My mistake. At least you didn't take offense at the (correct) implication that Claremont is terrible.

Not once I considered the source.

I tend to focus on the words of a comic and read it very quickly, sometimes missing the art as a result. I have to force myself to look away from the story.

Another of the donated trades I’ve been reading recently is “The Death of Gwen Stacy.” This is a 1990s compilation of the 1973 story arc. I had never before read the original story. It must truly have been a shocker to the original readers. The story still holds up, though it is naturally somewhat dated in places.

The story shows strikingly little dialog or thought ballooning on Gwen’s part. She’s clearly there to play the role of victim to make Peter Parker’s life miserable. In that sense you could say she was one of the very first examples of the “women in refrigerators” phenomenon. In fairness to writer Gerry Conway, it was to be some years before killing and brutalizing the women in a superhero’s life became depressingly common practice. Also, Gwen had a previous history as a recurring character—unlike some other WIFs, who give the impression of having been created for the express purpose of being victimized to give the hero something to angst over.

Like other deceased characters Gwen has been the object of a sort of grave-robbing, having been brought back in the form of assorted clones, alternate universe versions, and ludicrous retcons. More interesting is her afterlife as a figure in Peter’s haunted memory. “The Death of Gwen Stacy” trade includes a 1990s short story in which Peter thinks over what she meant to him. This theme was further developed a few years later in “Spider-Man: Blue”. In these stories she comes across less as a three-dimensional character than as Peter’s idealized memory equivalent of the deceased “angels” of Victorian sentiment.

That’s understandable—Gwen is, after all, a supporting character in stories starring Peter. But I can’t help feeling like becoming an idealized object of that sort has kept her from being a more fully realized character. What was Gwen like in that majority of her life that didn’t intersect with Peter’s? What was she “really” like as a person? What were her thoughts, plans for the future, likes and dislikes? She serves her purpose as a fictional story element well enough without all this, I guess, but it makes me think about how we treat the memories of real-life deceased loved ones. If we’re not careful we can start to think of them only in terms of what they were to us, as if they were only an extension of our own egos—instead of full human beings who had stories that go well beyond our own.

God, what a good comic is All Star Western. Pairing him with a character like Amadeus Arkham was a stroke of genius.

Also, bonus appearance of the Magiani. WIN.

This is my favorite comic book. Main story, backup, everything.

It's an extremely solid comic book. I can't find any faults in it. Everything is very strong.

I'm a fan of the way the duo structure their stories. The story is long running, but each individual part runs two or three issues.

While grilling out today, I read Thief of Thieves #1 and Saga #1 on the iPad. Both were pretty good! I think I'll buy more Saga though. Epic sci-fi is sorely missing from comics, and this pushes all my buttons, in a good way. It's got humor, action, world-building, nudity, racism, war ... pretty much something for everyone.

I've read the first two issues of Saga, and I'll stick with it because it is good, but it's a bit annoying too: the witty repartee is one-note with everyone sharing the same smartarse sense of humour (I.e. Vaughan's), and it's all a little bit right on. This aside, I'm still onboard.

I'm reading the James Roberts-scripted Transformers title digitally. I'll grab Steve's criteria for quality epic SciFi and apply it to this book; it's got it all except for nudity which is incoherent when applied to Transformers who are always in the altogether.

I like stories where everyone shares the same smartass sense of humor. See the Avengers movie.

Ok, yeah. Maybe Whedon does it better than Vaughan.

I dunno, the Avengers movie started at the beginning, instead of starting at the middle and then flashing back.

Pretty amateurish writing, if you ask me.

Just re-read the Marvels project and I enjoyed it a lot. Epting has officially become my favorite artist and this is the way you write more modern "realistic" heroes.

Not everyone cracks wise.

Or is a superhero because he or she is mental.

Notice there were no origin stories whatsoever.

Because they were all done in the amatuerishly written Iron Man, Thor and Captain America movies.

Also, it was a origin story. For the team.

God, Whedon is a hack.

Not really. The Avengers Initiative was dead. The group assembled in the movie The Avengers is a response team of soldiers. They're not the Avengers until next time.

Of course, I'm full of shit. Tony even says they're the Avengers.

The events of the movie are shown in chronological order.

Hackwork.

The Stephen King method. No flashbacks, no flash forwards. I kinda like it.