But, then I ended up reading the most spectacular (pun intended) fanfic I had ever read, and that inspired me to do a review because of how good it is. So, yeah, my first post on this blog is a review of a fanfic. Go figure. Those of you who come across this blog ten years from now are going to wonder why the heck my first post on a blog about "great literature" is a review of a freaking fanfic, and the reason why is a long story.
So, for those of you who don't follow my posts anywhere else (Reddit, other blogs, other message boards), I'm a huge Spider-Man fan. And, in my opinion, the greatest Spider-Man adaptation ever made is The Spectacular Spider-Man TV series from 2008-2009.
I can not stress enough how great this show is. If you have not seen it, then stop reading this blog immediately, go and buy the show on DVD, and watch it. It is amazing (pun intended). The people who made the show really knew what made Spidey great, and they put it on television in the best way possible with the restrictions they had.
But then, after two seasons, the show was canceled, because the rights were all tied up. And that just sucked. The greatest Spidey show ever, and it got canceled way too soon. And then what did we get in its place?
This piece of crap:
That is just stupid.
So, for awhile, I was stuck without this amazing show. No continuation. No show that managed to do just as well. No. Just stuck with a cliffhanger ending. And it sucked. I was stuck longing for more Spectacular Spider-Man.
And then came an idea I had never thought of before: Why not see if someone had written a fanfic that continued the series? It was too much of a stretch to think a fanfic could ever match the greatness that the show was, but it was better than nothing. So I went on a search for fanfics, and what did I find?
Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs by Thebandragoness.
And just from looking at the reception that fanfic had, something told me that this particular one was better than average. Heck, it even had its own TV Tropes page! This thing was freaking legendary!
Apparently, the fanfic was being rewritten as If This Be My Destiny, a more streamlined version that the author wanted people to read before the old version. And I was all set to. I re-watched the TV series, went to the Fanfiction website, and got set to read the re-write. But then something stopped me.
What was this thing that stopped me? Nothing but the fact that the re-write was still a work in progress. It wasn't finished yet. And with the speed I read at, there was no guarantee that the re-write would be finished by the time I got to the point. I'm not patient when it comes to having only a few chapters published each day. There's a certain "pacing" that I can't really explain to you guys because the English vocabulary won't work for explaining it. This "pacing" goes with how invested I am in a story, and having to stop at a random point do to incompleteness can really throw off this "pacing" and ruin the experience of enjoying the story. I mean no offence against daily updated stories. But the way my reading "pace" works just does not allow me to get interrupted, unfortunately.
So, I had two choices; Either wait a few weeks for the re-write to be finished, or just go ahead and read the old version. Now, reading the old version was not something that sounded like a good idea. The old version (judging from other reviews) included numerous subplots involving team-ups with other Marvel superheroes. This did not sound like something I would enjoy much. While I love most of the other Marvel heroes, I've always been more a fan of Spidey himself, and haven't cared much to have other superheroes thrown in the mix. The TV series was not able to use other heroes due to ownership rights, and I considered this a blessing in disguise. I've always cared more about Spidey's solo adventures, and numerous subplots involving other heroes did not sound like fun.
But I broke, and decided to go ahead and read the old version, just to get a "taste" of what this story would be. Then, when the re-write was finished, I'd go and read that, and probably enjoy it much more than the old version.
And so began my reading of the old version: and how wrong my initial thoughts turned out to be!
For a few weeks, I spent every night on my old beat-up iPad, reading a PDF download of Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs. Each of the thirteen story arcs the fanfic was comprised of were skillfully and cleverly written. The author was more versed in the Spider-Man lore than I was!
And this fanfic was loooooooong! The 102 chapters and epilogue take up a wopping 1,200 pages, and that's not even counting the additional universe timeline and one shots! This is longer than any official published book I've read (though one could argue this is actually thirteen books rather than just one), and it was a blast to read!
And it was so good, that I decided to write a review on it to tell all my fans how good it is. So, the past week or so has been spent writing and revising this review. I finally (mostly) finished my review. But I couldn't figure out what kind of website to put the review on, so I thought "Why not just put it on my literature blog?" Sure, that sounds stupid, considering this blog likely won't have many posts on it at all. But hey. This fanfic counts as "great literature" in my opinion, so, by golly, the review is going on this blog!
