Brand New What?
Posted by meekrat on January 3, 2009
I figure I’ll explain myself here. What happened was this: around 6PM on December 31st, my Internet just popped off. I had no idea why this was, but I figured, “Hey, it should pop back on pretty soon.” It does that sometimes. However, several hours later, it still had not popped back on. I went to try and fix it, but after about an hour and a half of troubleshooting, I decided to call up the Internet people in the morning. I was very angry, as I was looking forward to reading and commenting on the new Spider-Man shenanigans. I even tried getting to it on my cell phone, but it was tiny. In the morning, I did call the Internet people, and they said it was a problem they couldn’t fix until Monday. Luckily, I’m able to update today! So here we go:
We have the same creative team, that’s for sure. However, we also have… well, the third panel’s narration box. We’re not going the One More Day route, as we’ve not seen hide nor hair of the Devil. Brand New Day, though? It’s sort of like that. At least in this, Peter has an apartment of his own and isn’t living with his aunt full-time.
Also, Peter and MJ don’t have the weird relationship they have in the comics. Ah, and while we’re going back to Spider-Man’s roots, as Mister Lee says, we’re not… well, I’m not sure what we’re doing. It appears that we’ve simply gone back in time a few years. Well, more like twenty-some years.
Stan Lee’s idea of hip dialogue appears to be from the seventies. It still has all the angst we know, and at least we’ll be spared Spider-Man’s origin story. Ah, and this is the first we’ve seen of Aunt May in the strip in years. So, what’s the verdict? Well, my verdict?
Same creative team. While they’ve let us down in recent years, and introduced the plight known as Maria Lopez, we’ll see what they do with an unattached Spider-Man. I also wonder who the first foeman Spider-Man will face will be.
This is sort of like Brand New Day, except with the deal with the Devil that made it all possible and somewhat distasteful. For the record, I’ve liked the Brand New Day stories in the Spider-Man comic books. Howevever, they could have done the same stories while keeping them together. Also, if they really wanted to break up the marriage, there’s about a thousand better ways they could have done it. Basically, if they could have done it like Lee is doing it, and just went back in time, then that would have been much better.
Do I have high hopes for this whole thing? No. I’ve read the strip analytically for the past two years. I’m sure we’ll have the exact same quality we’ve had for the past who knows how long. Aunt May will just be in the strip more, and perhaps less Mary Jane. I’ll try to get a post up tomorrow, for the first Sunday strip in this stunt (which will probably just be a recap) and should be back for good on Monday. Sorry for the rambling nature of this post.
Mathew Walls said
This is terrible. No more Maria Lopez, no more scantily-clad MJ, what’s left? Just lame villains and a lot of TV watching.
john said
despite being 20 years in the past, mild-mannered peter parker doesn’t appear to be any younger
Jake said
I like it how Aunt May didn’t let Peter sleep in…she let him sleep. When you’re at old Aunt May’s house, you spend all the hours awake unless she says so.
Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources » Spider-Man newspaper strip gets its own Brand New Day said
[...] is terrible,” commenter Mathew Walls responds in the comments. “No more Maria Lopez, no more scantily-clad MJ, what’s left? Just lame [...]
Kaitlyn said
Well, he never looked particularly old to me.
We’ll get to THRILL! to Peter Parker dating and having to break dates because of a Spidey issue and wrestle with revealing his secret.
At least I will.
I was first exposed to this through the movie, well, only the first.
Superhero comics aren’t my thing, though I did like the Astro City books I found at the library.
Comics Guy said
Peter’s first villain in this new strip w/out MJ will no undoubtedly be Blueballs.
Greg said
“At least in this, Peter has an apartment of his own and isn’t living with his aunt full-time.”
Correction: In the current book he’s not living with his Aunt. He started there when he was looking for a job and a place to live. And soon as he got money he moved out. He’s been out of Aunt May’s house for most of the new run.
“Basically, if they could have done it like Lee is doing it, and just went back in time, then that would have been much better.”
No they couldn’t. Not with Spider-Man being a part of the New Avenger. Not unless they could move the whole of the Marvel Universe with them. The newspaper strip can do that because it’s set in it’s own continuity.