Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A Message to Dan Slott

Dear Mr. Slott,

I have been reading your run on Amazing Spider-Man for a while now. Through doing so, I have come to realize that you are unaware of two things. Firstly, most readers - such as myself - have been following the title for a while now, and know from constant reiteration within each individual issue that Spider-Man is on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end day job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ. More importantly, there's an intro page before the beginning of each issue that gives a crash-course on recent developments in Spider-Man's life. This introduction states that Spider-Man is on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end day job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ.

I bring these up to help you realize that you do not have to spend one-third of every issue telling us that Spider-Man is on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end day job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ. Which is exactly what it is, telling us. Describing it. Not offering insight into the effect it has on Peter's life, besides him continuously opining "doh boy it sure is crazy staying on top of all this busy stuff and not being poor anymore." It's just Peter saying to himself that he is, in fact, on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ. We all know about these things already. It has been made very, very clear to us.

It's getting increasingly difficult to trod through massive chunks of exposition that say the exact same thing issue after issue. I like the stories you've been writing during your tenure on Spider-Man, I like the way you handle the characters and the plots you put them in. "Spider Island" sounds like your coolest idea yet, I really want to read it. But I don't know if I can take another caption box of Spider-Man think-telling me about how he's on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ. I can use these things called pictures and this concept called character interaction to see that he's on two superhero teams, has a demanding high-end job and a girlfriend that isn't MJ.

Sincerely,

Everyone reading Amazing Spider-Man

No comments:

Post a Comment