Re: Was Spider-Man an Angry Young Man?

In article <1158513666.535075.5820@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 gbostock@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> Tom Russell wrote:
> > Some thoughts to provoke discussion.
> >
> > http://youtube.com/watch?v=LR2inTAuswM
> >
> > ==Tom Russell
> 
> I think you take this way too seriously.
> 
> A lot of what you point to in your video are more plot devices than
> character development devices. Back in those days it has become pretty
> obvious that Stan "the man who brought you Robert Bruce Banner" Lee was
> having a terrible time keeping things straight as to who was what and
> what direction the characters were going in. I'm pretty sure Stan
> intended Spider-man to be a troubled teenager and that came out
> confused sometimes because troubled teenagers tend to be far more
> confused than they know. I know because I used to be one and have been
> a parent to three of them. Teenagers tend to be loaded with anger as an
> added feature.
> 
> Another problem that Lee had was that he couldn't write female
> characters to save his life. Betty Brant was a horribly written
> character (as was Susan Storm) and anybody that would have had to deal
> with a romantic interest in her would have been driven mad. The best
> thing that ever happened to Peter was breaking up with Betty Brant.
> Having said that, Gwen Stacy was poorly written too and that was why
> they had to kill her off.

Nonsense.  They killed her off because Gerry Conway's not a good enough 
writer to do anything else.

 They tried to make Mary Jane into what Gwen
> should have been from the start, but even that didn't work too well. A
> guy who has to deal with women like that in his life is going to have
> issues.