Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott decided to visit CBR on New Years Eve to explain why Silk is popular and received her own ongoing series. His points include
*Amazing Spider-Man Vol 3 # 1-6 sold out and went back to press multiple times. He says Silk is one of the biggest reasons.
*The Marvel offices received several letters of praise for the Silk character.
*Message boards are filled with fiction from a small group of posters and he’s tired of correcting the internet so he literally said “Fuck it.” He tried several times to correct several CBR posters leading up to the big New Years Eve post. Click here to see them.
Read the long “final” post here.
I’ve slowly been weening myself off message boards. Here on CBR, I was more than happy to let my account implode and fade away with the site’s April message board re-booting…
…until I fell victim to that time old trap of “someone on the Internet is WRONG.” 😛Still, at less than 20 posts since April, I have done a good job of weening.
And now, with New Year’s Resolutions looming, I’ve decided to take the plunge and disappear from comic book message boards entirely.
I’m sure that like all New Year’s Resolutions that there’ll be a relapse here-or-there. But hopefully, in the long run, I can leave you all to it– and to have your fun interrupted by the likes of ol’ curmudgeonly me.In the past, when I’ve tried to detach, my reasoning was that these boards were for you (fans) and not me (someone working in the industry) and that maybe there should be a disconnect.
With way more time to dwell on it, I think it’s simpler than that. These boards are about fiction.
Not fiction like the world of Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe.
Fiction as in what a lot of you THINK the industry is like.
Or THINK what comic book creators, editors, or upper-management types are thinking, feeling, believing, and/or what their intentions are.
Fiction as in what you believe and/or fear is going to happen to comic book characters and storylines.
Too many fans online pick at interviews, tweets, videos– what have you– and desperately try to fill in the gaps. And that’s fine and dandy. But then comes the screwy part…
…a lot of you take those personal guesses as FACT. And then start arguing those fictions as if they were real.
And they’re not. They NEVER are.
Let me give you an example:
“Marvel is ramming this new Silk character down our throats.”
Nope.
Want to know who chose to put out a new SILK book?
The fans.
No. Not the small, angry, vocal subsection that likes to rant on message boards.
The tens of thousands of fans who voted in comic book shops across America and the world.Marvel had no advance plans of putting out a Silk book. None whatsoever.
But then ASM #1 was the best selling comic of the 21st century. Fan mail came in and– universally– wanted to know more about Silk. And then the book had to go back to press.
And then ASM #2 performed better than anyone expected. More Silk fan mail came in. And the book had to go back to press.
And then ASM #3 performed better than anyone expected. Again. More Silk fan mail came in. Again. And the book had to go back to press. Again.
And then ASM #4 REALLY performed better than anyone expected. Even MORE Silk fan mail came in. And the book had to be RUSHED back to press.
And it all happened again with ASM #5.
And again with ASM #6.In the middle of all of THAT, and based off of fan reaction, is when one of the big wigs said, “We should do a Silk book.”
Fans made it happen.
It’s THAT simple.
That is the REALITY of the situation plain as day.
Sometimes it happens lightning fast– like with the near instantaneous reaction to Jason, Robbi, and Rico’s phenomenal Spider-Gwen EOSV #2 issue.
That was fan reaction that was easy for everyone to immediately see and grasp.But that rapid response to Spider-Gwen in no means invalidated the steady, sustained, and strong reaction to Silk– just because there are those on message boards & tumblr who loudly and repeatedly want it to be that way. Much in the same way that one of the regular CBR posters here repeatedly makes the case that Spider-Man should be dating She-Hulk. The frequency and intensity of a message board post– from the same corner over-and-over again– doesn’t make the argument or desire behind it any more real. It’s all just a fiction.
Not a purposeful or planned lie.
It’s a fiction based on what that one fan (or small sampling of fans) really, really, really WANTS to be true.
Doesn’t make it true.
Just makes it something that’s passionately believed in.
In the same way that some people passionately believe that the moon landings were staged.Two main kinds of posts have, this past year, brought me back on these message boards.
1) A fan’s heartfelt FEAR of a story/outcome that they BELIEVED might happen.
and
2) A regular hater of the book who– through things I’ve said in interviews, online, or just how they (inaccurately) have interpreted things I’ve written in the comics– have taken the position that they KNOW what I’m thinking, believing, or intending.
