#I can understand that fighting with neigbours

[makeitquietly]

Perfect Day (1929)

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 063 Then We Shall Both Be Betrayed (ASM 214-216)

MASTERPOST

So the last time, Peter was horny, he got in a huge fire, and he's been an ass to Debra (who in the meantime got some character development in SSM).

In this post...

Namor, a mysterious seductress, and a few twists!

One thing quickly becomes clear: Peter's gonna have to move. Where's he going to go? Is he going to have a roommate? With Steve? *hopeful sigh*

I'm curious to see what comes of it.

So Spidey and the homeless person escape the burning building, and far away, our mysterious villain is not happy with the Wizard's lack of usefulness. It's time to get revenge on *his* foe!

Anyway, Peter's been relocated to "the fanciest hotel in town" (really???) and is depressed when the same singing man resumes his vocals. He's Peter's true nemesis!

Suddenly, knocks on the door. It's his sexy neigbour!

I love his little outfit (watch me say "I'm cosplaying Peter on page 8 of ASM 214" at Halloween). Purple pants always work! And I really enjoy seeing him flustered like that. I don't think it even happened. He was weirded out by MJ, sure, but not incredibly horned up like that. He really needs to get some. Which makes me think she might be a trap, set by a foe or something. I don't know. But they sure give her importance! Could we at least have a name?

Talking about Ryker's Island Prison, the Frightful Four (sans Electro) are reunited after an audacious and very watery escape plan. Namor is quickly informed and isn't very happy. Continuity! Hell yeah! I was gonna mention Len Wein negatively, but then I remembered that his run is actually one I'd reread with pleasure if I skipped the fight scenes, because the actual plot was great.

Also, apparently, our mysterious villain is a woman. Hm! Maybe it's the neighbour, who can duplicate herself or something.

My guess gets closer to correct, as while Spidey's swinging in the city to "... clear [his] head" (has he not heard of self-pleasure, I wonder. Actually, quite a bit gets more understandable if you take that idea into account), he witnesses Namor fly right into his hotel and attack our mysterious lady.

The two heroes fight because as usual, they can't talk ever, until...

Wow, Spidey's *savage*.

So... she's completely in the wrong, right?

Anyway, our villains incapacite our heroes. What will happen next?

Don't worry, they don't explain much in Spectacular either.

In #215...

Sandman, what are you *doing*?!

The two heroes eventually escape thanks to an accidental distraction by the cops. Namor's ego is extremely hurt, he's quite dramatic. As for Peter...

Yeah, I'm sure you do. Glad the Sandman made you discover some things about yourself.

Peter wants some love, but his gorgeous neighbour isn't here anymore. He naturally goes to Debra, who's about to leave the dream: Peter Parker, whumped to hell and back, barely standing, collapsing on her. Oh no, she has to take care of him, this is terrible!

Peter, you absolute dumbass, I love you. At least eat the fucking breakfast!!!!

Yeah, the team is definitely more... overt than before.

Peter's personality change/character assassination (glass half-empty?) is very intriguing to me, because it's been going for a while now, and I don't know how intentional it is (even though SSM just proved to me that at least some of it, the writers are aware of).

She's dressed in black and has very obvious lipstick. He shouldn't have been surprised.

Turns out the Wizard's gun he used on our heroes swapped their powers, so Spidey's subject to weird gravity and the foes fully intend to send him to space. Because why not!

Namor saves him though, and together, they fight their foes. Except they can't find the evil lady, and resort to going to Reed Richards to reverse their power-swapping. He succeeds!

Spidey then... goes back to his lady...

Is... Is this supposed to be a twist? It's been very clear throughout the whole issue. Why do you end on this? This is laughable.

Except it doesn't end here. Llyra says to Spidey that he's weak (nah) and stupid (kind of), and says she'll "leave him to his humiliation".

However, Namor arrives to save the day! He quickly takes her back to his kingdom.

I mean, we've been through that a few times now. She'll probably forgive him eventually. More importantly, that racer guy from Wein's run?!

#216 has a gorgeous first page.

So Peter spends a while hyping himself to go see Debra to apologize (and because he's both horny and needs some love), but when he finally gets there...

There's... things missing from this page. Like... questions. Who is he? What happened? I guess these two panels would be enough for normal people, but not for me. Maybe he's just a friend or something.

(Wasn't there a guy named "Biff" in Back to the Future...?)

Is communication still too hard for our little spider?

