit late for both mods so we'll also reblog this in the morning #update: okay I (dragon) have transcribed all of them into text form in the read more #tumblr polls #polls #tumblr bracket #bracket

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oliveroctavius · 4 months

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I played Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and the fundamental problem I have with it is as someone who reads Miles Morales comics, I don’t see anything being remotely respected in that adaptation. Everything about his adaptation in that game annoys me from killing Jefferson in a way that is against his character, Rio being a teacher and then politician instead of a nurse, the portrayal of Brooklyn Visions not being an integral setting and obstacle to Miles, Miles being dependent on Peter up until the last stretch of the sequel, Ganke being the guy in the chair for both Miles and Peter, and moving him to Harlem because they didn’t feel like creating Brooklyn just feels like they cut corners for Miles to mold him around Peter. Not one character from Miles supporting cast not named Ganke or any of his own rogues made the cut. They even made Principal Evans who was a black male dwarf in the comic into a black woman. Even in his own game, not one collectible references anything about Miles alone but just his relationship with Phin or talks about how great Phin is. They mention Mr. Sumida. Hell in the original PS4 game before the remaster, Miles went to Midtown instead of fucking Brooklyn Visions. Everything feels like they wanted Miles in name only and it irks me so much because they never did that with Peter.

Yeah, this is such a complete thought I don't know what to add other than to agree. I do love new characters like Hailey Cooper, but the last time an adaptation felt free to almost completely replace Peter Parker's supporting cast and love interests with OCs they just made up was, like, the 1977 TV show. To some degree the amount of freedom an adaptation feels it can have depends on how long + culturally iconic the character's publishing history has been so far. But follow that explanation just a step further, and, well, it's not like it's a mystery why Miles has had a much shorter and harder to follow comics run, either.

Even Ganke being a constant here is so clearly because of Ned Leeds' presence in the MCU and ends up awkwardly tiptoeing around apologizing for someone else's theft of its ideas... I know that Judge, Billie, Tiana, even Kamala, they don't exactly represent iconic story arcs or character connections in the adaptation-driven public knowledge of Miles right now, but the way for that to change is for adaptations to iterate on and expand the existing base.

I'm also of the general opinion that Miles' whole character will never land as hard if it doesn't start with seeing Peter Parker die in costume in front of him but that might pose some problems to the structure of the video game LOL. I'm sure they could have figured it out if they'd wanted to.

#I'd be curious for further elaboration on Jefferson's death being against his character though #miles morales #ps4

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neonbrutalism · 8 months

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90's comics Miguel is great, but you know another amazing depiction of Miguel? Edge of Time Miguel. He's such a bitch (affectionate) in that game (and so is Peter, too, they're iconic and insufferable together lol), but it's also super fascinating in that game how even though he argues for one thing, he's VERY quick to jump into viciously caring.

Spoilers in case anyone hasn't played and/or watched a playthrough, but for the first half of the game he's constantly arguing with Peter about how useless it is to go after Brock and that it's gonna get him killed, and Peter snipes back about how he doesn't care because he is concerned about Eddie suddenly going rogue again and he wants to help him! And then when it's looking like Peter really isn't gonna make it Miguel changes tune so fast "Where'd your never say die attitude go?! You can't give up!" And he sounds so desperate and he cares so much.

And then the second half he's arguing about intervening with the history that says MJ dies, and Peter snaps at him again then begs him to save MJ. And he agrees to do it! And as this race against the clock starts he gets increasingly more fervent to save MJ in time that once he does by the skin of his teeth his relief is so palpable and genuine. And when MJ thanks him he's flustered and pleased and he's a little goofy too!

And the end credits where Peter finally makes him follow through on his threats to spend hours explaining quantum causality to him— he's such a nerd and it's just a really good parallel to the version of him in the 90's comics and I really wish more people could grasp his character like that. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk lol

FUCKING

LOVE

EDGE OF TIME MIGUEL.

Why do you think Miguel gets into being Miles' mentor so fast? He talks a big Cool Guy game but he's a total dork and i love him SO MUCH i have the cutscene/gameplay videos on my phone to watch when I'm on my way home from work and need to get into a writing mood.

I bought the Hot Toys Spider-Man 2099 based on his outfit in that!!!

If you won't read the comics .... watch the Edge of Time Let's Play :D the player is really bad at it but I just love it Miguel's such a doofus he gives me cuteness aggression.

HERE'S A LET'S PLAY ITS 2 HOURS BUT IT'S SO GOOD.

My one quibble is Miguel doesn't have an attack to bite anyone and his claws are on his fingernails.

youtube

#miguel o'hara #spider-man edge of time #HERE'S MY SPECIAL BOY

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amageish · 6 months

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Spider-Man 2 Post-Credit Spoilers

Time for some more signature Amageish overthinking!

Sooooooooooooo.

How about that Cindy Moon appearance, huh?

