"Gwen Stacy-Style"
From Diamond's piece on the Spider-man "One More Day" storyline:
“HEADED FOR THE CHOPPING BLOCK?
Black Cat, Mary Jane, and Aunt May?
Is it one of these ladies that take a dirt nap in the upcoming storyline ‘One More Day’? You heard it here, folks. A re-assuring voice and shoulder-to-lean-on is going to be taken out permanent-style in this four-issue storyline, which kicks off in Amazing Spider-Man #544 and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24. This body check is whipped up by war horses J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada. Pain is promised. No tissues will be issued!
Who next gets thrown under the bus like the long-lost Gwen Stacy? Details are hard to come by, but what we do know is that there ain’t much joy in Mudville. Spidey’s gonna get left out in the rain again, and oh, how the tears will flow.”
Holy crap.
"Who next gets thrown under the bus like the long-lost Gwen Stacy"?
“Is it one of these ladies that take a dirt nap"?
Who writes this stuff? Diamond?
I...
It's not a joke. Which woman that is important to Spider-man that gets killed -- that's not a contest.
I know I sound like a nerd right now, but show these characters a modicum of respect.
Also, I've just found out that the "Gwen Corpse" action figure that I posted is indeed a real figure.
...
eh...
I'm a little disgusted right now, in ways I'm unable to articulate.
Since it was about a Marvel product, I'm fairly sure it was written by one of Marvel's people - they have people that specifically write up all of the stuff that goes into Diamond.
ReplyDeleteYes - that figure is very real. We had one in the store at one point.
Wait, isn't Aunt May already dead? Or did they bring her back yet again?
ReplyDeleteBlack Cat is a recurring character who has a history with Spidey but isn't a regular. She might as well be wearing a red Starfleet uniform.
ReplyDeletejeff, the Aunt May dying thing previously has either been an actress pretending to be Aunt May hired by Norman Osbourne or her being kidnapped for an extended period of time.
ReplyDeleteThe toy doesn't really bug me that much, although one wonders how much playability someone is going to get out of it.
I was just shaking my head at that description, though. Seriously, anyone want to start our own comic company?
isn't the figure just zombie gwen?
ReplyDeletekind of looks like an action pose thats lying on its side.
if the model really is being marketed as 'corpse gwen' then Marvel is clearly going to hell...
Well, the thing is that it looks like it's Ultimate Gwen Stacy with it corpsified like that, who was killed by Carnage.
ReplyDeleteA re-assuring voice and shoulder-to-lean-on is going to be taken out permanent-style in this four-issue storyline...
ReplyDeleteThere's so much wrong with just this part of the solicitation alone. Death fetishism? Cheap, using-it-as-a-marketing-tool approach to death that seems out of place when compared to the presumed attitude at the time, presumably to the death of Gwen Stacy?
Also: "Permanent-style?" Not only does 'permanent-style' sound ridiculous it's also patently untrue, given the medium.
So yeah, I was pretty-much slack-jawed throughout my reading of that solicitation.
But wow, the "body check is whipped up" and everything, just like that wrestler who murdered his wife and kid and then killed himself! I mean, how could you possibly resist salivating at that?
ReplyDelete"But wow, the "body check is whipped up" and everything, just like that wrestler who murdered his wife and kid and then killed himself!"
ReplyDeleteexactly what I thought, Elayne, that's probably what bugged me about this
Good news! You don't NEED to articulate! Dead Gwen Stacy has 12 points of articulation! Enough to fit her in even the smallest of dorm refrigerators!
ReplyDeleteYou see, this is the sort of thing that has turned me off to marvel for a long time now. I seriously feel that this sort of tasteless and pointless crap has increased tenfold since Joe Quesada took over as EIC.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the blatant casual manner that they talk about the death of one (or more) of the important women in Peter Parker's life, it;s the fact that these idiots feel it's necassary to to continue to drag the Spider-Man franchise through the mud. I mean, over the last few years the storylines that have seen Peter pushed to the edge so many times is just piling on. I mean, c'mon!
*sigh*
All of this mainly because Joey Q cannot stand to see Peter married.
Guy has some serious woman issues I think.
i love peter and mj's marriage moreso than Reed or Sue's.
ReplyDeleteI think it is going to be Aunt May, then they'll say she was a Skrull.
I hope it's a gigantic swerve and Peter is murdered and everybody is shocked and appalled XD
ReplyDeleteBut.. like.. wtf XD It's like Marvel had that written up specifically to insult readers who are tired of seeing women characters get "thrown under a bus" to make the male hero sad. >.>;;
As I understand it, Marvel's editors write the solicitation copy.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong on that account, but I believe it is the case.
Ami ... do you really want Peter dead?
ReplyDeleteAre you asking for another Ben Reilly?
I don't know why ... but I feel somewhat confident that Aunt May is going to be the victim.
For whatever reason, I think (HOPE) that Joe Quesada's 'genie' in the case of the Spidey titles is Aunt May having been brought back from the dead.
I know he dislikes Peter and MJ's marriage (at least he has spoken out against it on numerous occasions), but I'm hoping there is some level of smokescreen to it.
I have not bought a mainstream MU Spider-Man monthly title in the last couple of years (Sins Past was the last straw for me).
I REALLY wanted to pick up Peter David's FNSM, but when they started it off with The Other cross-over, they kicked me to the curb (I refused to buy another J. Michael Straczynski penned Spidey story, and he wrote one of those arcs that included an issue of FNSM).
The only issue of mainstream Spider-Man that I have bought in recent years is the FANTASTIC Spectacular Spider-Man Annual written by Matt Fraction that recently hit the stands.
See, Fraction gets it. He gets the Peter/MJ dynamic. And it was all there in that issue. It was the best Spider-Man story I've read in a long time.
If you missed it ... I definitely recommend you check it out.
It is too bad that Fraction isn't the lead writer on ASM.
I just wanna say, I'm a huge fan of this blog and your writing. I think "Goodbye to Comic" is something I probably will never forget and it ads a texture to the world of comics I never saw before.
ReplyDeleteThat said.
I think there's a double standard appearing. In which it seems any kind of degradation or violence against females is considered Misogyny. I think it paints a one sided picture. Do comics degrade and sometimes brutally attack its female characters?
Sure, just like they do with male characters, they shot Beetle in the head, they twisted Max's neck, they brutally murdered Flash, etc etc.
Mainstream comics these days get off on violence and degradation, it's misanthropy not just misogyny.
At least that's my opinion.