Crawl Space #9 Discussion Thread

[Extreme Spider]

Very Good Indeed. I Love The

BD

Reference. Can't Wait To See

Toxin

, My 2nd Favorite Symbiote.

[Venomaniac]

Just making sure you know Kev:

Toxin is connected to Black Cat as well as Spider-Man (in Venom/Carnage)

Hope we get some continuity nods!

[RHagen]

Ah, the joys of a well-written Carlie Cooper, sans the Purity Sue aspects that make me hate the BND iteration.

I also enjoyed the smugness of Menken. It captured his loyalty to Norman, without the stalkerish vibe he had during Stern's 'Revenge of the Green Goblin' story. I do so love weaselly characters.

A good issue, Mr. Cushing and a welcome relief in the shitstorm that will be OMIT's wake.

[Kevin Cushing]

Thanks, Extreme and RHagen! Glad you're diggin' it!

Just making sure you know Kev:

Toxin is connected to Black Cat as well as Spider-Man (in Venom/Carnage)

Hope we get some continuity nods!

The guy's only ever appeared in 10 issues total. Trust me, I've read his entire ouvre.

[Kevin Cushing]

Just making sure you know Kev:

Toxin is connected to Black Cat as well as Spider-Man (in Venom/Carnage)

Hope we get some continuity nods!

The guy's only ever appeared in 10 issues total. Trust me, I've read his entire ouvre.

Upon second examination, I think this response may have come off as condescending or at least bitchy. Just to clarify, I really was just trying to reassure you that I have read and reread every issue Toxin's appeared in, since there have been so few. (Seriously people, two minis ever. That's a waste of a good character).

[Venomaniac]

Just making sure you know Kev:

Toxin is connected to Black Cat as well as Spider-Man (in Venom/Carnage)

Hope we get some continuity nods!

The guy's only ever appeared in 10 issues total. Trust me, I've read his entire ouvre.

Upon second examination, I think this response may have come off as condescending or at least bitchy. Just to clarify, I really was just trying to reassure you that I have read and reread every issue Toxin's appeared in, since there have been so few. (Seriously people, two minis ever. That's a waste of a good character).

Dont worry I thought the post was fine.

In own all of Toxin's apprentices too

Apparently he was part of the Initiative and Pro-Reg, but I dont think he was ever seen....

[Guyman442]

:O
My feelings right now. As alyays you succeed in exicting and intrigue me wit hthis series. You happen to be incredible, sir. Don''t stop. Now for the issue: First off, your transitions were wonderful, they were well thought out . Secondly, how well you have the voice of every character down is amazing. Thirdly,

your referece to BD, your redesign of the Black Cat, and your characteraztion of Harry

are are wonderful and appropriate. I can't describe my level of happy right now. Thank you Mr. Cushing. Thank you. I really apreciate that you are willing to share this with us.

[Venomaniac]

Since part of the reaosn Kevin is lovingly doing this is to compare SMCS and OMIT I will do so

The Winner is Spider-Man Crawl Space
WHY?

IT MAKES SENSE! Seriously. Thats all it took to win this. I didnt even after to mention the great characterization that Kevin does which is why I read this. The fact that this story logically made sense to the human mind made it better then OMIT

[Sarcasmic]

Love the Crawl Space Spidey, so I figured I'd throw in a few compliments...

I agree with the CS Spidey kicking butt right now... Can't remember the last time before this I enjoyed a Spidey comic (Probably issue 8 of CS )

The cameo made me laugh and most of MJ's comments, especially the fashionista one, made me smile...
The Ben Riley thing, and explanation was my fave part of the issue and I liked the cliff hanger...

Just out of curiosity, I know next to nothing about Toxin...
Will I understand why he's there and such?

[Kevin Cushing]

Thank you all very, very much! You're all incredibly kind, and I could not be more grateful for your thoughts here. You people are amazing.

Just out of curiosity, I know next to nothing about Toxin...
Will I understand why he's there and such?

First off, it's always amazing to see someone sign up to the board and make their first post to comment on an issue. Welcome to the Crawl Space, and thanks so much for taking the time to register and comment!

As for Toxin, you should be fine. As I've said, he's only appeared in ten issues ever anywhere, so there's not a huge amount of backstory, and I'll drop the relevant info in there for you.

And for anybody curious about Toxin since he's coming into the series, did you know I reviewed the Toxin mini-series (6 of his all-time 10 issues) for this very website back in the day? Feel free to give my reviews a read, and you can get full summaries of the issues and my thoughts on the story and the character (spoiler alert: I loved it):

http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/miniseries/toxin/index.html

[Venomaniac]

Thank you all very, very much! You're all incredibly kind, and I could not be more grateful for your thoughts here. You people are amazing.

Just out of curiosity, I know next to nothing about Toxin...
Will I understand why he's there and such?

First off, it's always amazing to see someone sign up to the board and make their first post to comment on an issue. Welcome to the Crawl Space, and thanks so much for taking the time to register and comment!

