#also made me realize that wow yeah !!! being spidey is actually so consuming to him

[wallcrawld]

MUSE'S INVENTORY. [ original meme from @treasurechestrpmemes​. ]

rules: list what your muse carries in their pockets or bags in their everyday life. ( optional: explain their significance .) repost, don’t reblog.

POCKETS.

mets keychain — having grown up going to baseball games every year with his uncle ben, pete is a lifelong mets fan. he keeps all of his keys on a mets keychain which may or may not have a spider-man charm on it as well

earbuds — peter still has the earbuds with a cord attached, he likes the security of having them actually be attached to something as he struggles to trust bluetooth ones to stay in his big ears

gum wrappers/straw wrappers/assorted trash - as an official member of the online group 'new yorkers against littering', peter usually has some kind of small piece of trash stuffed into his pockets that he told himself he'd throw away when he saw a trash can and then promptly forgot about

student i.d. — for empire state university ( ESU ). it's used to get into labs/buildings after hours

wallet — thin leather brown wallet. he keeps an old photo of him, may, and ben in it. never enough cash in it. he has an "official spider-man fan club member" card hidden deep within it

daily bugle key fob — programmed it himself. after getting tired of having to get someone let him into the upstairs offices of the building every single time he wanted to drop photos off ( because jonah refused to give him one as he "wasn't a full-time employee" ), peter made one. he got some grief for it but it became pretty evident real quick that it was saving everyone a lot of hassle

bobby pins — with great power comes great responsibility and sometimes, a great need to get through a locked door without breaking it down. he's picked up the skill of how to lock pick after years of watching thieves and with a little bit of advice from none other than black cat. these have been a point of contention in his romantic relationships when discovered as, traditionally, there doesn't appear to be a reason for him to need them. he's used the explanation that they work great to unscrew the panels of his camera when he's without any real tools, which is true, just not the full truth

spider-tracers — a must-have for patrol. small electronic tracers in the shape of a spider that peter can use to track objects, people, or anything else

BAG.

peter has a backpack problem and by that i mean that he can not hold onto a backpack for very long. he goes through them frequently as they often get dropped and left in various places around the city, nowhere to be found when he goes back for them. he does, however, tend to go for the same style. it's almost always a medium-sized dusty red backpack and every time, without fail, it ends up scratched and a little busted. he keeps little pins and stickers on it, some pertaining to his interests ( science puns + star wars references ) while others are for causes that he supports. if he's on patrol and not wearing his backpack, he'll usually make himself one out of webbing.

camera — originally this is a canon ftb which is a 35mm film camera ! peter loves the look of film and the amount of control that comes with it but while it's great for photography in a slow, controlled environment, it doesn't quite get the job done when it comes to selling action shots of spidey. after saving up for months, he ends up splurging on a used nikon d500 which he cleans up so that it's in perfect condition. it sets his bank account back enough that he's pretty much on a "rice and beans only" diet for a hot minute but it's totally worth it

backup web shooters — if there's anything he's learned in his time hero-ing, it's that gear fails and breaks, usually when you need it most. he keeps an older, spare set of web shooters in his backpack at all times

spidey suit — if he's not wearing it, he's still got it with him. it's rare that peter goes anywhere without the spider-man suit as it's always when he least expects it that he needs it most

change of clothes — this one is only if he's actively on patrol. he'll stuff a change of clothes into his bag in the event that he needs to de-spidey quickly for any reason, usually this is just the clothes he was wearing over the suit before he changed

physics textbook + science journals — reading material ! peter's been subscribed to the american science journal for as long as he can remember, he's always got the latest issue on him. he keeps a textbook or two on him for uni work, forever trying to find the time to cram his homework into his schedule

steam deck — yet another item in the line of purchases that put him on a rice and beans only diet, peter eventually upgrades his psp to a steam deck which he'll play on patrol, in between crimes

handheld police scanner — can't fight crime if you don't know where the crime's at ! his phone is also programmed with an app that works in the same way, but it's always good to have a backup

snacks — a constantly rotating supply of chips, treats, and goodies for on the go. his diet is relatively terrible but if he wants to feel healthy he'll reach for the trail mix. sometimes he carries around canned food to donate or give away to displaced people in need of it.

tagged: @cybersbyte THANK YOU !! tagging: @proditeur, @vicioushope, @lapinecide, @aercnaut, @masteredlegacy, @magizat, @kryptonfuture, @crowshoots, @jadeslayed, and you !!

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM Annual 2018 rant

There will be spoilers for this and I’m going to presume you’ve already read it so I’m not going to give you a synopsis.

 In short it was at best mediocre and at worst a waste of your money.