I think it goes without saying that there will be spoilers. So if you haven't read the fanfic, and don't want to be spoiled, don't read this review yet (though I guess many of the spoilers won't matter anyway, since the re-write is almost finished, meaning the old version will be taken down soon).
So, on to the review!
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The story starts right where the show left off, with Peter struggling to buy supplies to make his web fluid out of. And the guy behind the counter, suspicious of Peter, is none other than a cameo by Bruce Campbell!
So right from the start, this fanfic starts great. Because the author takes what made the Sam Raimi films so good, and puts them into all the right places of the fanfic. I actually wasn't expecting homages to the Raimi films, but they are plentiful in this fanfic, and they are awesome!
And then, almost right from the start, we are treated to appearances from characters from other Marvel comic books. Remember how I said that the people who made the show had limitations to what they could have in the show, such as the appearances of other Marvel characters? Well, this author, due to writing a fanfic, has no such limitations, and therefore goes all out in introducing as many Marvel characters as will work in this story. And one of the first we are introduced to is Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, a character I had never heard of before.
But, as it turned out, despite my skepticism of other Marvel characters being included, Sophia ended up becoming one of my favorite characters in this story. I mean, she freaking communicates with animals! How cool is that?!?!?!?!?
But seriously, apart from her mutant power, Sophia is just all around a great character. She genuinely cares about Peter, and helps him on more than one occasion. And I am happy to say that this fanfic has earned the character a new fan.
Remember how I said that this author isn't restricted to limitations imposed by the original show? Well that also applies to the maturity of the content. This fanfic gets progressively darker and edgier the farther on it goes, and it is great because of that. Some might find it off-putting because of how child-friendly the original show was, but I found that the darker and edgier elements were introduced slowly enough to make the right amount of build-up to come along naturally. This is consistent with the original comics, which originally had strict rules about how heavy the content could be, with the rules lessened little by little until the comics could be more mature. And this fanfic, whether by accident or by design, pretty much nails this progression.
Some might also comment that including elements that were never ever even going to be considered for the show due to the limitations is a practice that goes against what the original show was. But if any of you say that to me, then you obviously don't know my way of thinking when it comes to things like this.
For those of you who are being introduced to me through this review, and have never seen me say it before, here it is: I don't give a dang about official canon.
Official canon limits the imagination of the viewer/reader, and often gets heavy-handed to the point where some authors/scriptwriters/etc actually frown at and discourage the concept of fan-theories and head-canon, and I do not like that way of thinking. I myself am already writing my own (non-Spidey related) stories, that I eventually plan to publish in some form. And if people want to make up their own fan-theories and head-canon, then I will encourage it, and I will not go around refuting those kinds of things. I will let people believe what they want to believe happened offscreen. In my opinion, head-canon is great.
Even I flat-out ignore established events in official canon. I absolutely refuse to read 616 universe Spidey comics that take place post-One More Day, solely based on the fact that they take place in a nonsensical timeline where everything was the same except for a couple of things, which goes against the very logic of changing an event on a timeline. One event affects thousands of events. In my head-canon, everything post-One More Day is all Peter Parker's bad dream, which he will eventually wake up from, and that's what I will remain believing until something better comes along.
Along with other Marvel heroes, the author is also able to introduce Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, into the story. Kingpin was not allowed to be on the show due to being officially considered a Daredevil villain (some grade A bullcrap, in my opinion. For me, Kingpin is, and always will be, officially a Spider-Man villain). So L. Thompson Lincoln, aka the Tombstone, was used in the same role very effectively. But now that Kingpin is able to be used, the author sets up Kingpin as an evil mastermind waiting for the opportune moment to take the place as the new leader of the criminal empire. It's even indicated that Tombstone may have worked for Kingpin at some point.
It's also amazing how many homages to other versions of the lore the author is able to fit into the story. One of my favorites is that Herman Schultz, who was the Shocker in the original 616 universe, is actually revealed to be the inventor of the shock wrist devices.
