#nick spencer

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[gkb813]

I'm always, at least on some vague level, thinking about the comic Morning Glories even after all these years. I recently listened to a podcast about a place from the Ancient World called Eleusis, which was the spiritual capital of the globe at that time.

The best and brightest of Athens and Rome would be sent to this place to "drink a magical potion" and in their own words, have a vision of holy mysteries, where they claimed to have direct encounter with the Otherworld and it would completely eradicate their fear of death. It was a test of the mind and spirit. There are only fragment testimonies, but it was described as a transformative event, one where "people's eyes were opened to the true nature of life and death." You can see why this caught my attention?

It was a thirteen mile pilgrimage, made most commonly from Athens to Eleusis, and some suspect now that the potion was actually a drink spiked with ergot, which is a naturally occurring fungus from which you could synthesize LSD. It produces a sticky "honeydew" colored sap.

Ergot also connects to the Salem Witch Trials, as there are theories that a late frost during that time period led to mold growth on the wheat, which could have led to an ergot infestation of their food.

I'm thinking about what Jade was dosed with. I'm thinking about the Witch Trials flashbacks. I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about ergot, or might have other theories about what it means/how it might tie into the overall MG mythos?

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Nick Spencer: Now, woke is a slippery word. Lots of different ways to define it. Some people don't define it at all, but you go straight in there early on and you call it a "cultural revolution that seeks equity according to group identity by authoritarian means." Now, there's a lot in that definition. Do you want to unpack any really key bits of it?

Andrew Doyle: Well, as you know, the word has been subject to so many different definitions by various different people. It's been through all sorts of odd revolutions and evolutions over a long period of time. And a lot of the argument around woke tends to come down to people saying, do you even know what it means? Or your definition isn't identical to my definition, and people are arguing across purposes. So I just wanted to find a way to encapsulate the main aspects of what we call the woke movement.

As you know, there's a part of the book where I outline in full what that would entail, and it's a big long spiel and it's deliberately absurd. But by trying to encapsulate it in one sentence, the idea of a cultural revolution that seeks equity according to group identity through authoritarian means, I like to think that encapsulates key points: equity rather than equality. So the idea that we have equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity, making everyone completely level, but also group identity being the key driving factor and the key lens through which the woke interpret the world. But most importantly, is those last few words, "by authoritarian means." Because I contend that wokeness is an essentially authoritarian movement.

Spencer: Yes, yes, that really comes across very strongly in the book about this is not a difference between left and right. This is a difference between authoritarian and libertarian or authoritarian and liberal approaches. I do want to come back to that. I'm really interested in the equity versus equality point. Can you unpack that a bit more for us

Doyle: Yeah, I mean, this is one of those word games that activists have played. Equity sounds an awful lot like equality, and so people think it's a rather good thing. But it's actually the opposite of that. Equity is to force inequality in order to gain equal outcomes according to group identity, so it's the opposite of equality, in fact. And that's one of the ways, I think, in which the woke movement has become so powerful, is by convincing a lot of people that it's something other than it is.

So a lot of well-meaning fellow travelers will get on board and say, well, I'm all for equality; I want everyone to have the same opportunities. And of course, the woke are saying the opposite. They don't want everyone to have the same opportunities, quite the reverse. They want equity, not equality. So that's just one example of a multitude of how a lot of the culture war is really about language and how language is redefined and who gets to define those terms.

––

Full episode:

Is this the end of woke? In conversation with Andrew Doyle

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 9 June · 47min

[theartofthecover]

Three Worlds/Three Moons: Arrivals #1 (2026)

Art by: Mike Huddleston

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Rebutting GodzillaMendoza's crappy Spider-Man video

“The internet is mad at you the writer for things that they want but that you the writer cannot give them”    Zeb Wells 100% had it in his power to not ‘give’ the audience the Paul situation. That was entirely his own choice and his own storyline as evidenced by the fact that he somewhat repeated it in Deadpool & Wolverine which he co-wrote. 

No one was blasting him for not giving us a married Peter and MJ they were blasting him for having MJ cheat on Peter and breaking them up which was entirely HIS decision. 

“Chip Zdarsky’s got the right idea” 

No he doesn’t. He doesn’t understand Spider-Man and was never good at writing him. 

“Zdarsky and everyone else is better off writing the ASM sister titles that get cancelled every year or two. They have at least some leg room to tell decent stories in there.”    How? Those are still within 616 canon and udner the same constraints. People still read and pay attention to them. They don’t magically get more freedom and less crutiny to do as they wish. If anything they are constrained by the direction ASM wishes to take and conform to the status quo it dictates.  

In the case of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that ran simultenously with Spencer’s early ASM issues that title was much worse than Spencer’s ASM with BS like Under York. 

You said decent stories whilst depicting Zdarsky’s trash time travel arc on screen. Apart from being trash that 100% did not fit into the established lore of Ditko Spider-Man it pre-supposes ASM was not at liberty to tell a story where Spider-Man time travels and teams up with himself when this literally happens in ASM #500 and stuff far more wacky and out there happens in Slott’s run, e.g. Spider-Verse.  

