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Spider-Man Clone Saga: Players and Pawns
43 Plays2 years ago
Corinne runs through the events of Players and Pawns (sans Amazing Spider-Man #400) and we learn a little of what Peter Parker is going through.
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Transcript
Introduction to Comically Pedantic
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Comically Pedantic, where we take a detailed look at the complicated concepts, characters, and history of comic book culture. I'm your host, Derik Elchase, and joining me on this episode, as always, is the wonderful Corinne Levy. I didn't know how to say hi today. So, hi!
00:00:32
Speaker
I was like, what am I going to say? Usually I feel like I do the like, well, hi. And I was like, no, I don't want to do that today. And then I was like, maybe I'll say like Guten Tag. And I was like, no, that feels weird unless I really commit to like a German kind of accent and I'm not good at those. Um, and then I ran out of any other idea. And here we are now.
Navigating Promotions and Stress
00:00:55
Speaker
I could, I could see it on your face because there was a moment of hesitation where it looked like you were going to say something. Well, and then you didn't the last time we did an intro, you hit record and it was like, usually it's like, all right, we hit record. Everything's quiet. But no, for some reason I had like a glass of wine or something. And I just went.
00:01:16
Speaker
or like something like with some popping noise immediately as we hit record. And I was like, can't fuck it up this time. And I've cooked it. Yeah, that's the that's the the.
00:01:29
Speaker
the stinger, that's the after credits for that episode, is actually, it's just laughing about. Oh, I think I was like, I did some stupid pop sounds. It was literally right as I hit record. Yeah, real bad timing on my part. Timing is not my forte. Well, hi. Well, I have a question for you. No, I have a question for you. What's your bright spot? My bright spot. Oh, okay.
00:01:55
Speaker
I'm the kind of person that does not trust when things are going well. I tend to be an optimist, but I would like to, I usually caveat that with I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist. So I usually look for where things are going to go wrong. I just got a promotion. I've just moved on to like different things. A lot of stuff has been going well in my life and I keep waiting for the bad thing to happen. And so far,
00:02:25
Speaker
nothing has. There have been some challenges. People spend so much time during their content period in their life worrying about the next bad thing that they forget to enjoy the content period.
00:02:43
Speaker
So like, enjoy it. Cause like, sure, eventually something's going to happen. That's going to be like an obstacle or something like, you know, annoying going to happen. Sure. I mean, like that's what happens in life. You know, but like, it's pretty cool. It's not happening right now, right? Like it is pretty cool. And it's been a lot of, it's one of the, for the first time in at least a couple of months, I would say probably a little bit longer than that. I have been.
00:03:13
Speaker
relatively stress free when it comes to like, I leave work and I come home and I'm like, I can manage if something goes wrong tomorrow.
00:03:25
Speaker
I am confident that it's not going to throw me off entirely. That makes me really excited because I think I've known you, I think for a little over a year now. And I think that's the first time that I've witnessed this. Cause I think you were just starting to apply for like the promotion you were going for. Mm-hmm.
00:03:54
Speaker
And it was all just waiting for like the past like six months to a year. And every time I would talk to Austin or like we would hang out, it would just be like, Oh man, Derek stressed. Oh no, Derek's unhappy. To add to that there was, so for a while I was, I was working in a very stressful environment just in general because it's very, it was very busy.
00:04:23
Speaker
Uh, and then I was going for a promotion to make things a little bit easier. Uh, cause obviously having a little bit of extra cash makes things a little easier. And when I finally got that, they were like, Oh, but we're going to move you so that you have to now drive an hour to get to work. And this was right when, right when like gas prices went insane.
00:04:48
Speaker
So I was like, oh, I got this promotion and I'm barely able to afford anything. And then like a bunch of stuff happens, right? Everything goes, and then you and I have talked about this. I was put in a position where I kept getting shuffled to locations that were having problems because I was- You're good at fixing the problems. Well, I was one, I was good at fixing problems, but two, I was good at just like,
00:05:17
Speaker
helping out, like I was there to give the other people a chance to fix the problems that were happening. And that is very stressful when you don't get a good opportunity to really reap the benefits of what you've sowed. You just go in, do the hard work, and then they send you somewhere else and you do more hard work. Well, now I'm in a spot where there is a lot of hard work that needs to be done,
00:05:47
Speaker
but it's a different kind of hard work. And I'm actually in a place where I'm able to help out other people around me. I'm doing a lot of good. I've met my new boss and she's on my side on some things like that I've seen that are problems. And I was like, Hey, this is a problem. Here's what I think would help. And she's like, yeah, that makes sense. You should do that thing. Right.
00:06:12
Speaker
And it's great. Uh, it's such a weird relief that I've, I've, I don't know how to feel about it yet. I don't trust it, but I'm enjoying it. I get that. I mean, like, cause I used to work at a very, like, I,
00:06:28
Speaker
Well, it's where I met Austin and like, I loved the job I was doing, but I was in a very like kind of abusive situation with like my, like my higher ups and things. And I was like, I gotta get out of here from my brain and my heart. And I left and I was like, there was, there was this particular, I was surprised I wasn't moving up as quickly. And I realized that it's like, I wasn't moving up as quickly because
00:06:56
Speaker
I was moving at a normal pace at a job, which was kind of wild because like my first full-time job, it was like, I trained for like a month and then suddenly I was just running a whole thing. And like, there was a lot of steps that were skipped in order to get from there. And so it's just like, it was very interesting to know like what a normal
00:07:23
Speaker
job environment felt like. And I was like, you know, it takes a while to get used to, but like, eventually, like, you know, you get comfortable with it and you're like, Oh, I'm safe. This is nice.
Personal Stories of Change and Support
00:07:36
Speaker
Like people value my work. This is cool. Uh, what a time boundaries are nice. So you'll get the hang of it. Um, it'll be okay.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah. I'm trying to be comfortable with allowing myself to feel okay with this. That's a process. Well, and I think it's interesting too. I was just listening. I don't know where I had heard this from. It was some video and they were talking about like happiness and like content. And it was like people were like, it was like,
00:08:18
Speaker
They were talking about therapists and they were like, I don't think therapists believe in like happiness, but they believe in content. And that like life was like, I'm really butchering this because I don't remember where it came from. But it, and like, I also, I don't fully agree with it, but I do agree with the fact that it's like in your life overall, it's, it fluctuates from like,
00:08:45
Speaker
content and stress and content and stress. Just because the stress comes from big changes and stress can be positive. You could be looking forward to a promotion or a big change in your life that is ultimately for the better, but you can have still complicated emotions about it.
00:09:08
Speaker
And, you know, that is the thing that causes stress and that's okay. And then once you kind of get there, like that's your content. Like you're settled. It's fine. Like you're breathing through it and then life happens again and you're like, ah, it's okay. Life is a series of ah and ah, like that's it. This is two different ass.
00:09:32
Speaker
So, well, okay. So what is your, what is your bright spot? What is your
00:09:43
Speaker
content. My content? So I think it comes with my stress. My stress is that I moved. I moved for like, you know, very positive reasons. My partner got a really his dream job, which is very cool. So he gets to explore that path. So a lot of my content comes from like, I'm very proud of him and excited for him.
