The BSS Quarterly (?) Chat Thread #1 (Oooh New #1!)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The BSS Quarterly (?) Chat Thread #1 (Oooh New #1!)

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Thanks for jumping on the Clone Saga grenade for the rest of us, Random Stranger! I only know it by reputation (and technically that 'Real Clone Saga' miniseries - it's actually pretty good).

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 16:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 21:28

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Edge & Christian posted:

In the context of the Clone Saga, the marriage was 100% editorially dictated in 1986 and led to Roger Stern quitting the book because he didn't like how they were forcing a relatively out-of-nowhere marriage onto the character because Stan Lee thought it would be good PR for the comic strip.

The timeline of Spider-Man's publication history is:
1963-1987: Spider-Man is not married
1987-1994: Spider-Man is married but Mary Jane spends a significant amount of time getting kidnapped or estranged from Peter
1994-1996: Spider-Man is married but might just be a clone, not the actual Spider-Man! Also he freaks out and hits his wife.
1997-2000: Spider-Man is married!
2000-2003: Spider-Man is a widower! Actually Mary Jane was kidnapped again and while she eventually escape she is still separated from Spider-Man because she is tired of all of this kidnapping and clones and poo poo.
2003-2007: Spider-Man is married!
2007-2019: Spider-Man was never married!

There is now significantly longer between One More Day and today than there was between Spider-Man getting married and the Clone Saga, and there are 36 years worth of Not Married Spider-Man compared to 20 years of Married or At Least Technically He Was Married At Some Point, If He Is In Fact Spider-Man.

Actually, Stern quit Spider-Man before the marriage, I think he said it was because of creative differences with Danny Fingeroth, as well the artist change (he's also said if he'd known Ron Frenz was going to be the new artist he might've stayed on). He was offered a chance to write Spectacular Spider-Man after the marriage, which he turned down.

And while it was editorially dictated I've read elsewhere that the reason it seemed so rushed was down to a miscommunication over when the marriage was going to take place.

And between Spider-Girl, Renew Your Vows and Newspaper Spider-Man, there's technically been continuously-published married Spider-Man stories of one kind or another ever since the initial wedding. :smugbert:

# ¿ Mar 8, 2019 10:07

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Gavok posted:

So interesting thing about this one. They made a What If issue based on Scarlet Spider deciding he had no choice but to kill Spider-Man in order to save Mary Jane. Since they couldn't play out the storyline too much with the Clone Saga still going on at the time, they put in a bunch of vague scenes about where this could lead. I mainly remember Ben having a nightmare about Morbius investigating MJ's daughter's blood and an unexplained appearance by the Green Goblin. Which Green Goblin? It wasn't made clear.

Once you're done with this, you should check out the old What If issue of "What If Spider-Man's Clone Had Lived?" WAAAAY better read and a happier ending.

Also What If? Starring Spider-Girl. They're reprinting it this May!

...

Did they do that on purpose?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2019 00:47

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Random Stranger posted:

The saga of the clone saga enters a new era as Ben Reilly is finally Spider-Man.

Oh holy gently caress, there are such things as issues of Spider-Man that don't suck. I was starting to give up hope. Jurgen's Sensational Spider-Man has got quite a few rough edges, but it's actually enjoyable. He doesn't have a great touch with the jokes, though it's better than most of the writers lately. The new villain is pretty boring and I'm not sure changing to off-brand Dormammu is actually a step up for Mysterio. But I could follow the plot, the artwork can tell a story, and it hits the right notes. So a very surprised thumbs up here.

The actual plot, on the other hand... Oh hey a revamp of a Spider-villain is trying to steal a computer chip. Again. And it turns computer generated images into solid objects. Again. How is this the next storyline after Cyberwar? We just did this! That's not Jurgen's fault, the editor should have told him to change things up.

I like the design of Ben's costume. Spider-Man's outfit has become so iconic that it's hard to drift very far from it. This version with the huge spider motif looks really good and I think it would even work as a costume design for Spider-Man today.

Jurgens on Sensational is good. Amazing is bland because it got the weaker of the Spider-writers put on it with DeFalco. Adjectiveless has got great Romita Jr. art, but it's written by Howard Mackie and it's a tough call on whether I'd rather read DeFalco or Mackie.

But because nothing can ever end in these books, there was one more virtual reality clone storyline with Nightmare in Scarlet. The story makes no sense and builds off a story that makes no sense. Everyone and everything involved it is terrible and I'm seriously questioning the decision making that brought me to read it.

