Hi www
I was meditating on the future of society.. and came to a part of my daydream..
Since time immemorial, women have exchanged safety for food/protection.. provision. Now society.. quite rightly provides this.. it is a function of society that we group together and make laws that protect the whole.
But it occurs to me.. how much do men get out of this deal?
We can no longer leverage our worth to women to attain a family.. indeed even undesirable women become a prospect for family, due to this imbalance in reward provided by society, I have no doubt there are undesirable men also.. but these men are even less likely to find a mate, not more in this system.
(basically they were never going to find a mate.. but a certain amount of equally undesirable females will find a mate only because of how society is set up).
So what would society provide for men to compensate? I mean.. the idea is equality right?
I would say an A.I female companion, a robot to replace the job the women used to do.. someone to care for the men, because the women do not care any longer.
As we move into 4th Gen Feminism.. we wave goodbye to all those brave 2nd Gen Feminists.. the ones that achieved equality of the genders and fought hard for equal rights in the workplace.. heroes every one of them! After them we got the 3rd Gen Feminists... the evil feminism .. spoiled, selfish, hateful, spiteful.. who knows what 4th Gen feminism will be like!?
So why care.. really why should men care? It would be better to have a robot companion.. shaped like a ultra attractive female human.. programmed to meet the needs of men.. or even the needs of each specific man.
Men are programmed to fill a role within the family.. well the good ones are.. the ones not cheating, lying.. but these men are devalued because of these traits.. so why try??
As men become closer and closer to being worthless.. perhaps it has already happened? What value does society put on male existence?
So then.. I have needs.. men have needs.. requirements.. how does society fill those needs?
It doesn't.
So women are getting what they want out of society.. protection. And I cannot state this enough.. that it is right for them to receive this protection and provision.. but this value to worth a lot less to men than women. When society makes men redundant as providers and protectors.. the value of them cannot help but become less. It is simple logic.
So.. what does society provide for men to replace the advantages of what they were worth? Currently.. nothing.
In the future..
I have no idea. I mean is sounds absurd to me right now, that I would advocate female robots in place of real human women.. but as things are shaping up.. I must confront that devaluing of men must lead to a shift in society, which leaves the average man with no value.
Sure sure.. companionship..but if a marriage doesn't work out.. how quickly does each one move on?.. women can move on much quicker, the competition for women is much hotter than for men. Love? I believe in the Lord.. I am a believer.. but I have seen love fail, due to western society.
So we men must think on what do we want?? I would enjoy a caretaker.. who meets my emotional and physical needs.. and I just don't believe Western Society is designed to produce this. And so that means Western Society has failed me. I do not speak for every man.. but for myself.
What does it mean for every man?.. sure you can find a partner for a couple of years.. maybe lucky enough to have children, but the way Western Society is.. this is temporary.. marriage is for a few years.. or partnership.. whatever you want to call it.. then people are moving on.. usually the woman.
There is no penalty for her breaking up a family.. she doesn't get sued for a type of financial fraud.. no shame in causing such destruction to the children.. only protection and reaffirmation..
While male psychology is such that; he is humiliated that someone else is with his wife, that he barely has access to his children.. and pays financially for said children he can barely see.
men = worthless.
Western Society is cruel to men. It is set up now to cater to women only.. with any advantages they had in the past combined with all the 'equality' they have gained since.. on top of this, women are seemingly considered innately glamorous.. it's madness!
So.. the only solution I can think of is for Western Society to provide female robots for men. They then can continue their lives, with their needs met, no women were going to give them a second look anyway.. and yes, its the men giving up on human women.. but there is no solution as I firstly stated.. it is right that society protects and provides for its people.
Dava
Thursday, 30 April 2020
Monday, 27 April 2020
Alden Jazzcaster: Wiring Schematics
Alden Jazzcaster: Wiring Schematics
Thanks to RayL over at OSG: offsetguitars.com
Since Photobucket decided to lose the pics down their couch.. I have reuploaded them here for (hopefully) permanent reference.
Dava
Thanks to RayL over at OSG: offsetguitars.com
Since Photobucket decided to lose the pics down their couch.. I have reuploaded them here for (hopefully) permanent reference.
Dava
Saturday, 25 April 2020
What is with all this rubbishly cut Mother of Pearl??.. the 'sight view' quality of MOP
Hi www
I am fed up of all this mother of toilet seat poorly cut 'real' mother of pearl!!
I got some 'real' mother of pearl from Spain a couple of years ago.. the viewing angle is so sharp it might as well be MOTS..
I made up a term to describe the quality.. think of it like a fine quality scale.. 'Sight View Quality'
See here:
The above has a 15 to 30 degree low viewing angle.. very bad, not worth the money. Should have the same weighted value as Mother of Toilet Seat.
Correctly cut MOP:
Or better still..
The above has a 45 to 90 degree center viewing angle.. but the broader the better!.. the *perfect* MOP sight view quality you want to achieve is 180 degree center.. but I doubt anyone will find such a magnificent piece of Mother of Pearl.
The result of correctly cut Mother of Pearl is this:
And this:
The result of incorrectly cut Mother of Pearl is this:
(credit: Crimson Guitars. Not their fault but should have chosen better MOP)
And this:
(Credit: EY Guitars)
And this:
(Credit: Gibson Guitars.. yes that's a real Gibson.. an SG Supreme.. degree angle looks to be 30 to 45 low.. so not as bad as the others but still incorrect)
And this:
The guitar on the left.. both are my Gibson SGs. I did the inlays myself so I inspected the inlays when they arrived.. they are real MOP, feel like shell.. but look at the poor quality of the cut!!
What you want is..
The minimum translucence sight view quality should be 15 to 30 degrees.. NEVER 'sheen' in the center!! Which is what the above MOP is suffering from.. so then we need to make sure of the quality and for that we need a scale to price the MOP inlays correctly..
Dava's 'Sight View Quality' Mother of Pearl Grade Scale
Q: Hey Dava where did the inbetween ones go?
A: Erm.. as the view gets wider there are less and less degrees to transition between. So you get just get more and more 'Center'.
Q: How do I use this scale?
A: The methodology is simple.. have a normal (usual setting the MOP will be in) single light source, directly above the level fretboard. Put a two armed protractor flat side down on the frets.. when the 'glamour' changes from translucent to sheen; mark it. Do the same again for the other side with the second arm of the protractor. take the measurement then check the scale.
If in doubt.. round it down. No one will be angry with you for getting more than they expect. Everyone will be angry with you for getting less than they expect.
We get charged a fortune for MOP, no matter its quality.. we need to start holding these people to account!
Dava
--------------
Original:
Grade
15 Degree low = Trash (MOTS) F-
15 to 30 Degree low = Trash (MOTS) F
30 to 45 Degree low = Almost OK almost MOTS D-
15 Degree Center = OK-ish not MOTS D
15 to 30 Degree Center = OK not great D+ for lower end guitars.
30 Degree Center = Good-ish. C-
30 to 45 Center = The *least* you should expect on every Gibson. Good C.
45 to 90 degree Center = Good. C+
90 Degree Center = Significant quality. What Gibsons should have on
every Standard and above (unless better is available) B-
90 to 105 Degrees Center: Significant Quality. B
105 Degrees Center: Significant Quality. For 'professional' type series and above. non Custom Shop premium guitars. B+
105 to 120 Center = Higher End Pro guitars. Dazzling Quality A-
120 Degree Center = Less expensive Custom Shop. Dazzling Quality A
150 Degree Center = Custom Shop standards. Dazzling Quality A+
165 Degree Center = *Near Perfect* Quality. For all commissioned GCS guitars and handmade luthier guitars (non Gibson). S
180 Center = *Perfect*.Cannot be improved upon. S++
I am fed up of all this mother of toilet seat poorly cut 'real' mother of pearl!!
I got some 'real' mother of pearl from Spain a couple of years ago.. the viewing angle is so sharp it might as well be MOTS..
I made up a term to describe the quality.. think of it like a fine quality scale.. 'Sight View Quality'
See here:
The above has a 15 to 30 degree low viewing angle.. very bad, not worth the money. Should have the same weighted value as Mother of Toilet Seat.
Correctly cut MOP:
Or better still..
The above has a 45 to 90 degree center viewing angle.. but the broader the better!.. the *perfect* MOP sight view quality you want to achieve is 180 degree center.. but I doubt anyone will find such a magnificent piece of Mother of Pearl.
The result of correctly cut Mother of Pearl is this:
And this:
The result of incorrectly cut Mother of Pearl is this:
(credit: Crimson Guitars. Not their fault but should have chosen better MOP)
And this:
(Credit: EY Guitars)
And this:
(Credit: Gibson Guitars.. yes that's a real Gibson.. an SG Supreme.. degree angle looks to be 30 to 45 low.. so not as bad as the others but still incorrect)
And this:
The guitar on the left.. both are my Gibson SGs. I did the inlays myself so I inspected the inlays when they arrived.. they are real MOP, feel like shell.. but look at the poor quality of the cut!!
What you want is..
The minimum translucence sight view quality should be 15 to 30 degrees.. NEVER 'sheen' in the center!! Which is what the above MOP is suffering from.. so then we need to make sure of the quality and for that we need a scale to price the MOP inlays correctly..
Dava's 'Sight View Quality' Mother of Pearl Grade Scale
| Sight | Description | Glamour Aperture | Grade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Degree low | Trash | MOTS | F- | |
| 15 to 30 Degree low | Trash | MOTS | F | |
| 30 to 45 Degree low | Almost OK | Almost MOTS | D- | |
| 15 Degree Center | OK-ish | Not MOTS | D | |
| 15 to 30 Degree Center | OK. for lower end guitars. | OK not great | D+ | |
| 30 Degree Center | Good-ish | C- | ||
| 30 to 45 Center | The *least* you should expect on every Gibson. | Good | C | |
| 45 to 90 degree Center | Good | C+ | ||
| 90 Degree Center |
What Gibsons should have on every Standard and above.
| Significant | B- | |
| 90 to 105 Degrees Center | Significant | B | ||
| 105 Degrees Center | For 'professional' type series and above. non Custom Shop premium guitars | Significant | B+ | |
| 105 to 120 Center | Higher End Pro guitars. | Dazzling Quality | A- | |
| 120 Degree Center | Less expensive Custom Shop. | Dazzling Quality | A | |
| 150 Degree Center | Custom Shop standards. | Dazzling Quality | A+ | |
| 165 Degree Center | For all commissioned GCS guitars and handmade luthier guitars (non Gibson). | Near Perfect | S | |
| 180 Center | Cannot be improved upon. Looks like; 'ghosts dancing in a rainbow at night' from every angle. | Perfect | S++ |
A: Erm.. as the view gets wider there are less and less degrees to transition between. So you get just get more and more 'Center'.
