Guess after the extremely gory/tasteless Three Stooges “eye poke” by Black Adam to Psycho-Pirate in “Infinite Crisis” and Sue Dibney’s fate in “Identity Crisis” (among multiple other complaints I can think of, including the Joker as nothing more than a second-rate Freddy Krueger knockoff/mindless serial killer vs. anything resembling a criminal mastermind or showing a glimmer of intelligence), I shouldn’t be much surprised by stuff like this anymore… except, well, I still am. Yeesh…doesn’t anyone at DC or Marvel have *any* sense of taste anymore?! And who finds all this stuff appealing, anyway?!

(cripes, i can’t believe i used “for what it’s worth” twice in one paragraph.)

The story is still stupid.

But “Reign” explicitly invokes “bodily fluids”. So it is not just Peter’s “Love” that kills his wife. (And her love for him, staying beside him in the face of danger.) Rather it is Peter’s “love (wink, wink, nudge nudge, knowhatimean?)” that “plants cancer in her like a spider laying it’s eggs”.

I will be the first to admit that it is powerful imagery. Maybe even literary. But it carries the whiff of prurience, like “Woman of Kleenex” or “That’s why they call him Mr. Fantastic…” Perhaps if it wasn’t being sold more on the strength of Parker’s peter than Peter Parker. Perhaps if “Reign” wasn’t trying so hard to be “The Arach-Knight Returns”, right down to the visuals. If it wasn’t yet one more writer/artist sanctifying Miller and hoping to be only half as much. Maybe then it could be taken on it’s own merits. And be given it’s own credit.

As it is, it truns the death of a long suffering woman and the loss of a wife into frat boy porn. And that shouldn’t be lauded.

Spider-Man is about two things: his wife and his powers. His powers effectively killed his wife, and he feels guilty over that.

For what it’s worth, there is precedent for this. Aunt May got sick after a blood transfusion from Spidey way back when it was still a Lee/Ditko joint, I believe. For her, it was radiation poisoning rather than cancer. For what it’s worth, low doses of radiation can cause cancer, and I think being married to a person who is radioactive for what appears to be decades in the text (Pete’s got grey hair before she dies) could easily result in a grim end like that.

That said, I don’t find it particularly funny – it’s pretty offensive to me. As I wrote at the Sav Critic :

The idea of this radioactive sperm killing Mary Jane is offensive because it perpetuates a misconception that cancer can be transmitted from person to person – and worse seems to trivialize how people truly get cancer. It also feels like it trivializes the struggles of people who live with spouses/partners with HIV.

That’s my filter on it – apparently I’m one of the few (although not the only one) who feels this way, and cop to it being a gut reaction, but that was my instant take on it emotionally.

Boy, am I out of touch with mainstream comics

Thanks for the nod, Johanna. :)

Rob — if they do a story about a supervillain who’s specifically targeting non-white members of supergroups, thus preventing them from being part of the rescue party, I’m there! :)

Seriously, point taken, but visuals are important. If the company’s putting out images that are susceptible to such misinterpretation, that can be addressed by them making sure the more diverse members are included in such poster-style pictures.

I do think this panel stands out in isolation–even though it’s a splash page, it wouldn’t necessarily be the most gripping panel in the entire issue. With someone like Walt Simonson, sure. But Dale’s real gift as a penciller is in the detail work; as many reviewers have noted, his best panels involve his ability to draw distinctive faces forming distinctive expressions (one reason why Maxine has already gripped so many readers).

BTW, Johanna, note that Dale actually gives Jesse real jodhpurs this time round. Maybe he read your entry about the JSA #1 preview . . .

Rob – Like I said in my entry, I know it’s just one panel in a panel of many in one book. And, I also say I don’t know what’s happening in order to judge it. BUT, it is an observation on a KEY panel in the book. I realize that there are straight white guys missing, but there are also several straight, white guys in the panel. My observation is not a condemnation of the book, but I do want to challenge readers and creators to ask themselves who are missing from KEY panels because these are the images that stand out most in a book.