Honestly I think Ben's costume just works better as Spider-Girl's costume than as his. Maybe because I read Spider-Girl before I ever saw Ben Reilly.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2019 18:35

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Your suggestion for how to handle the Clone Saga actually sounds a lot like how they ended the What If? Spider-Man's Clone Lived story from the 80s, Random Stranger. Maybe you should give that a look as well.

And What If? #105, that feels like the denouement the Clone Saga really deserved.

I seem to recall DeFalco actually intended to bring baby May back later in his run, dropping a lot of hints that were unceremoniously ejected when they took the book off him and gave it to Byrne, who insisted on bringing Aunt May back (despite the aforementioned Osborn Journal explictily saying that Norman had nothing to do with Aunt May's death/'death'). MJ doesn't even really react to finding out that Aunt May's alive (and that all of the information that indicated it was baby May being held prisoner were false) at all.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 20:22

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Senior Woodchuck posted:

My earlier cautious optimism was misplaced. "Hunted" is dumb and bad.

Counterpoint: I think it's good.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2019 00:23

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

site posted:

For random stranger

What book is this?

# ¿ Apr 3, 2019 22:22

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

site posted:

cosmic ghost rider destroys marvel history

(Is that supposed to be Cosmic Ghost Rider with the pillow?)

# ¿ Apr 3, 2019 22:47

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Skwirl posted:

https://twitter.com/EricaFails/status/1117159553022464000

In Jay & Miles' 5 anniversary episode that just came out they brought up this moment too. And when they first discussed it they blessed us with this:

# ¿ Apr 16, 2019 06:26

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Covok posted:

So, who's a good comic book YouTuber to watch? Currently, I watch Comicpop, Professor Thorgi, and a few others occasionally (Comic Drake, Aurum's Corner, Comics Explained, Linkara).

I'm just looking for a chill guy or girl who makes comics related entertainment because hobby.

No chuds.

SFDebris' Rise and Fall of The Comic Empire is p. good. He's also started doing reviews of some of Marvel's comics storylines (he's done Age of Ultron and now he's doing Secret Invasion), but those are at present only available to his patreon subscribers, I don't know when they'll be publicly available.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2019 18:18

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Random Stranger posted:

If someone told me that's what's happening(as in, I read obscure enough stuff that their analytics show interest skyrocketing and then they prioritize adding those), I won't be shocked. It would be weird and unlikely, but I've encountered stranger procedures.

Anyone have a series with major gaps in it that they want to try experimenting? A few of us could read all of the issues of a minor series available, and then see if it pops up in June.

I've actually started reading Cloak & Dagger, and...it's kind of a trip. The writing on the first series is largely good (and hey, turns out that textually Cloak was in love with Dagger basically from the start), but drat the art for Cloak in those early stories is kind of uncomfortable. And there's a story where Spider-Man seems to stop just short of planting a kiss on Dagger (and later that same issue explicitly says she's 16!), Father Delgado is also all but stated to fall in love with her (and also thinks Cloak is a demon that's corrupting her...which while sort of true if you count the demon living in the cloak still adds to the 'this is kind of uncomfortable' part of how he's handled). I mean, I did largely enjoy the first two series, but there's definitely some stuff that's double take worthy.

I guess it has the dubious distinction of Secret Wars II actually having a positive effect on the trajectory of the book, since their encounter with the Beyonder is what convinces C&D that maybe they should stop taking a black & white (no pun intended) approach to their crimefighting.

Seems like a bunch of the Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger is missing, which is a bummer (also oddly confusing - you'd think they'd have uploaded the whole thing to tie in to the TV series already like the others), but I'm willing to give that a go in the name of the experiment.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2019 23:19

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Random Stranger posted:

My insane theory that Marvel Unlimited is stalking me continues to develop. Once again this week, all of the back issues added were directly related to things I've read in the past few weeks. More Ben Reilly Spider-Man after reading the clone saga (at this point I suspect that they're just going to fill in the rest of the Spider-Ben stuff a few issues at a time for the next month or so). Read a bunch of She-Hulk and the remaining parts of the 70's series are added. And most damning of all, I noticed a certain series was missing even an entry in the Marvel Unlimited series list so I read a decade old limited series revival just to see if I could trigger things; four weeks later Thunderstrike appears.

I am definitely going to use this power for evil instead of good. What can I read to get Nightcat added to Marvel Unlimited?

Edit: Ooh! Even better! US-1! That one I think I can just read all of the Razorback appearances!