Another amazing thing is how well the characterization fits with the characters from the show. I think my favorite character in the entire fanfic is Gwen. The show took what was originally a very one-dimensional character, and turned her into an actual character that I cared about, and the author of this fanfic expands upon her in many great ways. No longer Peter's girlfriend who blames Spidey for the death of her father, this version of Gwen finds out that Peter is Spidey in a hilarious chain of events that are too good to be spoiled here. She legitimately cares for Peter, and this is the first version of the character that I was literally saddened at the possibility that she might die like in the comics. There was no guarantee of that, but considering how iconic that moment was in Spidey history, it wasn't unlikely to happen. Did it happen? Well, I wouldn't find out out until later, would I?
Mary Jane is also revealed to have known Peter was Spidey the entire time, which I predicted and I'm pretty sure that was the original intention of the people who made the show.
Captain Stacy, by the way, is shot and killed by Black Cat's father, the very same person who killed Uncle Ben. And Spidey himself is in danger of having his secret identity blown if he turns Black Cat in. It's a very tense moment, where Spidey either has the choice to murder Black Cat and keep his secret identity, or turn her in and lose his secret identity. Ultimately, he makes the right choice and turns her in, blowing his secret identity (though, unknown to him, the police decide not to tell the public about his secret identity). Upset at the death of Captain Stacy, Peter returns home and, in a rash decision, takes a vial of gene cleanser to rid himself of his powers in order to ward off suspicion, which leads into the Six Arms Saga.
This was amazing. I had no clue that the gene cleanser would lead into that storyline, and part of me wonders if the people who made the show intended to go that direction with the gene cleanser. I was completely caught off guard by it.
What was originally just a silly story in the comics is turned into an epic race against the clock. It turns out that the gene cleanser doesn't always work correctly due to being a rushed project, and that Peter will eventually mutate into the Man-Spider if he doesn't find a clue. After getting a scan from the evil Miles Warren, Spidey decides to seek out Dr. Connors in Florida for a new and improved batch of gene cleanser. But it turns out that Dr. Connors has gone missing, and, fearing that Connors has transformed back into the Lizard, Spidey seeks help.
You can imagine my joy at reading this next part:
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“Yeah, but- but this time Connors can’t even give me any help!” said Spider-Man. “If he really has turned back into the Lizard, I’ll have no way to communicate with him.” And that wasn’t even mentioning that the “Man-Spider” clock was ticking. “He’ll be a mindless animal.”
Just then, Spidey jolted. Something warm and fuzzy was rubbing against his leg. For a second, Spider-Man thought Beast was getting a little too comforting towards him, but then he realized it was only a tabby cat.
Wait. Was it Spidey’s imagination, or did that cat look vaguely familiar?
“Gee,” said a voice from the classroom doorway, “if only you had some way to talk to animals.”
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And at this point, I nearly screamed "YES!!!!!" (Only I didn't because people in the house we're trying to sleep). One of my favorite characters is back to team up with Spidey. Not only is the character great, but things and characters established early on get pay-off later on. This author really knew how to tell a story.
What follows is an epic battle between the Lizard, Spidey, Sophia, and Morbius the Living Vampire. I've never been a huge fan of Morbius, but he doesn't play that big of a role in this story, and his little bit of time is pretty cool, which is but one of many examples of the author taking characters and elements that I don't care for, and making them work.
Placing the Six Arm Saga at directly after Captain Stacy's death and Peter's identity being blown was genius move. It took what was originally a pretty silly storyline and made it more haunting, due to both its placement and the way it was adapted.
Peter gets Jean of the XMen to erase the memories of his identity from Black Cat and the police, and gets Hobie Brown to pose as Spidey while he walks in front of him, officially restoring his secret identity to its original status.
The Six Arms Saga isn't the only storyline made great. The author also manages to take the Clone Saga, a comic book storylinr I despise, and make it great.
When Miles Warren scanned the Six Armed Peter, he used this as an opportunity to make a clone. But the twist of this version is that Ben Reilly is female and is simply named "Reilly."
Kind of.
Actually, Kaine (another clone of Peter) takes on the pseudonym of "Ben Reilly" at the very end of the story, and both he and Reilly become Spider-Carnage at different points of the story. But, for the most part, Reilly takes on the role that Ben Reilly took in the comics.
This version works so much better in the fact that when you analyze the situations of these clones, it becomes more haunting.