From this Gizmodo article, we do have a bit of insight into the decision to have her appear where they mention the challenge of making a Cindy unique to the GamerVerse specifically - though it's obvious they are keeping their cards close to their chest here as well.

io9: Along with giving Miles a promotion, you’ve introduced Cindy Moon, aka Silk, into your universe. Of all the Spider-heroes, I don’t think anyone was expecting her. What made her so appealing over someone like Eddie or Gwen Stacy? Arfmann: Cindy’s always been a really compelling character in the comics who, similar to [SM1's] Martin Li, hasn’t really gotten a ton of exposure outside of the immediate fanbase. There’s something really exciting about taking a character who we love, who not everybody’s had a chance to meet, and exposing her to a wider audience. Morris: I’m so excited to see what we do with Cindy. Arfmann: Exactly. That was the real drive with her, and figuring out who Insomniac’s Cindy Moon is a really exciting challenge. And we also have this interesting complication that [Cindy’s dad] Albert is dating [Miles’ mom] Rio, and we’re thrilled to explore how that creates a new iteration of this character that folks already love.

So this confirms that they will be changing stuff too! This is going to be a unique take on her, but they are also self-aware that this will be plenty of people's introduction to the character.

The main question on my mind is a pretty basic one: Does Cindy Moon need to be shoved into a bunker for 7-10 years in order to be recognizably Cindy Moon? Her father is already in the game, so we know the "parents are missing" story is probably off the table, but does she need to still spend all that time in isolation to be Cindy?

In the comics, her time in the bunker is credited in-text with being a source of so many of her defining character traits.

It is something that separates her experiences from Peter and the other Spider-heroes.

It's something that fills her with a drive to prove herself and is the experience that made her such a talented martial artist.

It informs her understanding of modern technology and the level of pop culture awareness she has - the former of which helped her develop her uniquely positive relationship with J Jonah Jameson.

And, lastly, the time she had in isolation is credited with causing her to develop her anxiety disorder and communication challenges.

So, with all that in mind, it feels like Cindy does have to be put into a bunker, right? As it's such a core part of her backstory?

Well, no. Maybe this will be a hot take, but I honestly don't think she does.

While I do think everything I've listed here is a key aspect of Cindy Moon as a character, I don't think they need to lock her in a vault for 7-10 years in order to explain why a Korean-American woman in New York city has anxiety or practices martial arts or feels a need to work twice as hard to have her accomplishments recognized. These are all very relatable experiences that do not require a fantastical superhero origin story to justify them.

Honestly, with how emotion-forward the Insomniac Spider-Man games are already, I think her being a woman who has had a depressive episode recently which she describes as having felt like being trapped would work just as well as literally having had her be trapped by a supervillain. I would not be surprised if the ability to tell a story about anxiety and depression was a factor in them selecting Cindy as the next playable character as well - the potential for a Silk game that incorporates actual mindfulness and grounding techniques into the gameplay is really high IMHO.

I also think that the final scene kind of supports the idea too? Cindy has no lines, but she does have a silent awkward wave. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but her introduction makes me think she already has social anxiety - so unless she's already been in the bunker and we'll get a story about how she escaped, then I think she will probably jut be getting powers and moving forward from there.

Anyway, that's a lot of thoughts brought about by like 5 seconds of Cindy waving. I'm just really eager to see where things go from here and am hoping we'll get a DLC trailer or a Silk expandalone announced sometimes soon...

(PS: Having Peter already be in a committed relationship with MJ and Miles, who is also already in a relationship with Hailey, being in a psuedo-sibling relationship with Cindy is an excellent way of desexualizing the Cindy + Spider-Men relationship. I have no fears about Insomniac stumbling on that particular hurdle.)

(I do, however, have fears that I will be seeing unironic speculation about pheromones in reddit threads for the next 2 years until whenever Spider-Man: Miles Morales 2 or Silk: Cindy Moon is announced... but that probably cannot be changed, unfortunately.)

#spider man 2 spoilers #cindy moon #silk

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meruz · 5 months

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bunch of random tmnt asks that werent art requests gljhsdfjgng also one ask abt my comics pull list :]

THE RECENT...2023 MOVIE.. MUTANT MAYHEM. I feel like I'm going to have really noobish takes because of this but even though I grew up in proximity to tmnt media like every normal american child, caught the occasional episode on tv every so often etc i didn't rly have any interest until this movie LOL.... i just really love the art direction and how grounded the writing is. it was like just the right combination of things to completely unlock the whole franchise in my mind. it's actually weird this didn't happen earlier because martial arts, siblings, and weird takes on superhero comics r kind of my jam.

i feel like you are trying to get me to say i dont like one of them LMAO I LIKE ALL OF THEM OK!!

i read like half of a trade paperback in barnes and noble once...? sorry. I also haven't read any ninja turtles comics except for the recent power rangers crossover almost solely just to look at dan mora's art. All my comics reading energy has historically gone into x-men and like. james tynion iv indies. idk. it feels like.

I'm sure I'll get around to both eventually though LOL. comics are like the only media im actually good at consuming.

SPEAKING OF COMICS (great segue, me) thank you for asking this every year anon sorry I'M LATE to reply also.

