Given our newfound devotion to Friday Night Fights, it appears the Fortress’ venerable Sunday Punch feature has grown a mite redundant.
(Unless we decide to transform our little site to a fight-club blog, which may not be a bad idea … )
So while the Keeper considers possible replacements, let’s take a moment and talk about of the greatest super-villains in comics - J. Jonah Jameson.
Yeah, that’s right: J. Jonah Jameson, not Lex Luthor, Green Goblin, Doctor Doom or The Joker.
For all his red-faced bluster, Jameson has been thorn in Spider-Man’s side since the beginning who, nearly single-handedly, managed to turn public opinion against the Wall Crawler though the Daily Bugle.
Back in the day, a very young Keeper wondered why JJJ hated Spidey - who was and always will be our favorite Marvel hero.*
Unexpectedly, your humble host found his answer in a mid-70s Marvel calendar that reprinted the following sequence from Amazing Spider-Man #10.
Later attempts to humanize Jameson provided more sympathetic reasons for his hatred, but in the Keeper’s mind the original, (quite Ditkoesque) rationale works best.
If Spider-Man epitomizes the responsibility that comes with great power, J.J.J. demonstrates what happens when great power is used irresponsibly.
From just about day one, Jameson’s prestige and influence have been dedicated to the destruction of a man the quick-tempered publisher secretly admits is his better.
We’ve always found this aspect of Jameson’s personality fascinating, as it subtly proves the venerable newsman is more than a mere cigar-chomping buffoon.
He’s Spider-Man’s true opposite, a complex - sometimes even sympathetic - nemesis who never had to throw a single pumpkin bomb to cause trouble for Peter Parker.
* Keeper’s Note: Our disinterest these days in the core Spidey titles mirrors the Keeper’s attitude toward Quesada’s Marvel. In the past, we’ve always picked up Amazing Spider-Man at the very least. Nowadays, the only Web Head books we purchase are Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and Marvel Adventures Avengers - two titles that have nothing to do with the Q Continuum’s concept of innovative comics but everything to do with fun.
So that’s why he’s so mean!
Huh.
Ummm … Mr. Keeper? Could we eat some honey now?
Did Ditko write that monologue? Cause it reads like a direct transcription of Ayn Rand.
Just sayin’…
Hah! Thank you for the acknowledgment.
It’s nice to know people are aware than someone else was doing alliterations and superhero fights (in a far more disturbingly serious way) before Bahlactus.
*swears combative vengeance*
Hm. You know, I don’t have much love for Spidey these days either, but I still pick up the books every month. Collector’s mentality, I suppose.
I do think, though, that if we don’t see SOME kind of positive outcome of “One More Day,” that might do it for me. I’m not really sure how much more I can take.
-M