Both of the clones' final memories before coming to life involve being scanned in a mad panic to rid themselves of a horrible mutation. And then they wake up to find that they have been brainwashed.
In Reilly's case, she has been brainwashed to become a sex slave to Warren, and it is so sad to see her struggle against him, which makes it all the more powerful when she finally sees through his bullcrap and helps Peter defeat him as the Scarlet Spider.
Kaine has been brainwashed to become a sinister version of Peter, and he attacks Peter and his family many times throughout the story.
I can not stress enough how well the Clone Saga is done in this fanfic. It is the only, I repeat, the ONLY version of the Clone Saga that I have ever liked, due to its strong character development and the way the characters are made the author's own.
The author also manages to fit in an adaptation of Kraven's Last Hunt (a story that was actually good in the comics), and it feels like it works very well.
Among other adapted storylines is an adaptation of the controversial "The Superior Spider-Man." This is a storyline that I never read because it takes place post-One More Day (which means it's all Peter's dream in my head-canon for Earth-616), and from the summaries I've read of it, it sounds horrifically stupid. It's a Doc Ock and Spidey body-swap story, and yet the writers of the comics tried to put more seriousness into it than would really work for that type of story.
But the author of this fanfic takes that storyline, and adapts it into what it should have been in the first place; a silly story. And it works SO much better than the original comic book storyline did. Doc Ock also gets some nice character development.
That particular storyline also introduces Madame Web. I'm not even going to dodge around the bullet. I HATE Madame Web. She's too weird for me, and I can't stand her in any adaptation...
...except for this fanfic.
Once again, an element I hate is made great, and for once I actually liked the character. I think this part near the end of this story arc sums up my feelings for Madame Web:
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Peter smiled and shook his head. Y’know, he was surprised to admit it, but he was gonna miss Madame Web.
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I couldn't have said it better myself, Spidey. I will surpisingly miss her in this version.
One of the things that bothered me was that I was afraid that the author would try to adapt One More Day into the fanfic, which I don't think can ever be improved as it is the single worst Spidey story ever written. But luckily, near the end, it is revealed that Mephisto has been banished from Universe-26496, meaning that it will never happen. And at that revelation I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
There are so many storylines adapted well. Too many for me to talk about them all, but I appreciated the use of the Liz Allan Firestar from Ultimate Marvel (the version of Firestar that I prefer, by the way), and I'm glad that Liz got more to do as a character after she had to break up with Peter (I felt bad for her in the TV series).
I appreciated the comedy of Reilly and Kaine having organic webshooters because Warren was stupid enough to think that web shooters weren't scanned due to an error.
I appreciated the use of the XMen and Avengers, and how their subplots did not distract from the main story like I originally thought, and made me appreciate the characters more than I ever had before.
I appreciated where J. Jonah Jameson's character went in the end. In the end, he admits that Spider-Man truly is the hero he was, which is especially tearjerking because it happens during a time where superheroes are very controversial.
And that brings me to my thoughts on the final two story arcs, which I binge-read in one night (I pulled an all-nighter, they were that good).
The second to last arc focuses on the threat the Green Goblin. This is the moment I was waiting for. The adaptation of the famous "The Night Gwen Stacy Died." And it was adapted wonderfully.
My heart was pounding over and over, as I hoped beyond hope that this fanfic would spare Gwen and let her and Peter marry. The Green Goblin found Peter, Gwen, and MJ, kidnapped the one who screamed not to be captured when the Goblin asked where Gwen was, and then the real Gwen stood up and admitted that she herself was the real Gwen. MJ had been trying to save Gwen by pretending to be her.
Of course, the Goblin knew who the real Gwen was the entire time, though whether or not he would have captured MJ instead had Gwen not come forward is left a mystery. But Gwen here is portrayed as a hero, who had no wayway knowing that the Goblin knew she was Gwen. So I knew that if Gwen did die, it would be a heroic death, and it touched me so much that I cried. And I don't cry very often!
The Goblin throws Gwen off the bridge, and surprisingly, Spidey throws several weblines at her, because he has learned from past experience that throwing just one web will cause someone to break their neck from the sudden stop. He webs every major joint, and then faces the Goblin, where we get a nice homage of the movie version of the Goblin's death, only this version of Norman is more despicable, and I absolutely hate him just like in the TV show.