Q: How do I use this scale?
A: The methodology is simple.. have a normal (usual setting the MOP will be in) single light source, directly above the level fretboard. Put a two armed protractor flat side down on the frets.. when the 'glamour' changes from translucent to sheen; mark it. Do the same again for the other side with the second arm of the protractor. take the measurement then check the scale.
If in doubt.. round it down. No one will be angry with you for getting more than they expect. Everyone will be angry with you for getting less than they expect.
We get charged a fortune for MOP, no matter its quality.. we need to start holding these people to account!
Dava
--------------
Original:
Grade
15 Degree low = Trash (MOTS) F-
15 to 30 Degree low = Trash (MOTS) F
30 to 45 Degree low = Almost OK almost MOTS D-
15 Degree Center = OK-ish not MOTS D
15 to 30 Degree Center = OK not great D+ for lower end guitars.
30 Degree Center = Good-ish. C-
30 to 45 Center = The *least* you should expect on every Gibson. Good C.
45 to 90 degree Center = Good. C+
90 Degree Center = Significant quality. What Gibsons should have on
every Standard and above (unless better is available) B-
90 to 105 Degrees Center: Significant Quality. B
105 Degrees Center: Significant Quality. For 'professional' type series and above. non Custom Shop premium guitars. B+
105 to 120 Center = Higher End Pro guitars. Dazzling Quality A-
120 Degree Center = Less expensive Custom Shop. Dazzling Quality A
150 Degree Center = Custom Shop standards. Dazzling Quality A+
165 Degree Center = *Near Perfect* Quality. For all commissioned GCS guitars and handmade luthier guitars (non Gibson). S
180 Center = *Perfect*.Cannot be improved upon. S++
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Dava's Tenets of Basic Common Sense in game design.. or too many no-no's don't make a yes-yes!
Hi WWW
Here are some Cardinal Rules of game design:
Rule 1:
Don't mess with people's saves. EVER.
Rule 2:
Don't put any invisible walls anywhere inside the sandbox. to cage us inside is fine. But once inside; it is OUR PLAYGROUND.. no longer yours. .. stop picking at it.
Rule 3:
Intuitive control.. beg, borrow.. steal if you have to from other Devs and Dev publishers.. the middle tool is so vastly unimportant, that you, Dev, sweating about it, isn't helping! If a control method is popular use that instead.
Rule 4:
Let us skip EVERYTHING.. cutscenes, cinematics, intro movies (I am aware I own a Nvidia graphics card, no need to waste my time showing me a mini movie about it).
Rule 5:
Don't put things in the game I could mistake as a 'glitch'. Seriously.
Rule 6:
If I have near completed a quest and the final part fails .. not due to me misunderstanding what to do.. but the game did not allow me to do it; ensure you have checkpoints. If the game failed and not me.. that was your problem not mine.. so to stop any arguments between player and Dev.. have checkpoints while the mission is active.. if the player quits; they must *then* and *only then*.. have to restart the whole mission if it is not completed.
Rule 7:
All bugs MUST GO. Even if your game is 20 years old.. if you are making coin off the franchise and a bug is reported. fix it!
Break any of these rules and you are a BAD DEVELOPER.. it's like being a bad parent but instead disappointing 10's of thousands of people in one go.
@Publishers
Have a 'Gamma Team'.. who are much like Beta Testers in reverse. Gamma 'Testers'.. small team that covers all franchised games, that make coin for you as a publisher. Team of 5 to 10 people.. like a dead letter office of games publishing. You send annoyed or concerned players to them instead of your media team having to deal with an old game.
Dava
-----
I *may* come back and update this with more.. but that's enough for now.
I would like to thank Ubisoft for inspiring this list.. FLIP!! It's just basic common courtesy.. don't mess with peoples save games! FC5-DLC. Whoever thought it was a good idea over at Ubisoft.. well they probably deserve all the twitter hate the Ubi media team had to deal with and I hope they passed that along to that person.. as 'feedback/suggestions'. I am sure other players had some suggestions what that Dev could do with the game!
Here are some Cardinal Rules of game design:
Rule 1:
Don't mess with people's saves. EVER.
Rule 2:
Don't put any invisible walls anywhere inside the sandbox. to cage us inside is fine. But once inside; it is OUR PLAYGROUND.. no longer yours. .. stop picking at it.
Rule 3:
Intuitive control.. beg, borrow.. steal if you have to from other Devs and Dev publishers.. the middle tool is so vastly unimportant, that you, Dev, sweating about it, isn't helping! If a control method is popular use that instead.
Rule 4:
Let us skip EVERYTHING.. cutscenes, cinematics, intro movies (I am aware I own a Nvidia graphics card, no need to waste my time showing me a mini movie about it).
Rule 5:
Don't put things in the game I could mistake as a 'glitch'. Seriously.
Rule 6:
If I have near completed a quest and the final part fails .. not due to me misunderstanding what to do.. but the game did not allow me to do it; ensure you have checkpoints. If the game failed and not me.. that was your problem not mine.. so to stop any arguments between player and Dev.. have checkpoints while the mission is active.. if the player quits; they must *then* and *only then*.. have to restart the whole mission if it is not completed.
Rule 7:
All bugs MUST GO. Even if your game is 20 years old.. if you are making coin off the franchise and a bug is reported. fix it!
Break any of these rules and you are a BAD DEVELOPER.. it's like being a bad parent but instead disappointing 10's of thousands of people in one go.
@Publishers
Have a 'Gamma Team'.. who are much like Beta Testers in reverse. Gamma 'Testers'.. small team that covers all franchised games, that make coin for you as a publisher. Team of 5 to 10 people.. like a dead letter office of games publishing. You send annoyed or concerned players to them instead of your media team having to deal with an old game.
Dava
-----
I *may* come back and update this with more.. but that's enough for now.
I would like to thank Ubisoft for inspiring this list.. FLIP!! It's just basic common courtesy.. don't mess with peoples save games! FC5-DLC. Whoever thought it was a good idea over at Ubisoft.. well they probably deserve all the twitter hate the Ubi media team had to deal with and I hope they passed that along to that person.. as 'feedback/suggestions'. I am sure other players had some suggestions what that Dev could do with the game!
Thursday, 19 March 2020
Altered Carbon - Resleeved .. a review
Hi www
Well.. I'm a huge Altered Carbon fan.. but what the flip did I just watch??
Altered Carbon: Resleeved.. has excellent art/graphics.. poor to OK sound..decent music direction.. but.. the dialogue!!
Firstly, I felt like I was being talked to like I was an idiot. Like this show was for IQ 70 and under.
Secondly and chiefly, did the writer/s even WATCH the show??.. it feels like someone read a leaflet/cliff notes and just shoe-horned another anime script into the Altered Carbon world.
Altered Carbon - Resleeved is full of canon breaking moments.. WHAT ON EARTH was Takashi's sister doing working for C-TAC?? WHY IS SHE STILL ALIVE??
Nope.
If its in the past.. she NEVER worked for C-TAC and hates C-TAC.
It is a principal part of her character. she hates C-TAC.
If it's off screen present.. no she's dead. SHE'S DEAD.
Takeshi Kovac is not a bounty hunter. NOT A BOUNTY HUNTER.
Netflix.. get your money back from the shyster/s that wrote this garbage and ran off with your money thinking they pulled a fast one..
(written by Dai Satō and Tsukasa Kondo)
Neither one of these people have ever watched Altered Carbon. get your money back.
Now.. back to the compliments.. direction wasn't awful, but what was a treat for the eyes was the Art Graphics.. near breathtaking. THIS is where your money went.. and it shows. I heartily approve of the style and hope we see it again.. it very much reminded me of 'Death+Love+Robots'.
The Dubs.. well.. it was a Japanese show with much much Japanese culture.. why you couldn't have lip-matched to the actual actors who were doing the dubs.. especially when the dialogue was such trash.. I would even have prefered actors who are fans of the show to adlib their own lines.. I digress..
I felt if I had to suffer through such trash dialogue, you could have least matched the lips to each language.. which costs like.. next to nothing, due to it being CGI. you just press a button to open the mouth and one to close it.
Dub acting.. wasn't awful.. but that's all I really have to say.. 4/10 almost average. Again it would have helped tons if the actors had actually watched the show.
By the end.. I wished the art had resleeved itself into better dialogue. If we could RD the patronisation and blow the stack of whomever is assuming we are idiots.. this anime has great promise..but only if you never watch the real Altered Carbon.
Dava
Well.. I'm a huge Altered Carbon fan.. but what the flip did I just watch??
Altered Carbon: Resleeved.. has excellent art/graphics.. poor to OK sound..decent music direction.. but.. the dialogue!!
Firstly, I felt like I was being talked to like I was an idiot. Like this show was for IQ 70 and under.
Secondly and chiefly, did the writer/s even WATCH the show??.. it feels like someone read a leaflet/cliff notes and just shoe-horned another anime script into the Altered Carbon world.
Altered Carbon - Resleeved is full of canon breaking moments.. WHAT ON EARTH was Takashi's sister doing working for C-TAC?? WHY IS SHE STILL ALIVE??
Nope.
If its in the past.. she NEVER worked for C-TAC and hates C-TAC.
It is a principal part of her character. she hates C-TAC.
If it's off screen present.. no she's dead. SHE'S DEAD.
Takeshi Kovac is not a bounty hunter. NOT A BOUNTY HUNTER.
Netflix.. get your money back from the shyster/s that wrote this garbage and ran off with your money thinking they pulled a fast one..
(written by Dai Satō and Tsukasa Kondo)
Neither one of these people have ever watched Altered Carbon. get your money back.
Now.. back to the compliments.. direction wasn't awful, but what was a treat for the eyes was the Art Graphics.. near breathtaking. THIS is where your money went.. and it shows. I heartily approve of the style and hope we see it again.. it very much reminded me of 'Death+Love+Robots'.
The Dubs.. well.. it was a Japanese show with much much Japanese culture.. why you couldn't have lip-matched to the actual actors who were doing the dubs.. especially when the dialogue was such trash.. I would even have prefered actors who are fans of the show to adlib their own lines.. I digress..
I felt if I had to suffer through such trash dialogue, you could have least matched the lips to each language.. which costs like.. next to nothing, due to it being CGI. you just press a button to open the mouth and one to close it.
Dub acting.. wasn't awful.. but that's all I really have to say.. 4/10 almost average. Again it would have helped tons if the actors had actually watched the show.
By the end.. I wished the art had resleeved itself into better dialogue. If we could RD the patronisation and blow the stack of whomever is assuming we are idiots.. this anime has great promise..but only if you never watch the real Altered Carbon.
Dava
Monday, 24 February 2020
Dava's Hitchhikers Guide to Spider-Man: the Clone Saga
Hi random people of the internet.
