December 17, 2007 

Who Knew?

When Captain George Stacey died, he revealed to Peter that he knew he was Spider-Man. What’s interesting is that at the time, Stacey was working with Robbie Robertson to suss out Spider-Man’s ID. This left a question for some fans: Did Robbie also know?

Evidence says?

Oh heck yes, he knew.

Of course, this was retconned away with Civil War, which is a shame because I always liked the “does he know/doesn’t he” aspect.

?

I just wrote a post ranting about continuity, didn’t I?

I’ll go sit in the corner.


  • HellRazor

    No need to apologize Typo! There is NOTHING WRONG WITH CONTINUITY IN COMICS. I get so tired about people ragging on it. Continuity is one of the things that makes comics COOL.

    Having said that, writers don’t have to be an absolute slave to continuity either. Ignore the bad stuff, keep the good stuff. Use retcons only as a last resort to fix major screw-ups that are too big to just ignore.

    Could be simple!

    Instead, what we usually end up with are writers who either ignore continuity completely, obsessively try to go back and explain stuff that is better left buried, or who retcon and reboot their entire universe every 2-3 years, each time recycling it into something less than what it was before.

    Whatever happened to editors who had a long term vision for their franchises? Why can’t today’s writers seem to craft a good story without resorting to shock value or trying to top the latest “event”?

    Back to Joe Robertson, I think the “does he know/doesn’t he” business is much to subtle for today’s writers to be able to handle. They’d need to make an “event” out of it, where Joe Robertson was the one responsible for infecting the spider with radiation in the first place.

  • Michael

    Sure, Robbie *said* he didn’t know. But bullshit, he knew.

  • HellRazor

    Noooooo!!! Don’t confirm it!

    If you do, Doc Ock is going to accidentally drop a chimney on him!

  • sackett

    Great rant, HR!!! That’s (contraction, not possessive)EXACTLY the way I feel!!! Bravo!

    I’ve been collecting comics since the mid 70s, off and on, and I never realized that there was a subplot that Robbie might have known that Peter was Spiderman all this time!!!

  • http://www.jimmacq.com MacQuarrie

    This is “good” continuity, the kind that makes interesting characters and stories. The bad kind is obsessive-compulsive noodling over trivia and trying to make otherwise-unrelated stories fit together in a tidy little chinese puzzle-box.

  • Dierna

    He must have known!! Why else would there have been bold lettering!! :P

  • http://betterlate.wordpress.com Matt Algren

    This is “good” continuity, the kind that makes interesting characters and stories. The bad kind is obsessive-compulsive noodling over trivia and trying to make otherwise-unrelated stories fit together in a tidy little chinese puzzle-box.
    For example, Robertson obviously dressed in the dark. Otherwise he wouldn’t wear those bright blue shoes with that suit. (At all, really.)

    Does he dress in the dark because of some superstition that only he and his poor deceased mother know about? How is that superstition connected to the Shocker?

  • Gaz

    “Wow, it sure would be neat if Spider-Man, who isn’t here in any capacity, could investigate this and maybe stop whatever Shocker’s planning… Here, Pete, take this large pile of documentation relating to it for totally unrelated reasons while I go over here to do… editor things… Bye!”

    Never understood the reluctance to play with that, really, especially as Batman and Gordon have had the same deal for decades…

  • Andy

    >For example, Robertson obviously dressed in the dark

    Maybe not, maybe Robertson is color-blind.

  • http://betterlate.wordpress.com Matt Algren

    Maybe not, maybe Robertson is color-blind.

    That’s even better! I wonder how Robertson felt growing up color blind. I wonder if it had something to do with that minor traffic accident he had just a block away from where Uncle Ben was dying that night so long ago. Maybe he’s a reporter guy because he saw Spider-Man show up that night and he felt a profound need to tell people about it. If only someone would tell that story…

    Sadly, Geoff Johns works for DC right now, so it’ll have to wait awhile.

  • HellRazor

    Don’t look now, but Pete and Robbie are about to be swallowed by a black hole in panel 3.

  • http://odaw.comicgenesis.com Maker

    Ah, so that’s what a plot hole looks like.

  • Wesley Dodds

    During the Clone Saga there was a bit where he was talking to Peter and Spider-Man entered through the window. The look on Robbie’s face said: “Wait… Peter *isn’t* Spider-Man!?”

  • Spike-X

    “Whatever happened to editors who had a long term vision for their franchises?”

    They’re too busy trying to shoehorn everything into the latest company-wide crossover.