Spider-Man Reveals Secret ID To World

...at a press conference in Times Square.

"I'm proud of who I am, and I'm here right now to prove it," the legendary webslinger tells a press conference called in New York's Times Square, before pulling off his mask and standing before the massed ranks of reporters as newspaper photographer Peter Parker.

"Any questions?" Parker asks in the final panel of the issue, amid a barrage of camera flashes.

In a statement, Marvel trumpeted the revelation as "arguably the most shocking event in comic book history".

The seven-issue Civil War series, launched in May, sees Marvel's writers taking on the topical issue of civil liberties.

Following a showdown between a group of superheroes and supervillains in which hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, the US Government passes the Super-Hero Registration Act, requiring all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as "living weapons of mass destruction".

Marvel's roster of invincible crime fighters is split into two bitterly opposed factions, with one camp - championed by the likes of Spider-Man - in favour of the new law and the other, including Captain America and his ilk, refusing to relinquish anonymity.

Three points:

1: It's good to see the comics discussing important issues, like whether bloggers should be allowed to remain anonymous, which is clearly the subtext here.

2: Every conservative loves the idea of Captain America, but from what I hear, we'd hate the real thing, who tends to be a self-righteous liberal prick into whose mouth they put kind of anti-American cant.

3: This is a daring and bold storyline, completely new and without precedent, if you don't count every X-Man story ever published.

Bonus Point: I think this might just be the biggest story of the day.

Since Bush is manipulating/scheduling the release of information for political advantage, I question the timing of his timing of breaking news. The last couple of days there was too much friggin' news, now there's none.

Space it out, people. One big story per day.

What are you, novices at this?

posted by Ace at 03:06 PM

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