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Now we've seen everything. In honor of Barack Obama's inauguration, Marvel Comics is publishing an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man in which Spider-Man helps prevent an evil plot against the President-Elect. Photographer Peter Parker knows something's up when, while taking pictures at the inauguration, he spots an evil twin Obama and employs basketball skills as a way to detect which Obama is the real one. No, we're not making this up. The issue, Amazing Spider-Man #583, hits shelves next Wednesday, January 14 ($3.99). Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief, said the issue was to give Obama, who has talked about how he used to collect Spider-Man comics growing up, a "shout-out back." Quesada elaborated, "How great is that? The commander in chief to be is actually a nerd in chief. It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We're all thrilled with that." While this does seem kind of silly, we admit we still think it's kind of awesome. The best part? When Obama and Spidey share a terrorist fist jab.
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Cue Matilda's wrath...
Sorry, I almost missed my cue :) I was out having a smoke.
I've think I've given up complaining about our generations' (say, 15-35) obsession with comic books. It is clear so many of us are nostalgic for our dearly departed childhoods, which I used to find sad, but now find rather funny.
In any case, I hope Marvel makes a boatload of cash off this. Someone needs to make money in this economy, and why not Marvel?
Boy, he sure does look groovy, doesn't he? Nearly heroic, too. I think I might faint from giddiness.
(Besides, this is a different issue entirely than going ga-ga over what one perceives as a real "down-to-earth" personality based on some silly TV show. This is only a silly comic book--they are supposed to be caricatures, and most people realize that.)
Don't sweep all comic books into the superhero category. Alan Moore's "From Hell" is as nuanced a novel as I've ever read. "Blankets" is a simply beautiful coming of age story. "Scott Pilgrim" is a brilliant comedy series.
Even superheroes can have their moments. "Watchmen" and Warren Ellis' "Planetary" are fascinating deconstructions of the power-fantasy.
And about it being a boys thing, some of the biggest consumers of Manga (japanese comics that run from light farce to porn to sci-fi to romance) are young women.
Check out Comix Revolution in Evanston or Chicago Comics on Clark. The sheer mass of amazing books in the medium of comics is staggering. Saying you don't like comics is like saying you don't like books or music.
Thanks for the info. That said, saying I don't like comics is not like saying I don't like books or music wholesale, but more like saying I don't like a certain form of literature (Victorian novels, for instance) or a certain form of music (Peruvian techno, perhaps).
Listen, I've tried to read some of the more nuanced comics, and while some are pretty good, all still value the illustration over the text (I prefer words to graphics), and all still make me feel as though they were written for 13-year-old boys (granted, some of these boys likely are literate, but still). Can't get over that roadblock when it comes to comics.
I feel the exact same way (in reverse) about vampire books or movies. The very idea of Twilight drives me nuts.
That said, saying I don't like comics is not like saying I don't like books or music wholesale, but more like saying I don't like a certain form of literature
I'd respectfully disagree. Comics, graphic novels and manga aren't simply a form of literature, they're a language all their own. Scott McCloud's work "Understanding Comics" (itself in graphic novel form) goes into some detail on the semiotics of comics share some elements of traditional art, literature and film but that it is a medium all it's own.
Listen, I've tried to read some of the more nuanced comics, and while some are pretty good, all still value the illustration over the text (I prefer words to graphics), and all still make me feel as though they were written for 13-year-old boys
I don't know what you've read but if you look at a work like "Jimmy Corrigan" which is the exploded out life story of one character told in the formats of a little nemo-style broadsheet/medical diagrams/Richard Scarey style cut-aways and a traditional narrative that runs from the Columbia exhibition to modern suburbia as something for teenage boys...well...those are some very savvy 13 year olds.
I get the preference of text to image, I'm much the same, but what excites me about graphic literature is how many stories are possible in it that are simply not something you can do anywhere else. The blending of word and image, done well, can be really amazing.
Mind you, I have very little time for superhero stuff. But judging comics by superheroes is like judging literature by the works of Dan Brown. Copies sold is no indicator of quality.
I'd really recommend "From Hell", especially if you lean towards the printed word over images. It even has a pretty deep appendix by the author, who poured over hundreds of sources to get the feel of 1888 London just so.
I totally agree about pretty much every single work you've listed. By the time I left college, they were actually teaching Maus, From Hell, and Watchmen in 400-level lit classes. I myself would not at all mind a class on Scott Pilgrim.
Respectfully, Albany, when you say that not liking comics is like not liking books or music, I find that confusing, given that I'm usually reading two books at the same time, and I listen to some pretty serious (that is, non-pop) music every day. I get this attitude from people all the time who like comic books and graphic novels; Most of those people, upon further examination, have only a passing knowledge of the so-called Great Books. Not trying to be snobby at all, only truthful. But I appreciate the information, and agree that comics/graphic novels are more than just guys in tights and capes, and acknowledge that the form can be literature. I would just prefer to have my own mind create the images instead of someone else doing it for me. I guess I'm old fashioned. (And that's one reason most movies bore me.)
I would just prefer to have my own mind create the images instead of someone else doing it for me. I guess I'm old fashioned. (And that's one reason most movies bore me.)
Nothing wrong with that. I'm the stick in the mud who thinks most "adaptations" to film are unnecessary. I view them as one possible take on the material (like the production of a play) while the work itself remains.
Another great book is "Eisner/Miller", it's an extended interview between Frank Miller and Wil Eisner, two giants in graphic novels. It's a pair of really fascinating creators hashing out the good, and often bad, of the medium. And it's mostly text ;)
Mine! Mine! I want it, Mommmy! Buy it for me NOW!!
I'm kind of suprised. Marvel's editor in chief Joe Quesada is a huge right wing nutso.
And Matilda, I think the big reason for the comic book obsession in our culture is that boys (and let's face it everyone involved is a boy or boy at heart) are looking for a release in our modern society. This is just wish fulfillment, pure and simple. And now that Obama has "power", he can be placed in the confines of this wish paradigm.
Really, he's a right-wing guy? I guess that means he's a good capitalist, too. Interesting
I think you are right about the boy's thing, etc.
I don't care who's filled with wrath over this, as a boy I think this is AWESOME!
Side note: I haven't looked at an issue of the Amazing Spiderman for a couple of decades now. It's weird for me to think they're up to issue #583. I still think of those as DC numbers. I'm getting old.
If John McCain had won I think they would have had Spider-Man save him from a slip and fall.
"I'm not protecting you Sir, I'm protecting us from the Vice President!"