The online behavior of Comic Book Professionals

[Ben Smith]

In your world, disagreeing with you is "caring way too much about anything".

that's definitely a fair assumption to make about someone based on opinions on Spider-Man.

or maybe

I spend my life sacrificing my time with my family, and possibly my life, in service to my country. so maybe you don't know as much as you think.

[Ben Smith]

I think Dan Slott should be able to understand the many fans that think Spider-Man is important to them. I don't think Dan Slott should laugh at and mock fans in videos when he's the self proclaimed "World's biggest Spider-Man fan". He (and those who think that video was a-okay) should look up the word "empathy". As for being "way too uptight", it's about not having the same opinion as you, once again.

^uptight....

[Lars C]

I'm just going to say it flat out, the only people that get bent out of shape by solicitations and message board chatter, are people that can't take a joke, and don't have a sense of humor. Everyone else that does, has a great time interracting with the writer and editor of Spider-Man.

Having fun with the solicitations (and who reads solicitations?) is not disrespectful to anyone, because it's not targeted at anyone in specific. Not being uptight about reading a comic book, does not make one a "Stan", I'd hesitate to guess it makes one a more well-adjusted individual.

I want you to go tell someone at work, or on the street, that people were making jokes about Spider-Man on the internet, and see how serious they take your complaints.

SO if someones doesn't have the same sense of humor as you, they don't have a sense of humor? Of course everyone doesn't care about comics, but you can apply that attitude on almost everything else. If the management staff of any sports team talked like that, and mocked their fans, the said fans wouldn't be so keen either. To excuse that kind of behavior with "it's comics. Get real" isn't really an argument. There is nowhere people should behave like that.

[Lars C]

that's definitely a fair assumption to make about someone based on opinions on Spider-Man.

or maybe

I spend my life sacrificing my time with my family, and possibly my life, in service to my country. so maybe you don't know as much as you think.

So the fact that you're a military man makes you...what? We all have other things in our life, yet we both find the time to sit on this message board and read the comics. But that's still your standard argument here. If someone doesn't agree with you, you say they are uptight, hint that you have more of a life, etc.

[Lars C]

^uptight....

Okay, empathy was overdoing it, how about respect? They don't teach that in military school?

[Mikey Brown]

I can think of at least one fight between a X-board member and Peter David.

And then there was the guy that pretty much stalked Kurt Busiek for years because of the thing with Thor being bulletproof. I mean, trust me, it's out there.

Damn, I remember that! Crazy things on cbr....

[mistergoodman]

Spider-Man is one of the nicest guys in comics. He's kind, relaxed and always tries to do what is right. It's a shame (and quite odd, to me anyway) that he has such an intense fanbase.

I mean, there is quite a bit of bile and spite on these forums alone. Not to mention the more 'extreme' fan gatherings, and then these ridiculous death threats. For a group of people that claim to know and enjoy a certain character, collectively 'we' as fans have learnt little from him

Ironic, innit?

I really enjoyed Slott's Amazing Spider-Man, and I'm really enjoying his Superior Spider-Man. With luck this will permanently boost the book for quite a while, as people discover what a great job Slott is doing with this character. I suspect even after the normal erosion, sales will stay a bit higher on this book than Amazing was unusually delivering.

[mistergoodman]

I have it on good authority that the New 52 reboot experiment is coming to an end

Emergency DC retreat was held. The old DCU is coming back.

Old DC? You mean they're going back to giving Superman a new origin every couple of years?

I do think it would be cool if somebody developed a "claim chowder" app. Paste a dubious prediction into the app along with a date, and it would pop up and remind you later once the claim had been proven true or false. The New 52 gave new readers an easy and modern jumping on point for years to come. They will likely continue to restore elements of the old continuity, like Power Girl's costume. I can't see them chaining themselves again to so much history, when they can tell more stories and appeal to more new readers without it. Clearly the New 52 didn't cause DC's sales to plummet, so why abandon it? But hey, time will tell. DC's editorial direction is certainly erratic.

I do think that Marvel has been able to make their decades of continuity into a real asset with the right writers (like Slott). But that really wasn't the case with DC, I think.

[Lars C]

I think Ben Smith just spreads these rumours because he wants DC to fail. I can only speak from my own experience, but I have tried to get into the DC universe before, not really succeeding. The New 52 was a good jumping on point. Even if I've dropped a few books, I currently read five from DC, which is five more than I read about five years ago.