I kind of fell off the wagon of reading every single x-men book after Inferno BUT the recent hellfire gala actually pulled me back on a little. I'm still subscribed and very slowly catching up to:

X-Men Red

Immortal X-Men

Astonishing Iceman

Ms.Marvel the New Mutant (the last time i mentioned this book publicly I got anon hate abt it?! LMAO but whatever)

I also want to mention it ended this year but I really loved Sabretooth + Sabretooth and the Exiles. Victor Lavalle you are like a genius of some sort to me.

i also Did read the x-men issues around and about emma and tonys wedding because i actually think that stuff is so funny. tracking that particular mess on the down low

I'm also reading:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man (I'm really behind)

Birds of Prey (I think Leo Romero and Jordie Bellaire are like an art team match made in heaven I could read anything they illustrate together. I felt the similarly about Killjoys National Anthem which I thought writing-wise was a little obtuse? but was SO beautiful art wise I didn't even care)

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos

Coda (vol 2!! Exciting)

Fire Power

and whenever Nice House on the Lake comes back for a vol 2 you know I'll be in line

#ask

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kiragecko · 9 months

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Ultimate Comics: A Retrospective

Ultimate Comics was a Marvel alternate universe that existed from 2000 to 2015. They were some of the first comics I ever read, and I wanted to talk a little about the various titles (that I remember) and what I think about them.

Ultimate Spider-Man -

Everyone says this is the best Ultimate series. It is.

It is also tonally different from the rest of the line, which leads to some fascinating crossovers. (66-67 is a fun one with Wolverine.)

Rather than reinventing the characters, it's pretty faithful to them, though Peter may be slightly less of a jerk than canon. It introduces most of Peter's canon cast, but writes them into a 14-15 year old's life, rather that the 'older teen'(/30 year old) of the original comics. A bit slow moving at times, and everyone talks like they're on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but its a GOOD SERIES. And it's Spider-Man.

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man -

This is also a good series, and a worthy successor to the previous one. Miles is wonderful. However, I'm not thick skinned enough for comics. I couldn't forgive Marvel for Ultimatum, and even though this series was really good at respecting Peter's death and writing a new Spider-man fully aware of the weight of his legacy, I was MAD. Stupid apocalyptic cross-over events. Stupid hyper-violence. I HATE IT.

Ultimate X-Men 1-33

Must a series be good? This one is not.

It's as soulless and obsessed with being cool as the Ultimates (see below), but instead of partner abuse, incest, and cannibalism, it's gleefully reveling in torture and young adults being incredibly petty dicks to each other.

I personally find gratuitous torture more intriguing than partner abuse. The Weapon X arc is compelling to a certain type of reader. (Me, for example.)

However, Ultimates at least had some partial characters and a few archetypes. Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men doesn't even have different varieties of dickishness. Not a single personality to be found. Just cardboard cutouts there to deliver quips.

(13 and 14 are a fill-in about Gambit and are really sweet, despite being by Chuck Austen. This version of Gambit will never return. Neither will this version of Chuck Austen. But I found them worth reading.)

Ultimate X-Men 34-100

The series could not recover from having zero characters. The lineup was too high profile to switch out for characters with actual personalities, but also utterly uninteresting for anything other than flashy action movie violence. I stuck around for another 40 or so issues, but the only ones worth reading are the Spider-Man crossover in 34-39, where Peter Parker tries to help out Wolverine and really struggles with the genre shift to ultraviolent action thriller. Everyone should read that. It's great!

The Ultimates -

Okay, this mini-series actually has cool stuff in it. It is drastically weakened by being WAY too focused on that cool stuff, but I ... look, I absolutely don't recommend it, but I enjoyed it when I was 18.

This is the Ultimate version of the Avengers. The Avengers movie is heavily based on these guys.

Things that are cool:

Ultimate Thor is FASCINATING. Hippie cult leader who may be delusional about actually being Thor. Not really a superhero, but sort of helps out. Mark Millar doesn't respect liberals (or anyone else), but the character kind of gets away from him and is good anyways? (All that lovely ambiguity will quickly be lost. But this bit was good.)

Ultimate Iron Man is Movie Iron Man. He's got all the early movie version's flaws and strengths. His quips are often very good. He was interesting enough that I read his first mini. (A mistake. More later.)

Things that are mixed:

Ultimate Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are ... look, I liked melodrama as a young adult. These guys were consistently my favourite parts of the first 2 minis. They're not good people. They only pretend to do heroics (and even the pretense is perfunctory). It's heavily implied that they're in an incestual relationship. But even cowering from their abusive father is done with such flair and emotion! Mark Millar writes good hooks for hurt/comfort, okay?

Ultimate Black Widow and Hawkeye are ... the basis for the movie versions. That means these guys are responsible for Hawkeye having an awful buzzcut, no expression, and a wife and kids. These guys are also the reason the movie versions are so intertwined in each other and so heavily tied to SHIELD. Black Widow is the female with the closest thing to a personality in this mini.

Things that aren't cool:

Ultimate Captain America is fundamentally broken. Fails as Captain America. This is Jingoistic post-9/11 Americans at their worst. Attracted to a lady married to someone else and super creepy about it. Takes SUCH JOY in beating up her husband when the man turns out to be abusive - like, it's not about her at all, he just likes hurting people. A bad person.

Ultimate Wasp and Giant-Man are the aforementioned wife and abusive husband. She is a macguffin with an INCREDIBLE costume. He gets far too much screen time for such a pathetic abusive piece of slime.

