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Underground > Comic Books >

Amazing Spider-Man #36

20:48 / 14.11.01

I don't know if anyone is still reading this. I'm rather enjoying JMS's take on the webhead.

This issue was....affecting. I'm glad to see someone finally dealing with the WTC, rather than just erasing it from film, comic, tv, whatever. There is a scene in this issue with Captain America that is beautiful.

That's all I have to say. Good job by all.

Zoom.

Graeme McMillan

09:13 / 15.11.01

I don't read any Spidertitles on a regular basis, but I picked this up through a morbid curiosity, thinking that having superheroes deal with the WTC attacks is in bad taste somehow... and I'm completely ambivalent about it. It's definitely not as bad as I was expecting (No "We're coming for you, Bin Laden!" rhetoric), but at the same time, it just feels rather... I don't know... inconsequential, really. Spider-Man is upset. No-one says anything. Heroes help dig people out. And next month, Spidey'll probably be back to kickin' ass and thwipping webs the way he does best as if nothing has happened.

So, yeah. It was okay. That's the best I can say, really.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

09:30 / 15.11.01

I read it in the shop earlier today... it was very cringe-inducing, and I personally think it was in horrible taste. It is very opportunistic, and fails to give the event the respect it should get... I can see no good reason why this comic exists other than to give the creators a feeling of smug selfserving 'patriotism' and a paycheck boost. Very crass.

12:05 / 15.11.01

I flipped through it in the shop and from what I saw wasn't terribly impressed.

I just briefly glanced at a page depicting Dr. Doom standing surveying the wreckage. Someone please tell me that he isn't saying something like "Even I, Victor Von Doom, could not conceive of such a monstrous act..."

Cos that would be too dreadful for words.

12:24 / 15.11.01

nope he just has doc doom crying. its not even certain whether the villains are even IN NY (isn't magneto meant to be dead?) or are just there to fit the expository purpose of drawing a line between real villains and 'supervillains' more when i've finished reading it...

12:43 / 15.11.01

I thought everything was great (esp. the Capt. America scene) except the villains page!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!! You really mean that the Dr. Doom -- please note, his name is DOOM -- is crying over this? And the Kingpin? And Magneto? AND THE FUCKING JUGGERNAUT!?!?!?

Actually, Magneto is the only one I could see legitimately crying, as he is a concentration camp survivor from WW II.

But this page was offensive. The rest was great, I thought. And beautiful art by JRJR, as always.

Am I the only one who thought they should have put the little twin towers ribbon they've been putting on all their covers on the cover of this issue, so someone on the street who's not a comics readers can walk by and see that the reason for the black cover is WTC-related?

20:51 / 15.11.01

I guess the WTCribbon would have been fine...

A decient read... Liked the initial Splash Page & the "where were you?" comment... as if Spidey could have done anything.

I think it could've been way worse with a whole issue devoted to Spidey swinging into the building saving as many people as he could before it collapsed with a "whew"... sort of thing.

I think the Villians scen would have worked better if each "villian" was seen in thier own context... Kingpin's loss of $$$, Magneto's rememberance of Childhood & Doom's sence of simpathy because he is a leader of a nation as well...

This seemed more like an issue for "kids"...but I was Glad they included the Christian Fundimenalism=Muslim Fundimentialism angle...with what seemed like direct Quotes as well. I was concerned about an excess of Flag Waving.

Liked the Capt. America scene...

where was Daredevil?

hated the "infinate Justice" line... especially after the whole Name change crap In real LIFE...

I would pass that issue onto my nephew...

07:42 / 21.11.01

'Please note, his name is DOOM'.

That's just typical, that is. Just because Dr Doom just happens to be called 'Doom' you assume he's some kind of bad guy. And you take the piss out of him while he's crying. I hope you feel proud of yourself.

To be honest I wasn't gonna read this, but I think I might pick it up now out of (morbid) historical curiosity, if nothing else.

And maybe it was Magneto's ghost, or something. Yeah. (do they still do that No-Prize thing?)

08:09 / 21.11.01

I just got this...

I thought the opening splash page was ok but, come on, we all saw the events unfold in front of our eyes. A comic drawing just can't compete with the video images that have been burned into our minds (never mind anyone who saw it firsthand).

The Good:
*The "Where were you?!" "How could you let this happen?" lines were the best part of the issue.
*Second best (and this says a lot about this issue) goes to Spidey and the little boy waiting for his dad.

