Comics are awesome.

[Onslaught Six]

Prowl said something in another topic about not really knowing what Hulk's origin 'is.' He said, "I know it's basically 'Gamma rays!' but that's about it."

Well, Prowl...actually yeah that is about it. Bruce Banner is working on Shit With Gamma Rays (it really varies from medium to medium) and he somehow gets affected with it. Sometimes he pushes some dude out of the way of the experiment, other times it just kind of fucks him up. Anyway, now he turns into the Hulk when he gets mad or horny or Bruce decides to.

Incidentally, Bruce Banner is the smartest and dumbest man ever:

[Dominic]

What I find hilarious about that panel is that Banner did not just Hulk out and go all "Ultimates" Hulk on them.


Dom
-that whole sequence is tasteless hilarity.

[Onslaught Six]

I think my favourite line is the part where he mentions "crush steel balls in his hands."

I mean, in context, that is just hilarious. Balls.

[138 Scourge]

"Oh, pith."?

[Ursus mellifera]

"Oh, pith."?

Yeah, I was wondering about that myself.

[Sparky Prime]

So the identity of the new Ultimate Spider-Man has been revealed...

Spoilers within the link!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-ult ... 10802.html

[andersonh1]

So the identity of the new Ultimate Spider-Man has been revealed...

Spoilers within the link!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-ult ... 10802.html

Affirmative action legacy character all the way. Not that it can't succeed despite that, but the choice reeks of political correctness and diversity for the sake of it. Still, could be an interesting experiment. Can a Spider-Man title succeed with a replacement lead character who's nothing like Peter Parker? I'm curious to see how it goes.

I'm all for more women and minority characters in comics, something for example that the Justice Society comic was doing very well with many of the legacy characters it introduced. I just hate to see a well-established character like Spider Man replaced with a minority rather than simply creating someone entirely new. It's like the comic industry can't come up with new ideas that last, so they have to go back and mess with old characters. At least it's the Ultimate universe.

[138 Scourge]

So the identity of the new Ultimate Spider-Man has been revealed...

Spoilers within the link!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-ult ... 10802.html

Affirmative action legacy character all the way. Not that it can't succeed despite that, but the choice reeks of political correctness and diversity for the sake of it. Still, could be an interesting experiment. Can a Spider-Man title succeed with a replacement lead character who's nothing like Peter Parker? I'm curious to see how it goes.

I'm all for more women and minority characters in comics, something for example that the Justice Society comic was doing very well with many of the legacy characters it introduced. I just hate to see a well-established character like Spider Man replaced with a minority rather than simply creating someone entirely new. It's like the comic industry can't come up with new ideas that last, so they have to go back and mess with old characters. At least it's the Ultimate universe.

I agree wholeheartedly with the last sentence, there. If this was the regular Marvel universe, this new guy would last until the new movie came out, tops. But since it's the Ultimate universe, there's a chance that this guy might be able to stick around and be his own character, even if he is a legacy guy.

I'm just glad that it's someone entirely new under the mask. I know there's been a stack of Spider-clones in the Ultimate books already, and having one of them be the new guy would have been the height of cheapness.

Worth noting, though, the Justice Society legacy guys got in there because of the exact same thing, though. The original Mr. Terrific and Johnny Thunder were killed off, and they installed these other dudes to fill their places. Other than Spidey being a bigger name than most of the JSA are, I don't see what the difference is. The Death of Spidey was a huge gimmicky mess with older characters thing, but having a black dude under the mask isn't any more gimmicky than anyone else taking over, way I see it.

As for the "Comic industry can't come up with new ideas that last"...well, they can't. I mean, they could toss tons of all-new characters out, but all-new characters have a harder time in comics these days. I think a lot of the fans (not exempting myself, here) just figure "Eh, what do I care about that character for?" and go find the newest issue of Green Lantern or Hercules or something. To use a not-particularly-recent-but-still-relevant example, remember Aztek? That was a pretty decent new character, and he had Grant Morrison and Mark Millar co-writing his damn book. This was when Morrison was on the JLA, so it's not like he was some nobody, y'know? Book lasted less than a damn year, because who gave half an eff about Aztek? If what it takes to get a strong black hero a shot in the superhero books is making him Spider-Man II, then I'm all for it. Hell, I'll even go out and buy his book to support the dude. If he's a horrible character, or if the book's dumb, I'm out, but I'll put my money where my big bazoo is and help give the new guy a shot.