The Ultimate Hulk shouldn't be a mass murderer. Bruce is pathetic, and watching him with his ex is ... bad. Why does Mark Millar hate everyone he writes?

Things that matter:

Not the plot. It's an early 2000s action movie. All flash, no substance.

The Ultimates 2:

More of the same, but not as good. Still ultra-nationalistic. Still soulless. The Maximoff twins remain an uncomfortable delight while doing nothing. Hawkeye's small children's dead bodies are graphically shown on panel. Nobody is likeable or a character, Tony's stupid opinions aren't as forgiveable, and Thor is absent most of the miniseries.

The Ultimates 3:

Jeff Loeb tries to ape Millar's style. He gets the grossness and violence right! He misses badly on the subtlety, which is REALLY impressive, since Millar isn't known for it. (The Hulk eats people, you guys.) Thankfully, I bowed out after number 2.

Ultimate Fantastic Four -

Mediocre. Non-descript. Nothing new to say, but not good at what made the original work. (Family. It has always been about family.) The lackluster movie does a slightly better job. I don't care about these characters until Ultimate Reed goes evil (far after this series), and then I hate him.

Ultimate Iron Man -

??? What? I ...

I like Ender's Game. I do not think the writer of Ender's Game should being trying to integrate into a shared universe. This isn't Tony Stark, and it ruins the character for anyone else to use. Why are all his nerves brain tissue???

Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra and Ultimate Elektra -

Reading these made me slightly interested in Daredevil comics. But only so I could see a better version of these characters. Boring. (I satisfied the faint interest by watching the Daredevil movie. The one you all complain about. Much more interesting than this.)

Ultimate Comics: Thor -

Wanted to like it more than I did. It's okay, but too grounded to get away with the shallowness of Millar's stuff, and too attached to Millar's stuff to work as something real. Mark Millar does not create anything worth building on, because all his creations are hollow facades.

Ultimatum -

HATE IT. BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!

People writing about things they don't like are awful. People who delight in destroying other people's toys are the worst. This series taught me not to trust alternate universes, because the higher ups consider them disposable.

Just an excuse to make the ending of all their books as unsatisfying as possible.

#every 5 years or so I write about these comics #because they were SOMETHING #I'm too smart to read anything other than the spider-man one these days #and in some ways I'm missing out #there was a lot of variety in the trash here!#look: there's a scene in ultimate x men where a character begs their captors not to break their legs again #and their captors reply 'depends how bored we are'#and little gecko reacted strongly #also the nick fury reveal at the end of that arc is legitimately cool

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orangeispice · 1 year

Text

SWEET CHRISTMAS, THE ATSV TRAILER IS OUT

The character designs are so crisp! and gorgeous!

I'm especially hyped seeing as my three favourite spider-men are appearing in the movie (not Julia Carpenter, unfortunately but maybe next time):

Thoughts and pics under the cut:

#3: Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099)

I got into reading Spider-Man 2099 really soon after getting into the Amazing Spider-Man comics, and along with Matt Murdock, this dude is the definition of "how can i be the biggest b*tch in the room at all times but still maintain my charm"

Also according to the trailer, he may or may not have a daughter? Interesting, since her name seems to be very similar to his brother in the comics (Gabriel O'Hara) or his future-son, whose he named after his brother. We'll have to see!

#2: Ben Reilly (Scarlet Spider)

Listen, I'm going to say this straight off the bat: the most recent characterizations of Ben (cough cough looking at you CHASM) have been very unsatisfactory, to say the least, so this is very cathartic for me. I don't know if he's going to be a particularly important character in the movie, but I do appreciate his appearance so far.

DRUMROLL PLEASE

#1: Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man "India")

As an Indian who has lived in Canada, a western country all her life, you have no idea how excited I was to see this character in the trailer. Western superhero movies (and Western movies in general) have a penchant for forgetting South Asians even exist. Based on the fact that there's a decent amount of merch coming out for the guy, I'm thinking that he'll either be a main character or at least have speaking roles. I read the miniseries for him, and I'd love to see it adapted to the big screen.

For some reason, his character design drew a lot of criticism? Some people said that his outfit was too stereotypical, and others said that the decision to have his hair sticking out the mask is kind of dumb.

In my opinion, this character design is absolutely on point; we never see Indian characters on Western television without them being heavily edited to match perceptions, where they'll have names like "Nicole Patel," or "John Reddy." (and I'm not saying people don't have those names, but what about people with more ethnic Indian names who don't pass for westernized ones?) and their WHOLE CHARACTER ARC will be about their PARENTS being stereotypical Indians, not the characters themselves. I digress.

I happen to love his outfit; similar to how Miles uses spray paint for his costume, Pavitr uses motifs that originated from Persia/Indian subcontinent, and wears a dhoti. Also, about the hair argument; there are plenty of other superheroes who don't leave their long hair tucked in/cropped short so that argument is just dumb.

In short, I'm really excited to see these characters on the big screen, and hoping ATSV will do them justice (which it probably will).