And then, after the Goblin dies, Peter discovers that he accidentally shot a webline at Gwen's neck, which caused her to suffocate and die. And it was so so devastating for me because Gwen's death came as just as much of a shock as it did in the comics. We thought Peter had saved her, but he failed. And I cried again. This is genius writing.
Then begins the final arc, where Peter debates on whether he should stay being Spider-Man or not. He begins losing his powers, and despite considering going to Dr. Connors in the hope of restoring his powers, is ultimately convinced by MJ to give up being Spider-Man as his powers being gone are a sign of his not being needed anymore.
So Peter burns his Spidey suit and moves into an apartment, owned by none other than Mr. Ditkovich! Matt Murdoch, aka Daredevil, tells Peter that he's discovered that Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin, but Peter blows him off, saying that he is no longer Spider-Man. Peter later learns that Murdoch committed suicide.
This arc is, of course, an adaptation of the famous "Spider-Man No More!" More directly, it is an adaptation of Spider-Man 2, itself an adaptation of that same story.
Now, I was pretty ticked off at first. Peter losing his powers due to not wanting to be Spider-Man never made sense to me. The spider was not some magic spider. It was simply science that gave Peter his powers, and there is no logical explanation that Peter would lose his powers due to not wanting to be Spidey. This is one of the few flaws with Spider-Man 2, and I much preferred the way the storyline went in the comics, where he didn't lose his powers, but threw his costume away anyway.
But despite this, I was still enjoying the story, so I kept on reading. Peter goes to visit Aunt May, who is getting ready to move out, and has a neighbor girl helping her to pack. We get a nice homage to the "hero in all of us" scene from Spider-Man 2, only it is done much better than it was in the movie, which I didn't even think was possible.
It turns out that the girl helping Aunt May to pack is the very same little girl that Spidey saved a few years earlier in the very first chapter of the fanfic. He saved her from getting hit by a car when she ran into the street, and her mother then criticized Spidey for being near her daughter.
It's important to note that Peter doesn't actually remember this particular little girl because he has rescued so many children from getting hit by cars. But Peter is touched by the fact that she considers him the greatest of the superheroes, all because he does the little things in life. While other superheroes may be dealing with massive threats, Spidey helps out with whatever he can in his city, even saving the little kids from cars. And the little girl looks up to him because of that.
And at this point in the fanfic, I burst into more tears than I had previously. The author really nailed the point on why Spidey is my favorite superhero, and even if this had just been short story with just this one scene, I still would have loved it. It is an absolutely beautiful part of the story.
Peter decides to become Spider-Man again, and learns the real reason his powers vanished; MJ, in not wanting to lose Peter like she lost Gwen, has been slipping small amounts of gene cleanser into his drinks.
And at this point, I was wowed. Finally, a logical reason for Peter to lose his powers! It made so much more sense than the "explanation" in Spider-Man 2, and it was just about the most clever thing I'd read.
Kaine, as Spider-Carnage, captures Peter in his spare Spidey costume, and attacks him on the bridge out of revenge for his failure to save Gwen. He throws Spidey to the ground, where a large piece of concrete falls on top of him, and then runs off to create a clone of Gwen with a deadly virus on her body.
Of course, since Spidey lost his powers to gene cleanser, he doesn't just randomly get them back like he did in Spider-Man 2, and he remains trapped under the concrete, where he wishes he were dead so he could be with Gwen, and his inner struggle is illustrated through an acid sequence hallucination he suffers, where he realizes the Gwen in his dream is actually death trying to take hold of him, and he realizes that the real Gwen would not want him to give up, and he uses the little bit of spider-strength left inside him to survive, before he is rescued by some people who welcome him back, in a nice homage to the Spider-Man 2 train scene.
Spider-Man and MJ team up and manage to stop Kaine and rid him of the Carnage Symbiote, and Kaine reforms and goes off to start a new life. Peter is able to get his powers back using a gene enhancer from Dr. Connors, and MJ realizes that her motives to stop Peter from being Spider-Man were selfish.
