This is not a troll thread, i'm trying to generate some discussion here.
Okay now that that's out of the way, let's begin.
First off, I know exactly what most of you are thinking. "What is this madman talking about? Bendis's run on Ultimate Spider-Man is a great if not the greatest Spider-Man run of all time!" And I agree, it's a very good run, and so is the Ultimate run of Miles Morales.
However, it did have unintended consequences that did tremendous damage to the Spider-Man character.
When Bendis was writing Ultimate Spider-Man he was interpreting Spidey through the lens of a modern re-telling. Since the life of a modern teenager wouldn't have the background of the obvious social and political events of the sixties (Civil Rights movements, Vietnam, etc.) He doesn't have to think about these things, Peter has less on his plate to worry about, and since he's still in high school he gets a chance to take it easy before he has to start thinking about the future. Bendis shows this by having him instead focused primarily on getting girls, popularity, and being enamored by the super hero life style. Since Spider-Man is still a high school student in this universe he does dumb things because teens are still figuring things out and are likely to make mistakes along the way. He makes a bunch of sloppy mistakes and embarrasses himself on occasion when working with other super powered folks. We'll talk more about this later.
Ultimate Spider-Man then went on to be a smash success with the youth of the then modern era and as a result, other people began to mimic what Bendis was doing with the Ultimate universe.
It started off simply enough, for some reason Bendis decided the Shocker was dumb, and started using him as a punching bag villain, which went on into 616. Modern Shocker is a loser who gets no respect, even though most of his 616 history is him being a tough guy. This also is what happened to Peter Parker.
The carefree slacker attitude was also transplanted into the 616 universe along with the fumbling that came with it. Modern 616 Peter Parker was then transformed into a version of Ult-Peter. He's now getting punked by everybody who calls themselves a superhero, and nobody likes him. He's awkward to talk to and he's a doofus.
But here is the difference between Bendis and the modern 616, he was moving Peter away from that early characterization. Early on with his Kingpin arc, he started dismantling teen Pete's dreams of an idyllic superhero life. He begins to figure out that other superheroes are not flawless. They're just human beings trying to do the right thing, but they're mostly powerless in matters of law. He starts to realize there's more to crime than just superviallins. He learns about deep seeded corruption that he can't just be punched away. He becomes disillusioned by a broken system that rewards selfishness, and cut throat tactics and bullies who are just untouchable and the society that creates them. He draws a parallel with Flash and how people just let Flash do what he wants because he's popular, but soon when he's older he's going to hurt someone if he keeps it up. This made Ult-Peter engaging because it's a feeling everyone politically conscious has felt at one point or another.
The Ultimates don't want to give him a chance, but he keeps working hard and soon they start to believe in him. Nick Fury does too, and it's just Ult-Cap who doesn't, until Spidey saves his butt. Spider-Man progresses as a hero, and a person. The steady change makes him exciting.
However, modern Spider-Man does not advance, and giving him the early characteristics of Ultimate Peter makes no sense given the context of 616. Peter Parker is probably 30 something years old in universe. He's no amateur, he's been around the block several times, and he should have the experience to show for it. He learned how to socialize like a normal person in college. He shouldn't be awkward and weird around his Avengers colleagues. This characterization just doesn't work.
Ultimate Peter could be awkward because he was the new kid on the block, and was still trying to find himself. A goofy kid trying to do the right thing was endearing because he was still a teen and he was working towards being a good man. It's not quite as endearing when he's a 30 year old man. That's why people call him Spider-Manchild. He's acting like a dude who never learned how to grow up and it's flushing all his years of development down the toilet. (I'm still mad Joe Q, you miserable jerk.)
Peter is now regressed and stagnant, which is worse than just being stagnant. He's a complete loser, and that's the way everyone perceives him. He isn't progressing at all. Seeing a 30 something year old man act like a high school kid is cringe inducing, and honestly Superior shouldn't have ended until a Spider-Man writer who could write Peter like an adult was writing it.
Tl;dr: Bendis wrote a great story about a silly kid who wants to do the right thing and starts growing into adult. Slott and friends are just doing a cheap knock-off version without any of the growing up parts. Peter Parker is being characterized like a 15 year-old doofus when he's a 30 year old and that's creepy.
Thoughts?
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