 First of all maybe this is just me but the art was not that great. Overly sketchy, under detailed and it failed to capture the time period. If you wanna see a throwback story with art that at worst nods towards the style of the time, check out Untold Tales of Spider-Man or even better ASM Annual 1996, with art work by Ron Frenz and Romita Senior himself!

 I already complained about how Black Cat was written out of character in regards to her attitude to the black costume and how her costume was inaccurate too.

 But miraculously both things come off as WORSE in the full context of the story.

 Going back to the art, Garry Brown directly references Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 where Spidey first got the black costume. So...he is CLEARLY checking the old artwork and using it as reference and yet...he screw up Felicia’s costume.

 And despite what I’ve seen some people say, that it was just an art flub on like one panel of one page no, he draws Felicia multiple times and the costume design is the same, Brown genuinely believed her outfit looked that way or else DGAF and drew it how he wanted. He wasn’t even entirely consistent with his own error because he draws her with white books in one panel of the comic.

 Then we get to the story itself.

 First of all in terms of judging this  story purely in isolation (which you shouldn’t do in general, but ESPECIALLY when it bills itself as an untold tale meaning it’s entire premise rests upon how it fits into the history) it’s at best okay.

 Honestly my biggest take away was like...what was the point of this story?

 Okay, I grant you a story set in the Alien Costume Saga from the symbiote’s point of view diving into its head could maybe be interesting. But you’d have to have something really interesting involved because the symbiote itself was a simplistic animalistic creature back then, it wasn’t the more evolved and twisted entity we saw in the 2000s or in more modern stories. It learned emotions FROM Spider-Man himself.

Like what was there really worth exploring from the symbiote’s POV. It didn’t change by the end of the story beyond the ways we already knew about because again, this is a flashback story.

 So basically we got an extra length story where we learn that the symbiote briefly befriended some kid.

  Wow. That was worth over $4.

 Looking at this story in the context of the time it was raising a million questions for me in terms of how the hell it fit.

 In the story Peter visits Aunt May, but it was in literally the second issue during the ACS that Aunt May and Peter had a huge falling out over his dropping out of grad school, something not resolved until AFTER the ACS wrapped up.

 The impression given by the overall story heavily implies Peter has had the costume for a little while and that the symbiote’s night time joyrides have been draining his energy by the time we get the Aunt May scene. This doesn’t add up because there wouldn’t have been time for that.

  Another arguable problem was Felicia referencing Peter taking the costume to Reed Richards. Peter does do this but much later on and I don’t think Reed’s name ever cropped up between Peter and Felicia back then. Granted, I double checked and Reed had offered Peter the chance to check out the suit from the beginning of the ACS, meaning it’s possible for that he mentioned it to her off panel. But again her attitude doesn’t add up.

 There are a few other Felicia problems too.

  Peter says he was unaware that he and Felicia were on a date, which is weird because they spent MOST of their time together fighting crime and it was made explicit that that was to them what going out to the movies or for dinner was for a normal couple.

This is literally one of Peter’ problems with their relationship, they spent so much time doing that and not just being a normal couple. Hence he broke up with her!

Later Felicia reprimands Peter for being 2 hours late and tells him he’d have to put in more of an effort if he wanted her to stick around.

There is no single moment that explicitely calls this out as OOC for her, but in context this is BS. Felicia was so devoted to her relationship with Spider-Man that she not only gave up her criminal ways (twice) and risked her life but went behind his back to get powers from the Kingpin and lied about it afterwards. She is very obviously not going to say something like that unless she was ribbing him and that was not the impression given off by the scene.

 Finally there is a scene where she enters  Peter’s bedroom via his window to just...watch him in his sleep I guess? Then Peter is slightly weirded out but otherwise chill.

Putting this stalkerish moment aside, it doesn’t jive with either of their characters back then.

On Felicia’s part she had a problem with Peter’s civilian side and preferred to minimize time spent in Peter’s company rather than Spider-Man’s.

On Peter’s part he had a major problem with Felicia coming into his apartment like this because she was being cavalier with his secret identity. A good example can be found in ASM #258 which just so happens to be the conclusion of THE ACTUAL ALIEN COSTUME SAGA FFS!

Then we have the main story itself, the symbiote’s night time activities.

This is a tiny thing but the story explains that the symbiote itself is inducing sleep and controlling what Peter feels during it’s joyrides. This makes sense and is fair enough, up until the point where Peter’s body is being physically injured.

Now, as a lover of the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, I will admit my second favourite episode is where the symbiote hijacks Spider-Man’s body and defeats the Sinister Six, only for Peter to wake up with some bumps and bruises he was unaware of. So I feel somewhat hypocritical criticising the story from that angle.