00:10:09
Speaker
Uh, the stress part comes from like, I had to move to a place I'm not super familiar with, which is okay. I'm like learning it and that's good. Um, but I have to kind of, I have to like, essentially like kind of refresh my life a little bit.
00:10:28
Speaker
So our podcast episodes might be a bit chaotic. We're probably going to have a Sandman update soon because Corinne might not have time to read certain things. Yeah, that's totally fine. But that's okay. Because I will still find time. Always for Spidey, apparently.
00:10:46
Speaker
But my content from all of the moving and everything comes from like, I got to visit my family before I moved.
00:10:59
Speaker
which was very important for me. I got to, well, I got to see you and Austin in person one more time and we all have big sandwiches. And that's like two of my favorite things is friendship and big sandwiches. So I had a blast with that. And I got to like have a phone call with a friend that was good. It's like a lot of little things like that. Well, I guess they're not super little cause it's just like friendship is important.
00:11:29
Speaker
But yeah, I would say stuff like that is probably my bright spot. Wow, look at us having in-depth bright spots instead of the usual where it's like, I bought a book and it was fun. We're both just like, wow, a place in our life. We're growing as people. What does that feel like? Sometimes I don't know.
Exploring Existential Themes in Comics
00:11:57
Speaker
So last time we spoke about smoke and mirrors and that was a time. There was a lot going on. And it starts to get a bit existential. So maybe it's good we had existential bright spots because what we're going to cover is players and pawns, which kind of gets a little also more existential.
00:12:26
Speaker
So I guess where we are in the clone saga, we have Ben Riley has shown back up a possible clone of Peter Parker, possibly the real Peter Parker. We don't know because the Jackal has also shown up and he's been like, by the way, I've just been cloning everybody. And he's like six different times.
00:12:47
Speaker
And I've changed my own body to like, and there's like different versions of Peter running around everywhere. And every time he comes in contact with Ben and Peter, he tells each of them they are the real Peter or that they are the clone. He just makes it up on the spot and you don't know what to believe. Yeah, it's very bizarre.
00:13:17
Speaker
And during this time, we also have Kane running around in the background killing much more interesting villains and then just watching from the distance. And then even like behind him, Scryer is also watching from the distance. So we have someone watching someone watching something.
00:13:38
Speaker
And then on top of that, it's irrelevant people watching dumb shit. Yeah. And at the, on top of all of that, at the very end of smoke and mirrors, there is a, a pod introduced that is hinted at having the, the real, oh my God, for realsies. We don't know if it's the real one or if it's another clone, but it's there.
00:14:08
Speaker
And it has been hinted at like everything else to, to be the real deal. And that's kind of where we left off. Yeah. Oh, and I forgot, Aunt May's been in a coma. Yes. She's still, she's still knocked out. So catch the medical term for coma is catching these. So yeah, we're going to start.
00:14:34
Speaker
Players and Pawns, it's gonna pick up at Spectacular Spider-Man, issue number 222, good old triple two. The title of like this issue is called False Truths, and it's written by Tom DeFalco, Clem Robbins is the letterer, and John Cleese is the colorist, and then Bob Budiecki, he's jealous.
00:15:02
Speaker
I think you skipped over the penciler and the inker. Oh, no. I don't have them on here. I'm going to say this now then, because I was going to save it for after. The thing I really didn't like about this issue is the art. It's really hard to see anything.
00:15:26
Speaker
I can, so here's why. It's really hard. This is something, I've actually brought this particular thing up. I think that with two friends that don't work together, together. Yes. And it's hard. Yes, that is exactly what happened. In a previous episode I mentioned it. So it is possible that some of the people are hiding in the background for the credits.
00:15:46
Speaker
I will take screenshot because I also could be wrong and I could have just been a dumb shit when I wrote this. Maybe we'll edit me and saying all of the proper credits later. I don't know, but don't be mad at me. So the the penciler is Sal Buscema. Okay. And the inker is Bill Sinkevich. Now, Sinkevich is an amazing artist in his own right.
00:16:12
Speaker
But he has a tendency of when he is inking other people to try to make their art look like his art. So he's like, he's a good individual, but he's tough team player.
00:16:28
Speaker
Right. And his stuff is very scratchy and a lot of fun. When he is the sole artist, it is amazing. It is so well put together. Well, the tough teamwork really shows here. I had to go back sometimes when I was reading this to try and figure out what I was looking at, which is a shame because, you know,
00:16:54
Speaker
90%, not 90, but like 70% of comics is the photo. That's what we got. So we're gonna start the whole thing with Kane.
00:17:05
Speaker
He's at the, the laboratory had blown up where we ended. Yeah. The big like a self-destruct sequence in the lab in the Catskills that is the size of a football stadium. Yeah. So it's, it's all crumbled and like rubbly and everything. Kane is alone and is searching through what was once, you know, this laboratory and he finds a secure bunker.
00:17:35
Speaker
which is containing all of these computers and like data, which hold the secrets to Ben Riley and Peter Parker, supposed to be like digital proof of who the real one is. Because as we've set up, there's a large debate, weird confusion now on apparently who the real one is. And then when Kane thinks he's like,
00:18:01
Speaker
got all the info. He has the floppy disk because that's the era we're in right now. We're in the floppy disk era. Are those still the save icons on Microsoft Word and stuff?
00:18:16
Speaker
I don't know. I hope so, though, because that's what I think of when I think of like, yeah, I know, like I do all of this in Google Docs because I want to pay. And like it just says safe. It doesn't have a floppy disk, which is. Yeah. Minus points for Google. I hope it's still the floppy disk for Microsoft. I'm not sure.
00:18:44
Speaker
But right as he's loading the file, this huge, the pod that we were talking about earlier, it bursts up from the ground and it opens and it's another Peter Parker. It rises up from the ground? It literally like shoots out of the ground. It's just like, this is going to be weird, but like all I could think is, uh,
00:19:08
Speaker
Not that you've seen it, but in the 90s, there was a Power Rangers movie and there's a scene where the bad guy, he's in an egg and it literally rises from the ground and then the egg opens and it's like, that's all I can think of. It's like, okay. So it was, it was supposed to be like a prison, but then like the moment the thing opens, it just is like, all right, here, I'm going to let you out.
00:19:32
Speaker
Love it. I don't know. Maybe at a time or maybe at times for how long your sentence is. Yeah. Well, okay. So maybe if like, if this is a clone of Peter,
00:19:43
Speaker
He was cooking inside and then the little, the timer, it's like a meat thermometer. Normal chicken egg. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It has its own little, cause like, so with baby chicks, my mom just got some baby chickens, by the way. That's another bright spot. I have a strictly business relationship with chickens because I'm terrified of them. But when they're little babies, they're kind of cute.
00:20:03
Speaker
So when you have a, I don't know why I'm just making a fist. When you have an egg that is fertilized and it's grown a little chick, the baby chicks, when they're ready to come out, they have a special piece on their beak to help break through the egg. And then it falls off. If I remember right. Oh, that's like after they come out, the thing just
00:20:27
Speaker
Yep, it's like it's done. Cause they don't have very sharp beaks typically. Like if they, if they poked you, like, you know, it doesn't feel like much, but I dunno, I'll double check with my friend who knows more about animals than I do, but I'm 90% sure that that's like an actual thing. Like a little tip of their beak is like, I'm done.
