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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Source Material
Topic ID: 210
#0, Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-10-17 at 09:24 PM
Since I started looking at comics again, I kept seeing recommendations everywhere I turned for something somewhat improbably called Spider-Gwen. It was supposed to be funny and charming and sort of generally un-modern-superhero-comics-like. So when I got a couple of "hey, take a free graphic novel for your Kindle, go on then" tokens from Amazon for... something, I'm not sure what... I thought OK, fine, I'll pick up the first compilation and see what all the fuss is about.

And I... can't really tell, unless it's just that the people writing those reviews are so numb to what modern superhero comics have become that it really seems to them like Spider-Gwen is in some way unlike that. I mean, Gwen herself is funny and charming and all the rest, but the setting she inhabits is so toxic it makes Marvel's old Ultimate universe (remember that one? the one where Captain America once beat the shit out of an unarmed man for kicks and Hank Pym had his ant friends murder his battered wife for him? yeah, that one) seem kind of safe and restful. Even her origin story is like someone looked at the original Spider-Man origin and thought, How can we make this crueler? In her world, based on both what appears on-page and what's implied, it seems like basically everyone who isn't either Gwen or a civilian is a villain. The guy who spends all his time robbing convenience stores is the most likeable member of the supporting cast. At least he's just trying to make a living.

What the hell is this world I have agèd into?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Peter Eng on Jun-11-17 at 01:24 AM
In response to message #0
>...Spider-Gwen... was supposed to be funny and charming and sort
>of generally un-modern-superhero-comics-like.

If I was going to suggest something that filled that bill, I would have gone for The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#3, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by mdg1 on Jun-11-17 at 09:37 AM
In response to message #1
Or Ms. Marvel, which is apparently the reason for the sudden influx of teenage super-heroines at Marvel.

(I read a TPB from the library, and wasn't impressed. But I'm told that it is HUGE in the Scholastic books market).

The best thing I can say about Spider-Gwen is that it isn't Gwen-pool.

Yes, that is a thing.


#4, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-11-17 at 01:58 PM
In response to message #3
>Or Ms. Marvel, which is apparently the reason for the sudden
>influx of teenage super-heroines at Marvel.

I don't know much about the current character operating under that name, except that Anya Corazón and I were bemused to see her hyped as Marvel's first teenage ethnic superhero.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#7, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by mdg1 on Jun-11-17 at 03:45 PM
In response to message #4
Short form: Think Elasti-Girl (Doom Patrol version, not the one from the Incredibles) as a young Pakistani-American girl. Her powers come from her mutant Inhuman heritage.

I can't say more, because, as I said, i don't follow the book. I'm not really the target audience. then again, I'm starting to wonder if I'm the target audience for ANY Marvel/DC book...


#6, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Kendra Kirai on Jun-11-17 at 03:03 PM
In response to message #3
To be fair here, Gwenpool is actually pretty good, and the only real connection she has to ANYBODY in the marvel universe is her name being Gwen (Poole, not even Stacy). She's a comic geek from the real world (or at least one of the ountless Earths in the marvel multiverse where the heroes are only in the comics) who was pulled in during their Secret Wars event that brought Spider-Gwen. She's Deadpool in how she's very, very meta.

The Gwenpool moniker wasn't her idea, either. She doesn't even *read* his books! She thinks he's played out.


#8, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by mdg1 on Jun-11-17 at 03:46 PM
In response to message #6
"very, very meta" isn't exactly a selling point, these days. :)

#2, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Matrix Dragon on Jun-11-17 at 05:30 AM
In response to message #0
Yeah, I like Gwen, I really do, but whoever designed the entire rest of her universe is just plain cruel. Girl needs a hug and a setting that isn't shit.

That said, the story of her and Aunt May is adorable and wonderful.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


#5, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-11-17 at 02:20 PM
In response to message #2
>Yeah, I like Gwen, I really do, but whoever designed the entire rest
>of her universe is just plain cruel. Girl needs a hug and a setting
>that isn't shit.

Dear Pete,

Helloooo from Gotham City, where the streets are paved with gold and they fill your teeth with asphalt. It's so cold here right now the crims are restricting themselves to robbing drive-thru windows, which Batman appreciates because it means he can stay in his car with the heater on while he catches them.

Joking aside, the weather IS pretty poor just at the moment, but let me just say for the record that Gotham isn't nearly as bad as it's hyped to be. Maybe it's because I'm from New York, but I really don't see what the fuss is about. Sure, it's a big city with big-city problems, but it's no worse than Hackensack. Heck of a lot better than Nar Shaddaa, amirite? And it's got a vibe to it. Pretty sure I'm gonna like it here.

For one thing, they know how to treat a super hero, unlike my dear old hometown. The cops are on OUR side, which is WEIRD. Even the ones who don't like us much just bitch about it, they don't up and try to kill us for no reason. There's this one guy, Bullock, who's like Frank Castle if Frank was just an asshole and not a raving psychopath. Think he kinda hates my guts, but I like him—he's funny AND refreshingly non-Gwenicidal.

As you might expect, Dad's not super-pleased with my decision to move here. He thinks it's like everyone says it is, and he doesn't care for me being in a band with a couple of ex-cons and... whatever Lena is. (Imagine what he'd say if he knew I got the gig because their old drummer hijacked a blimp and went back to the slam!) I tried to explain to him that he ought to LIKE Harley and Ivy, 'cause they're living proof that sometimes the 17th time is the charm and prison really works, but he's not buying it. Oh well. (Also I think he doesn't like Harley because she's from Brooklyn and all us Queens expats know what THOSE people are like. ^_^; )

Anyway, I gotta go for now—Lena's got some people she wants to introduce me to, which is all verrry mysterious. Say hi to the gang in Jediville for me and see if you can remember to give Dad a call sometime, yeah? I'm sure he'd like to hear from you. Stay out of trouble, you know I won't!

Lots of love,
GWEN

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#9, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by mdg1 on Jun-11-17 at 03:48 PM
In response to message #5
You marvelous bastard... ;)

#11, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-12-17 at 02:11 AM
In response to message #9
>You marvelous bastard... ;)

As it were. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#10, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Matrix Dragon on Jun-11-17 at 07:21 PM
In response to message #5
That works!

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


#12, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Peter Eng on Jun-12-17 at 12:16 PM
In response to message #5
>(Imagine what he'd say if he knew I got the gig because their old
>drummer hijacked a blimp and went back to the slam!)
>

No worries. Once Roxy gets out on appeal, she can take up rhythm guitar, right?

Peter Eng
--
(In my head, it's essentially that Jem arc where Shana went into fashion design for four or five episodes, Raya became the drummer, and Shana came back on rhythm guitar, except with less 80s hair and more punching.)


#13, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by StClair on Jun-12-17 at 02:47 PM
In response to message #5
*claps like a seal*

#14, RE: Meanwhile--at the Hall of Marvel
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-12-17 at 04:11 PM
In response to message #13
>*claps like a seal*

As an aside: In my high school, that was an act of the most withering sarcasm, like a super-strength version of the Golf Clap. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.