As for Toxin, you should be fine. As I've said, he's only appeared in ten issues ever anywhere, so there's not a huge amount of backstory, and I'll drop the relevant info in there for you.

And for anybody curious about Toxin since he's coming into the series, did you know I reviewed the Toxin mini-series (6 of his all-time 10 issues) for this very website back in the day? Feel free to give my reviews a read, and you can get full summaries of the issues and my thoughts on the story and the character (spoiler alert: I loved it):

http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/miniseries/toxin/index.html

Did you also review Venom Vs. Carnage?

[insaneJonny]

Well, I gave up giving a damn about OMIT about 3/4 (mostly because it's impossible for me to get any more pissed then I was at spidey's out of character behaviour during Grim Hunt) so time to wash my head with some crawl space. I gave up on the commentary for OMIT when I realised how little noteworthy stuff there was half way through the issue so here we go....

Cover thoughts- I'm wondering what the significance of the costume is gonna be...

Page 1: Kay....spider-mans currently swinging through the city despite Peter Parker being powerless, I smell a clone

...An apparently rogue clone who doesn't know the meaning of passionate making out

Page 2: Ah, so nice to read a Peter Parker who reminds me of JMS' Peter Parker, witty and sarcastic to hide his fears rather then that out of character fucker I don't recognise in ASM.

Peter getting his powers back seems to resemble how he got his powers back at the end of the clone saga, random fluctuations of powers til his body adjusted or fixed itself back to normal, Any influence from there Kev?

Page 3: Is peter seriously asking "so...i'm a mutant" or is he doing it in a 75% jokey confused 25% genuinely curious way? For some reason I can imagine him doing it the latter way but not the former way.

Also, I think the art is needed to convey the "I've got one week to live" joke properly, Peter's body language and facial expression is needed to sell it as a joke and not Peter being a cold hearted bastard briefly....or perhaps I'm overcompensating after seeing that bastard in ASM currently....

Page 4: Ah good, MJ got onto him about it

Page 5: Yes, some rape, now it feels like a proper spider-man comic

Oh dear...that was...unpleasant, the way you worded it made it look like he killed the girl rather then rape her, that's the correct way to read it isn't it kev?

Page 6: "Am i being inducted into the Avengers" how cute

Hahahaha, love the sly dig at the BT and Harry's return not making sense

Page 8: I do love Peter wanting to kill the Green Goblin once and for all

Page 9: Kev, I think I love you for using a storyline which doesn't devolve to "New yorkers don't trust spider-man and hate and fear him" here you've established that the citizens know that spider-man is good and won't turn on him, they just don't know if they've the right spidey.

Page 11: Somehow I knew from your tease on the main page BD would appear....

Page 12: Interesting that Menkin knows the identity, I see him doing the way of the dodo soon.

Is this your way of flipping the bird to the Braintrust over how they handled Harrys return

Page 14: Harrys explanation seems rushed and quite bull-shitty, then again that could very well be the point since it is bullshit.

Ah yes, Peter never seemed to get onto Harry about that in BND reality.

Page 15: I don't know how to say it Kev but I felt, for the first scene that Peter has came face to face with a resurrected Harry I felt that scene didn't explode of the page like it could have. Peter reacted as he should of (unlike in BND naturally) but the entire scene was under 4 pages, and I just felt the scene had a lot more mileage and dramatic potential then that.

Then again, I understand how you didn't wanna rethread over old ground, and naturally Peter should be skeptical of his best friend returning from the dead at such a suspicious time, so maybe Peter ending it was his way of gathering intel to see if he could be trusted.

Page 18: Hmmm, now i have to check out next issues cover

Honesty time Kev, are you reveling in every opportunity to show off how you get these characters far better then some of the current writers?

Page 19, nice reason for the costume

Page 22: Wow, interesting cliffhanger. I hope you don't go the same way this goes everytime Jameson may have/ may not have unmasked him

All in all, a solid arc opener with characters acting in character for once and no decompression, just what I wish I could have in the regular ASM...

[Venomaniac]

Page 9: Kev, I think I love you for using a storyline which doesn't devolve to "New yorkers don't trust spider-man and hate and fear him" here you've established that the citizens know that spider-man is good and won't turn on him, they just don't know if they've the right spidey.

.

The way you wrote that scene was orginally a complaint of mine, but I realized after reading this quote that it worked

Do I think the basic plot of oNCE in a Million is an incredible story? I dont (Not like Black was)
Is it a bad story? No

It's a good story, made better by the fact you GET the characters (The MAIN thing a writer must be able to do)

[Kevin Cushing]

Did you also review Venom Vs. Carnage?

No I did not. I actually looked on the old site's review page to see who did, but I couldn't find it reviewed at all. I believe Venom vs. Carnage was slightly before my time as a reviewer. Also, I admit I didn't read it when it first came out. My initial reaction was a sarcastic, "Venom vs. Carnage? Yeah, that's gonna be a great comic..." And to be fair, while it was way better than a comic of that title had a right to be and introduced a great character, it did have some major, colossal, uber-gigantic flaws. That mainly being how in the hell does Black Cat not know anything about Venom and Carnage when she fought with Venom against Carnage in Maximum mother freaking Carnage?!