I guess I'm not being stalked, because I've read a whole bunch of Cloak & Dagger and there's still no Strange Tales or gap-filling for Mutant Misadventures.

# ¿ May 13, 2019 21:25

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Samuringa posted:

You have to make the sacrifice first.

But seriously, why are there gaps in their run you can drive an ambulance through? The TV series is on right now, wouldn't now be a good time to patch those holes?

# ¿ May 13, 2019 21:44

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Covok posted:

Believe it or not but we do have rules on the book for this and this would be a sex crime. Those rules are about impersonation not body swapping but still.

Also, Ultimate Peter and Ultimate Jessica are a common pairing. Not sure what to make of that.

Turns out that Spider-Man books kinda have a bad rep for that, since there was at least one story during the BND period where it was implied that Chameleon-as-Peter had hooked up with one of Peter's love interests at that time (although they desperately backtracked when people rightfully called that poo poo out). And of course, the whole thing where Otto-as-Peter tried to hook up with MJ (he later settled for getting off to Peter's memories of being with MJ, which is...technically less creepy?), not to mention they again tried to downplay it when people pointed out that Otto-as-Peter was still doing sex crimes by pretending to be Peter, even if it was with somebody who never knew Peter.

# ¿ May 23, 2019 22:40

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

El Gallinero Gros posted:

Do you know what issue # it is? I have comixology now and I'd like to grab some good What if TPB's.

I remember Peter got a spiffy new costume.

It's just What If? Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine. Aside from the first two volumes, most of the later What Ifs? aren't numbered, they just reference the event/storyline they're spinning out of by name.

Also, if you can grab a trade with What if? 105, that's a good one.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2019 23:57

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

CapnAndy posted:

Immortal Hulk was robbed and Tom King simultaneously deserved it for Mister Miracle and should have been disqualified for Heroes in Crisis.

Holy gently caress, I knew Giant Days won an Eisner, but it beat out Immortal Hulk?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2019 13:31

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Random Stranger posted:

The Eisners are a juried prize which means that the make up of that jury can shift the outcome quite a bit. It also tends to result in a jury that tries to diversify the awards a bit rather than just give them out to superhero books, even ones that stretch the genre.

Immortal Hulk is excellent, but it's still going so it'll get another swing. And it'll get more attention from the jury when Ewing's run is finished so when that happens it's likely to take multiple awards.

Huh, I wonder if the fact Giant Days is coming up on its ending helped nudge it over the line, then.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2019 15:39

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

El Gallinero Gros posted:

I think it was Mark Gruenwald who once said that one of they keys to writing comics people enjoy is to give them something they wanted that they didn't realize they wanted until it's presented to them.

Kinda feels like a lot of writers & editors forgot that lesson.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2019 23:34

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Doctor Spaceman posted:

New Marvel card game from FFG looks decent.

There's also a new Marvel miniatures game they announced (apparently in 40mm scale, which is a bit of a bummer).

They've just put the rules up online for free.

Kinda weird to see Classic Doc Ock alongside Captain Marvel, though.

Yvonmukluk fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Aug 6, 2019

# ¿ Aug 6, 2019 15:03

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

I seem to remember there was a 'Marvels, but the main guy's a cop, also it's nowhere near as good' book I read through on Unlimited, but I don't remember what it was called.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2019 22:24

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Gripweed posted:

I don't like to be negative, but the American Dream miniseries is not very good. It also helps me understand why MC2 didn't really take off. I always assumed it was supposed to be set in the near future, but apparently it's set in modern time but in an alternate timeline where the sliding timeframe for Marvel characters eventually stopped sliding? That's confusing. It also means that instead of Futuristic Avengers in the year 2025! it's just, slightly different and much worse Avengers now.

I mean, it's worth noting it literally spun out of an issue of What If that diverged from the prime Marvel Universe and advanced like 15 years, I'm not sure where you got it was set in the near future of 616. Of course, that meant it was very much stuck in the idea of 'the future of the Marvel Universe' as it might have looked in 1998. So there's no Young Avengers, no Runaways, no Avengers Academy (I still maintain that was a great series), no Champions to draw from for what the future Avengers look like. There were some acknowledgements of later tuff, but that was primarily in Spider-Girl & its direct spinoff stories. So you'd see Maria Hill as the director of SHIELD, Arana showed up in Spider-Girl, Carlie Cooper was one of the people who put MC2 Peter onto becoming a police scientist...it's the one thing I don't like about Renew Your Vows, actually, that there was no extrapolation of the future with any new characters. I mean, the X-Men were running round with what felt like the exact same lineup except for Logan & Jean's kid there was some acknowledgment that Civil War was averted (because Xavier just talked people out of it? I kinda wish they'd just showed the New Warriors alive & well and let us infer that Stamford never happened), but that's about it.