DISCLAIMER:
Firstly the writing here is going to be full of imaginations,
mis-rememberings, personal retcons fanfic and all sorts of shenanigans.
For example: I honor most of the comic book canon, which is when I read it originally the first when it was first released, but the comic book swings from really good moments to really bad moments, I much prefer the 90s animated series for some elements including Doc Connors involvement in trying to find a cure for Peter Parker's fake cancer, which was Doc Connors excuse to get a free research assistant (Peter) and unlimited access to Peters blood. IIRC Doc Connors never said it was 'cancer' coz it was a kids show, but the way he suggested how fatally sick Peter could get.. I certainly feel it was implied or was an equivalent.
Many of the scenes/situations are contrived, convoluted without purpose, I have attempted to streamline this to the essential events and in doing so thingsmay will be changed.
Dava's Hitchhikers Guide to Spider-Man: the Clone Saga
Set 4 months after the spider bite and two months after Uncle Ben's Death, Peter (now 16yo) has begun his shakey existence as Spider-Man. He achieved a scholarship from the Richards Foundation to attend St.John's Catholic University* (ESU) he meets Doc Connors as his biology professor. Peter is curious how the spider bite changed his DNA and what it did to his biology. Harry Osborn meets Peter for the first time as he is flunking most his classes and Peter becomes his paid study buddy but after a few lessons, he begins to refuse money saying he will take payment in sandwiches or pizza, this begins their friendship, as Peter is Harry's first 'real' friend who isn't interested in money. They quickly become best friends.
Two months pass, Peter is dating MJ and working as a pizza delivery boy, he has fought Vulture, Tinkerer and Doctor Octopus. Norman Osborn finds out about Peter's identity. MJ gets abducted by Green Goblin who tries to throw her off the Brooklyn Bridge, but Peter catches her in time. Peter and MJ have a fight and break up. Peter begins dating Gwen Stacy. Gwen falls for Peter hard, Peter is lukewarm, Gwen's father is a police captain, he becomes suspicious of Peters lies/excuses and thinks Peter is cheating on Gwen. Green Goblin abducts Gwen, then throws her off the Brooklyn bridge, this time successfully killing Peter Parker's GF (Peter's web caught her in time so she didn't hit the ground, but her neck snapped from the velocity of the fall).
After Gwen's death, Peter and Cpt. Stacy have a kind of bonding moment at Gwen's funeral, Peter feels guilty as he was going to break up with Gwen before she died, he says nothing to Cpt. Stacy even though Cpt. Stacy is pouring his heart out about Gwen.This crushes Peter all the more. But coldly he still says nothing.
Peter throws himself into his studies, including extracurricular time with Doc Connors who he begins to trust, confiding in him that he is Spider-Man, Doc Connors has someone else working with him off and on whom Peter assumes is Doc Connors Lab Assistant, she is in fact a colleague, her name is Moira MacTaggert She is never around long enough for Peter to be corrected on who she is. Despite the lack of time they spend together, Moira is the one to talk Peter into providing the initial blood sample.
One night it was just Moira and Peter in the lab late and they talked about the situation, because Doc Connors had told her Peter was Spider-Man and she was the one to take the sample.
Doc Connors University Lab had a passcard security system, but he only had two cards, one for himself and one for Moira, so he would leave the skylight window open for Peter to continue their research. This was a.. mistake.
Miles Warren.. I'll just let Wikipedia do the talking.. :
"Miles Warren was a professor of biology at Empire State University. There, he meets Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. During his tenure there, Warren becomes secretly infatuated with the much younger Gwen Stacy to the point of obsession and jealousy of Parker, her boyfriend. After Stacy is murdered by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), Warren swears vengeance on Spider-Man, since the papers at the time reported that it was Spider-Man who killed her. Gwen's death drives Warren into depression, despair, and insanity as a mad geneticist who eventually becomes the Jackal. Miles also has a brother named Raymond, who is a science teacher at Peter Parker's high school."
Two more months have past since last recounted.. Peter is working at the Bugle as a photographer, as he was fired numerous times from Joe's for 'late pizza'. I am sure Joe's pizzas expect high standards in the time of their delivery drivers, as is right.
Peter has been working closely with Doc Connors, Prof. Miles Warren has discovered the Doctor and Peter's secret. He has been stalking Peter while trying not to trigger Peter's 'Spidey Sense' one late night at the lab as very tired Peter masks up, he forgets to lock the skylight window. Yes.. a skylight is dumb.. dumb dumb dumb.. but also a human error.
Prof. Warren had been experimenting on himself. His speciality was cloning. He steals some of Peter's blood and begins making clones of Peter.
Exposition
Not counting the all-out abominations (100?.. more??) Prof. Warren (The Jackal) successfully creates around 40? to 50? Spider clones. Many many of them were evil, with the exception of only 5 who were 'good' like Peter. The one most like Peter was.. B** ****** the ******* Spider.
The five were:
Kaine
B** ******
Jack
?
?
With my fanfic 'Alan MacKay: Widow Spider' I attempted to fill one of those missing slots: see below. B** ****** was dark inside, but retained Peter's sense of humor. Both Kaine and Jack were borderline good/evil.
Spidercide was Deadpool-like+Spider-Man but pure evil.
Story: Doppler
Peter knows nothing of what Prof. Warren has done. Spider-Man is out in the neighbourhood patrolling, a mild spidey sense is triggered as he feels a sense of being watched. He sees someones web swinging shadow but thinks it must be a trick of the light, but still he follows it, at the end of the chase he finds 'Doppler' (NOT Doppelganger) an evil clone of himself, who has been busy that night making Peter's future life a misery; we see him explain to Peter what he has been busy doing..
Scene 1: in Peter's sted he went and had another fight with MJ even though they are broken up, including calling her 'poor' and 'ugly'. She cries running back into her house.
Scene 2: He tells JJ what he thinks of him and quits his job at the Bugle.
Scene 3: He is suggesting to a ESU female professor he would 'make her happy' for a good grade.
Scene 4: He beats up Aunt May, not killing her, but landing her in hospital.
(this also sets up Peter revealing to Aunt May; he is Spider-Man)
Scene 5: He asks Harry for some serious money, Harry curious why Peter would want this, asks and instead of answering, Peter just states 'you will never know what real life is like, because you just a spoiled little rich boy'. Harry is devastated, his worst nightmare in his friendship with Peter.
(Unknown to Doppler, Norman actually overhears this conversation and is instantly suspicious, thinking 'This isn't how Peter behaves.. something is going on here')
Peter snaps and kills Doppler. Beating him to a pulp.
After the rage fades, Peter realizes what he just did. Coldly he takes what's left of the body to the Brooklyn docks, takes off Dopplers Spider-Man costume, ties a huge rock to the body and throws it far in the water, to around the middle between Brooklyn and the Governors Island (Dimond Reef).
He is filled with strange feelings that his 16 year old mind can't deal with.. so on the way home he visits the Catholic Cathedral .. Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral. From across the street a shadow watches Peter enter. And even further away Green Goblin watches the shadow.
Exposition
Norman Osborne is a rich and powerful person, who has strived all his life for 'perfection of humanity' he is a genius and a Nietzschean, he loves Peter like a son.. but he deplores Peter for lying to Harry, and due to his twisted experiments on himself, he is intensely jealous of Peters abilities and how Peter acquired them so easily. This is not a straightforward 'enemy' of Peter Parker, Norman is very layered as is true with people of certain intelects. His philosophy is 'survival of the fittest.. or richest.' but Peter's 'old world charm' as he would say had captured his heart. He believes *he* should be the *only one* to take away his adopted son's life but he still very torn as he actually loves him. The first time the Green Goblin tried to kill MJ on the Brooklyn Bridge was due to Peter looking Norman in the eye and telling him a straight lie to cover Spider-Man's identity. This in Norman's twisted mind; enraged him*.
Norman: 'You'd never lie to me .. right Peter?' and Peter denying he would lie.
Story
Peter in the Cathedral is beyond confused. He prays. He leaves. Green Goblin sees Peter leaving, looking away from the shadow for the shortest of split seconds, when he looks back the shadow is gone.
In his base, Miles Warren knows that due to Doppler not returning, Peter must have killed Doppler, which meant all the scenarios Miles had told Doppler to carry out, he must have done. Miles is very happy at the thought of this and steps up production of Peter clones. Some of the clones have previously escaped, but Miles seems to not care, as he believes he has tweaked all their genes to bring out the evil side of Peter in them.
Miles rents 2 more places to create cloning labs, for a total of 4, with a small 5th site having limited equipment.
Meanwhile Peter is at Uni and has justified killing Doppler by telling himself, 'he was me, I have every right to kill me.. right?.. but I can't be dead because I'm still here.. maybe it was some kind of fever dream.. can't have been real.. but Aunt May wasn't in when I got home this morning.. I'm so confused.'
Just then the female professor Doppler had been suggestive with comes in the classroom door, we see Peter is in a History class covering the topic of Hadrian's Wall.. she signals to Peter to come to speak to her. Outside the classroom.. they speak, her name is Professor Willow Trask*.
She is Head of the 'Practical Physics' Department.. Willow tells Peter that she was horrified at first, but when she got home she felt flattered as he is very attractive, she herself is a very attractive 50 year old woman, which she mentions their ages but she has been single for most of her life due to her work, however she cannot lower her moral standards or dedication to the truth, that she hopes Peter acknowledges in her confession of her truth to him that she would have considered a romantic and/or physical relationship had they both not been at the same University, as an indication of her passion & dedication to the truth. She squeezes Peters bicep as she leans in and kisses him on the cheek.. and then as she pats him on the chest with her open hand she tells him; come see her when he has graduated.
Peter is dumbfounded.
He begins thinking 'OKAY so IF that was TRUE!..? !.. is Aunt May in hospital???'.
Peter suits up in the abandoned locker room that is used for the Universities large cleaning equipment and heads off to check each of the local hospitals.
Doc Connors had been experimenting with Peter's blood to regain his lost arm.. he had 'one of his blackouts' that he has been experiencing over the last three weeks since he first tried the serum to restore his arm. He had confided in Dr. MacTaggert about these blackouts and when she strongly advised him to see medical council; they had a falling out. This was why Miles could steal the blood so easily, Dr. MacTaggert no longer was coming to the lab and Doc Connors was elsewhere due to the blackouts.
We see Doc Connors return to a smashed lab.. he is in shock. He wonders if he did this during a blackout.
We see Miles in one of his facilities.. he is happy Doppler was a success, but wants to show the world how much of a monster Peter Parker is. He is aware that Spider-Man is powerful, so he used a formula on himself.. not being able to bear being spider like Peter, as it would remind him of Peter, he has chosen a Jackal, manipulating the genes and mixing them with his own.
