Now, this lil' post today is not about the wall-crawler directly.
What do I call a "Peter Parker" in comics?
Simple, it's a character-driven superhero comic that is fun, bright, colorful and easy to read.
At least that's how Spider-man was at the beginning.
The 60's and 70's
Peter Parker - Spider-man
Spider-man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as this fun superhero book that anyone could pick and enjoy easily.Compared to other more social comics (the X-men and racism issues, Green Arrow and social problems..) or grim ones (Captain America and nazis, Sgt. Rock and war stories...)...
Spidey WAS fun.
Through all the 70s and with John Romita Sr. taking on the art duties, Peter Parker was this fun nerd who could be a hero and represented a sort of dream that every child has at least one. A double life, a super badass hero flying between Manhattan's buildings and helping out others.
He was a more down to earth kind of guy, compared to the other big selling heroes like Superman, Batman or the Fantastic Four.
He had real problems, issues, school to go to, had difficulties making friends or having a girlfriend..
Peter was this lovable and identifiable nerd superhero.
Sadly, the golden years of Peter ended in 1973, under the writer Gerry Conway.
With the death of Gwen Stacy in issue 121, the love of his life, Spidey took a turn for more serious and adult grounded stories.
Oh, there still was the occasional alien invasion, mad scientist and silly costumed villains to fight...but things never were the same again.
And from there on, Spider-man stories started to go in all directions, having multiple parallel on-going complicated plots and a less accessible universe for young comic book readers. (or if you just stopped buying 2-3 issues, you'd get as easily lost)Norman Osborn died, Harry died, Norman came back, died again, Gwen Stacy and Pete cloned by The Jackal in the 80s, Venom and Symbiote stories, Norman behind it all, dies, more clones, more symbiotes, Norman back again, some more clones, some more symbiotes, deals with Satan (okay, to be fair there's only been one deal), Norman behind some more plots, rewritting and complexifying Spider-man's back-history (with A Moment in Time), Harry's back and a good guy again, oops no he's a bad guy again, creating a complexe Spider-family that almost rivals Cyclops', hunting and killing more Spider-man's relatives, bastardization of old Spider-man villains (Doctor Octopus...-sigh-), keeping Spider-man's status quo like it was 40 years ago, bringing back Aunt May from the dead for the Xth time, more symbiotes, Norman behind many more Marvel events, oh and look clones are back too now!
The only good things to have come out in these recent years have been for me Ben Reily/Spidey's clone, which as a character wasn't that bad and better than the story he came from and Peter growing up, having a teaching job (the student became a mentor!) and the fun look back he had on his career sometimes.
I'm not saying any other Spider-man comic not written by Stan Lee wasn't good. I loved plenty of recent Spider-man stories, like The Other, etc.. Just it has never been the same anymore.
Meaning genuine simple easy-to-go fun. As in 'funny books'.
And I kinda miss this ol' innocence.
Anyway, I discovered myself most of these old stories from big showcase collections (in color) printed here.
Spider-man's not the only 'Peter Parker' of comic books. His book may be hard to jump in nowadays and as fun and light hearted as it was in the past, but other characters have been created since then that spotted the same energy, dynamism and well-intentioned hero.
The 90's
Danny Ketch - Ghost Rider
The 90s may have been all about rage and EXTREME!!! but the whole industry wasn't just writing convulted stories about giant guns, naked girls and disformed superheroes in ridiculous costumes.Just look at funny books from the 80s like Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Blue Devil or the Justice League International.
Anyway, when Danny Ketch, the new Ghost Rider entered the scene, it was the proof tjat there still was a place for simpler fun superhero books.This new Ghost Rider that came in 1990 was unlike the past one, Johnny Blaze.
Younger, fun, more relatable and no connections to Satan, Hell or the former GR (at first).
I "barely" count Danny as a Peter Parker. But at least the beginning of his run fits the trope.
Something happens to his sister (like Peter's Uncle Ben), he steps in, assumes his superhero identity (thanks to his magic bike) and the young hero was ready to face all the problem on earth, while having so many difficulties he couldn't face on his real life....
The book later on get more and more confusing.
Still awesome, mind you, just different. Like Spider-man's.
Johnny Blaze, Mephisto, Blackheart and many others (including child-killer Scarecrow - not related to the DC Comics one) entered Danny Ketch's life.
Today he's sort of in-between worlds.
The character still exists, but he's undecided if he's gonna stay a hero or continue to act emo 24/7...
I'll always remember Danny for his early run.
Fun. Different. And pretty cool!
(a skull head on fire!!! ON FIRE!!!)
Miguel O'Hara - Spider-Man 2099
In 1992, alongside all the other characters from the 2099 lineup Marvel created came in this far distant future another Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara.
Unlike the real classic Spidey, Miguel was an empty blanket the writers could play with.