“Whoever writes ASM is the new public enemy Number 1” 

Yeah because THEY set the direction that the other titles follow 

Did it ever occur to you Slott, Welles and BND’s writers were enemy number 1 because their work was in fact really bad 

“Its not fair to critique the writers for telling garbled stories when their hands are tied and they are mere figure heads contributing only dialogue” 

Superior Spider-Man was garbled and it was entirely Slott’s pitch that the publishers accepted. He wrote it more or less exactly how he wanted on the proviso that he must end it in time for Peter Parker to be Spider-Man in sync with the release of Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). So, how were his hands ‘tied’? Was it Slott’s fault that h character assassinated Ben Reilly, his hands were tied? Who tied Slott’s hands that he had Aunt May blame teenager Peter Parker for not emotionally supporting her the night uncle Ben died? Who tied Slott’s hands and thereby forced him to kill off MC2 Peter Parker? Nobody, that’s who. He did all those things. 

But let’s presume for the moment you are correct and it is indeed unfair to bash writers when their hands are tied. Okay...why did you spend over half this video bashing Nick Spencer’s run? Why did you call it the worst run of Spider-Man in the history of the character if that is not Spencer’s fault actually? You critiqued Hunted for trying to repair the damage from Grim Hunt, but why do that when according to you it is in fact not Spencer’s fault.  

Also according to many people Stan lee was merely contirbuting dialogue. Dialogue is important and shapes characters. Its not merely the words that express a sentiment pre-determined by something else.  

I also have no idea what D’Orazio’s tweets have to do with the subject at all. She refers to peer pressure within Marvel connected to identity politics. That has nothing to do with the topics under discussion. 

“Good stories won’t happen as a default with the current players at the highest players of Marvel”    Exactly. So why were you earlier being all blackpilled that it is doomed to always be like this when in reality it is doomed to always be like this so long as the current regime in charge remains so. 

“Some bad ideas can come from people above editors” 

Yes but various bad ideas (or ideas you claimed falsely to be bad in the case of Spencer’s run) either definitvely or very likely came directly from writers and no one else. 

“It might be beyond even the editor-in-chief of Marvel who demands Spider-Man be the young and relatable hero” 

Well DUH! Joe Quesada was Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer for over 10 years which is above the EIC. Moreover Dan Buckley was publisher.  

But both of them as of this writing are gone from that position and the real powers of Marvel do not care about the comics really. If they did they wouldn’t have allowed Krakoa to have happened with the X-Men. 

Whilst it is true the mentality of Spider-Man being about youth runs deep within Marvel as a whole again, people leave and new people roll into power.  

“I don’t know who to blame” 

It depends what you are seeking someone out to blame for. If you are seeking out someone to blame for Spider-Man being forbidden from growing up that is Marvel higher ups. If you are seeking someone to blame for other bad aspects of the stories that’s a case-byy-case situation and more than likely the writer. 

It isn’t Dan Buckley’s fault that Doc Ock tried to SA Mary Jane. That was Dan Slott’s fault for writing that and Stephen Wacker’s fault for no stopping him. 

“Whilst nothign changes any more I just can’t get invested.”    Apparently you can because you claimed you were interested in Slott’s run. Moreover, this undermines your earlier critique about Spencer’s run because how can someone invest if the narrative integrity is broken, which is exactly what you are complaining about albeit from the POV of there not being any growth.  

“I feel alienated from that relatability aspect of the character” 

You mean like how many of us felt when Doc Ock was Spider-Man or Peter was a globe trotting billionaire tech bro? 

“Whilst I’m busy progressing with my own life Peter Parker is going to be stuck doing the same things he was doing 40 years ago.” 

This video was released in 2023 meaning 40 years ago was 1983. So why are you showing comic panels from 60 years ago in the Ditko run which was not reflective of what Spidey was doing in the early-mid 1980s? 

“The thought of picking up another issue of Spider-Man makes me anxious”    Welcome to my world since Peter unmaksed in 2006 newbie. 

“I’ll see everyone blaming the poor person writing the book for the bad stories.” 

Again, most of Slott’s faults were entirely of his own making. No body forced him to have Doc Ock become Spider-Man, let alone forced him to have Otto literally explain that his plan in Ends of the Earth was to kill enough people that he’d be remembered as worse than the Austrian Painter. 

[smashpages]

Jonathan Hickman + friends bring Substack SF universe ‘Three Worlds/Three Moons’ to Dark Horse

The sprawling space opera, which has more than 37,000 subscribers, arrives in comic shops in July with a prestige-format one-shot.

[korgbelmont]

Last night I read Astonishing Ant-Man Volume 1: Everybody Loves Team Ups by Nick Spencer and this was an interesting start to the series.

Given when this came out, my guess is that it took some cues from the MCU film with some of the characters invovled. But that being said, this story was still it's own thing and I am curious as to how things will go.

This was also an introduction to the comic versions of the actual Hank Pym (the only version I've seen is a version of him fused with Ultron and was called Pymtron), Janet Van Dyne, and Elihas Starr. This also introduced me to the characters of Darla Deering and Raz Malhotra.

Spoiler stuff below

I am curious to find out what happens that lands Scott in prison as it does seem on the whole, he is trying to be the best he can, but that's seeming to be easier said than done.

I am hoping he works things out with Cassie. I get why he keeps his distance, but at the same time, he already lost her once.

I am wondering what is going to come of his whatever it is that is going on with Beetle.

It seems that of his crew, Machinesmith isn't as content with turning over a new leaf as Grizzly is, wondering what will become of that.

[lazyastronomer]

actually giggling and kicking my feet rn over how GORGEOUS this is

i really hope vol 1 has a matching hardcover case (PLEASE BE RED PLEASE BE RED) bc its STUNNING

AAAAAAAAA