And that’s patently insane.
It’s kind of like the ending to the movie THE TRUMAN SHOW, where Truman points to his head and says “You never had a camera in here.”
This guy doesn’t have a CLUE what I’m thinking, believing, and especially what I’m intending.
But he thinks he does. He’s so sure of that, that he’s bought into his own fiction with a zealous certainty.
More than any, his posts are the weirdest for me to read. Because he’s usually so completely off from what’s the REALITY of the situation. But he’s so dead on sure that he’s NOT.In both cases, what CAN I do?
If I pop in here to stomp out these fictions, suddenly I’m a “cyber bully.”
That’s the current take on it.Flipside? Who’s it really going to hurt? Two people on message boards are spreading untruths.
They’re not intentionally lying. They’ve just bought into their own fictions and earnestly BELIEVE that they’re speaking to the reality of a situation.
When they’re not.So… Eh. Fuck it.
I get it.
That’s what message boards are for. I’d like to hang out here and interact with fans about all kinds of stuff. But it’s in my wiring to see such blatant falsehoods– and to feel the need to stamp them out– that that’s usually all I wind up doing when I am here. So best to just let it go. And to let this be a place that regularly deals in fiction. No worries. 🙂
Hope you all have a very Happy New Year.
And, one last time, for all you guys supporting the book– I deeply, truly DO appreciate that support. This is the coolest job on the planet and I owe it all to your patronage. THANK YOU.
Slott also tried to correct the poster Kevinroc about ASM sales.
Originally Posted by Kevinroc“As impressive as the sales were on the new Amazing Spider-Man #1 (and they were very impressive), I think that Marvel’s new Star Wars #1 are apparently double that takes some of the wind out of ASM (vol. 3) #1’s sails.”Dan Slott: Yes. Having 2014’s best selling comic for the entire industry will be a crushing defeat for the book.
And, come January, only being the 2nd best selling comic of the 21st Century will be the biggest dishonor of all. 😀One of the things I love about the internet is how– during BND– there were multiple threads about the sales for this book, and how they spelled certain DOOM for the title.
BS graphs were made comparing the Civil War tie-in issues of the JMS run to TWO-THIRDS of the totals of the BND run (purposefully throwing out the TOP THIRD of BND’s sales!)… and these were repeatedly brought up as more “proof” to the “low quality” and “poor reception” the book was receiving.During the Big Time era, stores were running out of copies and close to HALF the run had to go back to press for 2nd printings. It was one of the few Big 2 titles that, in aggregate, was going up in sales. And when I’d point that out, the same people who regularly posted in the doom-in-gloom-BND-sales threads tried a new tactic: Why was I only focusing on sales? Obviously it was because I didn’t care about the book’s quality. 😛
And with the Dying Wish arc– and through the entirety of the Superior Spider-Man run– the Spider-Man book became Marvel’s best selling ongoing title, a perennial of the Top 10, often doing this twice a month. And then the NEW metric was, “If it were really good, it’d be outselling Batman (the #1 book in the entire industry).”
And when it launched as the best selling issue of the 21st Century, the even NEWER line of spin was, “Well, the Transformers movie did great– and it sucks. Selling great doesn’t mean anything.” 😀
Ohhhhh how far we’ve come since the BND Sales Chart days of CBR.
You guys are a hoot.
So what are your thoughts on this exchange between creator and fans?
Update: Slott’s New Years resolution to stay off message boards in 2015 lasted until January 2nd when he had to correct people on Bleeding Cool.
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Really, praising the “Positive Sales” on the book for the reason for Silk’s ongoing is just nonsense.
Again, we knew nothing of Silk beyond the fact that she was female, and she was going to appear in the book at some point down the line. Claiming that the praise for the character was “Universal” from Day One, getting fan mail from the FIRST ISSUE when she didn’t even appear until issue THREE, is just so blatant a lie you actually have to respect him for having the gall to say it.