I'm the designated BSS Spider-Girl fan, and looking back I think there's a reason only Spider-Girl stuck around.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2019 09:26

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Gripweed posted:

I knew Spider Girl was the headline character, so I got the idea it was the future because I thought it spun out of something like "what if Spider-Man's baby hadn't gotten killed/stolen and then conveniently forgotten about or however the gently caress that ended up". And Spider-Man's baby was a fetus in the 90s, so I assumed for her to be a teen superhero it had to be taking place in the future.

You list those things MC2 should've drawn from, but I'm like, it should've been those. The fact that there's a half dozen better young superhero teams that came after MC2 is pretty good evidence that "new younger superheroes" is a solid concept. But instead we got Blue Streak and J2 fighting Silikong.

You're correct in that that's what it spun out of, but obviously events in the 616 relatively quickly overtook it (*cough* One More Day).

I can see how it'd be confusing.

I think the problem is that MC2 was definitely a minor thing, so I think it was primarily just DeFalco who established the groundwork and most of the original heroes, and not any actual up-and-coming talent being given the chance to actually experiment with what could have been a great opportunity for experimentation.

Rhyno posted:

Most of the other books were terrible.

Hell a lot of Spider-Girl's run was terrible.

Honestly, as much as I love Spider-Girl, it's definitely rather dated & clunky, especially the dialogue. I really wish we could have seen somebody else's take on the character. The one issue by I think Casey Jones and Houser's take on her in Spider-Girls really makes me wonder if someone else could have given the title more legs.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2019 09:33

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

A Strange Aeon posted:

I feel like that would be a cool article idea, "52 In-continuity Loose Ends" or something. If the article was popular though, it would probably guarantee nothing ever happening with them.

My personal favourite (as I'm sure I've mentioned previously) is the Space Clone X-Men from this one New Mutants issue.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 16:24

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Gripweed posted:

I read Captain America Corps. The idea of the Avengers collapsing early on and a fascist superhero team taking their place and that steering the future of America is really neat. Unfortunately Captain America Corps has basically zero interest in actually exploring it. And the comic is bogged down by it's needlessly complicated explanation of how the time travel/reality hopping to make that happen and put the Corps together happened. Captain America Corps isn't very good, and it would be completely unmemorable except for thing. It introduced me to my new favorite super villain, Superia.

When is Superia gonna be in a movie? The fans demand Superia!

It's still a better 'a bunch of different versions/incarnations of the same hero team up' story than Dan Slott's Spider-Verse.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2019 00:34

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Archyduchess posted:

Thank you X-O and thank you everyone. I don't know when I'll actually have mod privileges since the FYAD stuff is obviously taking up a lot of oxygen and I'm definitely guilty of contributing to that. I know I've been vocal about the culture of this subforum, which I generally think is extraordinarily lowkey as far as SA goes, so I'm happy to have a chance to put my money where my mouth is.

I know one issue I've heard people bring up is a general feeling that BSS is, like a lot of online comicbook fan-spaces, largely a cishet white boys club, so I want to make it a priority to hear feedback and concerns from people who, like me, aren't cishet white guys. I think comicbook culture is in the middle of a pretty significant cultural shift, with pushes both from the right via comicsgate and a lot of exciting diversification in terms of who gets a voice in publishing, fandom, and elsewhere. I want us to ideally continue to be assiduous and on top of the former while making more room for the latter too.

Congratulations on your promotion! Your av is very appropriate for your new role, with Lottie scrutinising us all.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2019 22:32

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

David D. Davidson posted:

Theoretical question for Britgoons: Do you think the UK would be better of with John Constantine as Prime Minister or Boris Johnson?

Kick us while we're loving down, why don't you?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2019 09:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 21:28

Yvonmukluk: Oct 10, 2012; Everything is Sinister

Retro Futurist posted:

My new pet IW/Endgame theory is that Strange picked a timeline where both Thanos and Tony die because every timeline he saw where they won, Stark wound up doing something else down the road to end the world instead.

I mean...I could see it.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2020 10:59

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The BSS Quarterly (?) Chat Thread #1 (Oooh New #1!)