He begins making the 'abominations'. So far 10 of his experiments have escaped the Labs.. but Miles does not care as each one is an open wound upon Peter Parker's life.
Across town: We meet B** ****** for the first time.. he looks like Peter acts like Peter.. he is even wearing some of Peter's clothes, he is buying some food from a hospital vending machine. As far as he is aware he is Peter. Through a hallway.. through a window, Spider-Man hangs upside down and sees himself buying something from a vending machine.. he is gobsmacked.
Spider-Man thinks: OKAY this is freaky!
Spider-Man waits and holds vigil for Aunt May.. staying across the street on a rooftop watching. The 'other' Peter seems to be kindly to Aunt May. 2 days later.. he follows them home, wondering what this 'other' Peter has told Aunt May to excuse such actions.
Spider-Man decided to go into his room and wait.. eventually the 'other' Peter comes in and is shocked.. Spider-Man grabs him and says what did you tell Aunt May?
The 'other' Peter explains.. flashback: he was following someone who had powers similar to himself and he lost him.. when he decided to return him he found a double of himself threatening and hitting Aunt May, he defended Aunt May beating the double down but the guy escaped.. not the 'other' Peter asks.. who are you and why are you wearing my costume?
Spider-Man unmasks himself.. and the 'other' Peter says 'oh no not you again'.. to which Spider-Man says.. 'don't worry I killed that guy.. he's not coming back.'
Both are in shock as they sit side by side on the bed.
SP = Spider Peter
OP =Other Peter
Spider-Man: so we need to work out whos the 'real' Peter eh?
Other Peter: Yeahhh..
SP: What is the first thing you remember that night patrolling?
OP: I stopped for a hotdog from street vendor..
SP: I remember that too.. weird.
[Listen in the interest of being plain I'll hit you with a load of spoilers quickly.. B** ****** the ******* Spider had been tracking Peter that night.. he is Peter and retains all of Peters memories up until the moment he was cloned/the moment the blood was taken.. however B** had been stalking Peter looking for a way to tell him. When the 'real' Peter stopped for some food, the clone did also..one wanted to be Peter so badly they blocked out all memory of being the clone. It is highly implied that the Peter we have been following IS the real Peter.. but conversely, it is one of if not *thee* greatest mysteries in Spider-Man.. 'who is the real Peter Parker?' as either one of them could have went either way that night. Marvel strings this out for a long time.. I solve it thusly: If you are a non-evil clone you DO NOT have bio-webbing, only Peter has bio-webbing.. except in my fanfic of 'Alan Mackay' Widow Spider who has poisonous bio-webbing. The rest have to manufacture their own webbing.. another side of this mystery is, B** ****** is Peter with a focus on all of his dark and sad traits but is the only clone that retains Peter's sense of humor.. if Peter found out he was a clone, he would be sad and dark, so what really is the difference? bio-webbing. So by giving Alan MacKay bio-webbing, this mystery can begin afresh. Spidercide has Bio-Webbing but is evil]
The two become tentative allies to find out what on earth is happening.
SP goes to Uni the next day. He gets in an argument with Doc Connors who transforms into 'The Lizard' and escapes into the sewers but SP follows. There SP is able to calm him down enough for him to transform back. Doc Connors apologizes and is in trauma realizing what he might have done.
OP begins looking for people with the expertise to be able to clone humans, one name keeps coming up.. Miles Warren. OP sees he is at the same Uni as he and SP.. and feels confident: this is our guy.
SP plain dressed decides to go home, on his way home he sees MJ, she freaks out but SP pursues her to 'explain things' but having no idea what he would say, however this does not become a factor as he reaches MJ, she slaps him tears rolling down her face. SP's spidersense had went off.. but he just took the slap. SP let's her leave without further incident.
OP goes to see Doc Connors and Doc Connors fills him in on what has been happening with him.. and that SP calmed him down. OP feels guilty laying so much on Doc Connors but he has to know more about this 'Miles Warren'. Doc Connors says he doesn't know much.. but that he Miles at Gwen Stacy's funeral and found it hard to understand why he so upset.. this gives OP a clue to what Miles' motives are. Doc Connors also mentions Moira MacTaggert that she won't return his phone calls, but he feels he has no one else to turn to. OP empathizes with him.
Aunt May is the kitchen, she is still very nervous around Peter.. she wants to avoid him until all the awful things have passed. But SP..says he has a confession and tells Aunt May about being Spider-Man.. she is in shock and accuses him of lying.. 'don't say such things to excuse your behavior!'
SP confesses again, but Aunt May is just getting more and more upset. He goes to his room and backs a bag. Reasoning both of us can't live here.. things are tense enough as it is [meaning himself and OP].
SP meets OP on the way out of the house.. before OP can tell SP anything, SP says.. you can have here, I just can't deal with seeing her this upset.. OP interrupts saying 'MILES WARREN.. he is our guy'.. SP says 'wwhaatt?.. no I'm too upset to talk about this right now.. I gotta go..'. SP leaves and OP comments to himself he didn't know he was such a drama queen.
OP enters the house and Aunt May comes up to him and apologizes for shouting at him.. then comments: wasn't he *just* wearing different clothes? but the two laugh it off.
[This sets Peter up for getting his own place for the first time and his return to wrestling for money]
Over the next week: While OP is staying at home with Aunt May, during the day attending Uni and in his free time trying to find Miles Warren, as SP wrestles at night for money and after matches look for Miles, while trying to maintain *some* patrolling. SP has moved into a trashy cheap apartment..
SP decides he wants to see Harry, SP leaves OP a note under his pillow to this effect.
SP in Spider-Man costume climbs onto the Osborne home balcony and in the double windows.. the house is dark, from the distance he hears shouting and crashing noises.. he walks into the candle lit hall and walks closer to the one lit room that noises are coming from..
SP sees Norman Osborne is in a restrained early-state of transformation, his back is to Harry and Harry is shouting at him. It seems to SP that Norman has confessed he was experimenting on himself and Harry is visibly upset. SP is alarmed as he knew nothing of this.
Norman senses SP but says nothing, he then feigns more anger by shouting at Harry and throwing a glass of Brandy at him which smashes on the floor near Harry. Norman storms out.
Outside on the balcony.. Norman says 'I know you are there Peter..' .. Norman turns around with SP stuck to the wall above the double door.. 'or should I say Spider-Man..?' SP filled with many many mixed emotions.. he came here to tell Harry.. he came to confess.. but as he walks up to Norman.. SP decides to take off his mask.
SP: yeah its me..
Norman: Of course I know my son. I know both my sons. I am always here for you Peter, I love you but never lie to again or I will kill you. Lies are the weapons of cowards. I have no wretched sons so low they would lie.
SP: Wow.. are you okay? you seem very tightly wound. Well.. I didn't want to hurt anyone.. I know I promised but..
Norman: but by lying you DID hurt people.. you hurt Harry you hurt ME.. you hurt MJ..
SP: MJ??
Norman: I am no coward.. I am the Green Goblin! [Norman slowly begins to change while still talking to SP] What kind of low class vampire did you slink into our home! All but one of the Watsons.. Maj.Watson.. is a SNAKE! She would have bled both my sons dry!
SP: Yo-oo-u.. tried to kill MJ.. you killed GWEN??
A battle in the skys ensues. SP throws a final blow by swinging a goblin bomb back to Green Goblin's Glider making it explode. As Green Goblin falls he transforms back into Norman.. and has tears in his eyes, at the last second SP webs him and leaves him hanging before departing.
SP decides to go back to his trashy apartment, as he's swing SP is crying under his mask.
OP is outside MJ's house.. just standing saying nothing. MJ leans out the window to tell him to go away. OP says nothing and does not leave. after two hours MJ comes down they go for a walk together.. OP confesses he is Spider-Man and involved in some freaky stuff with clones.. MJ is slightly shocked, but knows Peter well enough to know he believes what he is saying.. so that's good enough for her. He tells her everything. [This sets up them getting back together]
SP is in his apt. home street and his spidersense is triggered as one of the abominations grabs SP and throws him, through his livingroom window, SP and the abomination fight [none of the 'proper' clones triggers Peter's spidersense, but the abominations do].
The abomination gives SP a severe beating, but suddenly just runs away. Kaine steps into the apartment from the caved in front windows. Kaine explains he is a clone and explains the situation and who the Jackal is.
SP starts freaking out. Remember he is only 17yo. He sits hands in his hair holding his head.. freaking the flip out. SP says nothing. Kaine leaves.
The next two months get crazy as OP and SP fight against the many clones of the Jackal. Kaine makes cameos during this time and introduces us to Jack. Jack is a sick, disabled and dying clone.
We pickup as Spidercide (who is a Deadpool-like clone of Spider-Man) has re-staged the throwing MJ off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spidercide is outright evil, and his dream is to make all of Spider-Man's worst nightmares come true.
SP/OP, I don't rem which, also his costume is ripped from all the fighting.
Spider-Man swings across as Spidercide lifts MJ up to throw her down to her death.... Spiderman shoots a web but missing, his other hand shooting a web at Spidercide, who grabs the web and swings a shocked and disoriented Spiderman into the bridge itself. At the last moment, The Green Goblin catches MJ and let's her down on the ground telling her to 'RUN!' Spidercide who was gloating, is now surprised and upset/angry. The Green Goblin begins throwing Goblin bombs at Spidercide.
Spider-Man is disoriented and still hanging off Spidercide, webs the glider pulling it and Green Goblin into the side of the Brooklyn Bridge, as Green Goblin realizes he is about to die..
we see a flashback to all the times in secret Norman treated Peter like a son whom he loved..
Norman is in his study and he overhears the boys laughing.. he smiles warmly. As he drinks his scotch while reading some papers the boys still laughing from up the hall.. a single tear rolls down his cheek. This is the first time Harry has laughed from the heart.. and not in sarcasm.. since his mother died.
We see Norman overhear MJ flirting with Harry.. she is looking for Peter but he is not there, it is the first time she has ever been to his home, none of her family have ever had more than a $150 in their wallet at the one time, so she can't help herself but flirt.. Norman enraged thinks 'you are unworthy of MY boys'**.
Norman is an office with the Dean talking about Peter's finances and saying that the Richards grant is only valid for up to a bachelor's (singular) at this university, however Peter has many different classes he is excelling in, and each of them has additional fees, Norman calmly phones his assistant and then responds by saying.. 'I just bought this University*.. [angerly] don't EVER threaten my son again!'
This and many more moments, Harry, Emily (his beloved wife) other family and friends.
Green Goblin's glider explodes. Green Goblin falls to his death. His broken body on the ground.
Spider-Man then sees MJ off in the distance and is horrified he just killed Norman. Spidercide pulls up the web Spider-Man is on then punches Spiderman in the face.
