Spidey shows up right after the towers have collapsed.
It was really an intense issue. But kind of odd at the same time. That kind of destruction happens all the time in comic books. I understand why they handled it that way but I think they failed to play up the “It’s so horrible because regular humans did it to regular humans.” No super heroes or villains involved.
I really liked the panel showing Dr. Doom, Kingpin (who is honestly makes a lot of sense that he would be there to pitch in) and Magneto standing among the wreckage, there to help regardless of their villainous tendencies.
I thought the tear in Doom’s eye was a little much. It would have been more appropriate and held more meaning if it had been Magneto weeping for the loss of human life.
The bit of narration from Spidey as he watches Captain America stanind alone surveying the rubble.
It was something along the lines of, “I’ve never seen anything like it. But he has (Captain America). He’s lived through it twice. I wish I never had to live through it once.” It made my eyes wet.
Too bad Spidey has seen it before … in (i’m guessing) Amazing Spiderman #268, the Beyonder turns a Skyskraper into gold, which then collapses under the wieght, with people in it. Mr. Parker swoops in and saves a bunch of people from the collapsed building (and ‘lifts’ a gold notebook in the process). Spider Man has seen a lot worse. Hell, his girlfriend died right before his eyes because of him and his uncle was killed due to indirect actions by him. Hell, this guy should be in an insane asylum after all he’s been through. The WTC is just a mote in the eye compared to everything else. Even though i haven’t read any of the stories, i don’t think Marvel should have touched on it at all, because the fantasy that occurs in the Marvel Universe dwarfs reality, and trying to combine the two would just make everything look too fake.
While I appreciate what JMS wanted to do, I thought the issue was gibberish.
Magneto and Dr. Doom sniffling? Why? They’re both mass murderers. And if Magneto and Doom were really so moved, why are they just standing around? 50 or so Doombots could easily extractate anyone trapped and have the towers rebuilt as good as new in a couple of hours. Magneto? Even easier with just a wave of his hand.
Why didn’t the precogs catch this? How’d the second airplane even hit (The Avengers/The X-Men/Quasar(?)/one of HUNDREDS of other super-types would have caught it. How’d the towers fall?
We *know Super-Types can hold up collapsing buildings (despite the laws of physics)…hell Jean Grey could have done a lot on her own.
There was about an hour gap between the planes hitting and the towers falling. A call to Quicksilver and everyone’s out in a few minutes. Why was anyone left in the building?
In the context of a shared universe, it just made no sense to me.
Really a good example of why “relevancy” doesn’t actually work in a super-hero filled universe.
Like I said, I applaud his motives, but the story didn’t work for me at all. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough (I can accept that all these super-types are running around constantly saving the universe…I can’t accept that they’re all running around and able to save the universe, but no one can do anything about somethng as relatively minor as a building collapsing.)
And JMS’s reaction to this sort of comment (“You just don’t understand good writing, go back to your parents basements”) didn’t do a lot to endear him to me.
Heh heh, I think they’ve been trying to forget the Secret Wars ever happened.
**
That’s a bit unfair. The Green Goblin threw/knocked her off the Brooklyn Bridge and Spidey shot a web to catch her. Unfortunately the whiplash broke her neck. At least that’s how I remember it happening.
A large portion of the Marvel Universe is set in New York City. The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Avengers, Dare Devil, Punisher, and others I’m sure I’m missing.
The shared reality works great for this. All these super-heroes based in New York and none of them stop it! Now imagine you’re a regular person in the Marvel Universe. You are used to your city, your country, your world being threatened BUT always the superheroes come through. This time they didn’t. And the attack wasn’t from one of the many Supervillains or Alien races that normally threaten the average Marvel Universe citizen. It was regular humans. Imagine how much more traumatic that would be.
I think the story is “out of continuity”. It’s meant to be symbolic. The super heroes represent the comic book industry trying to be relevant in the face of tragedy, the villains represent hostile nations who came to America’s aid during the crisis, etc. On that level, I thought it was effective.
But there has to be some level of relevancy otherwise people won’t be able to relate to the comic book. Sure, the DC titles can get away with ignoring it because they’re set in fictional cities like Central City, Gotham, and Metropolis. So if the WTC goes down that doesn’t really have much to do with Gotham.
On the other hand many Marvel titles are set in NYC. There’s really no way they can ignore the WTC towers going down. It would simply be more unbelievable then some weird guy in tights slinging webs all around the Big Apple.
But I do agree that it was pretty lame to have Dr. Doom and Magneto worried over what happened. And I don’t think Kingpin cares abou the feelings of most human beings though Fisk would certainly show up to lend his support. He does maintain a pretty mask for public relations purposes.
A certain amount of consistency was sacrificed for the sake of saying something to the reader, and this was such a big event, I don’t mind that. Just double-think any strange contradictions.
But I found the issue to be painfully sophomoric and indulgent. It was 32 pages of the eagle with the photoshopped tear. If the idea is that he’s trying to do what a writer can do to help people heal from the tragedy, he’s failed. This kind of sap gets bitter fast.