The Bad:
*Just let me mention the drawings of the destruction compared to reality one more time. Ugh.
*The godawful narration. Double Ugh. If this was TV I would have turned the volume off.
*All the Marvel heros (Daredevil included) helping remove the debris and rescue people. With the FF and the Avengers on the case ground zero should be cleaned up in no time. Jesus.
*Wolverine in a FDNY hat.
*The villians page
*The Captain America page. Was Cap at Pearl Harbor? It doesn't matter, I wasn't moved. Go track down Batroc, you pussy.
*"Look for your reply in the thunder." is perhaps the worst line I've read in a comic this year**

**Just ahead of the laughter spray painted on the wall of the Weapon X compound in Ult. X Men (would anyone bother to include a laugh track with their graffiti?).

Ronald Thomas Clontle

11:23 / 21.11.01

Would anyone mind if I put the 'hat of fanboy logic' on?

No?

Alright.

If all of the Marvel Superheroes congregated to help out at the site of the WTC on 9/11 (but strangely, no one pitching in at the Pentagon...), theoretically, where the hell was everyone when Genosha was attacked? 16 million compared to 7,000 is a pretty huge difference in terms of genocide...

11:38 / 21.11.01

the reply could be that WTC was in NYC America's first city and Genosha would be regarded by many in the marvel universe to be a Banana republic off the coast of Africa, populated mainly by dirty stinking mutants who obviously had it coming to 'em. Consider how news events outside the US even ones involving genocide, rarely pierce their way into marvel's fictional universe. Is it that surprising Genosha

Ronald Thomas Clontle

11:45 / 21.11.01

well, yr probably right Sleaze...

It goes along well with my theory that if the Marvel Universe was written in a realistic way The Avengers would most certainly be anti-mutant bigots and the mutants who were Avengers would be big-time Uncle Toms... I imagine that The Avengers would have been sent after the X-Men a long time ago if they did it the way it would really be...

The Natural Way

12:01 / 21.11.01

Kingpin? And Magneto?

The Kingpin? Well, he is a New Yorker, so that makes sense. Maybe.

But Magneto? Isn't he dead? Please, someone explain.....

All in all this sounds pretty rank.

13:35 / 21.11.01

I think this issue needs to be looked at less as a continuity nightmare and more as a symbolic story, a tribute. I found it to be far more of a tribute than "Heroes". Perhaps the message is that, aside from all the "we are strong, we are united" posturing, this attack is something so painful that it has affected not only everyday life in the US, but also in it's fictional retreats. Even the most despicable of villains has been affected by the events of the world that created them.

But then, whaddoo I know?

Zoom.

19:56 / 21.11.01

The spirit was laudible but the execution didn't quite measure up to the ideals- lets face it, it was always going to be a tall order to craft a tale about such a sensetive event without upsetting someone.

Me, i felt the references to Pearl Harbour (when i finall got them) to entirely inappropriate and politically loaded.

Regrettable Juvenilia

20:03 / 21.11.01

To my mind, it's just confirmation of what I already knew: the framework of the traditional superhero genre cannot support an intelligent or complex treatment of real world events.

[ 21-11-2001: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

Ronald Thomas Clontle

20:06 / 21.11.01

I maintain that the comic is little more than an attempt to exploit the event for good PR and artificially boost the sales for one issue.

20:41 / 21.11.01

Wow- flux i didn't think it was *that cynical* ...and at least itr was not as bad as the almost indescribably tacky piece of tat conde nast put out.

Fly- interesting. I agree that traditionally Superheroes have always served to maintain the status quo, thus rendering it quite impotent at making anything other than the most facile political point, But i do thank that the Superhero genre CAN be a rich source for any number of complex expository points...

01:52 / 22.11.01

I think that Amazing Spider-Man #36 came from the heart, that it was sincere and it made me get teary - it celebrated the REAL heroes, I think that it is a good message to get out to the kids, that everyone can be brave and pull together in trying times.

11:23 / 22.11.01

Warren Ellis would be able to make this point better, but he's not here, so...

Presumably Marvel will argue that one reason for doing this is to provide some kind of 'therapeutic' thing for the children who were traumatised by the whole business.

Which of course doesn't really make sense. Very few actual children, to my knowledge, read ASM anymore. It's all comic-store fanboy geeks. So what they appear to be saying is that all us socially-retarded
minor-character-in-a-Kevin-Smith-movie fucks can only process major world events if they're refracted through the superhero prism. Hmm.

If they wanted to provide kids with 'therapy' for all this, they could have donated a little of their profits (which hopefully they have done anyway, or should have) and sat back and waited for the Pokemon WTC special...