While "in the 90s" Spidey, replaced by his clone, was facing down Venom, Carnage and a dozen other symbiotes while Mary Jane was kidnapped by a raper, Aunt May almost killed (again!) and the Avengers where
O'Hara was helping out people "in 2099", having fun with his spider-abilities and lots of responsabilities coming from great power.
It was sort of how Spidey's book should have been.
Of course he faced a lot of EXTREME!!! villains and had a Venom of his own too, but it didn't detract from this book's premise, didn't convult the storyline as much as Peter's and was still goshdarn' fun!
Kyle Rayner - Green Lantern
In 1994, while Hal Jordan, the more well known Green Lantern became the crazy killing monster Parallax (in a suit badass costume), Kyle Rayner was introduced as the new young and last Green Lantern of the Corps.
Kyle was, perhaps, the most Peter Parker-ysh of these characters introduced in the 90s.
Sadly, there was some debatable deaths in his book.
But from a more distant point of view today, I'd say it was necessary for him to grow into the hero he became.It was his "Uncle Ben".
Anyway, apart from that, Kyle's book was great, fun.
Adventure at its best. SPACE adventure!
Yet, the character was still relatable and became the nerdy hero of the 90s.
(I know, I know, nowadays he's all badass and stuff.. but that was sort of a natural evolution for him)
The 2000's
May Parker - Spider-Girl
Spider-girl's so cool I have to use two pictures for her!
She sure digs this pose :P
Spider-Girl came from a What If..? universe called MC2.
What if Peter Parker and Mary Jane's baby daughter didn't die at the hands of the Green Goblin? What if she would grew up to become a superhero, just like daddy?
May "Mayday" Parker appeared in the late 90s, in 1998.
The book was a fresh and original new start and look at the Spider-man series.
Spider-girl's books for me are the best successor to Stan Lee's era Spider-man comics.
It sports the same fun. The same spirit. Even the art tries to stay more conventional and a bit old fashioned in her title.
The comic even adapted at its flavour the symbiote stories and the clone saga. And it came out a hundred times better than in the actual main Spider-man comics.
Slighty-parodysh, self referential and with lots of reference, the book was also very accessible to novices and young readers.
Sadly, Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief, admitted several times not being a fan of the lineup "MC2". (like he probably wasn't of "2099" either) Saying it confused readers offering alternate stories.
No surprise the book was cancelled...several times!!
But thanks to fans, it was relaunched...again...and again.
The last we've seen of Spider-girl, in Spider-Man Family's backup stories, may just be the last we've seen of her.
With the other character, Araña, being rebranded under the name Spider-girl, it seems like we've finally seen hte last of the MC2 universe.
This universe looked like what the ol' Stan Lee's Marvel Universe would have actually looked like in our modern era. Unlike all this Skrull Invasion, SIEGE, Dark Avengers, Dead Avengers, World War Hulks non-sense...
(though I kinda liked Shadowland)
Jaime Reyes - Blue Beetle
In 2006, DC launched a new hero under the name Blue Beetle.
Jaime Reyes, like Spider-girl's at Marvel, was another worthy successor of Peter Parker.
The book, which was sadly cancelled at issue 36, was exactly what a modern Spider-man type of book would have look like.
Fun, colorful, silly alien invasions, crazy costumed villains... His backstory payed homage to both Dan Garrett and Ted Kord's Blue Beetle. It had lots of DC Universe allusions and guest characters, perfectly taking place in it. And was simply put a fun dynamic read.
Jaime was like Peter, a nerd being thrown into too much he can handle.
He had school to go to after superhero-ing. Had problems to deal with. Tried to hang out with friends.
At least Jaime had recently a co-feature in the Booster Gold comic.
It resolved some left open threads and was nice to have him back for a while.
The 2010's
Stephanie Brown - Batgirl
Which brings us to 2010.
Blue Beetle barely appears now.
Kyle Rayner evolved into a more serious character (I don't have a problem with that, but I miss his old book!)
Spider-man 2099 is no more, as is Spider-girl.
Danny Ketch's a completly different character now, with Johnny Blaze as the main Ghost Rider.
Stephanie Brown, the long-time sometimes girlfriend of (Red) Robin, past-Spoiler and former Robin herself has a new on-going book nowadays.
As Batgirl.
Since 2009, Steph has now probably the funniest superhero book, about a vigilante-type of character.
Her run until now has been great!
Amazing!
Fun, playing with the medium, colorful... She is today's Peter Parker in my eyes.
She goes to Gotham University by day, and kicks supervillains' ass by night.
Her book is also a great way to start off reading about the Bat-family.
A fresh breath in today's comics!
Specially with more realistic and gritty comics selling mad like Kickass, Nemesis, etc..
And on that note, I'll leave you with that.
'Reminds me I have another Steph' issue to read~
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