The Four Color Media Monitor

A writer at Popverse claims that over a decade ago, writers and artists working at Marvel wanted Dan Slott's Superior Spider-Man mishmash to end after just a handful of issues, because they wanted Peter Parker back in his own body instead of Dr. Octopus (but they didn't want Mary Jane Watson back as Pete's wife?). And the article is, predictably and sadly, very sugarcoated:

In recent Spider-Man comics history, it's hard to come up with a more successful gamble than Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman's Superior Spider-Man. The series - which saw Spidey villain Doctor Octopus successfully swap bodies with Peter Parker, only to go on and try and fill the hero's shoes - was a giant swing in terms of typical comic book storytelling. And now, the writer is revealing that it was just as controversial internally at Marvel Comics as it was among the fanbase.

Dan Slott spoke about the legendary 2013 saga at WonderCon 2025, a panel reported on by Comic Book Club. During the discussion, Slott revealed he caught some (presumably friendly) flack from other marvel creators at the time who wanted to use the OG webhead in their stories. "I had a lot of guys who did not want Doc Ock as Spider-Man," Slott said, "They all wanted their Spider-Man that they grew up with in their books."

Well in that case, they've explained perfectly why they made a terrible mistake even working at Marvel by the time Quesada and Alonso became editors. The main problem, of course, is that the Spidey books were under a severe editorial mandate at the time that continues till this day. And unless the assigned writers meet the PC standards of the upper echelons, creative freedom is effectively denied by at Marvel. Also, how fascinating no sales figures are cited to justify Slott's awful, grating storyline, though either way, it's clear the puff piece's writer couldn't care less about the dire state of Marvel, and Mary Jane Watson.

Also, from the Comic Book Club entry they highlighted, which is actually from around last March, Slott even brought up the following towards the end:

Asked about other characters, Slott said that he can’t write Thor, and he can’t write real scientists. He can write Hank Pym, who can do fake science — but not DC’s The Atom, who talks about real science.

Oh, this is the dumbest claim I've ever seen. Even the Golden/Silver Age Atoms dealt with pseudo-science, as did Ant-Man. The real reason it would be better to avoid Slott's writing at any company is because he's long been a very mediocre to bad writer. I've read a few of his early stories from the 90s, and they were nothing to write home about, and his scriptwriting only became worse post-2000. If he does write any Atom now that he's working for DC, it'll be something to dread, and it wouldn't be shocking if he exploits such comics to inject woke narratives into. Nor would it be shocking if he followed the narrative set after Identity Crisis. This repeated employment of mediocre writers has gone on far too long, and now DC's also making a joke of their employment practices by recruiting a former Marvel contributor to do stuff for their stables as well, which in the end only serves to do more harm than good. Yet Slott's right he can't write Thor, let alone "real" scientists. Mainly because he can't write anything with talent, as his Marvel work as a whole proved in the past decade.

Labels: Atom, bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of villainy, history, marvel comics, moonbat writers, Spider-Man, women of marvel