Spidercide grabs Spider-Man and crushes his collarbone and shoulder breaking all his bones. All seems lost. But at that moment the other Peter Parker swings in wearing a black hoodie and black sweats with no shoes. He gives Spidercide a severe beating with Spidercide losing consciousness. Hoodie Peter picks up Spider-Man and as he does, Doppelganger snatches Spidercide and makes off with him.
The two Peters go to Aunt May's house to recover.
MJ freaked out; tells Aunt May everything about Peter being Spider-Man Aunt May is very upset/crying/confused.
Out on patrol Hoodie Peter as Spider-Man, Kaine approaches Spider-Man and tells him (some) the location of Warren's hidden cloning facilities. Spider-Man goes to the two facilities Kaine told him about and sees horrors he can barely imagine or process. He sets them to explode using Warrens chemicals.
While exiting, Spidercide and Doppelganger jump him and knock him out.
[At this point, the comic version becomes ultra convoluted, I'm seriously slimming this down]
The Trial of Peter Parker
4 days later. The police arrive at Aunt May's. Peter is a suspect in a murder and possible connected to multiple murders. The police inform Aunt May they found Peter's student I.D. at the crime scene. The detective and officer are shocked as Peter, still with bandaged shoulder coming down the stairs, as these two were the ones to fish the body out of the water.. they fished Doppler out of the water.
Peter is taken into custody.
Spider-Man comes round and all of Warrens evil clones are standing over him, with Warren as the Jackal laughing in the middle.
Warren gives Spider-Man the full story of his love for Gwen Stacy. What it did to him when 'Spider-Man killed Gwen'. How he 'snapped'.
After each take turns beating Spider-Man, they lock him in a cage.
We have a split scene, with both Peter's in cages, Peter is in jail, Spider-Man is in Warrens cage. Both are at low points.
While Trial Peter is fed, he is miserable. Warren is not feeding Spider-Man, regularly the evil clones are beating him. After 4 days, even though his bones have multiple fractures all over his body, when Doppelganger comes in to administer a beating Spider-Man fights back and instead gives Doppelganger a beating then escapes, quipping: 'Turns out, a place designed to be an underground Lab.. not a great prison!'.
Hoodie Peter as Spider-Man tries to prove Trial Peter's innocence, while avoiding The Jackal and his clones.
Kaine visits Trial Peter and finds out that this Peter is the 'real' Peter, he confesses he was trying to frame the other clone so Peter could walk free.
Warren gets fed up trying to chase Spider-Man around and unleashes ALL the abominations.100+
Kaine stands up during the trial and confesses all that he has done. As the judge is pronouncing his judgement, all the abominations break in and start ripping people apart, Trial Peter zips across to save the judge.. Kaine yells at Peter to 'GO GO NOW!' as he buys them time knowing he will lose his life.
Peter and the judge are in his chambers.. the judge writes a writ stating his judgement and tells Peter 'even if we do not make it out alive, it is not right that you should go to jail for something you didn't do'. Peter is holding the door and tells the judge ' I did do it. I admit it. but that guy was a monster like these.' the judge says 'in the great scheme of things I don't suppose the details matter.. only that justice is done!'.
Doppelganger than rips the corner off the room from outside the building. At that moment.. Spider-Man webs Doppelganger's face.. the judge exclaims 'there are more of you??' Peter says kindly: not all are evil, noble sir.
We hear noises of Kaine being ripped apart from the other room as Spider-Man takes the judge to safety. Many abominations climb in the hole ready to kill Trial Peter, it does not look good as it look like he about to die.
Across the street we see Spider-Man coming out of a building, looking towards the hole in the side of court and the abominations pouring in. The street is wrecked with cars smashed up and some on fire.
Spider-Man begins beating down the abominations one by one as they try to enter the hole in the room, after twenty or so he collapses from exhaustion.
He awakes to find the abominations gone. Trial Peter is gone. Kaine is gone. The street is empty.
While Spider-Man tries to track down Trial Peter and Kaine, Spidercide and Doppelganger jump Spider-Man beating him and knocking him out.
Later at the Lab, The Jackal, evil clones and Peter with the 'good' clones stand in a circle, The Jackal tells them: How dare you ignore your 'brother' at the time of his death!
Spidercide takes Spider-Man,Trial Peter and Kaine into a room where Jack is lying on a bed. It seems he is dying.
Jack: I wanted to tell you about this disease, the clones have degenerative illness.. I am dying. The clones are imperfect and so we will die quickly.
[Jack made many assumptions due to this illness affecting him, he assumed it would happen to all the clones. But he was wrong]
Spidercide is watching them respectfully in the corner and listening.
The three turn round to Spidercide and Spider-Man says to him.. 'Warren did this. You're next. Do you really agree with him to this extent??'
Spidercide is clinically psychotic, but he understands what Spider-Man is saying.
The four go and confront Warren, who summons Doppelganger while Warren tries to make his escape. Three give Doppelganger a beating while one confronts Warren.
In a larger lab room Spider-Man and Warren punch it out. After 10 minutes, hepped up in the heat of battle, Spider-Man grabs a massive container of chemicals smashing it over the Jackals head killing him.
When Spidercide, Trial Peter and Kaine see that Warren is dead. While they are stunned Doppelganger very beaten makes his escape.
Spider-Man is slightly in shock himself.. as the other crowd around the now dead Warren.. Kaine says. 'Well at least he has peace.' Spider-Man asks Kaine 'what happened a the courthouse? I passed out and..' Kaine interrupts sarcastically 'Thanks for asking.' he reveals from his cloak three inch deep gashes with his muscles barely holding together.
The three look at Spidercide and Spidercide says ' I might be a little dumb, but I'm not totally a moron. The three of yous would rip me apart.' Spider-Man says : so what now? Spidercide: I'm thinking.. Africa.. and to be honest.. all three of you own me one.' Spider-Man says 'fair enough. Try not to come back' Spidercide ' I will try.'
Trial Peter: Kaine? what about you?
Kaine: I was thinking Chicago.. mid-northwest. and What about you two?
Trial Peter: we have somethings to talk about..
Spider-Man: hmm?
Later that night we see Spider-Man handing the very raggy ripped Spider-Man costume to Trial Peter..
Trial Peter: No you keep it. You've shown you are the best Spider-Man, I am a failure.
OP: No. none of that is true.. and I couldn't dare take this great honour from you.
TP: I wasn't ready for this before it happened.. nowhere ready for any of this Spider-Man stuff..
OP interrupts: Let's give it a rest for tonight.. we can talk again when we are both fresh.
Trial Peter agrees and takes the raggy Spider-Man costume.
Two days later.. We see OP at a phone booth outside a diner, it is snowing and there is carpet of snow on the ground [we are in Alaska].. OP is phoning Peter at Aunt May's house. We pick up halfway through the conversation.
OP: ...so I felt it wasn't right. Anyway I have chosen a new name.. I can't keep calling myself Peter Parker can I?
Peter smiles: What's the new name?
OP: Ben Reilly after uncle Ben.
Peter: Dad would be proud.
Ben: Thanks Peter.. I needed to hear that.
Peter: You are never a stranger, and I hope to see you again very soon, you're family Ben.
Ben silent. cries a little. then just hangs up.
We pan down and now see Ben has dyed his hair a dirty dark blond.
The End
Notes:
-----------
*Peter is Catholic as he is from a mostly Irish Catholic background, except some of his father's family who are English Anglican. I see him as Irish-English with a little bit of Scots and Italian. Scottish maternal grandmother, Italian paternal great grandfather.
I imagine Peter's Family tree something like this:
Fitzpatrick
Parker
Col.N. Hammond-Parker (Eng) -Vi O'Dell (Irish)///Pino "Joe" Pozzuoli (italian)- Mary Maguire (Irish)
Major.Tate Parker (English-Irish) Allanya 'Ally' Pozzuoli (Italian-Irish)
Richard Parker
(Father of Peter Parker)
Full disclosure; I just made 80% of that up. But I feel I was true to the sentiment of Peters history. Although Peters parents names and his maternal grandfathers are correct. I make allusion to..Joe's Pizza, known as Peter Parker's first job before he joined the Bugle. So I made his great grandfather Pino "Joe" Pozzuoli (the original 'Joe' of Joe's Pizzas). The star of the 1970s Spider-Man TV show was actor Nicholas Hammond, whose father was a colonel and is from a mostly English background.
I searched and searched for irish actor names in connection with Spider-Man. I could only find Maguire (Tobey Maguire) which I have now added.
DISCLAIMER:
Firstly the writing here is going to be full of imaginations,
mis-rememberings, personal retcons fanfic and all sorts of shenanigans.
For example: I honor most of the comic book canon, which is when I read it originally the first when it was first released, but the comic book swings from really good moments to really bad moments, I much prefer the 90s animated series for some elements including Doc Connors involvement in trying to find a cure for Peter Parker's fake cancer, which was Doc Connors excuse to get a free research assistant (Peter) and unlimited access to Peters blood. IIRC Doc Connors never said it was 'cancer' coz it was a kids show, but the way he suggested how fatally sick Peter could get.. I certainly feel it was implied or was an equivalent.
Many of the scenes/situations are contrived, convoluted without purpose, I have attempted to streamline this to the essential events and in doing so things
Dava's Hitchhikers Guide to Spider-Man: the Clone Saga
Set 4 months after the spider bite and two months after Uncle Ben's Death, Peter (now 16yo) has begun his shakey existence as Spider-Man. He achieved a scholarship from the Richards Foundation to attend St.John's Catholic University* (ESU) he meets Doc Connors as his biology professor. Peter is curious how the spider bite changed his DNA and what it did to his biology. Harry Osborn meets Peter for the first time as he is flunking most his classes and Peter becomes his paid study buddy but after a few lessons, he begins to refuse money saying he will take payment in sandwiches or pizza, this begins their friendship, as Peter is Harry's first 'real' friend who isn't interested in money. They quickly become best friends.
Two months pass, Peter is dating MJ and working as a pizza delivery boy, he has fought Vulture, Tinkerer and Doctor Octopus. Norman Osborn finds out about Peter's identity. MJ gets abducted by Green Goblin who tries to throw her off the Brooklyn Bridge, but Peter catches her in time. Peter and MJ have a fight and break up. Peter begins dating Gwen Stacy. Gwen falls for Peter hard, Peter is lukewarm, Gwen's father is a police captain, he becomes suspicious of Peters lies/excuses and thinks Peter is cheating on Gwen. Green Goblin abducts Gwen, then throws her off the Brooklyn bridge, this time successfully killing Peter Parker's GF (Peter's web caught her in time so she didn't hit the ground, but her neck snapped from the velocity of the fall).