Peter is so depressed he swings through the city without even putting on his costume. He's very introspective too. Alright, I'll let you cook...

At the hospital, he gets a checkup and overhears some bandits talk about killing someone at the upcoming marathon...

Peter wears boots???? It's probably a mistake, but still.

The issue not-very-subtly foreshadows that the new congressional candidate is the actual target, but Madame Web doesn't read these pages and has nothing to say to Pete. Oops.

He finally gets back to his apartment.

Doing his best? Trying not to hurt anybody?

Oh, Peter needs introspection alright, because he's been an ass to Debra ever since she appeared in the magazine. Is it plain cluelessness or misogyny? Does the difference matter?

Anyway, during the race, Spidey saves about 500 hundred people from death, give or take, until he receives a call...

I love how silly this is. ThE pSyChIc VeCtOrS hAvE aLiGnEd~

As expected, Madame Web tells Spidey that the target is the new congressional candidate. Turns out the "race" in question wasn't the marathon, but the political elections! That's a neat trick, I like it.

Neat ending. A bit underwhelming though.

I completely get it. The magazine is clearly very different. I think it's no wonder that all these characters don't enjoy any semblance of popularity nowadays.

[annbobko]

Greetings to all my friends and foes and froes!

Today instead of writing my diploma I want to write about my deep and passionate love for Ukrainian culture in all manifestations.

But first lets add a little bit of context for better understanding of post-colonial mindset and perception of all media products through it. Brief summary of the history of Ukraine can be expressed as "Fuck off!" In IX-XIII century Kyivs'ka Rus' was one of greatest authorities in the world. But after its glory it gradually weakened due to internecine strifes and external enemies such as mongols. So Kyivs'ka Rus' disintegrated into separate principalities none of which were strong enough. And since then Ukrainians had to fight for their homeland, culture and language with strong and agressive neigbours such as Rzeczpospolita and Moskovia.

Moskovia was once little peripheral state of Kyivs'ka Rus' whose rulers succsessfully adjusted to the supremacy of Golden Horde and took its advantage from collapse of both Kyivs'ka Rus' and Mongol Empire. After that Moskovia started to militarize and aggresively expand and build its legend about their supremacy over other nations. Later Moskovia transformed into Russian empire which became USSR which became Russian Federation. But their aggression, imperailism, propaganda and lies lasted through the centuries.

And USSR finally managed to fullfill the dreams of its ancestors - to occupate Ukraine. They were never wanted and welcomed on our land (you can search for UIA or URA). In order to suppress the rebellions they had to organise THREE Holodomors. After that situation seemed to be stable but far from joyful. Ukrainains were robbed (you can google dispossesion and collectivisation), banned from their language and culture and had to work in inhuman conditions for Red Empire. I encourage you to search for true information about everyday life in USSR (prison of nations), about attitude towards workers, about ways to control people and punishment for disloyalty, about planned economy, about life in collective farms (kolkhoz, kolhosp).

And after the fall of the Soviet Union Ukraine was formally free but in fact there was population traumatized to the core and ruzzian cultural expansion never stopped. In fact it became only stronger with years bacause forsed russification and hundred years of isolation from true Ukrainain culture were a perfect foundation for pushing ruzzian content such as films, tv shows, series, books leave aside proruzzian politics. Also I wanna emphasize on inferiority complex formed by this context which is extremely hard to notice and reflect without some major shock such as war.

And here my story begins. I was born in ruzzian speaking family. None of my relatives ever manage to reflect their soviet trauma so reading ruzzin books and watching their shows were usual thing for me. Of course that was not the only content I consumed, but due to already mentioned inferiority complex I had very few Ukrainian books, or magazines, or tv shows... So with such shock as war I started to reflect this trauma and rediscover Ukrainian history, culture, books, songs, films, creators, businesses. And understanding the depth of heritage I was deprived of felt like agony. Now I never speak ruzzian or consume any of their content. Obviously because that is terrorist state, but also because they can create nothing but imperialistic shit. I can't and never could assosiate myself with their characters as well as crime victim can't sympathize with an offender.

And that is the reason why Ukrainian culture is so important for me. Its about sharing the trauma, sharing experiences, living in the same reality, walking the same streets, drinking coffee in same cafes... Its about some bond shared on so many levels. And I genuinely don't know how to describe this experience of living deprived of your history and identity and then discovering it and realising yourself as part of the nation. But I know how to describe why Ukrainian culture is my one true big love and will do it in next post)