I apologize for the person about to fill up your timelines.

FIRST: Peter Parker's more comparable to Goku than Superman ever was, because the stuff most nerds love them for is way easier to take if they're kids, horrifying if they're old enough to have families of their own. https://twitter.com/spideyupdated/status/1380107207912652800

That's not to say Peter shouldn't grow up, of course. Marvel editorial's fascination with him as some kind of glorious eternal 20's is very creepy. But what a lotta nerds want is the "MARY JAAAAAANE!" guy and that guy is not an adult.

This is part of why Spectacular Spidey's the better show, because it's thesis is a) no one's quite who you think they are, b) you are allowed to fuck up but you're not allowed to obliviously hurt people. The reason Spec!Pete keep fucking up is he's 16 years old.

You can't say he should know better, he's LEARNING. Which is why a lotta terrible nerds hate that show and that specific interpretation of the character. He's not a noble sufferer. He's as downtrodden AND as responsible as any of us.

*Spec Spidey is *one of the better shows*, sorry

But yeah, faceless funny guy who's inherently great and would be beloved if people just knew how great and is also absolved of personal responsibility because he says "Responsibility" a lot. Not hard to see why internet nerds would go hard for this character.

Speaking of terrible nerd stand ins: Venom (and the entire symbiote concept) would have been way better off if it had all been developed as an independent thing that had nothing to do with Spidey.

That way they might've been allowed to be interesting, instead of decades of Marvel trying to JUSTIFY Venom's popularity.

Spidey voice actor discourse is specifically toxic because it's an extra kind of "No, MY favourite is the best!"

You'd think the ultimate everyman character could sound like anybody, but nope! Gotta sound like mY cHiLdHoOd.

I would love if Josh Keaton were to come back to the role someday, but honestly given how many video games have brought back actors to guarantee positive PR, I'd really only wanna hear him long term if he was a Spider-dad type in a Miles thing.

Also Chris Barnes is a nice guy and a fine actor who is *directed* to sound melodramatic, but I don't think people would dig him as Peter AT ALL if he hadn't had the part when they were five.

Marvel/Disney should just make him Venom full time because other than "My childhood!"/"MARY JAAAANE!" his symbiote performance is what most fans really talk about when he comes up.

And honestly, I'm going with Venom because they probably will not go all in on a 2099 Miguel O'Hara show. Look at that costume with it's Blade Runner skull motif and tell me his voice does not make infinitely more sense coming out of that than Spider-Man.

I love Rino Romano Spidey. That's not at all controversial, I know, I just love him to bits and hope he's doing well.

Think Spidey would work really well as a horror super hero (One who fights horror concepts, not one who is a horror monster) but one problem with that is that cape comics only really have one method of horror: "Oh no, he's a serial killer now!"

Which sucks, because Spidey is one of those great flexible concepts. You can put it through really any kind of filter and still have everything that makes it tick.

But Marvel/fandom tend to focus on his more soap operatic/whoa is me shit, so you get elseworlds tailored to work around THAT stuff, not to actually have fun with everyman in a horror/noir/whatever setting.

This is part of why Spider-Verse playing Spidey Noir for comedy is the only worthwhile use of the character.
A) His stories are not actually noir.
B) You think this is the first time we had overly serious "lookit me im all fucked up" Spidey?

On that note, I respect the hell out of J.M. DeMattis. But really only like his comedy Spidey stuff. I'm very much not a fan of Last Hunt or Child Within.

But on the other hand? I'm a sucker for The Lost Years, warts (Kane based and otherwise) and all. And I think part of the beauty of Spidey is that a writer like DeMattis CAN take something that established and use it to tell what feels like some deeply personal stories.

Wanna explore your feelings on death and spiritualism? Also wanna just have a little laugh at how wonderful and absurd life is? You should be able to pull up a chair at that table.

Also DeMattis deserves all the respect in the world for writing not one, but two truly well made Spidey/Batman crossovers.

Because for real, Spider-Man and Batman is the most redundant and pointless crossover idea possible.

They are both THE headline acts of their respective publishers. They have been bounced off every single archetype. There is nothing but visual appeal to having them share space.

Dunno how controversial any of these have actually been, and this one certainly won't be: Brand New Day was good for Spider-Man but terrible for *Peter Parker.*

BND adds a bunch of stuff for *Spidey*, like FEAST and Mr. Negative, which Insomniac rightfully mined because they're good ideas and FEEL like a Spidey specific thing.

As does Peter going up against authoritarians, with Norman Osborn legitimised by the government, no less! But a lot of THAT works because you can do anything to Spider-Man, the *superhero*

But Spidey's big claim to fame had always been that it's a story about a person, and...no one, NO ONE likes Peter Parker as a person in BND. No one feels remotely sorry or relates to this abject loser.

Which is an overall problem with the Peter version of the character specifically. Lot of stores spending a lot of time telling you you're supposed to feel sorry for this nerd.

Sometimes BECAUSE he's a nerd, and this is the 21st century. Other nerds don't feel sorry for nerds.

In fact, from a friend who just saw this thread: "Nerds have poisoned their culture clout so much Flash Thompson calling Peter a beta and kicking him into a trash can basically makes him a hero"

Back to Insomniac for a sec, I think Ock would've worked way better if he was a reformed super villain who fell off the wagon.