#marvel #atsv #across the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #spiderman 2099 #ben reilly #scarlet spider #chasm #pavitr prabhakar #spiderman india #spiderman #desi tag

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earth90214 · 1 year

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Hi! Just followed your blog and I love your art. I was wondering if you had any recommendations for getting into Black Cat comics? I’ve mostly only seen her in Silk and wanted to get into reading her storyline more but don’t know where to start. Do you have any recommendations?

Ahh omg tysm!!! I definitely have recs for Felicia!! 😸 I’m not going to include every appearance she’s ever had but my rec list is gonna be pretty heavy bc she’s my fav 🫶🫶 I’m also gonna include some non-canon comics, miscellaneous media, and fanfics I enjoy because i have so many recs LMAO

Earth-616

I’m gonna try to keep these in order but no promises!! This begins with Fel’s first appearance and ends with her latest appearance.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #22 (This is just a little background on Felicia’s creation and design, but to save you a little time you can read about it here.)

Amazing Spider-Man #194-195, #204-205, #226-227

Spectacular Spider-Man #74-79, #84-91

Amazing Spider-Man #246, #256-258

Spectacular Spider-Man #94-100, #112, #115-117, #119, #123

Amazing Spider-Man #288-289

Spectacular Spider-Man #128-129

Amazing Spider-Man #329-331, #341-343, #346-347

Web of Spider-Man #80

Spider-Man Unlimited #11

Amazing Spider-Man #369-371

Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206

Felicia Hardy: The Black Cat #1-4

Web of Spider-Man #113, #128

Sensational Spider-Man #29-30

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12

Sensational Spider-Man (2006) #25-27, #33

Amazing Spider-Man #606-607, #612, #621-622

Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws

Heros for Hire #2-4, #6-8, #14

Marvel Divas #1-4

Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Black Cat #1-4

Amazing Spider-Man #630-633 , #648-651

Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws 2

Amazing Spider-Man #677

Daredevil (2011) #8 (This is the issue the “my super-villain origin story” panel comes from el oh el)

Superior Spider-Man #20

Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #1-6, #16-18

Patsy Walker a.k.a Hellcat (2015) #7-14

Deadpool: Back in Black #3

Silk #9-10

Spider-Man (2016) #5

Star-Lord: Grounded (2016) #1-6

Power Man and Iron Fist (2016) #10-15

Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2016) #15-21

Venom (2016) #159-160

Defenders (2017) #1-9

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #300

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #9-10, #16-17, #20

Symbiote Spider-Man #1-5

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #77-78

Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #87, #89

Women of Marvel #1

Black Cat (2019) #1-10

Black Cat (2019) Annual #1

Black Cat (2020) #1-10

Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond #1

Iron Cat (2022) #1-5

Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #6 (She also is in #5 & #11 but I actually wouldn’t recommend this run and am only including #6 because it has the Peterfel B-day kiss that I thought that art of was cute 😿)

Mary Jane & Black Cat: Dark Web #1-5 (Only #1 & #2 are out atm but I’m including the next three issues for future reference!)

Non-Canon/Not Earth-616

Spider-Man Noir (2009) #1-4 and Spider-Man Noir: Eyes without a Face #1-4 (Obviously I wouldn’t be a Peterfel main if i didn’t suggest SM Noir. My user is literally Earth-90214 I basically have to.)

Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes (This one’s actually a tie-in with the Insomniac Spider-Man DLC: the Heist!!)

Spider-Gwen #5, #26, #33 (Black!Felicia is a pretty popular hc and one both me and my mutuals use so a canonical black Fel variant is definitely on my rec list.)

Exiles vol 3 #9 (Another WOC Felicia Hardy and probably one of my favorite Felicia variant suits! She’s not a major character but I like her panels so I’m including this on the list.)

What If…? #4 (1989) (Follows Felicia after Peter dies because of bonding with the symbiote suit.)

What If…? #21 (1989) (What if Peter married Felicia)

Misc Media

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and Insomnic’s Spider-Man: The Heist/ Silver Linings DLC are all games that have Felicia in them!! I believe that the Spider-Man 2 (2004) game and TASM games from 2012 & 2014 also have Fel in them but I haven’t watched those play throughs so I can’t say for certain how much content there is.

There are some cut scenes from TASM 2 that feature Felicity Jones as Felicia working for Harry Osborn! Unfortunately we never get to see her in costume but she still does a great job and I wish we got her as Fel in TASM 3 🥲

Spider-Man: the Animated Series (1994): s1 eps 2-7 & 10, s2 eps 1-2/6-10, s3 eps 4-6/12-13, s4 eps 2-7, s5 eps 1/7/8-12

Spectacular Spider-Man: s1e10, s2e12

Spider-Man (2017) s1ep4, s2ep1 (I actually can’t stand this show, but its the only adaptation that portrays Felicia’s glowing, cat-like eyes seen in her first appearance so for that, it gets a pass.)

Fanfics

Felicia has a pretty small ao3 tag with <1,500 works, but there are some fantastic fics that I definitely suggest reading (and authors you should definitely follow)!!

@the-cat-and-the-birdie has a Post-NWH Peterfel/PeterMjFel fic that I’ve really been enjoying and is currently ongoing!!

@seek--rest !! Seek’s mostly an mcu/spideychelle writer but has some really fantastic Felicia-centric/Felicia appearance fics up that i definitely suggest.