After Gwen's death, Peter and Cpt. Stacy have a kind of bonding moment at Gwen's funeral, Peter feels guilty as he was going to break up with Gwen before she died, he says nothing to Cpt. Stacy even though Cpt. Stacy is pouring his heart out about Gwen.This crushes Peter all the more. But coldly he still says nothing.
Peter throws himself into his studies, including extracurricular time with Doc Connors who he begins to trust, confiding in him that he is Spider-Man, Doc Connors has someone else working with him off and on whom Peter assumes is Doc Connors Lab Assistant, she is in fact a colleague, her name is Moira MacTaggert She is never around long enough for Peter to be corrected on who she is. Despite the lack of time they spend together, Moira is the one to talk Peter into providing the initial blood sample.
One night it was just Moira and Peter in the lab late and they talked about the situation, because Doc Connors had told her Peter was Spider-Man and she was the one to take the sample.
Doc Connors University Lab had a passcard security system, but he only had two cards, one for himself and one for Moira, so he would leave the skylight window open for Peter to continue their research. This was a.. mistake.
Miles Warren.. I'll just let Wikipedia do the talking.. :
"Miles Warren was a professor of biology at Empire State University. There, he meets Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. During his tenure there, Warren becomes secretly infatuated with the much younger Gwen Stacy to the point of obsession and jealousy of Parker, her boyfriend. After Stacy is murdered by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), Warren swears vengeance on Spider-Man, since the papers at the time reported that it was Spider-Man who killed her. Gwen's death drives Warren into depression, despair, and insanity as a mad geneticist who eventually becomes the Jackal. Miles also has a brother named Raymond, who is a science teacher at Peter Parker's high school."
Two more months have past since last recounted.. Peter is working at the Bugle as a photographer, as he was fired numerous times from Joe's for 'late pizza'. I am sure Joe's pizzas expect high standards in the time of their delivery drivers, as is right.
Peter has been working closely with Doc Connors, Prof. Miles Warren has discovered the Doctor and Peter's secret. He has been stalking Peter while trying not to trigger Peter's 'Spidey Sense' one late night at the lab as very tired Peter masks up, he forgets to lock the skylight window. Yes.. a skylight is dumb.. dumb dumb dumb.. but also a human error.
Prof. Warren had been experimenting on himself. His speciality was cloning. He steals some of Peter's blood and begins making clones of Peter.
Exposition
Not counting the all-out abominations (100?.. more??) Prof. Warren (The Jackal) successfully creates around 40? to 50? Spider clones. Many many of them were evil, with the exception of only 5 who were 'good' like Peter. The one most like Peter was.. B** ****** the ******* Spider.
The five were:
Kaine
B** ******
Jack
?
?
With my fanfic 'Alan MacKay: Widow Spider' I attempted to fill one of those missing slots: see below. B** ****** was dark inside, but retained Peter's sense of humor. Both Kaine and Jack were borderline good/evil.
Spidercide was Deadpool-like+Spider-Man but pure evil.
Story: Doppler
Peter knows nothing of what Prof. Warren has done. Spider-Man is out in the neighbourhood patrolling, a mild spidey sense is triggered as he feels a sense of being watched. He sees someones web swinging shadow but thinks it must be a trick of the light, but still he follows it, at the end of the chase he finds 'Doppler' (NOT Doppelganger) an evil clone of himself, who has been busy that night making Peter's future life a misery; we see him explain to Peter what he has been busy doing..
Scene 1: in Peter's sted he went and had another fight with MJ even though they are broken up, including calling her 'poor' and 'ugly'. She cries running back into her house.
Scene 2: He tells JJ what he thinks of him and quits his job at the Bugle.
Scene 3: He is suggesting to a ESU female professor he would 'make her happy' for a good grade.
Scene 4: He beats up Aunt May, not killing her, but landing her in hospital.
(this also sets up Peter revealing to Aunt May; he is Spider-Man)
Scene 5: He asks Harry for some serious money, Harry curious why Peter would want this, asks and instead of answering, Peter just states 'you will never know what real life is like, because you just a spoiled little rich boy'. Harry is devastated, his worst nightmare in his friendship with Peter.
(Unknown to Doppler, Norman actually overhears this conversation and is instantly suspicious, thinking 'This isn't how Peter behaves.. something is going on here')
Peter snaps and kills Doppler. Beating him to a pulp.
After the rage fades, Peter realizes what he just did. Coldly he takes what's left of the body to the Brooklyn docks, takes off Dopplers Spider-Man costume, ties a huge rock to the body and throws it far in the water, to around the middle between Brooklyn and the Governors Island (Dimond Reef).
He is filled with strange feelings that his 16 year old mind can't deal with.. so on the way home he visits the Catholic Cathedral .. Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral. From across the street a shadow watches Peter enter. And even further away Green Goblin watches the shadow.
Exposition
Norman Osborne is a rich and powerful person, who has strived all his life for 'perfection of humanity' he is a genius and a Nietzschean, he loves Peter like a son.. but he deplores Peter for lying to Harry, and due to his twisted experiments on himself, he is intensely jealous of Peters abilities and how Peter acquired them so easily. This is not a straightforward 'enemy' of Peter Parker, Norman is very layered as is true with people of certain intelects. His philosophy is 'survival of the fittest.. or richest.' but Peter's 'old world charm' as he would say had captured his heart. He believes *he* should be the *only one* to take away his adopted son's life but he still very torn as he actually loves him. The first time the Green Goblin tried to kill MJ on the Brooklyn Bridge was due to Peter looking Norman in the eye and telling him a straight lie to cover Spider-Man's identity. This in Norman's twisted mind; enraged him*.
Norman: 'You'd never lie to me .. right Peter?' and Peter denying he would lie.
Story
Peter in the Cathedral is beyond confused. He prays. He leaves. Green Goblin sees Peter leaving, looking away from the shadow for the shortest of split seconds, when he looks back the shadow is gone.
In his base, Miles Warren knows that due to Doppler not returning, Peter must have killed Doppler, which meant all the scenarios Miles had told Doppler to carry out, he must have done. Miles is very happy at the thought of this and steps up production of Peter clones. Some of the clones have previously escaped, but Miles seems to not care, as he believes he has tweaked all their genes to bring out the evil side of Peter in them.
Miles rents 2 more places to create cloning labs, for a total of 4, with a small 5th site having limited equipment.
Meanwhile Peter is at Uni and has justified killing Doppler by telling himself, 'he was me, I have every right to kill me.. right?.. but I can't be dead because I'm still here.. maybe it was some kind of fever dream.. can't have been real.. but Aunt May wasn't in when I got home this morning.. I'm so confused.'
Just then the female professor Doppler had been suggestive with comes in the classroom door, we see Peter is in a History class covering the topic of Hadrian's Wall.. she signals to Peter to come to speak to her. Outside the classroom.. they speak, her name is Professor Willow Trask*.
She is Head of the 'Practical Physics' Department.. Willow tells Peter that she was horrified at first, but when she got home she felt flattered as he is very attractive, she herself is a very attractive 50 year old woman, which she mentions their ages but she has been single for most of her life due to her work, however she cannot lower her moral standards or dedication to the truth, that she hopes Peter acknowledges in her confession of her truth to him that she would have considered a romantic and/or physical relationship had they both not been at the same University, as an indication of her passion & dedication to the truth. She squeezes Peters bicep as she leans in and kisses him on the cheek.. and then as she pats him on the chest with her open hand she tells him; come see her when he has graduated.
Peter is dumbfounded.
He begins thinking 'OKAY so IF that was TRUE!..? !.. is Aunt May in hospital???'.
Peter suits up in the abandoned locker room that is used for the Universities large cleaning equipment and heads off to check each of the local hospitals.
Doc Connors had been experimenting with Peter's blood to regain his lost arm.. he had 'one of his blackouts' that he has been experiencing over the last three weeks since he first tried the serum to restore his arm. He had confided in Dr. MacTaggert about these blackouts and when she strongly advised him to see medical council; they had a falling out. This was why Miles could steal the blood so easily, Dr. MacTaggert no longer was coming to the lab and Doc Connors was elsewhere due to the blackouts.
We see Doc Connors return to a smashed lab.. he is in shock. He wonders if he did this during a blackout.
We see Miles in one of his facilities.. he is happy Doppler was a success, but wants to show the world how much of a monster Peter Parker is. He is aware that Spider-Man is powerful, so he used a formula on himself.. not being able to bear being spider like Peter, as it would remind him of Peter, he has chosen a Jackal, manipulating the genes and mixing them with his own.
He begins making the 'abominations'. So far 10 of his experiments have escaped the Labs.. but Miles does not care as each one is an open wound upon Peter Parker's life.
Across town: We meet B** ****** for the first time.. he looks like Peter acts like Peter.. he is even wearing some of Peter's clothes, he is buying some food from a hospital vending machine. As far as he is aware he is Peter. Through a hallway.. through a window, Spider-Man hangs upside down and sees himself buying something from a vending machine.. he is gobsmacked.
Spider-Man thinks: OKAY this is freaky!
Spider-Man waits and holds vigil for Aunt May.. staying across the street on a rooftop watching. The 'other' Peter seems to be kindly to Aunt May. 2 days later.. he follows them home, wondering what this 'other' Peter has told Aunt May to excuse such actions.
Spider-Man decided to go into his room and wait.. eventually the 'other' Peter comes in and is shocked.. Spider-Man grabs him and says what did you tell Aunt May?
The 'other' Peter explains.. flashback: he was following someone who had powers similar to himself and he lost him.. when he decided to return him he found a double of himself threatening and hitting Aunt May, he defended Aunt May beating the double down but the guy escaped.. not the 'other' Peter asks.. who are you and why are you wearing my costume?
Spider-Man unmasks himself.. and the 'other' Peter says 'oh no not you again'.. to which Spider-Man says.. 'don't worry I killed that guy.. he's not coming back.'
Both are in shock as they sit side by side on the bed.
SP = Spider Peter
OP =Other Peter
Spider-Man: so we need to work out whos the 'real' Peter eh?
Other Peter: Yeahhh..
SP: What is the first thing you remember that night patrolling?
OP: I stopped for a hotdog from street vendor..
SP: I remember that too.. weird.