In addition, the “Positive Sales” had to do with Peter’s return after a long absence and in time for his recent motion picture. Issue #4- where SIlk fully appeared- was also heavily tied into Original Sin, which meant it was heavily promoted. And retailers were probably still adjusting their orders to figure out who was going to stay and who was going to drop the book. But the way Slott explains it, ALL of the positive sales were JUST about Silk and Silk alone. That her presence alone spurred people to pick up and KEEP ordering the book. That fan demand was SO HIGH that they just HAD to give the character her own ongoing. Of course, NONE of this is seen on sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Deviantart or other sites that show fan created content, because those sources “Don’t count.”
Really, this is Dan Slott pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. The best way to sell a lie is to sprinkle part of it with the truth. ASM got great sales after the relaunch, so we can’t dispute that. So it makes it seem like his rationale that Silk was some sort of fan driven character seem a little more legitimate.
The problem with that is that Spider-Gwen came about at the same time, and actually SHOWED a character that the fanbase positively responded too, and that wasn’t incidental to another event. And that’s the problem with Slott- it’s not that people are spouting “fiction,” it’s that they are spouting the truth. And that means that his rationale can be easily disputed if not outright disproved.
If marvel wasn’t planning on pushing a new female spidey on us, why is Silk even IN the first issues of ASM in the first place. slotts defense actually makes no sense. Why else would she be there except to be a new spider woman with her own book?
And please dont try to convince me that Roger Stern telling me whats happening in the panel with a caption half the size of the panel is GOOD writing.
Part of me questioning wether I was too old for this crap was listening to these podcasts and for a short time afterward, feeling stupid for enjoying the books. That’s how heavy handed the criticism toward Slott is. to call out bad writing in a comic with spider-man in it is like complaining the beef is tasteless in a McDonalds hamburger. It’s more of an event when GOOD spidey is written like in the early 2000s.
@42 my god, so true. Every week I waltz into my comics shop and buy two Image trades and some daredevil books…and I still pick up Amazing Spider-man. Just because it’s freakin spider-man. I love talking to the guys at the shop. And ya know, I ask about Silk and they say she’s fine. Can’t expect them to tell me something they’re selling is crap…but really, Silk?!?
I actually wasn’t buying ASM until Spider-verse. I saw superior 32 and freaked out. Asked about spider verse, and then found crawlspace.
Spider-verse roped me in big time. Back into comics after 18 years. Buying singles, not just reading synopses online to follow superior. I quit reading spidey around 98 or something which is too bad cos that PPSM paul jenkins stuff and JMS is some of the best Spidey ever. I added all of spider verse to my first ever pull list. Then I started buying spidey trades to catch up for spider verse and after blazing thru the JMS stuff, found myself embarrassed to be a spidey fan with what came after his run. I figured maybe i’m too old for this comics crap until i picked up some great Image books like Saga. I figured maybe it’s just super heroes. So I picked up Daredevil but every DD book i’ve read is up there with the best stuff i’ve ever read, comic or not.
Then the spider-verse stuff comes out. And while it isn’t mindblowing like DD stuff, i enjoy it for what it is. i expected an empty story with just a buncha ridiculous spider men running around. I’ve spent like, 100$ so far and absolutely NOTHING has happened. I would drop the book and abandon the story. But I’m having fun. Part of me is fine with these types of stories comming from spidey. I think Dan Slott does the big ridiculous event thing really well, just not the month to month stuff. I also REALLY REALLY do LOVE the whole “science or magic…or both?” Mystery surrounding peters origin. I LOVE IT, especially since peter is a scientist. I’ll read anything that explores this new angle on spider man. The inheritors seem to be using ALOT of science and I love that in spider verse.
Not sure if I started off with a point there… I’m definetly dropping ASM after spider verse. I really dont care about peter anymore. He barely even exists as he did in the early 2000s which I consider to be the peak of spidey greatness.
Oh, and in my opinion, Slott is having
Peter commit adultery.
Because my Peter has a wife.
@Brad
Sorry,just felt like he was talking to dumb people.
And sorry,again.
Regarding Silk, we shall all soon see. In my opinion, her origin is an unimaginative retcon, her power-set is unoriginal, her personality is thin, and her being instantly competent is boring. She lacks the likeability factor, which seems true of nearly all Dan Slott characters — zany, comical, bizarre, cynical, bombastic, quirky, yes, but the man seems unable to write “warm”, “heartfelt”, or sympathetic.