Both of @traincat’s Insomniac Peterfel fics are great reads that are on my (very short) list of fics i regularly re-read.

@justmattycakes’s Insomniac Peterfel series is another series on my re-read list! 10/10

any fic in @splendidnothings’s peterfelweek ao3 collections/works. Going thru the @peterfelweek blog or tag in general is a great place to find fics and art.

Naturally I have to suggest myself as well 🤭 I just started a new Peterfel series that I’m looking forward to updating soon! It’s a comic au without a solid timeline and is mostly just interconnected oneshots that center domestic Peterfel. I’m also working on a Felicia-centric fic based on a really cool headcanon that @peterbwatsonparker sent me about psychic/medium Felicia that I’m hoping to post in the next few weeks!! I also have a decent amount of headcanons posted on my blog that never made it into full fics, but my most popular ones (and my personal favorites) are my Mutant!Felicia headcanons.

Obviously these are just my personal recs, so I’m definitely missing some stuff, but if you’d like a complete list of Fel’s mainstream comic appearances you can find that here!!

#notice how i didnt include the ultimates #ultimates hate page RAGHHHHHGH 🦅🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸#felicia hardy #black cat #rec list #long post #marvel #comics #peterfel #fanfic #movies #tv shows #video games

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moralesmilesanhour · 6 months

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Ooh wait I forgot to do this. Seems like an appropriate time so [game show music plays]

Malika's official spiderverse ranking (REAL)!

(Excluding Miles G and Miles' family sorry guys)

Miles Morales ‼️

Duh. He's like, the Main Guy and the reason why most of us are here. He's weird!! He's lame!! He's smart and annoying about it!! Just like me fr 🔥🔥🔥 hope he gets therapy soon and maybe some meds

2. Hobie Brown

Lives up to his character description in every way possible. He IS an anarchist and he WAS in fact, "this cool the whole time". Bonus points for being the first guy to fuck off to his dimension the minute he did what he had to do (help the youth and ruin Miguel's day). Extra points for Gender

3. Pavitr Prabhakar

He just debuted and he's already got several iconic one-liners under his belt. Banger suit redesign and FAWK Marvel for that first costume ‼️ It's really the curly fringe that does it for me like EATTT

4. Margo Kess

Idgaf she's literally goated. Had she gotten more screen time slhe would've been number 3 tbh. She's here to slay and found a way to stay her ass at home while being part of an elite Spider Squad. Women in stem

5. Jessica Drew

"But she's on Miguel's side!" And wrdgaf 🤣 she beats bitches up not just with webs but with A MOTORCYCLE!! And she's one of the only Spideys not masked Jessica is literally here to clock in, do her job, and clock out. She's #real I can't take that away from her. Bonus points for Issa Rae

6. Spot

I know. Look, I KNOW. But this is quite literally one of the most genius and thematically-coherent supervillain reveals I have ever seen in a superhero movie. HE WAS THE BAGEL GUY I WAS SO GAGGED! I left the theater and had to stare at a wall like this is excellent usage of pre-existing comic book characters to further one of the movie's messages, which is to not underestimate people!

7. Gwen Stacy

DONT GET MAD AT ME FOR PUTTING HER BELOW SPOT I CAN EXPLAIN

Okay look, she's cool. She's a punk that does ballet and she is part of the Hailee Steinfeld Cool Girl Industrial Complex. But she hasn't done anything that blows my mind yet and she clearly wasn't taking Hobie's advice like girl sjdlslk. I also doc points for pissing me off so sorry to her. On god we gon get you a girlfriend and some therapy as well 🙏🏾

8. Miguel O'Hara

Ohh brother this guy STINKS‼️ But they went sooo crazy w his character design shout out to Kris Anka. Bonus points for Oscar Isaac but minus points again for throwing a trash can at a high schooler. He only eats cafeteria food and has NO BITCHES! But upon reading about his character backstory ive decided that this guy is so unhinged and pathetic that it is now comical. Therefore I can't hate him. LEWSER

9. Peter B Parker

Sorry peepaw we're gonna have to put you down. At least Miguel can say that he has strong principles and believes in his own flimsy theory out of trauma. Miguel also doesn't really know Miles, , but Peter MENTORED HIM. Bro literally helped train living, breathing proof that anything was possible and that there was no "right" way for Spider-Man's story to go and he still let Miguel convince him otherwise. YOU HAVE A BABY THAT WOULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT MILES! Sir you may be a genius but you are not smart. Then he has the nerve to insult this kid's intelligence multiple times like don't piss me off. The betrayal puts him lower than Miguel because you've disappointed me peepaw 💔 and put a coat on that baby. I love him but he SUCKS

That's it 🫶🏾 please don't take this too seriously these characters are not real and thus cannot read this and I'm also kind of joking here

#blabbering #semi shitpost

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 6 months

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Got some more :D

1: does Meredith knows Jake’s identity as sky bird, like MJ from the spider-man comics?

2: does the duo have any “little kid” fears like the dark?

3: I’ve read a earlier post about a band called the sidekicks, is it a band for their secret identity, superhero identity, or is it just a band for friends and family to see?

4: does the duo celebrate thanksgiving? (Probably so) what are they thankful for?