00:20:50
Speaker
Anyway, so that's essentially like third Peter Parker comes out of sci-fi egg that just pushes out of the ground. And then the Jackal, I didn't know that the Jackal had a different name. So I noted his other name is Miles Warren. Yeah. He shows up.
00:21:12
Speaker
from behind, and he has his little goblin friend, who we now know is named Jack. I didn't know all of this when I wrote this, but I'm learning, it's fine. So while the jackal and cane fight, Scryer just shows up from literally out of nowhere. There's no doors, we don't know where he came from. This distracts the jackal, and that allows Peter 3.0 to flee.
00:21:42
Speaker
Same with Kane. And that's it. That's it. That's it for that scene. It's like a chaotic introduction. It was super good because it was just like, it's a panel and I took a screenshot of it. Like the only panel you really see a scribe is just like, it's a closeup of him being like, hello, essentially. And then the jackals just like, and like wants to fight him now. And then Kane just leaves. It makes no sense.
00:22:09
Speaker
I don't know. It's like watching me try to get one task done. I like will start a thing and I'll be focused.
00:22:19
Speaker
then I'll get distracted by my cat and then the rest of my tasks flee. It's just gone, which was really insulting to read. I did not have fun. I was like, this is too self reflective. But anyway, that's the end of that scene. And it goes to Ben Riley. He's at like kind of like a YMCA gym type of thing.
00:22:39
Speaker
And he is kind of a little incognito, like his normal citizen wear. And he's checking on Flash Thompson, who I guess used to be Peter Parker's bully when he was young. Yeah. I did not realize that he had a last name. I learned that. Flash Thompson? Flash Thompson. I just thought he was called Flash. I don't know.
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah. Flash Thompson. And he's in the, I don't know which of the Spider-Man movies you've seen, but he's in a couple. He's in the Tobey Maguire one. Yeah. He tries to punch Peter. Joe Manganiello. Yeah. Yeah. That guy. Yeah. He actually is a really interesting character later on in Spider-Man comics. At first I thought you were talking about Joe Manganiello and I was like, yeah, he plays DOD. Like he's got a super famous squad. And then you were talking about just the character.
00:23:33
Speaker
No, both of them are cool. I found Slash to be interesting though with this because it's like, yeah, he was a bully, but now it's like he, it seems like, cause Ben kind of talks about it a little bit since he shares Peter's memories as we've drilled that into the ground.
00:23:49
Speaker
But it seems like in this point in Flash Thompson's life, he is like a youth athletic coach for like kids in the community. And so he's just really like kind towards these kids and just like wants these kids to have like a fun time and is just teaching them, you know, how to play games together. And like basically Ben Riley is like, wow, you know, good shot at life.
00:24:20
Speaker
Maybe I'm gonna have a good shot at life. Also like, am I Peter Parker? I don't know. He's not super convinced about. That's kind of the end of that. We'll get back to that later. We're gonna go back to Kane. And he has successfully gotten his floppy disk that we all know and love. Shout out to Microsoft Word.
00:24:47
Speaker
And again it's just reiterating that it's like this could be like the real evidence of like who the real Peter Parker is. And then before he like himself says it out loud because it's like a lot of this is like teasing like they're gonna tell you who it is.
00:25:07
Speaker
It'll be like, I have the floppy disk here and I read it and it says, and then something else happens. So in this case, Cain has one of his weird headaches that have happened in a couple issues I had before. And it's the whole vision of like Mary Jane being murdered again. Just a thing that is like simmering in the background. Yeah. It's like the one context thing we have of Cain is sometimes he gets a migraine and thinks about Mary Jane dying and being like, I gotta stop it.
00:25:36
Speaker
But he doesn't do anything. So that's like a thing that happens. It was kind of annoying to read because Cain slowly is getting on my nerves. And then we go to actual Mary Jane. She goes to a doctor because she's pregnant. She is healthy, but the doctors want to do some more tests because the baby might be an anomaly.
00:26:04
Speaker
And cause they're just like, we picked up some interesting things about your baby. We want to do more tests. And she's kind of like, Oh no, what if they find out my husband's Spider-Man because of these tests they might do on me for the baby? Just like a weird passing thought. And then it kind of doesn't really get addressed again. Cause I guess like it would be interesting. Like, you know, if you're, if you, you know, got, if you are a superhuman or like,
00:26:32
Speaker
having a child with a superhuman like how does that affect the baby that you're having cuz like if your superpowers are like Effect your effect your gene code like that. Yeah, I mean be interesting
00:26:47
Speaker
It's, it's kind of, there's that, uh, I think it was in, I think it was in mall rats. There's the question, actually it might not have been mall rats, but there's the question of like Lois Lane gets pregnant. How do we know that the baby doesn't kick outside of her stomach? Kind of also like my closest reference is Twilight.
00:27:11
Speaker
Okay, yeah, same thing. Very clearly you're breaking dawn. Humans should not be having vampire babies. Right. You will break your back and all of your things. You'll probably die. Better hope that you have a committed vampire boyfriend if you're going to be having a vampire baby. And a good health plan. Very good health plan.
Dilemmas in Life and Narrative
00:27:34
Speaker
But I mean, Carlisle was a doctor, so I'm sure he has good benefits from being a doctor.
00:27:41
Speaker
At this, I mean, he has. Cause even if he had to move, we're going to talk about this for a minute. Even if he had to move. He's been a doctor for how long? Yeah, he's been a doctor for a long time, but like obviously when he finds a new job, he still like has his credentials as a doctor. So he would get around the same pay and benefits. Right. Like he's got to either go back and like pretend to be someone else and get a new doctorate.
00:28:12
Speaker
I don't know. There's like also the vault. It's the voluntary, right? Yeah. Like the whole little Italian. They probably got like tons of ways to get the credentials that you need. You know, they live in a castle. They can do anything. Doesn't castle equal ultimate power. Anyway, back to Spider-Man. So yeah, that's the thing. Mary Jane is worried. Like, are they going to spot anything weird about my baby because my husband is Spider-Man. Also, no one knows my husband is Spider-Man.
00:28:41
Speaker
Oh, that's the other thing that I was going to mention. Yeah. Mutants exist in the Marvel universe. So like, you can just be like, I mean, I, there's also a fear there of being like, Oh, my husband is a mutant. They might treat me differently, but like, it's not a one for one. Like they're going to figure out he's Spider-Man. Or could it also be just like, can't just babies happen? Mutant babies happen from normal and normal people.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah, but it's, it's a, it's rare for babies to show signs of being a mutant. It's usually like a puberty thing. But I mean, it happens, you know, and it is, it's not necessarily just like a, the, you can have a mutant baby and be like a, just a regular,
00:29:38
Speaker
person and the father or the mother, the other person could also be a regular person, but it works in the same way that like stupid racism and bigotry works in the real world in that like people don't give a shit. They're just going to be like, Oh, you have a mutant baby. Fuck you. Yeah. You know, Jackal and, and tiny goblin Jack, they're going to a new lab in New York.