I’m no expert by any means (which doesn’t mean I’m operating under an assumption of a fiction, incidentally), but while it’s certainly not true that “Selling great doesn’t mean anything,” I would say that one cannot necessarily look at sales and attribute them exclusively to the quality of the writing. Apart from the other elements of production, the artwork to name the other obvious one, perhaps sales could be due also to simple love of Spider-man as a superhero. Years ago I looked at Brand New Day as a good “jumping on” point, though I had been reading the comic on and off for many years, and never once did I consider stopping my buying habits because of considerations of writing. I kept buying because I loved Spider-man and picking up my weekly comics and seeing friends at the store was an enjoyable custom to look forward to. I guess I just think it’s a little short-sighted for a writer to look at increased sales and take credit for them or use that as a means to justify the quality of his writing. Each of us is part of a whole. Maybe that’s my “With great power…” superhero line, but it would seem to account for something as contingent and fluctuating as comic book sales. Thank you, everyone on the Crawlspace, for your astute comments and thoughts.
I really liked most of Slott’s stories until the end of Superior. But his new Amazing issues are painful to read. Currently I re-read some JMS stories and the experience became even more painful. While I generally like Slott’s ideas and acknowledge his knowledge of obscure Spider-man history and enthusiasm towards the character, I cannot help but feel that he lacks a certain understanding of the character’s depth. It is almost as revolting as when (I think) Joe Kelly said that Peter is a “man-child” never growing up. He is written in this manner in the new Amazing, that’s for sure. Why would an ineffective nincompoop be attractive to younger readers? My Spider-man could beat the Juggernaut and Firelord and handle complex emotional situations, while this guy gets beaten by C-rate villains twice in every issue to be conveniently saved by Silk thereafter, while purposefully neglecting his obligations at his working place. Maybe Mike is right, I have gotten too old for this stuff (I am over 30 now, Goddammit) but I sure as hell wish that some future writer will treat as JMS treated Spidey – as a responsible, capable young adult.
@39 – Yeah, I’m surprised he’s not using the same data to back up the fact that the fans love the new direction they’re taking the Black Cat character.
Hey, you know who ELSE was in ASM #1-6?? BLACK CAT. Let’s see how “fast, smooth, and strong” she can plummet into oblivion. Good riddance.
@#26-That’s not a very helpful mentality. Back in the early 2000s Spider-Man was also shite and had similar priories to the modern stuff. You can justify anything on the basis of ‘it’s not bad it’s just different now’. What Spider-Man is now, is bad and its not what Spider-Man should be. Spider-Girl for her entire run also was aimed at a younger demographic and had different values and tones than JMS run. That book however was very good and managed to stay true to what Spider-Man was about despite not even being ABOUT Spider-Man. JMS’ book did as well, but in a very different way. This modern stuff does not. if nothing else it’s not even BEEN about Spider-Man himself for a ridiculously long time. As for it never being the same again, don’t count yer chickens before they hatch. Also just because Spider-Man is one way now, doesn’t mean he SHOULD be that way. Back in the 90s he was mentally ill and called himself the Spider. He shouldn’t have been that either.
S for expecting too much from the book…no. Expecting a well written in character Spider-Man who’s the focus of a story, is the sum of his experiences and is telling a good story is not too much to expect. Certainly not at these extortionate prices.
This is easily interpretable as Marvel being worried Silk won’t sell and they’re having her first major handler spin interest in her book with a “fans demand it” selling point, Slott is an old-school Marvel fan and he often studied all kinds of vintage practices used in the day to try to drum up investment in new stories, even if the book or character could be the least enticing thing ever.
And yet when I call him out on the SHH! fourms for all the stuff he has gotten wrong on Spider-Verse due to his lack of research, he doesn’t bother to defend himself there. Btw, Stillanerd, your presence is missed on those forums and we wouldn’t mind you making an appearance in that thread.
@#32 BD and #33 George Berryman — Yeah, the original CBR thread was closed and locked down after just two pages.
——————————————————–
The reason I get so hot headed about the Slott bashing here is just because I think you guys expect too much from this book.
—————————————————————
For $4 an issue, wouldn’t you?
@32: “I just went to the CBR board to see what’s been posted on that initial thread, and it’s been closed?”
