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Underground > Comic Books >

Paul Popes Spiderman Story.

05:14 / 05.05.02

Lifted from Comic Book Resources

Tangled Web #15:
"I kept returning to an image that initially popped up in my mind; A girl jumping on her bed, with posters and photos of Spider-Man tacked to her wall. I began wondering about this girl. Who is she? Why is she jumping on her bed? What time is it, night or day? What time of year is it? What YEAR is it? I began to get an idea that she had to be the daughter of a super villain, maybe one of those lesser known, 1970s era, one-issue and their busted-loser-bad guys. Maybe she's a big fan of Spider-Man, and she doesn't realize her dad is one of Spider-man's enemies. I liked that. I imagined in her dad's secret workroom, he also had a picture of Spider-man tacked up, but his has a knife stuck in the middle of Spidey's forehead....Then I began wondering, what would it be like to be the son or daughter of a super villain? Of course, the bad guy was probably pure hell to live with, maybe abusive, certainly ill tempered. Would the negative character traits the dad exhibits also be seen in the daughter? Is super villainy an inherited trait? Here we are, back at Original Sin already. What if she's sweet and nice, nothing like her old man? What if she was more like the Mom, and for some reason the Mom is out of the picture, leaving this girl in the care of a vile man who wants nothing more than to kill the very hero the girl, coincidentally (or maybe not so coincidentally, who knows?), worships? What a premise!"

And:
"I'm doing an 8 pager for 'Captain America: Red, White and Blue.' [It's] a Red Skull story. That comes out in November of 2002, so there's time to get the word out. I haven't even started drawing it."

Finally:
"Pope also mentioned that he has two more high-profile super-hero books coming soon. "I'm not sure what either's gonna be, exactly. But maybe in general, it'd be safe to say [I'll be] doing more superhero work for the Big Two, or something like that."

I really hope one is the Fantastic Four. Hed be soooo perfect.

14:55 / 05.05.02

%yeah, the answer to my prayers: that Paul Pope put all that "creator-owned" nonsense aside and finally do some real comics...%

15:55 / 05.05.02

Yeah, my initial knee-jerk distaste for superheroes makes me go "what the hell are you playing at?", but I've got to admit his ideas sound interesting..

..now to the Dungeon of Doom to figure out exactly what a 'Tangled Web #15' looks like..

19:53 / 05.05.02

Or maybe some one shot mainstream work will get fanboys to buy his other stuff. Probably not but...

I just really like his stuff. And when I say he would be perfect for the F.F. I mean writing and drawing. He has that wierd sci-fi thing going on that none of the people writing F.F. can ever nail. F.F. isn't about shiny spaceship cool, its about what the hell is that? COOL!

Anyway a F.F. mini would make him more $ than Heavy Liquid.

23:05 / 05.05.02

or more to the point- an issue of paul pope on tangled web is cheaper than an issue of 100% or Heavy liquid. it may be 'spandex filth'(tm-flyboy) but at least its cheap spandex filth with a talented artist.

The Natural Way

07:58 / 07.05.02

Tangled Web's good- s'like 2000ad. Y'get a chance to check out lesser known writers fiddling about w/ an established character and some of the stuff's real fun. The Frog Man one was nice and Milligan's 'Flowers for Rhino' was hysterical, tight, generally ace. Naysayers should give this title a look.

yawn - thing's buddy

19:09 / 07.05.02

the mountains surrounding my postcode have blocked my radar.

What is Tangled Web?

The Natural Way

07:46 / 08.05.02

Sort of like 'Legends of the Dark Knight', but Spiderman. Y'know: one shots, different writers/artists every month. Sometimes it's very good, other times not so good.

yawn - thing's buddy

12:22 / 08.05.02

Tar.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

13:47 / 08.05.02

I don't get why it is considered such a Huge Deal for underground folk to do super-hero books, as if they are soiling their hands with them. Bagge's Spider-Man story was fun, had some wonderful subtexts and is probably the most comic shop exposure he's ever gotten. Maybe the people who bought it and liked it will go back and buy some of the Hate trades.

Stories are stories, and if someone has a good story about a corporate character, what is the probloem with them doing it? I wish Legends of the Dark Knight were more like that (like when they did the 5 part Morrison story or the Gil Kane story) instead of "Batman Fill-In howcase" it has become.

17:24 / 08.05.02

When did Bagge do Spiderman?
And is this Paul Pope story out now?

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

17:49 / 08.05.02

It came out about three weeks ago and is called the Meglomaniacal Spider-Man, and goes through Spidey's entire career in a twisted way.

I read it as Spidey starts out at Stan Lee and become Steve Ditko.

18:21 / 08.05.02

Solitaire Rose was talking about Bagges comic. Tangled Web #15 is due sometime in June.

Murray Hamhandler

01:41 / 27.06.02

Out today, in fact. The story's just sort of okay, but the artwork is standard yummy Pope goodness.

04:06 / 27.06.02

I got the Pope Spidey comic today. Spider-Pope. Now with extra God powered ink!

I loved it of course. I just love everything Pope does so far. The art is, well, Paul Pope. The story is pretty much the same story Brian Michael Bendis has used once in Powers and again in Daredevil. But the writing is good. He makes it real somehow and uses great comics techniques that make you wonder why everyone does not tell stories the way he does. The story, like most of the Tangled Web stuff, does not have much to do with Spider-Man.

I hope there is a second issue coming because this one really did not have an ending.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

14:37 / 01.07.02

I SO wanted to like this story, but the plot was one that had been done into the ground, and even with Pope's art, it felt like The Same Old Thing to me. Other people who have come onto Tangled Webs have shown it is possible to do a great story that just happens to have super-heroes as their base, but this one read like the issue of Robin when Spoiler first said she had a crush on Robin.

Maybe Pope should stay with his own works, because being able to play with someone else's characters is a skill not everyone has.

And no, that's not a slam.

The Natural Way

15:33 / 01.07.02

Isn't it two eps long, though?

I'll reserve judgement until all the results are in.

23:40 / 01.07.02

This is a single issue story, as far as I'm aware. It did end on kind of an odd note, an ellipse rather than a full stop, but it still was more or less complete.

The only pages I really liked were the ones with Spider-Man on them - there was a great energy and sense of motion to him leaping around.

20:14 / 02.07.02

i agree. why when preparing to draw a spidey story for what might be the only time in his career would spiderpope decide to put him in it so little? the guy clearly gets through a lot of hankies when he thinks of ditko, you can tell from all his stuff, so why not flesh out his tribute with a bit more jumping arachno-action? this from a guy who previously split a single issue of thb into three just so a jumping ditko robot fight could go on for long enough. more thinking like that spiderpope! and that whole having little girls in your comic thing is so played out. whats up paedopope, afraid you'll get a kicking if someone catches you sketching piccies of li'l boys?

21:21 / 02.07.02

Well, the reason Spider-Man is barely in it is because the Tangled Web series is supposed to be about the *other* people in that world, with Spider-Man only tangentially involved.

But still, if the only good pages are the last three, when Spidey finally appears...

The Natural Way

12:14 / 03.07.02

All the pages are good and it could of been a good story too.....if Pope thought to, you know, actually include one.

yawn - thing's buddy

13:31 / 03.07.02

yess glassonion you right bout the girly thing in thb.

popes a bit of a cock i reckon.

not like elliscock (like this terminology), more like mcfarlane-artcock.

The Natural Way

14:30 / 03.07.02

He is a cock, but he's a pretty little cock.