Crawl Space #9 Discussion Thread

[Kevin Cushing]

So, what'd ya think? Questions, comments, ideas, thoughts?

A couple of notes:

First, if you haven't already, go check out an EXCLUSIVE preview of David "Hambone" Crim's inks for the Crawl Space #10 cover at Spideydude.com. You all know Spideydude (aka Zach Joiner). He's a great guy and a great friend and we've partnered for this clone-centric goodness to give you early previews for these covers. He's got a great site for Spider-Clone and Spider-Girl fans, and a fantastic podcast, so if you haven't seen it before, poke around while you're there!

Second, you may have (but probably haven't) noticed that in this issue I used italics instead of bolding. Bolding is proper format for comic book scripts, which is why I'd been using it, but the truth is bolding just doesn't show up that well on this particular message board. So I opted to switch to italics so hopefully you guys can catch the emphasized words easier.

Third, if you haven't read the issue yet, read it here before you get spoiled!

And don't forget, Crawl Space #10 is coming at you in just two weeks on August 4th!

[Spideydude]

FIRST!

Okay...

* the Cameo of a certain broadcaster was WIN.
* The Clones running around is always fun.
* Harry and Peter was chilling. I mean, the parents saga, and knowing that he's the Goblin King, you feel that there is more to this than meets the eye.
* Peter at OsCorp is just a great thing to see. After all the stuff that you set up in Black, I am glad to see Peter taking his role in the running of the company. I felt thought that this issue was mainly set up for the next issue, but I enjoyed Felicia's role in all of this. Having seen next issue's cover, I'm excited for TOXIN's appearance in a Spider-Book.

Well done. A-

[Kevin Cushing]

Thanks 'dude! It's always awesome to get such an immediate review, and I appreciate all the kind words!

[Kevin Cushing]

Oh, and one thing I forgot. Let's play a little game called "Spot the Homage." Each cover for One in a Million is in some way an homage to a Clone Saga era Spider-Man cover. Some are bigger and more obvious than others (like #10), and some are daggone near subliminal (like #11).

So, whoever posts the Clone Saga cover that Crawl Space #9's cover is in homage to wins...well, wins the internets for the day!

For the lazy and forgetful, here's the cover one more time. Can you spot the homage?

[Spideydude]

Oh, and one thing I forgot. Let's play a little game called "Spot the Homage." Each cover for One in a Million is in some way an homage to a Clone Saga era Spider-Man cover. Some are bigger and more obvious than others (like #10), and some are daggone near subliminal (like #11).

So, whoever posts the Clone Saga cover that Crawl Space #9's cover is in homage to wins...well, wins the internets for the day!

For the lazy and forgetful, here's the cover one more time. Can you spot the homage?

This is almost not fair.

Sensational Spider-Man #4. Dan Jurgens era. Blood Brothers Part One. (My first full arc to ever read.)

[Kevin Cushing]

This is almost not fair.

Sensational Spider-Man #4. Dan Jurgens era. Blood Brothers Part One. (My first full arc to ever read.)

Yep, I think if you didn't get it, you'd actually be docked points

For any that don't know the cover off the top of their heads of haven't seen it, here's the original cover (featuring Ben Reilly in place of our Peter Parker):

[Spideydude]

This is almost not fair.

Sensational Spider-Man #4. Dan Jurgens era. Blood Brothers Part One. (My first full arc to ever read.)

Yep, I think if you didn't get it, you'd actually be docked points

For any that don't know the cover off the top of their heads of haven't seen it, here's the original cover (featuring Ben Reilly in place of our Peter Parker):

And I have next weeks cover already known. Although i think it's not as easy as you'd think. But we'll see if anyone else get's the homage.

-SD

[musicfighter]

*cries manly tears of joy*

God, I love being able to read good Spidey again. It seems like every issue forward you go, you nail Spidey's voice that much more. And of course, CS-Carlie continues to be such an awesome addition to the supporting cast.

I actually think it'd be kinda neat for her to find out.

For my one con, I feel that the Harry scene was a bit weak (but that's really only in comparison to the awesomeness of everything else). I really feel this would've been more effective if we didn't already know that he's more evil and batshit crazy than ever. That said, there really wasn't any other way to do it unless you had placed this scene before Norman was killed. Still, I wonder how long this little facade of Harry's can last. I only expect an arc or two really.

On the #10 cover:

1) I looooove Black Cat's new costume.

2) HOLY CRAP TOXIN!!!!

Wow, if you're able to actually do something cool with Toxin, you will automatically be one of the most awesome Spidey writers ever.

Good Work

[Shadow116]

Time for my typical CS review.

Very solid story, I love a good Osborn scene and the scene between Peter and Harry was incredible. There was much drama, emotion, and Osborn trickery. Menken was also fantastic, as usual, not to mention he has Peter in a tight spot to boot! (Even with Norman gone so many baddies to pick up the slack ). I also love all the other interactions here, with Reed and Sue and the Parkers, Carlie getting jumped by the clones, and Felecia kicking some ass, all awesome. I'm with Morbius; I wanna see more of what Harry has planned here.

The cameo is awesome, the use of Ben's suit is logical and not a cover stunt lol, excellent build-up of what's to come. Also, gotta give a hand to the AMAZING artists! . Keep it coming guys.

Now onto my grade...

5 BD clones out of 5

[CrazyChris]

Another good one, Kevin! This story has a more over-the-top superhero fun vibe to it, unlike the first few that were grimmer and more focused on character psychology. The scenario is pretty clever and I like how the set-up came naturally from the last arc. The way you write the Spider-Marriage is something we never saw enough of, because you're actually showing them having fun, laughing, and making jokes together. It's good to see that side of it, because more often-than-not the marriage was written as angst-ridden back when it existed in Amazing Spider-Man.