Well, I gave up giving a damn about OMIT about 3/4 (mostly because it's impossible for me to get any more pissed then I was at spidey's out of character behaviour during Grim Hunt) so time to wash my head with some crawl space. I gave up on the commentary for OMIT when I realised how little noteworthy stuff there was half way through the issue so here we go....

I admit it, I've been looking forward to this. I'm a sucker for some detailed commentary! Before I start answering some things, I'd just like to give a blanket thank you! for all your kind compliments, and for taking the time to do this. It would take way too long to quote each one individually and thank you for them, but just know that I really appreciate every one.

Page 1: Kay....spider-mans currently swinging through the city despite Peter Parker being powerless, I smell a clone

...An apparently rogue clone who doesn't know the meaning of passionate making out

I literally laughed out loud when I read that

Peter getting his powers back seems to resemble how he got his powers back at the end of the clone saga, random fluctuations of powers til his body adjusted or fixed itself back to normal, Any influence from there Kev?

I actually hadn't thought of that, but I like it!

Page 3: Is peter seriously asking "so...i'm a mutant" or is he doing it in a 75% jokey confused 25% genuinely curious way? For some reason I can imagine him doing it the latter way but not the former way.

Your reading of it (the latter) is 100% spot on.

Page 5: Yes, some rape, now it feels like a proper spider-man comic

Oh dear...that was...unpleasant, the way you worded it made it look like he killed the girl rather then rape her, that's the correct way to read it isn't it kev?

Nope, not rape. I don't do Spider-Rape. He killed her the same way he killed her attacker.

Page 9: Kev, I think I love you for using a storyline which doesn't devolve to "New yorkers don't trust spider-man and hate and fear him" here you've established that the citizens know that spider-man is good and won't turn on him, they just don't know if they've the right spidey.

Glad you see that the same way I do! I feel like Spidey and New York have grown way past New Yorkers not trusting Spider-Man after all he's done every time somebody tries to smear him. But realistically, how do they know who's behind that mask?

Is this your way of flipping the bird to the Braintrust over how they handled Harrys return

More like "friendly ribbing"

Ah yes, Peter never seemed to get onto Harry about that in BND reality.

Assuming you're talking about the robot parents thing, there actually was a great JMD story in (I think) one of the ASM Extra issues that showed when Peter first found out Harry was alive, and he did bring that up. To be honest, JMD handled it quite a lot better than I did, but then, he's JMD.

Then again, I understand how you didn't wanna rethread over old ground, and naturally Peter should be skeptical of his best friend returning from the dead at such a suspicious time, so maybe Peter ending it was his way of gathering intel to see if he could be trusted.

Peter basically kicked him out "to be continued later" because A) he needed to go kick some clone ass, and B) he really just couldn't process anymore right then. But don't worry, we're not gonna move right on to "everything's hunky dory now."

Honesty time Kev, are you reveling in every opportunity to show off how you get these characters far better then some of the current writers?

Haha, that's awesome, thank you very much!

All in all, a solid arc opener with characters acting in character for once and no decompression, just what I wish I could have in the regular ASM...

That's why Crawl Space will be here with you for all of your 'trying-to-forget-OMIT' needs

Do I think the basic plot of oNCE in a Million is an incredible story? I dont (Not like Black was)
Is it a bad story? No

It's a good story, made better by the fact you GET the characters (The MAIN thing a writer must be able to do)

That's perfectly fair. But just be mindful - there will be twists and turns. Yes, twists and turns. And a total lack of fat dude smotherings.

[insaneJonny]

Assuming you're talking about the robot parents thing, there actually was a great JMD story in (I think) one of the ASM Extra issues that showed when Peter first found out Harry was alive, and he did bring that up. To be honest, JMD handled it quite a lot better than I did, but then, he's JMD.

It was actually one of the family issues, I know because I've spent absolutely ages trying to track the bugger down.. I've yet to read it

Peter basically kicked him out "to be continued later" because A) he needed to go kick some clone ass, and B) he really just couldn't process anymore right then. But don't worry, we're not gonna move right on to "everything's hunky dory now."

Oh I get that entirely Kevin, this is only a teaser of things to come and I don't doubt you have plans for a massive pay off down the line. Like you're right that Peter had a lot of shit on his plate at the time and really didn't have time for Harry obviously dicking him about, you wrote the scene absolutely fine for the situation happening at the time because Peter didn't have time for a life story.

I was more talking about the placing of the scene, part of me just the first appearance of Harry back from the freaking dead to Peter is a massive moment that deserves more time then you were able to afford it in this issue.

Then again Harry chose to been by Peter seen then and he's behind the clones, so this is clearly all part of his master plan, he intentionally appeared when he knew Peter would be distracted....so it's like part of me has a minor...i can't even call it a criticism, more of an opinion, then another part of me sees entirely why you did it the way you did.