00:30:07
Speaker
Another lab on top of the Catskills size of a football field. Yes. They have a new, they have a new lab. And a guy who's been missing for five years. Yes. Somehow continue to pit. More real estate. All of these, all of these scientists have too many labs. Too many. Yeah. You could, one is fine. One's good.
00:30:35
Speaker
How many experiments are you really doing at once? Well, I guess if all of them have a self-destruct button, you know, you might need more than one. Well, I think it's a cycle of labs. So as one is distracting, one is being built. This one's not fully built yet that they're going to. It's almost done, which I guess is a little more realistic than just having
00:31:01
Speaker
like Dr. C where it's like Unused Lab in New York. But, oh well. And they're trying to learn more about Ravencraft, the mental or the Arkham Asylum of Marvel, essentially. Because it sounds like he wants to, he needs something from in there, essentially. And now we're gonna go to Peter Parker.
00:31:30
Speaker
who is trying to like scrounge up some work at the Daily Bugle, but it's not going great for him. And I keep calling him Triple J, but J Jonah Jameson, he's like, oh, there's no work, Peter, sorry. But that's not all they talk about. Triple J also mentions that
00:31:58
Speaker
Detective Trevain is asking questions about Peter Parker and whoever this Ben Riley guy is. And we're going to take a little peek at that, cut into the scene with some police officers, and they're trying to get some search warrants ready.
00:32:20
Speaker
They have like all the Mark of Cain stuff. That's like the murders they're solving. I'm saying this because I keep forgetting about the detectives because they only get brought up for like two seconds at a time. Every like other issue that I read. So it's like every four issues, there's like a two second scene of just like, we found fingerprints.
00:32:45
Speaker
It's just one of those weird loose ends, but it seems like it's starting to go somewhere now. They're trying to get warrants to arrest either Peter Parker or Ben Riley. We don't know which one yet right now.
00:33:02
Speaker
Which leads me to believe they haven't said it explicitly, but we know that they have evidence that has the mark of Cain on the victims. So it's supposed to be like, oh, Cain shares the same DNA as Peter Parker and Ben Riley, so he's probably a weird clone gone wrong.
00:33:26
Speaker
Again, none of this is going to be spent explicitly. I wish people could see your face. And how tired I am. How tired I am talking about Cain. Jesus Christ. Your head is bobbing back and forth because you have to talk about Cain. I don't like Cain. I thought he was... You can go back to the
00:33:49
Speaker
First couple things that I read and I was like he's kind of cool. He has a fun intro He's blue That's fun. And now I'm just like I Go join the blue man group pick up a drum and get on with your life. I could not care less about this man I think the one thing he did have a really cool intro. I have always hated his costume and
00:34:15
Speaker
I don't mind it, I think it's cool, it's just they don't do anything with it. Cause it's like, you don't know what it is. They won't tell you down, right? It is confusing. So it's just like, cause like with Venom, you know, he's all goopy and he's funky, but it's like, you know why he's a goop boy. It's because he's a symbiote. Like, you know why Carnage is another goopy boy. You know why like the, the hobgoblin,
00:34:43
Speaker
looks goofy. You even know why the jackal kind of looks goofy. And like, that's fine. I can get down with all those designs. Like I sure have my favorites and my least favorites. But the character design usually has something to do with the backstory. Like even with like as basic things like playing D&D.
00:35:09
Speaker
Like, I'm not gonna play a rogue and have him wear like...
00:35:15
Speaker
you know, royal garb or like, yeah, just fluorescent tunics because he is a rogue. They're going to they're going to want to blend in somehow. They're going to want to be stealthy. And if I was a bard, I'm not going to dress like plain Jane. I'm going to be colorful and fun because I'm a bard and like, you know, the details are your own from there with your own little like, you know,
00:35:42
Speaker
artistic flourish or whatever. But at least it all comes back to who the character is. And Kane, at first I'm like, oh he's cool and he's blue and he's kind of veiny and that doesn't make any sense. I hope we know why he's like that. Is he something that
00:36:00
Speaker
Like what happened? Is he a clone gone wrong? And I'm leading to believe that but nobody has given me any freaking clue of a cool backstory. I've talked about this way too much. I'm so sad about it.
00:36:17
Speaker
I'm starting to, I started flashing back to when I was like, it would be a good idea, like a fun thing to do to read through the clone saga. And I mentioned it to you and I was like, no, it's a long story and it's really bad. And you were like, I'm down for it.
00:36:37
Speaker
We're a little bit into it and you're like, this is pissing me off. Uh, I just like, there's, there's parts, like we're going to get to parts that I like. I promise there's parts that I like. Um, like I liked the flashtops and stuff. I think there's cool things. I'm so mad about Kane. I don't need anything, everything to be explicitly told to me. Like I love a good mystery, but like.
00:37:08
Speaker
Even mysteries have context. Like it's just, oh, I'm so mad. It's fine. I'm not going to bring back the, I'm not going to bring it back. The Corinne's mad counter from comics gate that stays with comics. But, um, I'm quite annoyed and I forget where I was. Oh, I found, no, I didn't find it. Hold on. You gotta give me like two seconds.
00:37:35
Speaker
We were talking about Kane. Yes. Okay. So my guess is that Kane has the same exact DNA as Peter Parker and
Visions and Mysteries Unfold
00:37:43
Speaker
Ben Riley, but they haven't told us that. They're just, that's what the police believe. And so that's my conclusion of a somewhat educated reader, I guess.
00:37:57
Speaker
So that's probably gonna cause- You're able to pick up the little pieces of- Some dumb context clues, yeah. I'm so salty now, I need to chill out. No, I like angry Corinne, let's keep this going. She's mad. So that's probably gonna cause some problems later, but we're going back to, so Peter Parker has now left Daily Bugle's building, cause he's like, oh man, there's no work for me.
00:38:26
Speaker
I guess that's what happens when I don't work for weeks or whatever. It was gone for a while. So he's walking along the street and he's kind of having this like inner monologue wondering if like, is Ben the murderer? Like, you know, because he doesn't really know what Ben does in his time. And he's like, it's kind of weird if like Ben's the murderer. And it's like, what kind of stuff is he getting up to? But then like Kane just like pops out.
00:38:56
Speaker
of nowhere just like from a little alley and he gives Peter Parker like the evidence like the floppy disk he prints out the information and is like here here's the evidence from the jackal and this like really weirds out Peter Parker
00:39:16
Speaker
Cause he's like, I don't know. Just shows up and is like, I have all of this paperwork about who you are. This will reveal everything, but who the fuck is this guy? He's not in like, he's just like Peter Parker civilian style. He's not, he's not Spider-Man right now. So he's just like, what?
00:39:40
Speaker
Okay! Uh, it's like the Muppets are way too high pitched. A little scratchy. But yeah, he's really weirded out and you know what? I would be too. And I'd also be like, who are you? Why do you have no context in your life? Get away from me. I don't know you.
00:40:01
Speaker
And that's how I personally would react if I met Kane. But I'm not going to talk about him right now. Because now I'm going to talk about Ben Riley. We're going back to him. He is still at the gym where Flash Thompson is given his little like basketball coaching. And he's about to like walk out of the gym.