If you remember, normally I write real-time reactions where I respond to things as I read them. But this time I was so absorbed in it that I totally forgot to take notes. That can only be a good sign.

Constructive criticism time. I'm not a Fantastic Four expert, so maybe I'm off base here, but your voice for Reed seemed a little off to me. He said "totally random," which seems a little lay-personish, too me, especially considering that he knows Spider-Man is a scientist as well. Wouldn't he use a more brainy-sounding voice, like "your powers will return at random intervals" or something like that?

That's honestly my only nitpick, so you must have done well. Even though I'm used to waiting several months, 14 days seems like a very long time, right now.

[Funnykay]

Good work Kev:

The Cameo of a Certain Mr. Douglas was Awesome. I enjoyed the interaction between the Richards' & the Parker's. I'm not sure if there was any point of Morbius being there, but i suppose Harry needed someone to talk to, so that makes sense. Nice reference to Legacy of Evil in there. You need to add more Menken. He's a character I've wanted to see more of and this is a perfect opportunity for you to do so. Harry's getting pretty creepy actually so this is getting more interesting. Overall, not your best but a solid and fun issue B+

[FSUSpiderFan]

Great job so far Kevin. I'm half way through reading because I couldn't get any sleep tonight. What I read so far has been great. Love the Brad cameo and the humor with the FF. I'm going to try one more time to get some sleep and then look forward to reading the rest this evening. I'll get back to you with a more thorough review at that point.

[Berserkfury819]

This reminded me why I used to love Spider-Man so much. A+.

[Venomaniac]

I LOVED it!

My only gripes are Reed's voice seemed off, as well as the fact that Peter can run Oscorp!

It seemed to me that Peter would be a bumbling businessman with no clue what to do. Plus while destroying the Goblin tech is noble, it sure isnt profitable, and I dont see the Board of Directors agreeing to it

Also the Mephisto reality changing stuff is confusing

I actually need to commend you, because it was this issue I finally realized you have a LOT happen in one issue, normally the way you have a lot happen per page, unlike a lot of writers.

Whenever I go into a CS issue, part of me feels its fan fiction and the other part feels its good Spider-Writing,
Is it the type of Spider-Man story I would write? No

But I always come out Loving it!

Also:

TOXIN! YESSSSSSSSSSS! Are we going to find out how he's doing after the Toxin mini-series? Any plans for character development?

On another note: I realized why I love Crawlspace so much

Reading text opens up a window to the imagination that I dont get from comics, where the images are presented for you. Thus I get a joy out of creating the images of Crawl Space issues myself

[Kevin Cushing]

First, thanks everyone so much! I really appreciate even just that you read it, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to comment and for the incredibly kind words. It's wonderful to get so much great feedback so quickly!

Constructive criticism time. I'm not a Fantastic Four expert, so maybe I'm off base here, but your voice for Reed seemed a little off to me. He said "totally random," which seems a little lay-personish, too me, especially considering that he knows Spider-Man is a scientist as well. Wouldn't he use a more brainy-sounding voice, like "your powers will return at random intervals" or something like that?

My only gripes are Reed's voice seemed off

I agree with you both entirely. After writing this issue and reading back through it I came to the conclusion that I can't write Reed Richards to save my life. I didn't remove him, though, for two reasons: 1) The scene needed to happen and to just replace him with someone else would have been false to me, and 2) In a previous discussion thread, I had promised that the Fantastic Four would be in this issue, and I didn't want that to be an outright falsehood. So, I do apologize, because that did suck, but I promise I won't use him again unless somehow I feel I've really "gotten it" at some point.

1) I looooove Black Cat's new costume.

Most of the credit goes to Hambone on that one. My one real instruction when asking him to redesign the costume was, "Zip her up!" And I think he did a bang up job! Like the 'back-up material' for this issue, I'll include the original character sketches for the Black Cat redesign with #10 so you can see the process. But I love what Hambone came out with, too!

2) HOLY CRAP TOXIN!!!!

Wow, if you're able to actually do something cool with Toxin, you will automatically be one of the most awesome Spidey writers ever.

TOXIN! YESSSSSSSSSSS! Are we going to find out how he's doing after the Toxin mini-series? Any plans for character development?

I think everybody knows I love Toxin. His mini-series was a personal favorite of mine, and I think the character has huge potential if used right. Along with Black Cat, Toxin is actually going to be an ongoing character in the book from now on. So yes, there will absolutely be plenty of character development for him. I think even the unconverted are really going to enjoy this character!

as well as the fact that Peter can run Oscorp!

It seemed to me that Peter would be a bumbling businessman with no clue what to do.

I think maybe you've gotten too used to reading about "Loser Peter" in BND In all seriousness, though, of course Peter isn't going to know everything about running a business going right in, but he'll learn. All he did in this issue was address a board of directors, which Peter is perfectly capable of. Peter's been around the block plenty of times, and he's been connected to quite a few businessmen and CEOs in his time. He definitely has some idea of what he's doing, at least at a basic level. The minutiae will be a learning process, but we all know Peter is a quick study.

Plus while destroying the Goblin tech is noble, it sure isnt profitable, and I dont see the Board of Directors agreeing to it

Well it's not like Tony Stark declaring that his company will no longer sell weapons. Oscorp isn't exactly out there marketing Green Goblin gadgets. And this will be good PR, in theory. So it probably wouldn't be something the board would resist as much as you'd think.