Peter discovers that Daredevil is still alive, and he agrees that he will try to stop the Kingpin. He goes to his apartment, where MJ apologized to him, and Peter swings off to fight more crime, and the ending is an homage to the ending of Spider-Man 2.
And that's the end, unless you count the epilogue where Peter's daughter has become Spider-Girl, but that's more of a "next generation" or "post credits" type of thing, while the ending is still the ending.
What's surprising about this fanfic is that it ends unconventionally from how Spider-Man stories usually end. The ending is more bittersweet than any of the movies ever were. Although Peter has truly discovered his meaning in life, he has many threats left in New York, and the Kingpin appears to be the toughest one yet. It's interesting to take one of the most prominent masterminds of the Spider-Man lore (Kingpin) and give him most of role near the end of the story, and never tell the audience how Peter stops him. And it's also interesting to end the story with Peter still in college, not yet an adult, and not yet married to MJ, not even really in love with her yet. And although the epilogue confirms that Peter did eventually stop the Kingpin, and did indeed marry MJ and have children with her, this is of course after the story has ended, and is not the main point of the story. And you know what? I love this ending!
This story's deep complexites and character situations are what made this review take so long to write and revise and for this blog. I haven't even been able to give all of my thoughts on this story because how just how good it is.
Like all stories, It is not perfect. Even Thebandragoness can't make me like Dr. Strange, as much of an effort might be put into it to make him interesting, but most of my issues with this fanfic are very minor, and for the first time for any Spider-Man adaptation, I'm going to say it...
This story is better than the original comics!
Seriously, it really is! It is so good at making me appreciate the other Marvel heroes, and it mixed in character complexities that I never even imagined for Spider-Man, and that is darn good, in my opinion. This story should seriously win an award someday.
Now, this last part of the review is the very last part, and it was written today, upon seeing the news about this fanfic. Like I said eariler, the author is rewriting the story to be more streamlined.
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Once I've taken a nice, long break from writing, I'm gonna come back and edit this story, wording things better and fixing typos and continuity errors and whatnot. If I ever decide to do any major overhauls, I'll post it as a separate fanfic, so you don't have to worry about me deleting all the chapters here without warning (again…).
For example, I've been toying with the idea of a draft that simplifies and streamlines things, such as by removing Reilly and Kaine. I mean, the clones were pretty complex characters to introduce so late in the game, and it really gummed up the pacing. Reilly never even did much of anything, and the final arc probably would've worked just fine if I replaced Kaine with Jackal or something. But most people seem happy with the story the way it is, so I'm not gonna worry about that right now.
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I suppose it is true that Jackal would have worked fine in the ending. But I have to disagree that the clones were introduced belatedly. I actually enjoyed the presence of the clones much more than I thought I would. But, I guess I can see why some might find them superfluous.
Despite the above quoted paragraphs, Thebandragoness has decided to take the old version down soon anyway once the new version finished, because more people are preferring to read the old one before they read the new one.
At this point, part of me wants to make jokes about how this is the same reasoning George Lucas has for refusing to release the theatrical versions of Star Wars on Blu Ray. How preferring people to consider the new versions the ones the only ones to watch have made him stubborn.
But I'm not going to that. Because that's mean. Thebandragoness isn't technically trying keep the old version from us at all, and will send people links of the old version if they are so desperately curious as to what it contains. So the author is not trying to to erase a big part of history like George Lucas is.
It does make me sad that the old version is being taken down, because, although I only read it due to desperation at the unfinishedness at the new version, I'm actually glad I read the old version first, because it made me a bigger fan of the wiser Marvel universe than I've ever been. In a few days, I m going to start reading the new version like I was originally going to do. And I will review it on this blog when I am done. And will I like it better than the version I just finished? I have no idea. Bringing up Star Wars again, there are whole arguments on message boards over which special edition changes were better, if any were better at all, which version was better overall, etc (personally, I prefer the theatrical versions). So I am going to have to discover for myself which version I prefer. And everybody will have their own preferred version of this story. If I end up preferring the new version, than I'm happy. And if I end up preferring the old version, than I'm happy to have the PDF on my iPad, phone, PC, and stored in my Google Drive just in case all of my devices stop working, because the old one will always have a special place in my heart.
So, in the words of Stan Lee; "Excelsior!"