Recall back when CBR covered up the Slott “Go eff yourself” thing. Maybe they thought “Well this doesn’t put him in the best light so we’ll just close it up?”
I just went to the CBR board to see what’s been posted on that initial thread, and it’s been closed?
Further:
If you listen to the podcast you’d know many of the panelists covering it this year said Superior was Slott’s strongest work on the title. When his run is over people will remember it years later because of Superior.
It’s the Spider-Man Crawlspace. Not the Daredevil Billy Club. We cover Spider-Man and Spider-Man related news and topics.
When I like something enough to call myself a ‘fan’ of it I won’t settle for something subpar just because “that’s how it is now.”
@#18 Mike —
Well, don’t forget there’s other factors, such as the return of Peter Parker after 16 months, the relaunching of Amazing Spider-Man with a brand new #1 issue, that it was coming out right around the same time as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 film, and, let’s not forget, there was something close to 40+ variant covers attached to it. Also, never underestimate the odd buying habits of the general public. After all, despite overwhelming negative reviews, Transformers: Age of Extinction was still the number 1 movie in 2014, made over $1 billion, and was the 10th highest grossing film of all time.
“You guys blocked me for saying I liked Dan Slott and didn’t like Peter David.”
We keep a list of people we ban in our admin forum, with the exception of obvious spam. Your name/IP is not on the list (same one you were posting with in November). Nor has it ever been. I don’t recall you saying you liked Slott and not Peter David. I just remember telling you to stop trolling on a thread involving Roger Stern in November.
“You guys are the problem.”
Oh. Well okay.
“Oh look i’m unblocked heh.”
So we’re “the problem” for not blocking/banning you?
EDIT: Checked the IP on our logs & wrote that while BD was already responding to you.
Mike this line kills me and made me LOL.
“As Dan Slotts unofficial #1 defender on the front page…”
“But this Silk stuff is off putting. Even I can’t stand her and it’s because of her that the first 6 issues if ASM 6 were total crap. But it’s selling like crazy?!?”
So funny!
I don’t know maybe it was an internet thing… I wasn’t able to post for a long time.
As Dan Slotts unofficial #1 defender on the front page, superior spider-man was one of the best spidey stories ever and issue asm 655 is one of the best spidey stories in the past 25 years.
But this Silk stuff is off putting. Even I can’t stand her and it’s because of her that the first 6 issues if ASM 6 were total crap. But it’s selling like crazy?!?
So maybe Spider-man isn’t the book for me, or us, anymore. This is the new direction they’ve already taken peter in and the character will never be the same. A 35 year old man boy with a 25 year olds mind and body. The pre BND JMS run holds up as well as any Daredevil or Jessica Jones books that were out at the time. But now the ASM books have a WILDLY different tone and obviously, a much younger target audience. I don’t like it but it isn’t plain BAD. This is just what spider man IS today. If it bugs you, just read Daredevil! The reason I get so hot headed about the Slott bashing here is just because I think you guys expect too much from this book.
Mike- I looked through my warnings and your ip and e-mail and you’ve never been warned before. You sure as hell weren’t blocked for stating your opinion. In fact you’ve been posting regularly since November. I don’t know why you feel you got one past us or something.
Oh look i’m unblocked heh.
You guys blocked me for saying I liked Dan Slott and didn’t like Peter David.
You guys are the problem.
Puny Parker, lay off the personal attacks of calling Slott a “pathetic little person.” First warning.
So… I’m gonna be printing out some ‘I’m with Berryman’ bumper stickers. Who wants one?
I mean, it’s possible to have a great book out of a character(s) that you don’t see any need to have their own book. Superior Foes is a prime example – no one on the podcast was looking forward to that book (Chris’ quote: “Poor book, your best character is Shocker.”). And yet it turned into one of the best books Marvel put out each month (except the 2 fill-in issues). So it is possible. But none of those 5 characters were horrible before SFoSM (well, Overdrive was close), they were just C-list/D-list villains. Silk is a horrible character. I just can’t see someone making a great book about her. Prove me wrong, Marvel! But I don’t foresee it.
By this logic, shouldn’t we also get series for Anna Marconi, Black Cat, Electro, White Rabbit, and every other character who appeared in these issues?
… so he wasn’t just pedaling this bulls*** at Bleeding Cool?