I do not however feel bad at all about asking how the Hell did the symbiote manage to keep Peter asleep when it was literally being put through immense pain and partially slivering off Peter’s body!

Isn’t the whole POINT of symbiosis  that two organisms are one so if the symbiote feels pain shouldn’t Peter as well?

If the symbiote is feeling pain and literally losing it’s grip on Peter’s body, how is it still so in control of what he feels that it’s keeping him asleep?

How does that even make sense from a pure instinctive survival POV?

Moving on the symbiote gets overly aggressive with the criminals it fights to the point where only by taking advice from a kid in it’s immediate company does it help rescue people sans any form of gbh.

I dunno what the point of this was beyond I guess making it more explicit that the symbiote wasn’t JUST swinging around but also fighting crime. Maybe to foreshadow the symbiote when it and Brock went full lethal protector?

Anyway one aspect of the story which is inconsistent is whether anybody even recognizes Spider-Man. Now yeah in the ACS people DIDN’T recognize Spider-Man in his new black costume at first so this lack of recognition could be excused depending upon how early in the timeline this story is supposed to take place. Problem is the story doesn’t occur over like one or two days it’s obviously unfolding across various nights in which the black costume has been joyriding Peter. Peter himself is feeling the fatigue which if this was one or two nights wouldn’t add up.

In the first scene of the costume going out crime fighting a woman recognizes Spider-Man immediately, implying that there HAVE been at least some photos in the papers showing the new suit and confirming this as the same guy.

However later when we meet the kid the suit befriends in that scene the kid is seemingly unaware this guy even is Spider-Man referring to him as a new hero.

That same night the kid gets abducted by Hammerhead who explicitly calls him Spider-Man. But when the suit rescues the kid he says he doesn’t know who he is but that he could be a good hero someday.

I honestly tried to consider that the kid was referring to Spidey’s civilian identity. But the fact that in their first and last meeting he is talking about how the symbiote could be a good hero someday and told it to be less aggressive and more caring for civilians, implies that the intention was for the kid to STILL not realize this was Spider-Man.

This gets even dumber in the context of Marvel’s timeline. However you slice it if modern Spider-Man stories happen in 2018, then the ASC should’ve happened at the biggest of pushes like 10-12 years ago in 2006, probably even more recently.

How in the Hell does anyone, let alone a kid who’s likely consuming more media than older people, in like 2006 or later NOT hear about how this new dude in black is Spider-Man?

Even if he doesn’t follow the news that’s one of those things you’d pick up via osmosis.

Especially since the media doesn’t shut up about fashion and celebrities and in this case a celebrity bigger than any real life ones has massively changed his costume (and now more closely resembles notorious vigilante the Punisher).

Now let’s talk about the symbiote’s violence.

The story implies the symbiote is trying to help Peter by fighting crime for him as he sleeps. Except the symbiote is violent in a way Spider-Man never is, maiming and killing people.

This makes sense...for Venom. But the symbiote itself is not inherently violent beyond bestial instincts. It committed immense violence in the company of Brock because Brock himself was a violent disturbed individual.

If the symbiote wants to serve it’s host, it’s ‘friend’, by doing what he routinely does why does it go so much further than he does?

In fact if it’s bonded to him and knows his inner thoughts enough to induce images of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy then surely it is aware that Peter doesn’t act like that?

A far bigger problem is the general public’s reaction to all this.

Again, people obviously know that black costume Spider-Man is the same guy as the dude with the red and blue suit.

So...why is NO ONE reporting that Spider-Man is maiming and killing criminals?

Spider-Man had been demonized for YEARS by Jameson and framed/blamed for various crimes including the murders of George Stacy, Norman Osborn and IIRC Gwen Stacy too!

If Spider-Man was now acting this way it’d be MAJOR news!

In fairness I guess the implication is that the symbiote did this stealthily enough that not too many people found out about it. And every witness that did either forgot about or shut up about it.

Which seems...kind of difficult to believe. It’s difficult to believe, especially if this story took place in the CCTV laden 2000s, that NO ONE saw this happen or else forgot or else kept it quiet. In Hammerhead’s case I do not understand WHY he never spoke about it and why he never ever brought it up to Spider-Man ever again.

 Then we get the biggest ‘You really didn’t put much effort into this at all did you’ moment of the story right towards the end.

 Okay so the implication is that this whole adventure with Hammerhead and the kid might’ve happened during ASM #258 itself when the symbiote took control of Peter’s body in the middle of that issue. I say this because the page immediately after the symbiote tucks peter back into bed is Peter taking the costume to Reed Richards.

