i don’t play those rival games so i rlly don’t have much opinions but from what i can see it’s just like some of those japanese games back in the early 2000s like Dead or Alive. It’s just all about the aesthetic and looking hot lmfaoo. (and im never against our characters lookin hot hahaha). some of the designs are cool but i don’t really pay much attention to it, it’s for the kids and the weirdos.
i get your gripes but with parker his appearance is the last of our problems with his stupid ass bc, comic-wise, the whole point of parker has been lost long ago when bendis started his bullshit (which we have to be grateful for cuz he would’ve lived and died in a max series). i read the hood many years ago and i used to always try to find interviews where his creator talked more about him because i wanted to know more and one thing he said that i never quite understood until many years later (when i started analyzing comics differently) is that parker robbins was the anti-peter parker.
AND IT MADE SO MUCH SENSE!! The responsibility came before the power!
and then there were all the other similarities: two average looking guys, brooklyn vs queens, using their newfound power to try to make money (it wasn’t even a greed thing. money was something they needed and didn’t have).
peter parker grew up idolizing super heroes the same way parker grew up idolizing super villains, they both lost dads and poverty followed after, their brains were always on MONEY MONEY MONEY. every second peter parker was thinking of how to use spider-man to make money!! and then there was the lying! because peter parker used to lie to aunt may too! spider-man didn’t necessarily start off as a hero, he was a commercial act to make money. just like parker robbins didn’t necessarily start off as a villain. if u go back to peter parker’s origins, it’s all right there. that was the original bullshit no one remembers. he really was a peter parker! but like a messed up peter parker. that was the whole bullshit ass point! im not saying it’s exact, but the themes are there. that’s what the creator was talking about! that’s why his name is Parker!!
here’s another similarity: spider-man accidentally literally killed someone with his hands (that wolverine bullshit with that charlie woman) and so did parker (that cop guy)! and both lived with guilt over what they’ve done.
and also, parker is a young guy. 19 WHEN WE MEET HIM! in the comics he is canonically YOUNGER than peter parker and yet is always drawn like a mid-30 year old! (lmfaoo wait this is funny bc ur mad he’s too pretty and i was mad he was always drawn too old and ugly!!!) bendis forgot parker was around 20 or 21 when he started writing him. but bendis also forgot parker had a whole ass family (that he was cheating on w prostitutes lmfaoo i ain’t forgot that).
listen, shit is so stupid in the comics too because even these comic writers were making shit up. they had him all up in a punisher comic just nonchalantly resurrecting people from the dead, quoting books and shit and acting like a seasoned mobster! being a monster! and this was before his dark reign mini series where he was freaking the hell out bc he saw dormammu in dead people’s faces. (hey, asshole! u were resurrecting people!! you were cutting people up! remember that???) they wrote him crazy af at times and it didn’t make sense chronologically.
parker robbins wasn’t a “good” guy but he was never really meant to be the “big bad villain.” and if he was, he was supposed to be a villain with personal limits, even maybe some messed up morals. it all just got forgotten and he never drew the line anywhere. he became heartless. the only one who remembered who he was mid-bendis was the guy who wrote his dark reign mini series. coincidentally he shared his name. that guy was legit. he read the real shit, brought back the og artist, and parker was parker for the first time since that beyond book. and JOHN WAS JOHN! (also Gage tried with the initiative, i’ll give him that. he did his hw). some of what parker did during the bendis-bullshit made sense, i can make excuses for SOME of it but not all of it. i really don’t think parker would have it in him to beat the shit out of tygra like that. i just don’t think he would’ve. that shit was crazy!
and fun fact!! parker lived in flatbush, brooklyn. it was on his id in the beyond book. and also, parker hasn’t smoked a cigarette since 2002. that shit is also some forgotten bullshit.
and don’t even get me started on gotg. the mcu synergy they did w the books has pissed me off so much over the years i stopped reading the shit. it was another example of asshole writers missing the whole ass point. but we can’t blame them entirely because DnA star lord is basically dead or whatever. bendis and disney killed him lmfaoo
apparently we all need to get with the times. it’s 2026. gotta stop expecting accuracy and keep expecting bullshit and then they can’t let you down. mcu adam (and that whole movie franchise actually) was bullshit and mcu sentry was bullshit too. that shit was funny how stupid it was
(sorry for the essay. i’ll shut up now 🫣)
nonono i love to hear it 👏👀
i dont know much about parker robbins aside from his involvement in daredevil and civil war/siege, so i couldnt tell you how much of his rivals lore is fucked up but based on what youve told me here, yeah. hes a completely different guy 😭
rivals has a lot of lore and some of it is really cool and does a neat spin on the characters' lore (ex psylocke, hawkeye, captain america), or its exactly what you expect (ex magneto, gambit), but theyve gone a little too far with a handful of them in severely changing the lore to the point of where it doesnt feel like the same character anymore. i have the same gripe with rivals daredevil. who the fuck is that. he has voicelines that make me scream because matt murdock would NOT say that.
i just. want faithful adaptations. they dont have to be 100% comic accurate. i wanna see someone's unique vision of a character. but dear god they have to be made of the same clay at least. thats exactly why i gave up on the mcu.
im not 100% sure what you mean by DnA star-lord but i also havent read too much star-lord stuff that isnt gotg. bendis guardians did feel quite different from gotg vol 2/annihilation but i didnt necessarily dislike it.
