To the Editor (01-Apr-2002)

 In: Letters > Editor > 2002
 Posted: 2002
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)
From viper

Hello could you please stop a confilict between me and my friend because it is becoming outragous the fights we have together; ok who would win between my favorite Dr. Octopus or his favorite Venom thank you for your time please write back and stop this confilct thank you again.

...or you could agree to value each others point of view, abide by the existing UN resolutions, establish and respect independent and internationally recognised states - hence avoiding this senseless and self-destructive conflict?

From Andrew

I'm working on an article that takes a "realistic" look at the costs of being Spider-Man. Pretending the comic book Spidey was real, what sort of cost would he incur? (Monthly Manhattan rent, cost of web fluid, repairs to his web shooters, etc.). I was just curious if you knew of any good resources that may help point me in the right direction for some of this?

Pretending that the comic books is real, Spider-Man could have brought back a single object from any of his space adventures and sold it for an unimaginable sum. Hence costs would be irrelevant.

I could go on, but this sort of speculation is reversing years of expensive therapy designed to help me differentiate fantasy from reality. If you really want to know what it would be like to live as Spider-Man... then you're going to need a spider, and a source of radiation. See where this is leading?

From SpeedBlaze

why didn't Peter wear ben's costume and why didn't ben wear pete's costume. I just have to know.

This is a perfect place for a little role-playing scenario. Let's imagine you share a room with a close friend. You wake up in the morning, and you're late for class. Whose clothes do you put on, yours or his?

See my point here?

From Andrew

By the way, I really do like your site. Very keen. However, I think sometime you guys should think about adding a real image archive... I've been looking for some stuff on Mangaverse spidey, and images from the book are hard to come by... Same goes with all mangaverse.

I can think of one really great way to pick up all of the images from the mangaverse book... or any other comic for that matter. Let me give you a hint, it involves some sort of currency, and a contract to purchase. Delivery is optional.

But sarcasm aside, there are a number of really good reasons why we don't scan all the images from the comics and put them on the web. Here's some of the main ones.

  1. It would cost us a lot - time and bandwidth (which equals money).
  2. It's not interesting.
  3. It's illegal.
  4. It undermines the very artists and businessmen who bring us the comics.
From Sanghoony88

Was Peter Parker's age ever mentioned? Not for the ultimate spidey, but amazing spidey.

Any particular age during the last 35 years that you're interested in? Peter's "age" does tend to move up and down quite a bit.

From Robert

Just a suggestion, I really like this site, but I think it would be really cool to have a free e-mail account service, like someone@spiderfan.org for example.

Hey, cool! Marvel should do that. I'd love to be editor@marvel.com. And they should have, like a virtual library, where you can choose your own free online comic collection, and then press a button, and they print the comic in color, and FedEx it to you for free. They would get heaps of people visiting. Man, they're stupid. They should do that too, for free.

Hey, we could do it, like for free and everything. But we'll need to find somebody to pay to do all this stuff. Hey, Robert, you could pay, and then it would be, like, free for everybody! That would be really cool.

From Jeff Conner

I would love to post my Spider-Armour tattoo on your site. I don't see any way to attach the file for you. If you could send me a camera I'll take a picture for you, and send the camera back (please send a "nice" camera).

Last month we featured some fan art, and this month, we're featuring five new Spidey tattoos that I've been sent over the last while. You'll find them over on the Fans : Tattoos page. There's new tattoos up there from Jeff (who has kindly returned my Nikon), Sean, Rob, Tim and Todd - plus all the tattoos from years gone by.

From AC

I have gone through the Nuff Said editions for Peter Parker#38 and Amazing #39. Part of the plots are in the comic, but for the rest ot says to go to the marvel website. For some strange reason, the marvel website is missing those two plots. I emailed them questioning this, but no response was given.

I was wondering if you have any information about why the plots are not posted and where I can find these plots on the web.

Well, far be it from me to say "I told you so", but let me refer you to my Rave Continued On 8-Track Cassette... from a couple of months back.

The whole point about comics is that you buy something real that you can keep on a shelf and go back to. Something tangible. That's part of the magic that makes comics work. It's obvious that holding a book in your hands, containing a complete story, is a key and integral aspect of the comic experience.

The e-comic experience may work, but it's a different experience. Trying this kind of faster-than-the-eye comic to e-comic swap on people is just going to lead to exactly this sort of frustrating experience. Vanished hyperlinks, and email addresses that don't give a reply. Anybody who knew anything about comics and the internet saw this coming a mile off. It's just a shame that the Marvel Marketeers didn't have those skills.

I'm sorry, but I can't help you. Try the fair trading comission. That's where this rip-off should lead to.