 I do not know why but for some reason the idea that the climax of this annual transpired specifically during ASM #258 just bothers me for some reason even though I can’t seem to find any explicit contradiction or problem with it doing so.

 The same cannot be said of the actual scene involving Reed.

 The scene plays out differently in various small but noticeable ways and one big egregious ‘This is the laziest lack of editing and research ever’ kind of way.

I’ll list them out in a second but it’s easier to just to a side by side comparison of ASM #258 and this annual.

·         The ‘choreography’ (for lack of a better term) of the scene is different.  In the annual Reed and Spidey are sitting down and in the middle of examining Spider-Man’s suit when Reed delivers the news that it is alive. In the original story Reed had already conducted all his tests and Spidey was waiting around to hear the news which Reed delivered to him and Johnny whilst all three of them were standing upright.

·         Reed’s dialogue explaining the symbiote is alive is totally different and far more blasé, whereas originally it was longer and ended with the reveal as a shock, Peter reacting accordingly

·         Peter is casual about learning his suit is alive and about removing it only getting distressed when it starts clinging to him.

·         Reed wasn’t wearing a lab coat in the original annual

·         Reed was accompanied by Johnny

·         The Sonic Blaster is totally different, resembling a gun you could hold in one hand whereas in the original issue it was shaped more like a rifle

·         The annual implies Reed busted out the Sonic Blaster almost immediately after the symbiote tightened it’s grip on Peter when there was several panels depicting Peter’s struggle and Johnny and Reed’s attempts to help him and retrieving the Sonic Blaster

·         Oh yeah and there is the teeny weeny fact that in the original story, unlike this annual, PETER DIDN’T HAVE HIS MASK OFF!

 I’m sure there are some who will be like “Oh get over it it’s a tiny little mistake from a comic over 30 years old”.

 NO!

 This is not a tiny mistake.

 When your series is about a superhero with a secret identity who knows that identity and when is a HUGE deal innate to the narrative.

 But what makes this mistake so transcendentally lazy on the part of the writer and/or artist and definitely the editor(s) is that Reed NOT knowing Spider-Man’s identity is  a plot point for the rest of the story!

You ever see a video game, info book or collage of Spider-Man’s costumes and see that one funny looking outfit where he was wearing what looked like a lame blue Fantastic Four outfit and a paper bag over his head?

Yeah, this is where that came from!

Spider-Man didn’t want Reed or Johnny to know who he was so he covered up his face, necessitating Johnny provided him with an old suit and lieu of a mask gave him a paper bag.

Spider-Man is the Amazing Bag-Man for 6/22 pages of the conclusion to the story this annual is directly referencing!

It’s a fairly well known piece of Spider-Man history, being one of the more famously funny moments of Spider-Man lore and one of the great examples of the Parker Luck.

And it was all part of a historically VITAL story. Not just for Spider-Man but think how much of Marvel history has involved one symbiote or another, there were three EVENTS built around them  across the last few years alone FFS!

And the people behind this comic book blatantly didn’t bother to re-read the damn issue, let alone the over all arc!

And the most ironic part about that?

The very last page of the annual includes a message from the editor talking about how interested he was in this era of Spider-Man, how it was one of his favourites and he even recommends trades collecting the story arc!

Like fucking take your own advice maybe?

Two final points to end this rant on.

The impression given by the editor’s message and the over all story was that they seemed to think that they were the first or only people to do a flashback tale about what the symbiote was doing whilst joyriding Peter’s body.

They were not.

In fact it seems like every damn decade someone decides to tell that story.

In 1995 as part of the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ Super Specials Dan Slott, in his very first canon Spider-Man story ever, used that idea. And whilst it didn’t shit on the ACS in general it did shit on the character of Jean DeWolff by pretending she never had romantic feelings for Spider-Man.

Because even in his formative days as a young intern cheating his way through Marvel’s door Slott had to fuck up characterization I guess.

In the 2007 as part of ‘Back in Black’ Sean McKeever (he of ‘Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane’ fame) did another storyset during the ACS. It wasn’t wholly about the symbiote’s night time activities but it did more subtly with just a few moments get into the symbiote’s head, depicting it’s loneliness and homesickness. Whilst that story also screwed up Black Cat’s costume there were no other egregious continuity errors, the story fits pretty neatly into the histories of Spider-Man and also the Sandman.

It was infinitely better than this story which I don’t think anyone should ever regard as canon going forward.

P.S. How poorly produced was this annual?

So poorly produced that no one considered that despite it going against the literal meaning of the word this comic is the second  Amazing Spider-Man annual     for 2018!