For The Love of Comics

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I’ve been reading Avi Green’s blog, The Four Color Media Monitor, for about a month now, and I’m finding that I almost never agree with him. I generally write it off to the fact that he thinks with a conservative-biased agenda and I’m pretty liberal on all the issues that I really care about, but his latest post just has me scratching my head trying to figure out what he’s talking about.

Avi starts out by quoting a recent Newsarama interview with Mark Waid. The bolding for emphasis is Ari’s.

NRAMA: As you saw in Marc’s interview, we’re asking how various Spider-Man creators feel about the reaction to Brand New Day. You’re new to the scene, but do you have an opinion on it that you want to share, since you’ve been talking to these guys for a few months and participating in what they’re trying to do? Do you think it’s a good direction for Spider-Man?

MW: I actually think it’s really a good, solid direction. It does exactly what they set out to do, which was re-establish the books as being about Peter Parker, perennial loser, who is not married.

They’re very careful and very respectful, whether the hardcore fans believe it or not; the team that I’ve seen on the Spider-Man books is very respectful toward them in terms of not going out of their way to thumb their nose at the readership, or try to make fun of them or mock their concern. Everybody who works on these books understands that it was a gamble to take this direction. Everybody on these books understands why there’s that slowly diminishing minority of fans who believe that Spider-Man comics are no good anymore because we got rid of the marriage. Everybody gets that and understands why they’re so attached to it. But we’ve set the course now, so the only thing we can do is tell the best stories we possibly can.

Seems pretty straightforward to me. I may be part of that slowly diminishing minority, but I can respect the Spider-Team’s point of view, shrug my shoulders, and say “fair enough”.

Avi, however, seems to feel that Waid has insulted the fans and the character and should be sent to Gitmo.

Tsk tsk tsk. What’s really funny here is that this is a guy who’d worked on The Flash, where he himself married Wally West and Linda Park, and now he’s acting disrespectful to something he promoted a decade ago. And he even has the gall to imply that Peter is only a loser. I’m sorry, Mark, but that’s just lame.

I can see where he gets the implying Peter is only a loser part, even if I think he drew the wrong meaning from Waid’s statement, but “[...]now he’s acting disrespectful to something he promoted a decade ago.” has me scratching my head, as does his insinuation that Waid has somehow put down the fans.

Can someone help me out here? Has Avi lost his mind? Or, being so rabidly conservative, is he trying the Karl Rove strategy of flinging shit at a wall to see what sticks?

Believe it or not, this isn;t meant to be an attack on Avi; his way of thinking just seems to be so alien to mine that I’m hoping someone can help me understand what the fuck he’s talking about.

Technorati Tags: Mark Waid, Spider-man, Peter Parker, Marvel Comics, Avi Green, The Four Color Media Monitor, Bat-shit insanity

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In case you haven’t read it on one of the ten other places that I have, Sam Raimi has told Sci-Fi Wire that he’s waiting until he reads James Vanderbilt’s script for Spider-Man 4 to decide whether or not he will direct.

“Right now James Vanderbilt is writing the script, and he’s working on it, and I’m excited to read it,” Raimi said in a group interview in Century City, Calif., on June 5. “I think it’s going to be done in a few months. I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and hoping it feels right for me, because I love Spider-Man, and I’m hoping I’m well-enough rested to, like, really embrace it and hoping that Sony wants me at that time to direct it. So if all those things come together, I would love, love to do it. But this is a lot of unknowns about the future.”

Raimi also weighed in on recasting rumors.

“Well, I hate to recast anybody in the picture,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine that. It’s like the new Darren [who was recast during the run of the 1960s TV series Bewitched]. Whenever that happened. So I don’t know. I can’t imagine that.”

I may be in the minority here, but I really would like to see the same team throughout the Spider-saga if at all possible. I’m willing to forgive the whole Emo Spider fiasco, if they can return to the previous level of quality.

Technorati Tags: Spider-Man, Sam Raimi, James Vanderbilt, Peter Parker, Mary Jane

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