To Arachnid or Not To Arachnid: Spidey in Spanish and Married

Spider-Man may not have had a lot of luck with the ladies, I doubt that you think that with this great collection of mexican Spider-man covers over at Brian's blog "Again With The Comics". Its damn funny to see the creative cutting and pasting that they did for those covers. Mostly, I think, Romita and Esposito with their slight Ditko hats on. Or is it Ross Andru? In any case, lots of great Gwen Stacy cheesecake. Honestly, while we were suffering through the amazing Spider Vehicle here in the states and the botched Clone Saga, we would have been far better off with a lot of long legged Gwen.

What I think that I love more than anything about this cover
is that Gwen's clothing looks like something designed by Kirby for the Fourth World Series, or the Contessa's outfit in Steranko's Nick Fury. She should be standing next Mr. Miracle and Barda.

I don't think that, in the 1970's, Spidey was in the position of actually being about right for the cultural zeitgeist. That and Conway's stories were slightly off the mark when it comes to really capturing who the character was/is. And really it points out Joe Q's problem: If the character is to stay popular, then they have to change to reflect the times. Batman is probably the best known example. The grim vigilante pulp-derived hero of the late '30's was so wrong for the uptight '50's that a major shift was needed. Kane and the editorial folks at DC proved very capable to molding the character. Spidey was very much a part of the 1960's with his loser on campus persona, but Conway was stuck in the unenviable position of not really being allowed to move the character forward, even as he was allowed to add to the Canon. I didn't enjoy the stories in Spider-Man's book as much as the ones in Marvel Team-Up sometimes, since they were so throwaway, you didn't have to have as much of the soap opera. That, that, that appeal to the kid in me.

I've stayed away on the subject but i may as well put something down on paper here. So my official position on One More Day is this: you want Spider-Man single, fine, but it could have been done in such a better way. And isn't this why you have the Ultimate Spider-Man anyway?