00:40:24
Speaker
But then the jackal, he's back, he crashes through the gym ceiling and just like unleashes a bunch of weird reptiles to like attack Flash and like the kids. I guess he knows that Ben's there. I don't know. It's very weird. I didn't know that he could just make reptiles, but I guess that's the thing he can do. It was, it was very surprising.
00:40:53
Speaker
It's fun to see the extent to what high school by, or not high school, but college biology professors can do. I like that it's usually reptiles too. I don't know why, but whenever I think of biology, I do think of reptiles. I don't think of, I don't think of like mammals as often. Like mice, maybe.
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah, like maybe, I don't know. I still mostly think of reptiles. I think that's just because that's normally what people's class pet was. Was it reptile? Or like, we had a tarantula though. I don't know. Weird stuff. I don't know. Anyway, weird reptiles. Ben Riley does a really quick, quick change and now he's Scarlet Spider and he's ready to fight.
00:41:45
Speaker
And it kind of jumps back and forth between Spider-Man now approaches Kane and ambushes him because these papers really freaked out Peter Parker. And Spider-Man thinks that Kane is messing with him. And while Kane is being attacked by Spider-Man, he's thinking like, did the Jackal want me to do this all along?
00:42:15
Speaker
Peter Parker this evidence and have him unleash on me. Like everybody's questioning everything right now. And like the main people questioning everything is Peter Parker and Kane. And then Ben Riley's just kind of like, oh no, there's reptiles about to attack kids. I better go save them. It's kind of- I think this is why Ben tends to be my favorite Spider-Man at this time. Yeah, cause he's like, I just got focused on the task at hand.
00:42:45
Speaker
He's like, whatever guys, I like bad things happen. I'm over it. It's a time. Um, and then it ends with Peter Parker, the third one. We're going to go back to him. He was in the very beginning now he's back and he hitchhikes. Um, in upstate New York, he's not knowing who he is, but he's feeling as though he should be do something, doing something important.
00:43:14
Speaker
Does he have clothes? Yeah, okay. So I'm gonna say this now, just so everyone knows why. I'm gonna get confused at one point towards the end. And it's because he's wearing the same exact clothes that Ben Riley wears almost every day. It's the stock costume. They all spawned in the blue jeans, gray t-shirt, olive jacket kind of thing. Mm-hmm.
00:43:42
Speaker
And I think sometimes- I mean, it's a good look. It's a nice outfit, but they all have it. And like sometimes Peter Parker will have like, you know, like a peacoat situation, like when he goes out or whatever, like he'll have a legit coat and then like Ben Riley and Spider-Man or Peter Parker 3.0, they both have the same outfit, like all the time, which can be very confusing and it will get confusing.
00:44:09
Speaker
just by how they sometimes outline scene changes. But that is the end of the long-winded Spectacular Spider-Man 2.22. So, oh, and also just like a side mention, whenever the Jackal and Jack were in a scene, Little Goblin Jack is worrying about his potentially denaturing cells
00:44:38
Speaker
Yeah, he got to see clones degenerate in front of him. Yeah. So now he's. Just so everyone knows that is still like a theme that is, it's just like very briefly mentioned, but I was like, I didn't know what you were going to read about. And I was like, this is probably important.
00:44:57
Speaker
Let's note it. I'm still, actually, I'm still stuck on where the hell that third Parker got those clothes. Cause he would have been naked coming out of the pod. He came out of the pod and clothes. Okay. I don't know. He came out of the pod and clothes. I mean, everybody else that came out of these pods was butt ass naked. Yeah, like when Stacey's didn't, she didn't have clothes. Yeah, she had, she, she had this smoke covering her nipples. Did Ben Riley have clothes?
00:45:27
Speaker
We, no, because we do get to see that. No, he didn't. And then, well, the Jack, Jack. The Jackal came out covered in like ooze. And Jack is just a little goblin man who never works well. And we didn't get to see, we didn't get to see Jack being born. We just kind of like see him. And he's always naked. Well, he's wearing the like costume, the like green furred costume. Oh, that's a costume?
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah, cause he pulls the mask off and he looks like Peter. Oh, I don't remember that. I just always assumed he was a goblin. No, it's just, so it's, he's wearing what, like a miniature version of the Jackals original costume. Right, to just be like, I'm your friend. Yeah. Okay, I gotta know. So, yeah, that is still a theme.
00:46:24
Speaker
I put like as a pro, did Kane get more context? But as I thought about it, no, he did not. I just made a conclusion. So. I like that your pro was a question. I noted to be determined. And I determined, no. I mean, real tough about this Kane situation. Things that I did not like,
00:46:54
Speaker
As much as I mentioned, I did not enjoy the the art with this. It was just it was very hard to look at, like to try to see things like there's a point where Kane and the Jackal they're fighting in the beginning and. The way they did shading and created the shapes of like their bodies and things like that, it's really hard to figure out, like, like what body part is this? Is this the whole body?
00:47:24
Speaker
I, it was really tough and like, I'm sure they're both really great individual and maybe with different people, but just the people that they paired for this issue. It was, it was tough. Yeah. At some point, at some point, I think it would be fun for you to look at their art separately because they are both very good. Yeah. Cause it's like, listen, like, I mean, you, you get paid to do this. I have no doubts that you're, that you're good.
00:47:50
Speaker
But I also understand that sometimes there's just ingredients that don't go well together. And that's okay. But yeah, it wasn't the most enjoyable. It was just hard to see. It was hard to look at.
00:48:09
Speaker
It was a bit of an overwhelming read. I kind of mentioned I was like, I don't know if this is just like the day that I was reading this, but it kind of was overwhelming because it's like, in the very beginning, you have these random people that just like pop up.
00:48:24
Speaker
like Scryer and all that. And you're kind of like, what is happening? And then you have to like remember about the detectives and you're like, Oh yeah, the detectives. Okay. Someone's going to get arrested soon. Um, so it was kind of just like, it was a lot and the Jackal is a lot sometimes. And I was just like, okay, I get it. You're a character. Um, and that is kind of my last thing that I didn't love. The Jackal,
00:48:51
Speaker
is I don't like his dialogue. I think it's kind of annoying and a little- Yeah, he's dime store joker. Well, and it's a little too like writer self-aware kind of thing. Like- Okay. Okay.
00:49:08
Speaker
This is really going to show like when this is coming up. But you know, like how everybody's kind of shitting on that show Velma, like the HBO Max. Yeah. And a lot of it's like a lot of people are shitting on it because it's just like literally it's too self-aware of like, oh my God, movies always do this. And like, you're always a character that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I feel like The Jackal talks a lot like that and it takes you out of it.
00:49:38
Speaker
Cause like there's times, it's a lot of times where he's like, oh, this isn't the part, this is part of the movie where blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, just, just punch him. Just punch him. It's fine. You don't have to say everything all the time. Just punch him. So that was like kind of annoying. He brought like, he did a lot of like pop culture references.
00:50:02
Speaker
It's fine, but there's a limit that I have and that I was kind of, I took a couple, I took a day or two off of reading after I read that issue. Cause I was just like, I don't, I'm tired. Yeah. I, I, I have taken a break from reading Spiderman cause I read ahead a little bit and there is a point where you're like, hold on. I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to take a step back for just a bit.