[Listen in the interest of being plain I'll hit you with a load of spoilers quickly.. B** ****** the ******* Spider had been tracking Peter that night.. he is Peter and retains all of Peters memories up until the moment he was cloned/the moment the blood was taken.. however B** had been stalking Peter looking for a way to tell him. When the 'real' Peter stopped for some food, the clone did also..one wanted to be Peter so badly they blocked out all memory of being the clone. It is highly implied that the Peter we have been following IS the real Peter.. but conversely, it is one of if not *thee* greatest mysteries in Spider-Man.. 'who is the real Peter Parker?' as either one of them could have went either way that night. Marvel strings this out for a long time.. I solve it thusly: If you are a non-evil clone you DO NOT have bio-webbing, only Peter has bio-webbing.. except in my fanfic of 'Alan Mackay' Widow Spider who has poisonous bio-webbing. The rest have to manufacture their own webbing.. another side of this mystery is, B** ****** is Peter with a focus on all of his dark and sad traits but is the only clone that retains Peter's sense of humor.. if Peter found out he was a clone, he would be sad and dark, so what really is the difference? bio-webbing. So by giving Alan MacKay bio-webbing, this mystery can begin afresh. Spidercide has Bio-Webbing but is evil]
The two become tentative allies to find out what on earth is happening.
SP goes to Uni the next day. He gets in an argument with Doc Connors who transforms into 'The Lizard' and escapes into the sewers but SP follows. There SP is able to calm him down enough for him to transform back. Doc Connors apologizes and is in trauma realizing what he might have done.
OP begins looking for people with the expertise to be able to clone humans, one name keeps coming up.. Miles Warren. OP sees he is at the same Uni as he and SP.. and feels confident: this is our guy.
SP plain dressed decides to go home, on his way home he sees MJ, she freaks out but SP pursues her to 'explain things' but having no idea what he would say, however this does not become a factor as he reaches MJ, she slaps him tears rolling down her face. SP's spidersense had went off.. but he just took the slap. SP let's her leave without further incident.
OP goes to see Doc Connors and Doc Connors fills him in on what has been happening with him.. and that SP calmed him down. OP feels guilty laying so much on Doc Connors but he has to know more about this 'Miles Warren'. Doc Connors says he doesn't know much.. but that he Miles at Gwen Stacy's funeral and found it hard to understand why he so upset.. this gives OP a clue to what Miles' motives are. Doc Connors also mentions Moira MacTaggert that she won't return his phone calls, but he feels he has no one else to turn to. OP empathizes with him.
Aunt May is the kitchen, she is still very nervous around Peter.. she wants to avoid him until all the awful things have passed. But SP..says he has a confession and tells Aunt May about being Spider-Man.. she is in shock and accuses him of lying.. 'don't say such things to excuse your behavior!'
SP confesses again, but Aunt May is just getting more and more upset. He goes to his room and backs a bag. Reasoning both of us can't live here.. things are tense enough as it is [meaning himself and OP].
SP meets OP on the way out of the house.. before OP can tell SP anything, SP says.. you can have here, I just can't deal with seeing her this upset.. OP interrupts saying 'MILES WARREN.. he is our guy'.. SP says 'wwhaatt?.. no I'm too upset to talk about this right now.. I gotta go..'. SP leaves and OP comments to himself he didn't know he was such a drama queen.
OP enters the house and Aunt May comes up to him and apologizes for shouting at him.. then comments: wasn't he *just* wearing different clothes? but the two laugh it off.
[This sets Peter up for getting his own place for the first time and his return to wrestling for money]
Over the next week: While OP is staying at home with Aunt May, during the day attending Uni and in his free time trying to find Miles Warren, as SP wrestles at night for money and after matches look for Miles, while trying to maintain *some* patrolling. SP has moved into a trashy cheap apartment..
SP decides he wants to see Harry, SP leaves OP a note under his pillow to this effect.
SP in Spider-Man costume climbs onto the Osborne home balcony and in the double windows.. the house is dark, from the distance he hears shouting and crashing noises.. he walks into the candle lit hall and walks closer to the one lit room that noises are coming from..
SP sees Norman Osborne is in a restrained early-state of transformation, his back is to Harry and Harry is shouting at him. It seems to SP that Norman has confessed he was experimenting on himself and Harry is visibly upset. SP is alarmed as he knew nothing of this.
Norman senses SP but says nothing, he then feigns more anger by shouting at Harry and throwing a glass of Brandy at him which smashes on the floor near Harry. Norman storms out.
Outside on the balcony.. Norman says 'I know you are there Peter..' .. Norman turns around with SP stuck to the wall above the double door.. 'or should I say Spider-Man..?' SP filled with many many mixed emotions.. he came here to tell Harry.. he came to confess.. but as he walks up to Norman.. SP decides to take off his mask.
SP: yeah its me..
Norman: Of course I know my son. I know both my sons. I am always here for you Peter, I love you but never lie to again or I will kill you. Lies are the weapons of cowards. I have no wretched sons so low they would lie.
SP: Wow.. are you okay? you seem very tightly wound. Well.. I didn't want to hurt anyone.. I know I promised but..
Norman: but by lying you DID hurt people.. you hurt Harry you hurt ME.. you hurt MJ..
SP: MJ??
Norman: I am no coward.. I am the Green Goblin! [Norman slowly begins to change while still talking to SP] What kind of low class vampire did you slink into our home! All but one of the Watsons.. Maj.Watson.. is a SNAKE! She would have bled both my sons dry!
SP: Yo-oo-u.. tried to kill MJ.. you killed GWEN??
A battle in the skys ensues. SP throws a final blow by swinging a goblin bomb back to Green Goblin's Glider making it explode. As Green Goblin falls he transforms back into Norman.. and has tears in his eyes, at the last second SP webs him and leaves him hanging before departing.
SP decides to go back to his trashy apartment, as he's swing SP is crying under his mask.
OP is outside MJ's house.. just standing saying nothing. MJ leans out the window to tell him to go away. OP says nothing and does not leave. after two hours MJ comes down they go for a walk together.. OP confesses he is Spider-Man and involved in some freaky stuff with clones.. MJ is slightly shocked, but knows Peter well enough to know he believes what he is saying.. so that's good enough for her. He tells her everything. [This sets up them getting back together]
SP is in his apt. home street and his spidersense is triggered as one of the abominations grabs SP and throws him, through his livingroom window, SP and the abomination fight [none of the 'proper' clones triggers Peter's spidersense, but the abominations do].
The abomination gives SP a severe beating, but suddenly just runs away. Kaine steps into the apartment from the caved in front windows. Kaine explains he is a clone and explains the situation and who the Jackal is.
SP starts freaking out. Remember he is only 17yo. He sits hands in his hair holding his head.. freaking the flip out. SP says nothing. Kaine leaves.
The next two months get crazy as OP and SP fight against the many clones of the Jackal. Kaine makes cameos during this time and introduces us to Jack. Jack is a sick, disabled and dying clone.
We pickup as Spidercide (who is a Deadpool-like clone of Spider-Man) has re-staged the throwing MJ off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spidercide is outright evil, and his dream is to make all of Spider-Man's worst nightmares come true.
SP/OP, I don't rem which, also his costume is ripped from all the fighting.
Spider-Man swings across as Spidercide lifts MJ up to throw her down to her death.... Spiderman shoots a web but missing, his other hand shooting a web at Spidercide, who grabs the web and swings a shocked and disoriented Spiderman into the bridge itself. At the last moment, The Green Goblin catches MJ and let's her down on the ground telling her to 'RUN!' Spidercide who was gloating, is now surprised and upset/angry. The Green Goblin begins throwing Goblin bombs at Spidercide.
Spider-Man is disoriented and still hanging off Spidercide, webs the glider pulling it and Green Goblin into the side of the Brooklyn Bridge, as Green Goblin realizes he is about to die..
we see a flashback to all the times in secret Norman treated Peter like a son whom he loved..
Norman is in his study and he overhears the boys laughing.. he smiles warmly. As he drinks his scotch while reading some papers the boys still laughing from up the hall.. a single tear rolls down his cheek. This is the first time Harry has laughed from the heart.. and not in sarcasm.. since his mother died.
We see Norman overhear MJ flirting with Harry.. she is looking for Peter but he is not there, it is the first time she has ever been to his home, none of her family have ever had more than a $150 in their wallet at the one time, so she can't help herself but flirt.. Norman enraged thinks 'you are unworthy of MY boys'**.
Norman is an office with the Dean talking about Peter's finances and saying that the Richards grant is only valid for up to a bachelor's (singular) at this university, however Peter has many different classes he is excelling in, and each of them has additional fees, Norman calmly phones his assistant and then responds by saying.. 'I just bought this University*.. [angerly] don't EVER threaten my son again!'
This and many more moments, Harry, Emily (his beloved wife) other family and friends.
Green Goblin's glider explodes. Green Goblin falls to his death. His broken body on the ground.
Spider-Man then sees MJ off in the distance and is horrified he just killed Norman. Spidercide pulls up the web Spider-Man is on then punches Spiderman in the face.
Spidercide grabs Spider-Man and crushes his collarbone and shoulder breaking all his bones. All seems lost. But at that moment the other Peter Parker swings in wearing a black hoodie and black sweats with no shoes. He gives Spidercide a severe beating with Spidercide losing consciousness. Hoodie Peter picks up Spider-Man and as he does, Doppelganger snatches Spidercide and makes off with him.
The two Peters go to Aunt May's house to recover.
MJ freaked out; tells Aunt May everything about Peter being Spider-Man Aunt May is very upset/crying/confused.
Out on patrol Hoodie Peter as Spider-Man, Kaine approaches Spider-Man and tells him (some) the location of Warren's hidden cloning facilities. Spider-Man goes to the two facilities Kaine told him about and sees horrors he can barely imagine or process. He sets them to explode using Warrens chemicals.
While exiting, Spidercide and Doppelganger jump him and knock him out.
[At this point, the comic version becomes ultra convoluted, I'm seriously slimming this down]
The Trial of Peter Parker
4 days later. The police arrive at Aunt May's. Peter is a suspect in a murder and possible connected to multiple murders. The police inform Aunt May they found Peter's student I.D. at the crime scene. The detective and officer are shocked as Peter, still with bandaged shoulder coming down the stairs, as these two were the ones to fish the body out of the water.. they fished Doppler out of the water.
Peter is taken into custody.
Spider-Man comes round and all of Warrens evil clones are standing over him, with Warren as the Jackal laughing in the middle.
Warren gives Spider-Man the full story of his love for Gwen Stacy. What it did to him when 'Spider-Man killed Gwen'. How he 'snapped'.
After each take turns beating Spider-Man, they lock him in a cage.
We have a split scene, with both Peter's in cages, Peter is in jail, Spider-Man is in Warrens cage. Both are at low points.
While Trial Peter is fed, he is miserable. Warren is not feeding Spider-Man, regularly the evil clones are beating him. After 4 days, even though his bones have multiple fractures all over his body, when Doppelganger comes in to administer a beating Spider-Man fights back and instead gives Doppelganger a beating then escapes, quipping: 'Turns out, a place designed to be an underground Lab.. not a great prison!'.
Hoodie Peter as Spider-Man tries to prove Trial Peter's innocence, while avoiding The Jackal and his clones.
