It was another little piece of a frighteningly concerted corporate media campaign designed to sway the American public into suddenly endorsing illegal and illogical wars.

I don't remember any of that when the issue came out... I don't think the administration had started it's saber rattling at Iraq at this point.
I believe the only war going on was in Afghanistan, and that one was logical and legal (by international standards).

Regardless of that, it's alright to express grief over a terrible event, without it being part of a propaganda machine.
If you can find one part about endorsing wars in there, let me know, and I'll take this all back.
(If anything I remember it having points about not lashing out in hatred, and a part about how it shouldn't be useed to further agenda's).

Of course he would be upset that so many died in what was, at the bottom line, an attention-getting action.

The scene wasn't saying that Bin Ladin was more evil than Doom. If Doom had to blow up a city to get at an enemy, he would do it. The scene was saying that this particular action was an act that Doom could not justify and, therefore, felt badly about. I can even imagine that if Doom could have, he would have stopped the tragedy, because he is smart enough to know that doing so would further his own agenda far more than letting it happen would.

I also don't think that the story trivializes the event any more than the years of tv programmes or movies that came after it. Different people deal with tragedy different ways. Some write about it to help get it out of their systems. And, as a writer myself, I know that I want others to read what I wrote to help them deal with it as well. If this story didn't help you, then it wasn't intended for you.

Theno

That said, if it was just someone simply stating "it is a terrible choice," then that's fine, I'll almost always leave that be, because that is, as you say, an opinion, and you certainly shouldn't take up public writing if you get irked when people have negative opinions about what you write. However, in your instance, you were backing up your opinion with what I found to be faulty reasoning, which is why I replied.

"Top" tends to refer to quality rather than notability. At no point did you actually say clear up any confusion a reader of this post might have regarding the matter. I'm not judging this entry within the context of the greater frame you created because you don't direct uninitiated readers to the explanation of the series within the post, something you do with other series you run.

Simply discussing notability is not the same as explicitly declaring this series to be based on notability. And the rather nonspecific term "important" is kind of redundant to the topic at hand and doesn't necessarily indicate either notability or quality over the other. I think you might take the context as a given because you have been writing the series, but I don't think you are attempting to look at it from the point of view of a reader who has only read this post and none of the others. While I enjoy features like Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed, etc, I tend to skip the lists. I have nothing against them or anyone who worked on or enjoys them; they're just not my favorite. This caught my eye because it seemed you were saying that Amazing Spider-Man #36 is the best issue #36, and I found that odd.

Please understand the reason that I was interested in responding to your comments is that I am finishing up a Master's degree in journalism at a school that stresses precision writing and writing for the reader. I generally find your writing enjoyable; I just don't think you covered the bases in this post, and I'm a little surprised you took offense at my lack of comprehension.

No offense was intended by any of this. I was simply expressing an opinion.

In addition, I expressly state:

Not everyone likes this story (I know quite a few people who absolutely hate it), but everyone can concede that this issue was NOTABLE, at least.

That sentence is filled with context saying "this is not a measurement of quality, but of notability."

That's not even counting the fact that I've expressly laid out how I'm judging these things in the past.

No one real talks like that. The only reason anyone ever uses it is in discussing comic books.

The whole thing was JMS working through his grief, and while I love the rest of his run, this ranks lower than the Green Goblin kids storyline.

The whole thing just feels so cheap.

But as far as the Marvel Universe why wasn't every costumed idiot in the Marvel Universe at Ground Zero for the next 18 months or working with SHIELD to find bin Laden. But by the next issue they were out braining each other in an alley. And in the Marvel Universe, after things like Galactus and Onslaught, 9-11 wouldn't have had the same impact on people. I mean didn't Kang wipe out all of Washington DC a couple years later?

The Doctor Doom thing could be the stupidest thing Marvel has ever done and JR Jr. must have gagged while drawing it.

The black cover is stupid too. Unless you already know what it is you would think there was a printing error.

By the way, being a foreigner I can atest that most people in the world did not cry for 9-11 (although there wasn't rejoicing on the streets or something like that). Most people simply didn't care, as usually don't care for the occasional genocides in Africa (Sudan, Rwanda, etc.) or the tsunami on Asia or whatever recent tragedy you may recall. Sad but true.

Which makes the Dr. Doom scene even more absurd.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Yes, I realize Sept 11 was a horrible event (I was in the US when it happened), but the Doom crying thing was definitely pandering. I get what Doom was supposed to represent, but believe me, millions of people around the world felt bad about what happened, but didn't shed any tears about it. Not everyone fell into both extremes - you either cried buckets or celebrated in the streets like a small minority of Palestinians - most outside the US saw it as a tragic event, but tragic events happens all over the world, all the time, whether or not it was orchestrated by terrorists or the number of people who died.

Doom's reaction is very out of character, and considering how the character didn't change or learn anything from this issue makes his reaction all the more hollow and pointless for it's inclusion.

I hope noone was offended by what i said...I wasn't trying to be insentative....

FF# 36 wasn't just the intro of the Frightful Four and Medusa, which would be memorable enough.

Even more important, it was the beginning of an unprecedented ongoing story that included five issues of battling the Frightful Four, the wedding of Reed and Sue, four issues introducing the Inhumans, first appearances of the Surfer and Galactus (and Wyatt Wingfoot), "This Man, This Monster," the Black Panther and Klaw, the two greatest Doctor Doom storylines of all time, and the intros of Blastaar, the Sentry, the Kree (Supreme Intel and Ronan), Quasimodo, and (whew) Him. It all started HERE, in FF# 36.

The 911 issue was worse than pandering. It was another little piece of a frighteningly concerted corporate media campaign designed to sway the American public into suddenly endorsing illegal and illogical wars.
Could we call it the most forgettably memorable #36 instead? The most infamous #36? Something like that?

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