5: besides school and patrol, do they go anyplace else like the zoo or movies?

6: silly question, what’s their opinion on toilet humor? 1-10, 1 being meh & eye roll and 10 being laughing with tears in their eyes.

Sorry for taking a while to get to these @gothicghost2000 but hey better late than never I suppose lol

1. While originally I thought about her not knowing about Skybird at least until later when Jake and her are in either senior high school or college, now that I’ve thought about it, I can totally see Jake trusting his superhero identity with her and she becomes a viable partner with him. While not donning a suit herself, she can provide him some clues and into from the streets due to her living within downtown Bludhaven akin to how MJ helps out Peter and Miles in the Insomniac games

2. Mainly Chris gets very uncomfortable with booster shots and needles, especially blood tests while Jake has some issues with spiders when up close to them or even with close up pictures of them

3. It’s mainly for their non hero identity. Chris and Jake are the primary members of the band while anyone of their friends or loved ones can fill in for the other instruments depending on the situation. For example, one show they play at a local park, it can be Mar’i and Jon on rhythm and lead guitar respectively while at another like say at their school dance, it can Thara and Meredith

4. Oh certainly yes. Above all else, they’re thankful for their loved ones, friends, all the things material and emotional they’ve gotten in their lives and the Duo are especially thankful to Martha for being the one in charge in preparing this dinner and guiding the two in making it as their way to help out

5. They like to frequently visit both Melville Park in Bludhaven and Metropolis’ Centennial Park for walks with their dogs, practicing some basketball on their courts, small jamming with their instruments or just kicking back and admiring the nature all around them.

They also do like visiting movies as a part of their little hobby of running a small vlog video channel about many things, and reacting to the films they see in theaters is certainly a crowd pleaser. Jake handles telling about the general details about what the two liked or disliked about the movie while Chris is the Spoilers guy more or less.

6. Chris gets a 5 regarding toilet humor. He’s able to somehow manage what determines as good toilet humor or not which plays into his overall opinion about the type of comedy. Meanwhile Jake has it at 2 at best since he’s smelled plenty of sewer smells during his strolls across the city, whether on patrol or not, so toilet humor isn’t as strong with him as one might think

#chris kent #jake grayson #starburst duo #Meredith Robinson #mari grayson #jonathan samuel kent #thara ak var #martha kent #thanksgiving

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saecookie · 11 months

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Where would you suggest a newbie start on Spider-Gwen? I've looked into it a couple times and there's like two different "number one"s, and then gwenom, gwenpool, and others that look like crossovers, she's even introduced in a massive intimidating spiderverse crossover. Basically, what's a good place to start without having to do a bunch of homework?

HI NYSSA i'm finally on desktop to answer you comfortably. So happy to share as I've actually done the bunch of homework!

putting a tl;dr here: a good starting point is her first serie, Spider-Gwen (2015-2018) So. Spider-Gween as her own series, but was first introduced in the Spider-Verse comics. She has three series of her own :

Spider-Gwen (2015-18, 34 issues)

Spider-Gwen: Spider-Ghost (2019, 10 issues)

Spider-Ghost (2020-21, 10 issues)

(not at all confusing to start, not at all.)

Those are her core series, that you can read in that order if you want to go simple. Then, here are the homeworks done:

You can also preface this by reading the Spider-Verse comics, that is her first actual appearance and will give you some context for her interactions with Miles Morales in her own comics. To read this, you'll basically have to know two things : 1. in the spiderman lore, there's a family called the Inheritors who hunt the spiderpeople in the multiverse 2. there are too "mainstream" Peter Parker, one being Doc Ock in Peter's body (that's not relevant to Gwen but you might be lost abt this at first)

Then, one that might be a read is the Spider-Women comics. It takes place during Spider-Gwen #7-8 so you'll be aware of the happenings even if you don't read the comics. If you don't want tor read it, here's the point: after Spider-Verse, 3 spiderwomen keep in touch and regularly have brunch and adventures together. The point is mainly going on with Gwen's story that she's quite in touch with the multiverse and her spiderfam.

You can also read the Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen Sitting in a tree comics. This also takes place during some Gwen issues (Spider-Gwen #16-18) so you don't have to read it if you don't care about it, but it adds the some parts of the first Miles/Gwen team-up and also Miles' side.

Betwen Spider-Gwen and Spider-Gwen: Spider-Ghost happens the Spider-Geddon event. It's basically the sequel to Spider-Verse, so if you liked it you might like this one. Also it's what happens to Gwen between the first and second series, so I guess? haha.

To answer your questions: Gwenom refers to two things. Well, three really: Gwen when she fuses with venom's symbiote, Spider-Gwen's narrative arc in issues #24-29, and finally to Spider-Gwen vs Carnage. This is part of a bigger marvel event called King in Black, and is Gwen's participation in it. It's the last appearance we've had of Gwen in her continuity, so it might be relevant to her if we ever get more content, but I'm sure this will categorize then as an adventure she had, as others. If you don't have enough Gwen by now, sure you can read it.