Pathetic little person….
Jackpot = Alpha = silk. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck…
Silk isn’t a character, she’s a plot device and walking porno fantasy. No one is clamoring for more silk, regardless of what Slott says.
Silk will be cancelled by issue 10 and the same fans who wrote in feverishly to ask for the series will drop it after 4 months when they realize how crap the Silk character is. So predictable.
The problem is, Silk is not popular except being shown to be such a poor plot device. Here is the thing, is Silk the first idea that a company or department at a comic book company didn’t try running in the ground? No, its not. Have they hyped things about how great they would be and it would be the year of the character only to have the book crash and burn? Of course. HEre is the the thing, Dan Slott is the type of writer who believes his work is good and let’s face it, considering how he started his career and where he is. Of course his ego is as big as it is he really believes with his character being used so much and being the focus of so much of his work. Silk is the best thing since slice bread and of course he’s going to run with Spider-Gwen as an example. Here is the problem, Spider-Gwen is interesting, has a great back story and has both a past history and a new take on a classic character.
Silk is none of this. She is used for a plot device, her powers work whatever Slott wants them to work. She is connected to Spider-Man because she was bitten by the same spider and of course she is the “bride”. Hence, she needed for these stories and is popular because that means she gets her own book. Yet, Dan Slott quickly forgets about what happened to Alpha and Mark Guggenhium revealed recently that Jackpot was not how he envisioned and he tried to make her work and now sees that she was not wanted and is not needed. I don’t wish bad things on good creators but much like Alpha I do hope that Silk does crash and burn as a series.
by the way could you have found a less flattering pic of Slott for this article?….LOL
I guess we shpuld all be happy about Silk getting her own book for one reason- it will keep her the hell out of Spideys book and in her own book that I can easily ignore till it dies at issue 12 or so.
And Tom Brevoort is echoing similar statements:
http://brevoortformspring.tumblr.com/post/107048268113/2-not-possible-for-you-to-make-a-comic-just
Which leads back to my earlier point–of course readers and fans were initially interested in Silk because a) she was purposefully made to be far more “mysterious” than she actually was, and b) readers knew little to nothing about her. What Marvel is neglecting to mention–or is outright dismissing–is the response towards Silk after she was introduced.
The funny part about some of the negative comments I’m seeing here is the fact that they are by the same users I typically see uttering negative comments on other threads…lol
In the end, if the fans asked for a Silk book, then they’re getting one… And if it’s a good book, then that’s awesome… Personally, Silk did little to me, but if it’s good, maybe I’ll get it via trades.
If he wants to let book sales do the talking then we’ll just wait and see how Silk’s book does. My guess: terribly.
To be fair, I do believe there is some truth in what Dan Slott is saying here that fans did “want to know more about Silk” for one very simple reason: they knew next to nothing about her.
Prior to ASM #4, the only details about Silk came from either the two-page prologues in ASM #1-#3 and Marvel’s own promotional material via comic book conventions and news sites. What was her real name? Was she a hero or a villain? Would she be Spidey’s new love interest? Was she an already established character revealed to have Spider-powers? Or was she someone brand new? And why was she wearing a costume that made her look like a cross between a ninja and the Mummy? And how come, if she was bitten by the same radioactive spider, we haven’t heard of her until now? And we learned Ezekiel was part of her backstory, even I wanted to know more about her, as I wrote in my own review for ASM #3.
But then came her “official debut” in ASM #4 (which, remember, was also a tie-in to Original Sin, 2014 big summer crossover, so, of course, retailers are going to order more copies in anticipate demand). And at best, Silk came across as a “Mary Sue” (and when I wrote that and explained why in my review for ASM #4, a lot of folks from the CBR forums, ironically enough, thought I was being premature and not giving Silk a fair shake), and at worst (and as Ashley so eloquently described on the podcast), she was less of a character and more of a plot device designed to advance Peter’s story.