Plus, again, it's Ultimate Spidey, he's not that old a character anyway, and being the younger version of Peter Parker's sort of a gimmick in itself. Hope I haven't come off hostile here, I really haven't been trying to be. And I know you're a levelheaded dude, so I don't think this is gonna get outta hand, but figured I'd best put in a disclaimer.

"Oh, pith."?

Yeah, I was wondering about that myself.

Reminds me of a great bit in Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. There's a character that speaks only in anagrams, and in one issue someone surprises him, causing him to yell out "THIS!" I'm easily entertained...

[andersonh1]

Worth noting, though, the Justice Society legacy guys got in there because of the exact same thing, though. The original Mr. Terrific and Johnny Thunder were killed off, and they installed these other dudes to fill their places. Other than Spidey being a bigger name than most of the JSA are, I don't see what the difference is.

I think the higher the profile of the character in question, the harder it is to get away with replacing them with a new minority version. It was easy with Mr. Terrific, a minor character whose original version had been dead for years, or with the Atom (Ray Palmer) who has never been all that successful. It's trickier with high profile characters like Spider Man who are so closely associated with a single alter-ego that the idea of replacing them with an unrelated minority becomes suspect, given the pc age we live in.

So I'm cynical about the move, but we'll see if they can sell it. I just object to the whole argument I've read several times that comics are "racist" because the majority of characters are white males, when that is only the case because of when the most successful characters were created. If DC and Marvel could have made more concepts stick in the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. there would be more diversity in comics without having to pull stunts like Ultimate Spider-Man is doing.

I just hate sacrificing good, long-lasting characters on the altar of diversity for the sake of diversity.

The Death of Spidey was a huge gimmicky mess with older characters thing, but having a black dude under the mask isn't any more gimmicky than anyone else taking over, way I see it.

I think ending the book by killing off the main character is a real downer. I can't say I even like that idea.

Hope I haven't come off hostile here, I really haven't been trying to be. And I know you're a levelheaded dude, so I don't think this is gonna get outta hand, but figured I'd best put in a disclaimer.

No, not at all. I didn't take your tone as hostile at all. I get where you're coming from.

[138 Scourge]

So I'm cynical about the move, but we'll see if they can sell it. I just object to the whole argument I've read several times that comics are "racist" because the majority of characters are white males, when that is only the case because of when the most successful characters were created. If DC and Marvel could have made more concepts stick in the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. there would be more diversity in comics without having to pull stunts like Ultimate Spider-Man is doing.

I just hate sacrificing good, long-lasting characters on the altar of diversity for the sake of diversity.

I don't know if I'd say that comics are racist, but when you've got things like Ray Palmer and Ron Raymond coming back and replacing the minority versions of their superhero identities within a few months of each other...man, that just looks bad. Even if it's not done with malicious intent, it doesn't look good. And it's not like either Ron or Ray could sell a regular book for any length of time, either, so I don't know what the point was, there. That said, I did really like when the Atom got stuck at six inches and became a barbarian warrior among a hidden race of other tiny people. That was good comics, right there.

If more characters could work as well as Luke Cage has lately, then? Cage was basically a blaxsploitaion parody, but Bendis' man-crush on him got the guy into the Avengers, and now he's on both teams, and is leading one. And it feels right, not forced. The good news is that Bendis is writing the new Spider-stuff, so that's a good sign that this character might go well. I see where you're coming from on the "sacrificing good characters" thing, but...Ultimate Spidey was certainly his own dude, a very different Peter Parker than the original, but the fact that the original's still around sort of says that the character hasn't been sacrificed, exactly. You can still see regular Peter Parker doing his thing, it's just that the new guy'll be around, too.

You know, this conversation's done convinced me to pick up Static's new book come reboot time, too. Here's an original minority character that's just fuckin' awesome on his own merits, even if he does bite a few moves from Spider-Man's formula.

The Death of Spidey was a huge gimmicky mess with older characters thing, but having a black dude under the mask isn't any more gimmicky than anyone else taking over, way I see it.

I think ending the book by killing off the main character is a real downer. I can't say I even like that idea.[/quote] Yeah, but as bleak as it sounds, he died smiling. He'd taken out his worst enemy, and saved the people he cared about, especially his Aunt May. Closer to Dinobot's death than Ironhide's, if you dig it.

Hope I haven't come off hostile here, I really haven't been trying to be. And I know you're a levelheaded dude, so I don't think this is gonna get outta hand, but figured I'd best put in a disclaimer.

No, not at all. I didn't take your tone as hostile at all. I get where you're coming from. [/quote] Yeah, I figured that you would, but there's always the off chance, y'know? If we'd tried this conversation on TFW, I'm sure all hell'd have broken loose.