From Kega

I am looking for a bootlegged copy of the Spiderman Movie. If you have any sugestions as to how to find it I'd really like to know.

Well... as a Spider-Man fan, working on a mainstream fan, I of course have the same aims as yourself. I too will be looking for a bootleg copy, so that I can undermine the fundamental commercial premises that support the movie making industry. I'll be doing my best to make sure that the Spider-Man movie is seen for free by everybody who wants to see it.

In fact, like yourself, my perfect scenario would be for the movie to open to empty theatres... with every single fan viewing poor-quality rip-offs on their home computer screens. That way we can make sure that the movie is a big commercial flop, and ensure that Sony don't do anything stupid like completing the next two movies in the trilogy.

Sadly, I don't have a copy of the movie to send you... but I can offer you some home-made MP3s of the sound-track, and a couple of cheap rip-off action figures made with child labour in an unlicenced factory in Cambodia. Will that keep you happy?

From Sarah

Please help... as you'll instantly recognize from my question, I'm a Spider-Man neophyte. But could you please, please tell me how Peter Parker transforms himself to Spider-Man when the need arises? Clark Kent has his phone booth, but how does Spider-Man transform?

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated. This is for a marketing proposal based on Spider-Man.

Well, I'm sorry to ruin your proposal, but Peter doesn't really transform. He just finds a spot where nobody is looking, takes off his regular clothes, and puts on his costume. Rather straight-forward really. He often wears his costume under his normal clothes, to make things simple.

If you don't mind me saying, Superman's idea of using a telephone booth does seem rather... well... dumb. Given that he can fly and move so fast that the naked eye cannot see him, it's hard to understand why he would need to hide anywhere while getting changed. Furthermore (and I'm sure I'm not the first to identify this flaw), telephone booths are made of glass - rendering them somewhat less than ideal for the purpose of concealing oneself.

From Wendy

Just wondering how I can find out if the SpiderMan movie is ok for my kids, ages 7 and 8. One of them wants to have a SpiderMan movie party for her birthday and I want to make sure about this PG13 rating.

Well, a PG13 rating means that a group of psychologists and legislators, highly trained and experienced in evaluating the suitability of movies for children have determined that the level of violence and other adult themes in this film means that it is appropriate only for children aged 13 and over.

For you to determine that it would be responsible for you to expose your seven year old to this material would mean that either:

  1. Your children were extra-ordinarily mature.
  2. ...or your personal tolerance levels for the aforementioned material is significantly higher than the societal norms as determined by the censors.
  3. ...or the censors are a pack of facile morons, following the dictates of a right-wing minority because they represent the path of least risk, and implementing the hypocritical false-values that society likes to imagine it follows, and not in any way forming a valid indication of the actual behavioural patterns you would find in any truly representative sample.

I say the latter. If your kids enjoy the trailers, then take them to the movie. Exercise your right as a parent to make value judgements that represent your own beliefs. Just go easy on the candy, that stuff isn't good for kids!

From Pendragon

This is in response to your comments "Plainly put, Mary Jane has been around longer than I have been alive, and for nearly 15 years other writers had Mary Jane in the books, and involved her in many good stories. So just what exactly is the problem now, JMS? I hear Jenkins would prefer Mary Jane back. Why Marvel bent one way over the involvement of a key character is beyond me."

As a fan of Spider-Man, I too would like to see Mary Jane's return. The reason JMS gave for her absence was that, as he was new to writing Spider-Man, he wanted to get a feel soley for Parker, and concentrate on his supporting cast, including Mary Jane, later. He has said that once he is used to writing the book, he plans to bring Mary Jane back into it for permenantly. Let's hope he keeps that promise.

My guess is that since the movie features MJ so heavily, there's no way that commercially Marvel can keep her out of the comics. It just ain't an option.

I'd say we'll see MJ back within the year. That's my personal call. And, it's what I'd like to see.

I think we might see some sort of "trial" arrangement, where they date, but don't move in together at the start. That might be an acceptable compromise, so they can play the romance angle for a bit. Again, just my two cents.

From lee

hi can u help me get a signed picture of toby m in the spidey suit cors i am a very very big fan of spidey ive got about 1000 spiderman comics it wood make my collection up

Oh man, you should have asked me last week! Toby was round here for dinner and a few brewski's, and after a couple of chasers he asks me if I wanted him to put the suit on and pose for a few snaps. Well, duh, I said nah, let's go with the Nun and the Naughty Priest outfits, and that was the opportunity blown. But I do have some pics of those if you want 'em.

 In: Letters > Editor > 2002
 Posted: 2002
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)