Podcast 197 Oct 2012- What did you think?

[BD]

The show is now up what did you think?

The opening song is below.

[Kevin Cushing]

Brad, you are a badass. We just recorded this today, folks!

[BD]

Thank you kind sir. I have another 2 hours and 45 min of audio to edit for this month.

[iron_patriot]

Awesome, sir!

I'm pretty annoyed at the prices of ASM 692 and 700. I mean, 600 had a hundred pages for five bucks, right?

[DarkKnightJared]

That Mutant Leader line was AWESOME. I LOVE that book--it was the book that got me into comics.

FF didn't have F4's numbering when it started--it's still in it's mid-20s--what happened was that F4 used FF's numbering (since it was the continuation of that story) to get the F4 book to #600 when it came back.

With Gwen--with what Conway says, I really don't agree with, for two things:

1. Between stuff like Spider-Man: Blue, the Spec cartoon, and the new movie, I tend to think of her more as the interesting smart-girl-next-door counterpart to MJ's party-girl persona. Yes, I know that's retcon stuff, yes, I know that's not in the original material, but that just makes sense to me as a way to make her as interesting as how MJ would eventually be, which brings me to--

2. While the troupe wasn't really as big of a troupe then, hearing him talking about it now, I can't help but think, "Okay, so the character isn't really interesting--well, isn't it kind-of your JOB to make that interesting?" It's really almost the same argument that Quesada and the like made for OMD--Conway was just lucky that he did it well at a time when it wasn't commonplace.

Good episode.

[stillanerd]

Great podcast, guys. However, I'm surprised that no one entertained the possibility of something I speculated months ago here (although the stuff I say about Jay Jameson and the Jackal has already been disproved), which basically this: that Peter, in order to save Mary Jane, is forced to kill Doc Ock--which turns out to be Doc Ock's plan all along. And because Spidey is now branded as a murderer, and because Peter believes he's betrayed his ideal that Spider-Man is supposed to be about saving lives rather than taking them, he gives up being Spider-Man for good. This then allows him to get back together with Mary Jane and for a new guy to take Peter's place as the "Superior Spider-Man," most like Andy Maguire, the former Alpha.

Now you might say that's not much of big deal since Spidey has killed before, but the way this can be spun by Marvel is that Spidey has never deliberately killed or had to murder anyone. And even if Doc Ock does eventually come back, the idea that Spidey took his life in the first place is something that would forever be part of the character's history. To me, this fits in with the idea that issue #700 not only has far-reaching effects in Spider-Man but the rest of the Marvel Universe, that Dan Slott would "go into hiding" afterwards, since the idea of Spidey murdering one of his archenemies, quitting, and having someone else take his place would be controversial for fans. It also fits in with Wacker's cryptic comment about how they've gone as far as they could with Peter Parker as Spider-Man, Axel Alonso's statement about this being Peter's "final year" as Spider-Man, and Slott's "monkey's paw" regarding Peter and MJ's relationship. Moreover, we were told in the run up for Marvel NOW that there would be new identities for heroes, but so far, everyone's secret identity has remained intact; thus it sounds more and more like someone else will be under the Spidey mask.

[BertoneBeatle]

That Mutant Leader line was AWESOME. I LOVE that book--it was the book that got me into comics.

I don't think I[m giving away any grand spoilers for the podcast when I say it was one of my recommendations for the month. There were some great episodes of BAILEYS BATMAN PODCAST with Michael Bailey, Michael Kaiser and Donovan Grant where the storyline was discussed. Those awesome episodes encouraged me to reread the book for the first time in a few years. I even caught the new DTV. It's been a DKR week.

I work with two other kids named Donovan and had them pose with a Donovan Grant headshot last Friday as a joke about the three Donovans in my life coming together. Someone on FB commented that it looked like a ransom picture so I then edited the mutant leaders words there...so it's been on my mind

FF didn't have F4's numbering when it started--it's still in it's mid-20s--what happened was that F4 used FF's numbering (since it was the continuation of that story) to get the F4 book to #600 when it came back.

Yea I knew I was messing it up as I was saying it...either way FF continued it's numbering after F4 came back which makes no sense.

1. Between stuff like Spider-Man: Blue, the Spec cartoon, and the new movie, I tend to think of her more as the interesting smart-girl-next-door counterpart to MJ's party-girl persona. Yes, I know that's retcon stuff, yes, I know that's not in the original material, but that just makes sense to me as a way to make her as interesting as how MJ would eventually be, which brings me to--

That's where we difer and our mileage will vary. The word that sicks out to me is retcon...Gwen post 1970's will never be the real Gwen to me. That doesn't mean she isn't to someone else ...just how I see it.

[DarkKnightJared]

Yea I knew I was messing it up as I was saying it...either way FF continued it's numbering after F4 came back which makes no sense.

Arithmaticly, sure, but when you consider the storyline it was doing, it makes sense to include those first twenty or so issues of FF, since it was a continuation of the story in Three, and that part of it is more important to me then the math/organization of it all.

[Spider-Dad]

Another fine podcast from BD and "the gang"...some nice reviews from iTunes and "viewer" mail.

What I found funny about this is the speculation on Amazing Spider-Man #700 and the theories on Superior Spider-Man, now that all has been revealed. This is the episode where Crazy Chris predicts the ACTUAL ending with Doc Ock and Peter Parker switching bodies! CC throws it "out there" figuring his hypothesis is not correct. Ironically, it is barely discussed, as "being done before" and more discussion was given to "another" re-numbering, how much the variants will cost and how many times Peter has died!

Christmas has come and passed, and "amazingly" I did not get the Amazing Spider-Man reboot on DVD as a gift! Instead I got Avengers on Blu-Ray. Now don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the Avengers, but it was the reason given on why the DVD was not purchased by my wife. Her reason? She just can't see Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker! So to date I still have not seen the rebooted Spider-Man, it looks like I will get it via On Demand to see if it is worth popping for on Blu-Ray...

As to a Venom movie? Not...going...to...happen.

As to the Gwen revelation on Gerry Conway's take, I think Crazy Chris gives a better overall summary of her character arc. Gwen started out strong under Lee/Ditko, but became very boring after about 20 issues or so into the Lee/Romita run. For my money, JR has a great essay on this topic. As someone that started reading a handful of Spider-Man issues before "she died", to me Gwen was just another girlfriend of the superhero that "didn't know" his secret identity. That was it. Gwen was OK, but I thought Betty Brand and MJ were more interesting characters. As a young lad, when I found out she died...HOLY CRAP, he could not save her??? That was shocking to me as a 7-8 year old, and even my older brother who was a teenager was stunned. No matter where you stand on if Gwen was a "good" character, a whiney wench or just a silver age 2D character, her death was groundbreaking for superhero comics at that time. To me, don't care if Gerry Conway found MJ to be more interesting, Gwen's death was a compelling story that still resonates to this day.

As to the ending...character yamaka's??? Now I have heard everything...