00:50:31
Speaker
And then we'll come back to this. Yeah. Um, but eventually I did come back and I came back to web of spider-man number one 23 level one, two, three, one, two, three. Um, and this one was called true lies. I have a screenshot of like all the credits cause this one's easier to read. Yay. I'll add that picture. It's a fun time. Um,
00:50:59
Speaker
So yeah, it pretty much it starts immediately where we ended with the Jackal
Battles and Identity Crises
00:51:06
Speaker
and Scarlet Spider in the middle of their YMCA gym fight. And there is a point where like the Jackal throws like Scarlet Spider out the window and he's about to hurt like Flash Thompson. But so it's very clear that like the Jackal knows people in Peter Parker's life.
00:51:30
Speaker
Because there would be- Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that it would be a top priority if you're like, this guy is my fucking mortal enemy. Maybe I should just look into him. Yeah. So he's definitely like studied up. Um, and he's about to like beat up Flash and he's like, Oh, maybe I'll kill you. Blah, blah, blah. Like Wally waits for like his, cause again, his new lab is building. He's like, this is a kill time killing you. And then Scarlet Spider comes back and they continue fighting.
00:52:00
Speaker
And it's very clear just like by the dialogue that the Jackals just really doing everything he can to mess with Ben Riley's brain just to be like, I made you, you're the original. Like he keeps just like being really confusing. And super annoying. I can't like,
00:52:24
Speaker
Look, you're messing with their brains. I get it. But every time you speak, you don't have to keep the, you've already introduced the question. Exactly. You don't have to keep repeating it. Yeah. I think it's just a kind of, it's like not letting them forget about it. It's like the overflow of like when you get hate comments on the internet or something.
00:52:43
Speaker
He's just the- He's an internet troll come to life. Yes, he is. It's a time. The next little bit, we're going to be jumping back and forth between the two fights because we just ended with Spider-Man and Kane also fighting.
00:52:59
Speaker
So it's gonna jump between those spikes. Bear with me. Spider-Man and Kane, they're fighting on a rooftop, and Spider-Man has the written evidence about who the OG Peter Parker is, and it says it's him, he's the OG, but he keeps worrying that it's a bluff, and he's like, it's just words on paper, what does it all mean? And he doesn't know Kane,
00:53:29
Speaker
So yeah, this is their first interaction. Yeah. And so he doesn't know that like Kane also just doesn't have any of the answers. But he thinks Kane has the answers. So he's like, tell me. And Kane's just like, I don't know. He's just he's just a dumb messenger. He doesn't know anything. He's just gotten himself into like a bunch of shit.
00:53:57
Speaker
And now we're jumping back to Ben Riley, Scarlet Spider, and he is defeating all the reptiles, which isn't too hard for him, because they also are denaturing. So he'll punch him, and then they just turn into goo, because they're made of the same stuff that clones are made of, it sounds like. And then the Jackal sends Little Goblin Jack out to fight
00:54:27
Speaker
And he's like, you're not gonna live long anyway. You might as well just do it. He just keeps reminding Jack about his mortality and how little time he has. And he's like, you might as well just do what I keep saying. What else are you gonna do with your time? Scarlet Spider's still trying to fight the reptiles. And now he's trying to fight Jack. And one of the reptiles is about to hurt Jack. And so Scarlet Spider saves him.
00:54:57
Speaker
And Jack's like, oh my gosh, thanks. You're pretty cool. And while this is happening now, the Jackal's jumping into the fight. It's like very chaotic. Jackal likes to attack people from behind. Like he's just, he's a gritty dude. And- Yeah, he's a-
00:55:17
Speaker
piece of shit. He wants to hop in and just like punch you from behind and like sort of mess with your head. And then he steps out while other people do his like the fighting for him. Yes, essentially. Before we get back to Spider-Man and Kane, there is a brief moment with Peter Parker three.
00:55:38
Speaker
And he is about to take a nap in the streets of somewhere. He's like, I got to take a nap and I don't have a place to go. So I'm just gonna fall asleep next to this dumpster, which is very sad. It's very sad to see him do this. Um, but he's still like wondering who he is. He like has no clue. The only name that he heard in the lab was Peter Parker. And he's unsure if that's him. He has no clue. Right. And that's it. That's just like a little interlude kind of thing.
00:56:07
Speaker
Now we're gonna go back to Spider-Man. He's still fighting Kane. And then Kane has some thoughts. And if you thought I was a- You had some excitement on your face when you were- I was annoyed before. As you may know, this whole episode is called
00:56:32
Speaker
players in pawns. And Kane is just wondering as he's like fighting, he's realizing that like this may have been what the Jackal wanted all along. And though that's annoying, Kane's like, at least I'm one of the players and not a pawn. And I will shove my computer on. Because I don't know if you know this. And I don't know if you sense the vibe of who's important in this story.
00:57:02
Speaker
But it's not Kay! Kay does the affinity of a messenger in this. He was tricked into thinking he had some kind of information that was actually valuable, which it may or may not have been. And then he, based off of manipulation, thought it was a good idea to give it to the person it was exactly supposed to go to, to cause them emotional stress.
00:57:28
Speaker
and then fight them. The definition of a, of a pawn. As some sort of distraction. So he could fight. So Jackal could fight Ben Riley. Like, you're a pawn. He has no agency of his own. You're a stupid pawn. And like, you're a pawn who wants to be a knight and you're just not. And it's, I was like, I was so mad. I was so mad.
00:57:57
Speaker
It's just like, how unaware are you? And it hurts my brain? Because it's just like, again, this is very clearly like a Peter Parker. This is clearly a spider versus a jackal situation. This has nothing, like nowhere in here has it been like, Kane, man, he's doing it.
00:58:31
Speaker
Like this is the roommate that is like, I'm a great roommate, but they leave their dishes in the sink all the time. And like, hmm, it's just like, it's how unaware can a person be? It just drives me nuts. This is one of my biggest pet peeves is unaware, is unawareness. Know yourself. It's okay to be like, if anything,
00:58:59
Speaker
I'm gonna talk for a minute.
00:59:02
Speaker
If anything, it would have been better if it was just like Kane realizing he was treated like a pawn, but he wants to be a player. And then he just goes crazy. Like that would have been great. And like, but we, we have no context. He just moves around and he just watches things. That's literally what a pawn does is it moves one space ahead and then it just watches all the better pieces in chess do better things. Just
00:59:32
Speaker
I'm mad about Kane. I don't like him. That's the end of that scene though. Anyway, we're gonna go back to a scene that's more of a player versus a player as opposed to a player versus a pawn. And the Scarlet Spider does defeat the Jackal. And a big part of him defeating the Jackal is a lot of times, kind of like when he's fighting Venom, you know, the way he gets Venom is he like builds his confidence in himself.
00:59:59
Speaker
and he gets that like good punch or the good web in and like all that stuff. And essentially like that happens again. And it's kind of even more special because it's like he's battling a person who keeps telling him, I made you, you're not real, like, you know, all of that stuff. Because eventually in the fight, it does kind of just, he, Jackal commits to like the I made you, like,
01:00:26
Speaker
your mind kind of thing, Ben Riley kind of overcomes that and is like, bye, which is very cool. That was that was very, very exciting.