[USERNAME TAKEN]

Old DC? You mean they're going back to giving Superman a new origin every couple of years?

I do think it would be cool if somebody developed a "claim chowder" app. Paste a dubious prediction into the app along with a date, and it would pop up and remind you later once the claim had been proven true or false. The New 52 gave new readers an easy and modern jumping on point for years to come. They will likely continue to restore elements of the old continuity, like Power Girl's costume. I can't see them chaining themselves again to so much history, when they can tell more stories and appeal to more new readers without it. Clearly the New 52 didn't cause DC's sales to plummet, so why abandon it? But hey, time will tell. DC's editorial direction is certainly erratic.

I do think that Marvel has been able to make their decades of continuity into a real asset with the right writers (like Slott). But that really wasn't the case with DC, I think.

Well said.

Marvel has really been good with mining the parts of continuity that work and simply ignoring the parts that don't.

DCs editorial is really.....weird at the moment. So much randomness and so much creator discontent.

It's all very odd stuff. That being said, I doubt DC will reverse the new 52. The re-boot was a hail mary and I don't see them summersaulting backwards to restore the previous continuity.

[Ben Smith]

So the fact that you're a military man makes you...what? We all have other things in our life, yet we both find the time to sit on this message board and read the comics. But that's still your standard argument here. If someone doesn't agree with you, you say they are uptight, hint that you have more of a life, etc.

not that I have more of a life. just your constant suggestions that I am a bully and I only care about what I believe, is kind of offensive as I sit here in Afghanistan.

but you stick with your victimization claims, about Marvel targeting you to laugh at you. it doesn't look crazy at all.

[Ben Smith]

Old DC? You mean they're going back to giving Superman a new origin every couple of years?

I do think it would be cool if somebody developed a "claim chowder" app. Paste a dubious prediction into the app along with a date, and it would pop up and remind you later once the claim had been proven true or false. The New 52 gave new readers an easy and modern jumping on point for years to come. They will likely continue to restore elements of the old continuity, like Power Girl's costume. I can't see them chaining themselves again to so much history, when they can tell more stories and appeal to more new readers without it. Clearly the New 52 didn't cause DC's sales to plummet, so why abandon it? But hey, time will tell. DC's editorial direction is certainly erratic.

I do think that Marvel has been able to make their decades of continuity into a real asset with the right writers (like Slott). But that really wasn't the case with DC, I think.

if two inside sources for DC is a dubious prediction, feel free to come back to me in a year and tell me I was wrong.

look, I wasn't there, but the sources are legitimate. the order to change it back came from Didio and Lee's heads. believe it or don't, I have nothing invested in it either way.

[Lars C]

not that I have more of a life. just your constant suggestions that I am a bully and I only care about what I believe, is kind of offensive as I sit here in Afghanistan.

but you stick with your victimization claims, about Marvel targeting you to laugh at you. it doesn't look crazy at all.

I think you have a tendency to talk down to people who don't agree with your opinions. How is that you're sitting in Afghanistan an argument to claim otherwise?

I don't think Marvel is targeting me in particular, I think the Spidey office should show more respect and appreciation to their fans, not ridicule and laugh at them in videos and on the internet. I'd like to see somewhere that they appreciate their readers. It can't be so hard, I see other creators doing it all the time.

[Jim Thompson]

I think Dan Slott should be able to understand the many fans that think Spider-Man is important to them. I don't think Dan Slott should laugh at and mock fans in videos when he's the self proclaimed "World's biggest Spider-Man fan". He (and those who think that video was a-okay) should look up the word "empathy". As for being "way too uptight", it's about not having the same opinion as you, once again.

While I'm all for empathy, perhaps some of the people who have differing opinions about the character of Spider-Man and what Mr. Slott is doing should look up the word "civility". Much of the verbage launched his way seems to lack that.

[Lars C]

While I'm all for empathy, perhaps some of the people who have differing opinions about the character of Spider-Man and what Mr. Slott is doing should look up the word "civility". Much of the verbage launched his way seems to lack that.

Well, that's the problem on both parts, isn't it? There are examples of that in this very thread. Civility and respect are two better words than empathy, and I corrected myself there. I don't think I'm one who particularly uses "verbage" against the Spidey staff, at least I try to avoid that.