Amazing Spider-Man #685 *SPOILERS*

[Mister Mets]

Some people seem bothered by the acidboarding scene.

Graeme Mcmillan comments on Newsarama.

his reminds me of the Secret Avengers scene in which Captain America, too, appears to condone others torturing villains. In both cases, the hero has the out of “Aw, they were just bluffing,” but… Even moreso than Cap, doesn’t Spider-Man seem like a character who should really be freaking out about this kind of thing and refusing to get involved? I understand the concept of “This’ll show just how high the stakes really are!” but still: Of all the Marvel characters, Spidey should be the one whose flirtations with a dark side are all internal, but who ultimately has a pretty unshakable moral center. The idea that he’s okay with torture (but only for a short amount of time, he’s not changed “that much”) is… depressing, really. Clearly, he’s been hanging around with Wolverine too much.

He was responding to a piece by Colin Smith.

Perhaps most sickening of all the many dubious aspects of Global Menace is the way in which Slott presents the bloody-handed Spider-Man as an entirely admirable human being fit to lead a superhero army in a “war” upon his enemies. “I have changed, but not that much.” muses the young-ish Mr Parker, congratulating himself on the thought that he wouldn’t have allowed the Sandman to be murdered. Well, torture’s only torture, isn’t it, and it was all in a good cause, whereas murder, it seems, would be the mark of a truly bad human being. If that beat of the story was designed to establish that Parker’s a self-denying moral imbecile, and I doubt it was, then it only raises the prospect of when he’s going to be tried and convicted for his crimes. Yet strangely enough, Slott seems convinced that Spider-Man remains not just one of the good guys’n'gals, but the guiding light of the costumed crimefighter’s community. For in a later scene in which Parker marshals the various heroes remaining on planet Earth., Slott has him appeal for the support of his longjohned fellows from the international community of super-people with the following example of self-righteous speechifying;

“I’m asking you to take a leap of faith. To stack my character up against (that of Doctor Octopus) and ask — “Who do you trust?”

How’s that for a super-person who’s quite forgotten all that hot-air about “great power” and “great responsibility”, and who seems to have utterly repressed the entirely compromising fact that he connived in the torture of the Sandman just a few moments before? (Perhaps he’s had his ego boosted and his conscience softened by the adoration of his partner-in-torture Silver Sable, who’s quick to declare “This man is a real hero.”) I’m sure that Uncle Ben would be proud of you, Peter, as would all those great Americans who, during times of terrible danger, rejected torture in any shape or form. After all, what could be more humane and American that the embracing of values and actions entirely inconsistent with, er, being either humane or American.

[stillanerd]

Some people seem bothered by the acidboarding scene.

Graeme Mcmillan comments on Newsarama.



He was responding to a piece by Colin Smith.

And speaking of which, here's the link to Colin Smith's blog posting at Too Busy Thinking About My Comics. Very thought-provoking and one of the most well-written criticisms of the "Big Time" era Spider-Man--and more recent characterizations of superheroes--I've ever read.

[Scott Taylor]

Huh. Spidey is sounding alot like Mac Gargan in that snippet.