01:00:40
Speaker
And, cause he's like, you've seen this guy who at first is like, I'm not a person. I'm just like the shared memories of another person. But now he's like, no, I'm Ben Riley. I have a first name and a last name and some of a personality. Woohoo. And I thought that was very nice. And then we go to- I like seeing Ben like come into his own.
01:01:08
Speaker
And I think that's actually part, that actually is a good part of, you know, both Peter and Ben have character arcs. Ben's is like sort of accepting his lot in life and trying to carve out his own path. And Peter's is like, maybe I should care about people that aren't me.
01:01:32
Speaker
Like, which is such a weird thing for him. Yeah. And I think before, like when I was reading a lot of this stuff, I was getting a little frustrated because I don't think I really understood the pacing of what I was supposed to read this at. And knowing that this was supposed to be like the end of it. Keywords supposed to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Looking back at the overall piece,
01:01:58
Speaker
I kind of like it and I think it kind of makes sense. And it does kind of go back to that, like what we were talking about like much earlier with like, content and stress and content and stress. Cause like Ben Riley from beginning of Clone Saga to where pawn and player and pawn is going to end. Like
Turning Points and Revelations
01:02:20
Speaker
he does that. Like he has his stress and then he has his moment of content with like web of life and now he's like,
01:02:27
Speaker
He was going through stress and now he's trying to get to his content again. And it's very cool to watch. And I've changed my opinion on the overall Ben Riley arc so far. And I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool. So I do like Ben. He's very good. Good lad. Good boy, Ben. We love. But yeah, that's the end of that scene. And we're going to go to an even better thing. Can you guess what it is?
01:02:57
Speaker
Aunt May. Yeah! She wakes up! She wakes up! Oh wait! Yeah, she's awake now! Oh, we actually have Aunt May as a character. She's no longer an NPC in this. Yeah, her eyes like open. And that's kind of it.
01:03:13
Speaker
but it's really cool. She wakes up and the doctors are like, we gotta get her family in touch with her, which I was so excited. This is like, I had a great time reading this one. I was like, this is a good time. Because people gave themselves validation and an old lady woke up. But what more can I ask for? I love when old people wake up.
01:03:37
Speaker
So Aunt May wakes up really exciting. Doctors are thrilled. We're going back again to the Ben Riley scene where we're cleaning up the whole Jackal crime and everything. He's getting arrested, sent to Ravencroft, and he's like, ha ha ha, this is what I wanted all along. He's like, I wanted to get caught and arrested. He's doing the thing that was happening around like the 2007, 2008,
01:04:06
Speaker
Maybe even a little bit before that of the Joker getting caught, but it was all part of the plan. Loki getting caught, but it was all part of the plan. That weird James Bond villain that got caught, but it was all part of the plan. That was just the thing that happened for a while. Yes, that's happening now. He kind of says there's something there that belongs to him.
01:04:28
Speaker
So that's what wants to go. We don't know what it is. They didn't say, but he's like, ha ha, this is what I wanted. And then as the Jackal is getting arrested, Scarlet Spider notices Jack and he kind of grabs ahold of him and little goblin man gives him another like hard drive, like another floppy disk and
01:04:56
Speaker
It's supposed to say that Ben Riley is the real Spider, the real Peter Parker. And you look at this hard drive, it'll show that you're the real one. And Ben Riley takes it and he's like, that's pretty wild that you would give this to me. Quickly after Ben gets this floppy disk, Jack deteriorates.
01:05:22
Speaker
in the designer's hands. And the jackal is like, you got your fate in your hands. Ha ha. You're going to turn into goop. But he's also holding the hard drive that's like your own reason. That says he's not. So it's kind of like both of them are in his hands. Symbolism.
01:05:43
Speaker
I actually do, I do kind of like that. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I don't know if they really intended it because it's like in the photo, it's just the goop. But... Right. Scarlet Spider doesn't have pockets, as far as I know. So like he has to be... I mean, he's wearing a hoodie. So he's got to be holding like a... But it doesn't have the pockets in the front. Oh, okay. So he's got to just be holding a goopy hard drive right now. Hopefully it still works. I don't know.
01:06:12
Speaker
Listen, technology back then, pretty strong. No idea. It wasn't, unless he was like, oh boy, I gotta put in a bag of rice. But I don't know. I'm sure it was fine. We'll find out later. Cause now we're going back to Spider-Man versus the pawn known as Kane. And Kane throws Spider-Man off a building and he hits his head.
01:06:43
Speaker
And instead of Spider-Man's head turning into one of those Gallagher melons, that just gets crushed all the time. It's a nice squish melon. I didn't know if anyone remembered Gallagher, so for some reason I felt like I had to explain my joke with an old man. But anyway, here we are. He makes it back up to the building, and he's gonna fight Kane again, and then Kane is gone, and I'm like, alright, I guess that's how you really anti-climactically end that fight.
01:07:09
Speaker
Well, they can't have anything important happen. No, not with Kane. Kane's like the limp noodle of characters. You can't have anything ever exciting happen with Kane. I...
01:07:23
Speaker
I'm gonna progressively hate Kane more and more. You may be wondering, Corinne, how could you clearly are really annoyed with this character? How could you be even more annoyed? I'm sure I'll find a way. I won't disappoint!
01:07:42
Speaker
But yeah, so Kane's gone and that scene ends. And now to wrap up the issue essentially, it's evening and Scarlet Spider is sitting on top of the smokestack that he like originally met Peter Parker on.
01:07:59
Speaker
And he decides he's gonna throw away the hard drive. He like throws it into the lake or the river nearby because he has decided that he doesn't need any validation, but from himself. And I'm just like, that's nice. But at the same time, it's like, if you know of a medical condition, you know,
01:08:28
Speaker
You can maybe like be aware of some of the things that are going to happen. Like Dr. Trainer, I'm sure would have loved to have combed through some of this to maybe help his friend. I don't know. Well, cause the hard drive was just supposed to say that like he was the real Peter Parker.
01:08:48
Speaker
It's just like a word document says you win or like, I don't know if it would have been like lab tests or something. I have no idea science. I mean, I, I like the symbolism of, of what he does. He's like, this could just be like the question of like,
01:09:07
Speaker
do I need to see this to know who I am? Or has my last five years of my experience of like leaving New York and coming back and being the Scarlet Spider, has that made me enough of my own person? And he decides, yeah, that's made me enough of my own person. So I think that's good. And it seems kind of like in terms of like when he'll turn into goop, I think it seems kind of like the attitude of like,
01:09:35
Speaker
It'll happen when it happens. You're trying to like normal this, I guess, because it's like, you know, it's true. We won't talk about that, but no one ever knows anything. So, you know.
01:09:50
Speaker
Who's to say when you turn into goop or not? I don't know. And that's pretty, oh, there is an epilogue before, because everything keeps happening all the time. We're going back to the district attorney. It's just to remind us that there's a warrant coming out for people's arrest. And it's taken a long time to get because the person that they're going to be arresting hasn't really ever committed a crime. So it's like taking
Self-Validation and Growth
01:10:14
Speaker
a while.