Then came ASM #5, ASM #6, ASM#7, etc. And, based on the reactions online via Twitter, Facebook, message boards, etc. (you know, the forums which, compared to fan mail, have “less credibility” for some reason) the more you got to know Silk, the less you started to like, to the point where, with some exceptions, much of the response is either “Wow. She really is a Mary-Sue” or “Wow! She really is a plot-device!” And if what Slott is saying is true about the fan mail expressing a growing interest in Silk for the first six issues of the relaunch, I wouldn’t be surprised if a growing number of fan mail after ASM #7 has been shifting in the other direction. After all, why make such a big stink now over fans complaining about Silk and how they were “responsible” for getting her a solo series?
The problem with this is that we don’t get to see this apparent deluge of fan mail asking for more Silk, so we can only go by what we see on these message boards that Slott is so eager to write off. No matter where you look on the internet, the story is the same. Nobody cares about Silk. But Marvel has access to a secret stash of opinions to the contrary and we’re required to take their word for it.
Why aren’t all the people who demanded more Silk all over the internet doing it?
The thing is, I don’t think Slott is lying at all, I think he’s got his own fictions based on his own perceptions that he’s working off of here. It’s interesting that we never get an even approximate number of how many fan letters they got — it was just “a lot.” Is that hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
How does it stack up to the opinions on the internet?
Has anyone bothered to check?
I look forward to more entries from the “George Listens In On Marvel Strategy Meetings” segment.
I really try not to hope for a new comic to fail, no matter what I think of the character/team, because there’s lots of people working on the book who may not be to blame for what I don’t like about the character/team. That said, I’m really finding it hard not to hope that the Silk book fails and fails huge. If it does, I’m sure Slott will blame the creative team on the book for not portraying Silk as he introduced her instead of accepting the fact that this is not a good character and that no one was interested in her.
The main page recently posted a video of an interview with Slott at a comic-con, and he was talking about new characters he created and he was asking someone off-screen if there was someone he was forgetting and that person said “Alpha!” and Slott said “Oh yeah, Alpha.” He didn’t say anything else about Alpha, but just that quick statement and the look on his face almost made me think he had eventually realized that Alpha was a failure on his part. Hopefully he will eventually come to the same conclusion about Silk, someday.
I’ve always been struck by Dan Slott’s frantic use of the Caps Lock key. It comes across as someone who doesn’t know that what they’re saying is correct so much as they need for what they’re saying to be right.
So Silk’s being inflicted on us because ‘fans’ and ‘fan mail.’ I absolutely do not believe that.
Marvel had ‘no plans’ to do a Silk book, then a ‘big wig’ said “Do a Silk book.” I also do not believe that. Did the same ‘big wig’ also say “Hey, be sure to cram her into the rebooted Spider-Woman” as well?
Just as characters were telling Peter how “perfect” Carlie Cooper was, now we’re told that everything is Silky now because fans responded to her being awesome or something and that we apparently love her.
It’s hard to figure out what the worst part of all this Silk business is. The Simpsons Poochie feel of the character? The fact that Peter was largely relegated to supporting character in his own book? Or the fact that Slott’s “breakout” female Spider-Hero is heavily preoccupied with Spider-Sex? She couldn’t just be an organic character developed over time (which is why Anna Maria works so well)? No no, that simply won’t do; can’t have that.
What was the decision meeting like for this character?
Sure, that’s a hypothetical and (slightly) exaggerated way to look at it. But how far off can that be from what really went down?
@ #1 A few posters at bleeding cool said they
would pick it up.
I know…the mind boggles.
Wow, sales of a Spider-Man book for issues 1-4 were strong, that’s obviously not because there hadn’t been a Peter Parker Spider-Man book published for 2 years, and more likely because the fans loved a supporting character that didn’t actually make a legitimate appearance until issue #4. Wait, what?
Were fans really writing Silk fan mail after issues 1, 2 and 3 were published? She appeared in issue #1 in a flashback, and she didn’t appear as Silk until issue #4 – can readers really be writing fan mail about a character that has barely been introduced? (what am I saying, it’s the internet, readers can do anything) “Hey, I really like that character that was in 3 panels in this issue, I think she is the best thing ever, please give her her own series!”
Well, at least he didn’t tell us (the fans) to go “f” ourselves, so I guess that’s an improvement.
….and Slott, I am pretty sure AMAZING 1-6 sales had alot less to do with Silk and alot more to do with Spider-man. I mean his name IS on the cover right? I have met a few more Spidey fans than Silk fans.
Silks popularity?? name me one Silk fan.