Oh, come on! This all ajoke, right? I mean... really... a joke... OR maybe the OTHER is the actual CLONE from the Clone Saga...and then you can do whatever the heck you want, right? Lose an eye... turn him into a Spider-Man... claws, stingers, murder, cannibalism... it's a clone... gotta be.

Best,

Howard

<<Here's what JMS -- and apparently Marvel -- doesn't get. The whole primal, animalistic garbage is not Spider-Man. It never was. It's certainly possible that such a character would be interesting but that character is not Spider-Man -- he's not a predator, he doesn't have stingers, and doesn't bite his enemies. All of his abilities were basically ramped up human ones (speed, agility, strength) with wall-crawling and spider-sense (itself not really a "spider-like" ability) thrown in.>>

Look... people who USED to live in glass houses and do not currently read the books should NOT throw stones, but the sad thing is that THIS type of story is the kind of thing that rears it's ugly head in the Spider-verse all the time... and you are right...they never work. It really doesn't matter who the writer is... the stories do not fit in with Peter, Spider-Man, or the supporting characters... there are still supporting characters, right?

Howard

QUOTE: I got into a back-and-forth with Peter David over on another board over "The Other" crossover.  He seemed awfully sensitive to any criticism over his involvement in this thing, and (since I think he does have some understanding of who and what Spider-Man should be) I think I finally realize why.

Well, if I were brought on to launch a new Spider-Man book, particularly one whose title indicates an intention of providing "classic style" Spider-Man stories, only to have the title's launch be part and parcel of a 12-part storyline that's decidedly non-"classic style" and the second and third issues of "my" new title would be written by other people...I'd certainly be sensitive about it, too.  ;-)

Cool. Now pete can run away so he won't hurt Mary Jane and live in a bayou and talk....like..SWAMP...Thinggg...

Hey! He can fight Man-thing and find out that feelings of animalistic confusion and mild annoyance become spraying gouts of gloppy muchus at the touch of the man-thing.

Look... people who USED to live in glass houses and do not currently read the books should NOT throw stones, but the sad thing is that THIS type of story is the kind of thing that rears it's ugly head in the Spider-verse all the time... and you are right...they never work. It really doesn't matter who the writer is... the stories do not fit in with Peter, Spider-Man, or the supporting characters... there are still supporting characters, right?

*************************

I think the Avengers are the supporting cast nowadays -- and a woman who calls herself Aunt May but who lives in Avengers mansion and wears Iron Man armor*.

In a weird way, it's like the supporting cast (Jonah, Robbie, and so on) are the best critics. The worst the stories are, they tend to keep their distance.

*Aunt May is what I consider a "gateway" character. She should be as "normal" as possible. You ruin everything about the character by losing sight of this and having her a) accept that Peter is Spider-Man (even if she didn't have a stroke when she learned this was the case, I honestly don't think she'd approve of this lifestyle) and b) a full part of that lifestyle.

If you view Spider-Man as a metaphor for adolescence, then Peter is the geeky kid who suddenly discovers music in high school. What's happened to Aunt May is like the older, conservative aunt of, say, John Lennon going off on tour with The Beatles, smoking pot with them during recording sessions, and dressing like Yoko Ono. It's just... wrong.

Well...at least now Spider-Man can at last unsheath his spikey spider-death-wrist cock(s) and $%&* his enemies to death in slo mo spider-time... I dare Dr. Light to try and rape him now.

It's tailor made for video games and young readers don't you think? Who was it that said "All gods chilluns got claws?" Claremont? I'll never doubt him again.

"To Mike Bunge:

Can you provide a link to the board where you and Peter had your back-
and-forth? I'd be interested in reading it."

I confess my shame, I don't know how to post links.

The threads are over on comicon.com, under the titles "Marvel blows it on new Spidey-title" (comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t-0081 35) and the discussion was somewhat continued in Spider-Man the Other Part 2 - Great story, bad art (comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb-get_topic;f=2;t=0081 73).

For my part, since I'm not reading the books, I focus more on the marketing stunt aspect of the crossover and probably engage in a little asinine behavior, but I don't think it was unprovoked.

Mike