01:10:15
Speaker
And in another town, Peter 3.0, he again took a nap by a dumpster and he's about to get mugged by a group of people. And he wakes up because he has Spidey senses, but he doesn't know that. And he just like defends himself with super Spidey skills and then like runs away. And it really confuses him. Cause he's like, I don't know what I just did. I don't know how I did that. That was pretty wild. Like a Jason Bourne kind of thing. Yeah. But also.
01:10:45
Speaker
Exactly like a Jason Bourne thing. I like the thought process, whatever these muggers had, of this guy is sleeping next to a dumpster. I bet he has things we can steal. Yeah, I don't really, I don't have the logic behind it, but it made for an interesting scenario. Yeah. But it's, again, it's really weird about Peter III. He's just like, what happened? I don't know.
01:11:15
Speaker
I feel like we should come up with a fun name for like P3 or something. P3PO. But then I'll think of P3PO. P3PO. There we go. Because it's got two P's in it. So P3PO is a good name. Right. I like it. I'm keeping it. Point in it. Things that I liked.
01:11:33
Speaker
So I was not the biggest Spidey fan going into this. I have other superheroes that I just prefer to read about. But I said it before. I'm saying it again. I really like Ben Riley. I think he's really swell. And I like watching him turn into his own person. And it's very nice to see a hero who's kind of going through
01:11:59
Speaker
learning self-confidence and self-validation. I guess the X-Men kind of go through similar things because it's like they feel different and they feel like outsiders. But I think that the themes of those books fall more with a community sense as opposed
01:12:19
Speaker
too much of an individual thing. And I could be wrong because I haven't read a ton of them. Or I don't think I've read any of them. I just watched movies and I could be wrong. And with Batman, it's got more to do with why is he protecting the city. It doesn't have to do with so much of himself. He knows his story.
01:12:39
Speaker
And it's more- Batman is one of the most self-confident people. Yeah. And it's more of just like, the question is like, why is he doing the things he's doing? Like, why is he protecting the city? Is it because of like his family or like whatever? And it was very cool to see a superhero just be like, sometimes I don't really know who I am. And like, I feel lost in the world.
01:13:09
Speaker
and like kind of watch them feel more comfortable with like, I am myself and I like myself because I'm me. And I'm like, Oh, we like you too. So I liked that. I thought that was a lot of fun. The art in this was much cleaner than last. It was nice to see that. That's my other thing. Okay. The things I didn't love as much. This could have been a really nice ending if you just
01:13:39
Speaker
left it with throwing the hard drive into the Hudson or whatever it was. Yeah. Well, it would be a good ending for Ben's plot here. And you can tell that this is where it was supposed to end. Yeah, they were really ramping up to this. And then maybe the next issue is Peter Parker's end, and then it would be done.
01:14:09
Speaker
And but it's not it like they keep adding like it's that epilogue that I don't like because it just reminds me that it's like this could have been a nice finite story but we have the loose ends that we brought like five issues ago or however many with like the web of life we have these detectives and I'm just like I don't
01:14:32
Speaker
If the detectives, you've got the, the, the P3PO. Yeah. And like, um, I think I'm most annoyed, like as much as I love, like, I think it's fun, the Jason Bourne thing they're doing with a Peter Parker. I just like kind of, I feel like it's too late. Yeah. I mean, I can see that. And like, it's just kind of weird. And like, I don't know, I'm just kind of tired of loose ends.
01:15:02
Speaker
And there was reading this as it was coming out. Yeah. And now that I'm thinking about it, like there's other loose ends that they just dropped. Like there were some things like I think with.
01:15:14
Speaker
web of no it wasn't web of life it was like power and responsibility no it was like the exile returns where it's like all of like the organized crime people are like we gotta get spider-man none of them have come back so it's like why does all these other people have to come back right and it's honestly i a lot of them have to come back because of my number one con because they still have cane in here
01:15:41
Speaker
That's why. The only reason the detectives are still here is because Cain is here. And it's just like. Yeah, if you remove Cain from this, you could. This is still a good story. If you remove Cain. You could tie up everything. Yeah, and it could be done. But for some reason they were like, we gotta add a veiny blue man. Yeah. And give him no context. And it really, if you can't tell, this is me all.
01:16:09
Speaker
Anyway, we're going to go to the last thing. Love the energy you had to transition there. Listen, it's been a while and I feel like people just want to get to the end.
01:16:25
Speaker
Hey guys, this is Derek from the Editing Booth. Speaking of getting to the end, we have actually decided to stop this episode here. Corinne and I kept recording and we have another episode coming out that will be focused specifically on Amazing Spider-Man 400 and that should be out next week. We got to the point in this episode
01:16:48
Speaker
where it was already pretty long. And when we got to Amazing Spider-Man 400, it went even longer. And we just realized that, I mean, Amazing Spider-Man 400 was kind of like its own topic, so it should be handled that way. With that being said, I hope you guys stick around and we'll see you on the next episode. For those of you that want to follow us, you can find us on whatever social media you want just by searching
01:17:17
Speaker
at pedantic cast. You can go to www.comicallypedantic.com. You can also go to www.fuckcomicsgate.com if you want to donate to the Games and Online Harassment Hotline. We'll be back with another deep dive into comics, but until then, you can find more exciting adventures at your local comic shop.
01:17:54
Speaker
I don't know what energy I'm on today. I don't know, but ending that with, I love when old people wake up. I do. It's very reassuring for me. I don't know. Maybe I too will wake up. I'm still sleep right now. I'm just sleep operating.
01:18:19
Speaker
Okay, I'm fine. Everything's fine. I gotta stop drinking my sparkly water. I'm gonna have to pee soon. We have so much more to go through. It's fine. Anyway, back to Spider-Man. You know why... Sorry, I burped. Excuse me! I don't know, it'd be pretty cool if you had a mutant baby.
01:18:40
Speaker
I think it depends on the mutant ability because you could be right back into the talking about Twilight with the baby slowly killing you. I don't know. We should just have a day where we just talk about what we think our mutant power would be and why, but that's for a different day. We gotta talk about Spiderman.
01:19:09
Speaker
I am, I'm going to, I'm going to pull us aside just for a second. Cause I will say the power that I like.
01:19:18
Speaker
I don't know if I like it the most cause I would love to be able to teleport. I love night crawler, but the mutant power that I think is super interesting and you could do a lot with, and that I think I could do a lot with just in terms of if you made it about stress and not necessarily about like physical stress, but like, like emotional stress, uh, is there's a character named strong guy and who has a silly name.
01:19:46
Speaker
because he named himself to be silly. Strong guy has the ability, if he gets hit by something, he kind of absorbs that as power and it makes him stronger for whatever. He has to hit somebody to let go of that energy. If not, it forms into, he has a deformed body because he hasn't always done that. Yeah, because it's like if you get hit with a filing cabinet,
01:20:16
Speaker
Right. There's a, there's a point in like one, one X-Men, uh, is your X factor. I think he like stops, uh, like a, uh, like a bus or something. Then he ends up having a heart attack afterwards because it's just so hard on his body and he couldn't release all of the energy fast enough. You know, he's not a walk around like kickboxing dummy or something.
01:20:42
Speaker
Right. Anyway, sorry, you brought that up and I was like, I need to talk about this because Strong Guy is a great character and not enough people know who he is. That's okay. Anyway, back to Spider-Man.