There's also Gwen-Verse. It's a self contained mini-serie. It features Spider-Gwen having adventure with some of her counterparts, who are not spiderpeople but mixes with other superheroes. This ties in with her origins: in the introduction to Spider-Verse (titled Edge of Spider-Verse if you wanna read that), Spider-Gwen is introduced alongside other spiderpeople. She, and particularly her design, was so acclaimed that she became a fan favourite before having anything else to her name, and became popular along cosplayers. Marvel then decided to give her her own series, and notably by launching a collection of cover arts of Gwen Stacy as different marvel superheroes (you can check those here). And so basically, this mini-serie is a way to come back to this, with all kind of Gwens!

Finally you mentionned Gwenpool. Gwenpool was one of those variant that they went with. She's a completly different character, called Gwen(dolyn) Pool. iirc, she has two series of her own. She appears in the main marvel universe (so not Spider-Gwen's one) and she's a mix with Deadpool, obviously. She has the same awareness that she's in a comic world and acts very recklessly because, as this is comic world, nothing will have true consequences (which distresses basically everyone around her bc loved one dies, you know). I'm not quite fond myself of her, but if you wanna give her a try, be my guest!

I hope this was clear enough and gave you the answers you were seeking dear!

#nyssa #♥#spider-gwen #spidergwen #spiderman #spider-man #marvel #marvel comics #gwen stacy #spiderverse #ghost-spider

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athenaholmesartistsguild · 10 months

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God. I just finished watching the first spiderverse movie and ATSV really makes you forget that ITSV was just as perfect and amazing and flawless and every other good adjective I can think of (although ITSV has way fewer flashing logos at the start which was good for my beady little eyes).

It's almost 2 hours long (a little shorter than ATSV) but it really doesn't feel like it. But I think the pace is a bit different too?

In ITSV, everything is happening so quickly that if you asked me how long the movie was without letting me look it up, I'd probably say about 90 minutes. It's a super easy watch and the plot is brisk enough that it introduces 5 new Spider people (and Aunt May), gives us their backstories, and gets us emotionally invested in their lives WHILE ALSO developing Miles' coming of age story and his development into his dimension's Spiderman without the story feeling bloated or rushed. It's really impressive.

ATSV on the other hand, has pacing similar to a Breaking Bad episode where everything just keeps building and building and while it never feels like it's dragging or becoming boring, you can feel the length. The last 20-30 minutes of ATSV, I was dreading the ending because I knew we'd been watching this movie for a while and that the cliffhanger was coming up and I just wanted to keep watching this awesome movie!!!

ATSV feels like a movie that's almost 2 and a half hours long while ITSV feels like you're watching an episode of a TV show or reading a comic book (Imagine that!).

And it's so funny because ATSV is such a piece of fucking art that it made me forget that ITSV was just as groundbreaking and that it was also one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.

Also, and this is kind of off-topic, but I like that the Spiderverse movies are breaking away from this nepo-baby adjacent Spiderman that works for a big strong super hero organization and is a billionaire's successor that we're getting with Disney's Spiderman movies. Don't get me wrong, I saw the first 2 movies and thought they were pretty fun (forgettable, but fun), but Spiderman in those movies just... isn't Spiderman!

Spiderman is a normal person, that's kinda the point. While he can be a gifted student (or artist or inventor etc), he's still a middle class kid who fell into his powers. He can only do so much while having school, a job, bills, and all of his relationships to maintain. That's why Spiderman's civilian life is such a freaking mess! Well, that and I am of the opinion Spiderman is a metaphor for ADHD but I have a comic planned to explore that.

He's a vigilante, yes, but he's not like the Batmans of the world where he just bought himself a superhero identity (not necessarily ragging on Batman. I like him too).

He's a superhero for the people. Not only does he stop the occasional Green Goblin or Doc Ock, but he also helps with muggings, corner store robberies, little shit that big heroes like Iron Man, Hulk, and the like can't be bothered with. I bet if you asked Spiderman for help after you locked yourself out of your apratment, he'd find a way to get you back in because that's who he is!!

Spiderman Homecoming making a working class man who was fucked over by Stark Industries the villain feels so against the idea of Spiderman. And then Far From Home has Mysterio go from a failed actor and Hollywood illusionist turned criminal to an employee of Stark industries who has his work taken from him, literally named BARF by Stark, and is then fired. Say all you want about intellectual property rights and whether Stark legally stole this man's life's work, but the point is this series made several intentional changes to these villains that demonize the working class and glorify Stark (who is vindicated by the narrative of the overarching MCU and the Tom Holland trilogy).

Why are the working class the enemy? Spiderman is the working class!

ATSV having a super secret Spider-government that borders on being a totalitarian nightmare is much more Spiderman's speed.

Spiderman can't go at it alone, that's made clear in several of the movies and even the Spiderverse series itself ("You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"). But Spiderman doesn't need expensive equipment or the power of a government-like entity. He just needs his loved ones whether they be other Spiderpeople or the people living around him.

I just can't get over these movies man.

#across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #spiderman #And like. The Marvel Spiderman movies aren't nearly as memorable. I couldn't even remember if I'd seen the second one.#At least until I read that the villain dies and frames Spiderman for his death.#Then I remembered that J. Jameson is written like an Alex Jones type and that was amusing.#But I couldn't tell you anything else about them.#across the spider verse spoilers

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