Kaine visits Trial Peter and finds out that this Peter is the 'real' Peter, he confesses he was trying to frame the other clone so Peter could walk free.
Warren gets fed up trying to chase Spider-Man around and unleashes ALL the abominations.100+
Kaine stands up during the trial and confesses all that he has done. As the judge is pronouncing his judgement, all the abominations break in and start ripping people apart, Trial Peter zips across to save the judge.. Kaine yells at Peter to 'GO GO NOW!' as he buys them time knowing he will lose his life.
Peter and the judge are in his chambers.. the judge writes a writ stating his judgement and tells Peter 'even if we do not make it out alive, it is not right that you should go to jail for something you didn't do'. Peter is holding the door and tells the judge ' I did do it. I admit it. but that guy was a monster like these.' the judge says 'in the great scheme of things I don't suppose the details matter.. only that justice is done!'.
Doppelganger than rips the corner off the room from outside the building. At that moment.. Spider-Man webs Doppelganger's face.. the judge exclaims 'there are more of you??' Peter says kindly: not all are evil, noble sir.
We hear noises of Kaine being ripped apart from the other room as Spider-Man takes the judge to safety. Many abominations climb in the hole ready to kill Trial Peter, it does not look good as it look like he about to die.
Across the street we see Spider-Man coming out of a building, looking towards the hole in the side of court and the abominations pouring in. The street is wrecked with cars smashed up and some on fire.
Spider-Man begins beating down the abominations one by one as they try to enter the hole in the room, after twenty or so he collapses from exhaustion.
He awakes to find the abominations gone. Trial Peter is gone. Kaine is gone. The street is empty.
While Spider-Man tries to track down Trial Peter and Kaine, Spidercide and Doppelganger jump Spider-Man beating him and knocking him out.
Later at the Lab, The Jackal, evil clones and Peter with the 'good' clones stand in a circle, The Jackal tells them: How dare you ignore your 'brother' at the time of his death!
Spidercide takes Spider-Man,Trial Peter and Kaine into a room where Jack is lying on a bed. It seems he is dying.
Jack: I wanted to tell you about this disease, the clones have degenerative illness.. I am dying. The clones are imperfect and so we will die quickly.
[Jack made many assumptions due to this illness affecting him, he assumed it would happen to all the clones. But he was wrong]
Spidercide is watching them respectfully in the corner and listening.
The three turn round to Spidercide and Spider-Man says to him.. 'Warren did this. You're next. Do you really agree with him to this extent??'
Spidercide is clinically psychotic, but he understands what Spider-Man is saying.
The four go and confront Warren, who summons Doppelganger while Warren tries to make his escape. Three give Doppelganger a beating while one confronts Warren.
In a larger lab room Spider-Man and Warren punch it out. After 10 minutes, hepped up in the heat of battle, Spider-Man grabs a massive container of chemicals smashing it over the Jackals head killing him.
When Spidercide, Trial Peter and Kaine see that Warren is dead. While they are stunned Doppelganger very beaten makes his escape.
Spider-Man is slightly in shock himself.. as the other crowd around the now dead Warren.. Kaine says. 'Well at least he has peace.' Spider-Man asks Kaine 'what happened a the courthouse? I passed out and..' Kaine interrupts sarcastically 'Thanks for asking.' he reveals from his cloak three inch deep gashes with his muscles barely holding together.
The three look at Spidercide and Spidercide says ' I might be a little dumb, but I'm not totally a moron. The three of yous would rip me apart.' Spider-Man says : so what now? Spidercide: I'm thinking.. Africa.. and to be honest.. all three of you own me one.' Spider-Man says 'fair enough. Try not to come back' Spidercide ' I will try.'
Trial Peter: Kaine? what about you?
Kaine: I was thinking Chicago.. mid-northwest. and What about you two?
Trial Peter: we have somethings to talk about..
Spider-Man: hmm?
Later that night we see Spider-Man handing the very raggy ripped Spider-Man costume to Trial Peter..
Trial Peter: No you keep it. You've shown you are the best Spider-Man, I am a failure.
OP: No. none of that is true.. and I couldn't dare take this great honour from you.
TP: I wasn't ready for this before it happened.. nowhere ready for any of this Spider-Man stuff..
OP interrupts: Let's give it a rest for tonight.. we can talk again when we are both fresh.
Trial Peter agrees and takes the raggy Spider-Man costume.
Two days later.. We see OP at a phone booth outside a diner, it is snowing and there is carpet of snow on the ground [we are in Alaska].. OP is phoning Peter at Aunt May's house. We pick up halfway through the conversation.
OP: ...so I felt it wasn't right. Anyway I have chosen a new name.. I can't keep calling myself Peter Parker can I?
Peter smiles: What's the new name?
OP: Ben Reilly after uncle Ben.
Peter: Dad would be proud.
Ben: Thanks Peter.. I needed to hear that.
Peter: You are never a stranger, and I hope to see you again very soon, you're family Ben.
Ben silent. cries a little. then just hangs up.
We pan down and now see Ben has dyed his hair a dirty dark blond.
The End
Notes:
-----------
*Peter is Catholic as he is from a mostly Irish Catholic background, except some of his father's family who are English Anglican. I see him as Irish-English with a little bit of Scots and Italian. Scottish maternal grandmother, Italian paternal great grandfather.
I imagine Peter's Family tree something like this:
Fitzpatrick
William 'Jack' Fitzpatrick (Irish) -- Moira McKay (Scottish)
Mary Fitzpatrick (Irish-Scots)
(Mother of Peter Parker)
Parker
Col.N. Hammond-Parker (Eng) -Vi O'Dell (Irish)///Pino "Joe" Pozzuoli (italian)- Mary Maguire (Irish)
Major.Tate Parker (English-Irish) Allanya 'Ally' Pozzuoli (Italian-Irish)
Richard Parker
(Father of Peter Parker)
Full disclosure; I just made 80% of that up. But I feel I was true to the sentiment of Peters history. Although Peters parents names and his maternal grandfathers are correct. I make allusion to..Joe's Pizza, known as Peter Parker's first job before he joined the Bugle. So I made his great grandfather Pino "Joe" Pozzuoli (the original 'Joe' of Joe's Pizzas). The star of the 1970s Spider-Man TV show was actor Nicholas Hammond, whose father was a colonel and is from a mostly English background.
I searched and searched for irish actor names in connection with Spider-Man. I could only find Maguire (Tobey Maguire) which I have now added.
Update 01/Nov/2020: WHAT IF.. What if, Leopold Fitz is second cousins with Peter Parker? What if Alistair Fitz had changed his name because he hated his father? Imagine.. this: A very young and married, with young child (Alister) at home, William Jack Fitzpatrick stationed in Ceuta as Military Police, as a prank and for arresting a friend of theirs, some soldiers drug him and sign him up for the French Foreign Legion on the Algerian border.. two years later he returns home to Glasgow to find out his wife and child have disappeared.. distraught he moves to America to stay with a cousin in NYC.. he meets a woman on the flight over, her name is Moira McKay. The two date for six months, fall in love and she falls pregnant, they marry but she dies in childbirth. Peter as a young boy (10yo) finds his 'Granny' McKay's journals.. 20 journals detailing her life.. he cries as he reads them, as his grandfather would never speak of Moira as it was too painful for him. Alister never finds out why his father abandoned him.. bitter he changes his name, hoping that his father wouldn't be able to find him, but leaving the possibility.. if his father was smart enough, determined enough, would get the connection of 'Fitz'.
I made his maternal Grandmother Scottish.. Peter later in life is known as a great inventor, and as it is known Scots 'Invented the modern World'..
The Telephone, The Television, The Refrigerator, Anesthetic, Road Foundation, The Pneumatic Tyre, The Pedal Bicycle, The Stirling Engine.. now repurposed 200 years later for deep space probes*, Print Stereotyping, Roller Printing, Logarithms, Modern Economics, The Decimal Point, Insulin, The Electric Toaster, The Flushing Toilet, The Electric Clock, First Automated Can Filling Machine, The Ghillie Suit, The ATM & PIN, Making Cast Steel from Wrought Iron, Tubular Steel, Discovering The Laws of Electrodynamics..
I myself am Scots.. it would have been nice to have one 'rogue clone' that just left.. I have done a series of Fanfic comic stories based in Europe in the time of Kobik. Complete 6 Episode arc :)
See here:
Episode 1: Euro-Avengers - Assemble!
Episode 2: Euro-Avengers 'Matter of Opinion'
Episode 3 : Euro-Avengers 'I Reality Love You'
Episode 4: Euro-Avengers 'Another Day in Paradise'
Episode 5: Euro-Avengers 'What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practise to Perceive.." + BONUS 'Exposition Theater'
Episode 6 : Euro-Avengers 'BOSS FIGHT!'
The 'Scottish Spider-Man'.. Widow Spider because he was the clone widowed from his life.. he feels ultimate resentment to Doc Connors, left for Scotland after the Jackal had done terrible things abominable clones of unimaginable horror .. If Scarlet Spider got Peter's darker traits (but retained Peters sense of humor).. 'Alan' got Peters anger and suspicion. And as we know.. when Peter 'loses it' his anger can be.. hulk-like.
My Original Concept:
IIRC.. Peter actually *could* be Catholic/Anglican as I seem to rem he has attended both types of Church at low points in his life in the comics. Anglican Father, Catholic Mother. Even (Peter's Father) Richard Parker's mother would have been Irish-Catholic, but in this scenario Richard was raised Anglican.
*(cousin of yes.. THAT Trask) I have invented her for this role as I could have left her nameless but thought this was cooler.
*Norman also changes the name of the university from St.John's Catholic University to Empire State University or ESU.
* / **
[Unknown to Peter, MJ couldn't help herself from flirting with Harry.. later Peter lies to Norman about where he was to cover his identity as Spider-Man, both these things enraged Norman]
The Telephone, The Television, The Refrigerator, Anesthetic, Road Foundation, The Pneumatic Tyre, The Pedal Bicycle, The Stirling Engine.. now repurposed 200 years later for deep space probes*, Print Stereotyping, Roller Printing, Logarithms, Modern Economics, The Decimal Point, Insulin, The Electric Toaster, The Flushing Toilet, The Electric Clock, First Automated Can Filling Machine, The Ghillie Suit, The ATM & PIN, Making Cast Steel from Wrought Iron, Tubular Steel, Discovering The Laws of Electrodynamics..
I myself am Scots.. it would have been nice to have one 'rogue clone' that just left.. I have done a series of Fanfic comic stories based in Europe in the time of Kobik. Complete 6 Episode arc :)
See here:
Episode 1: Euro-Avengers - Assemble!
Episode 2: Euro-Avengers 'Matter of Opinion'
Episode 3 : Euro-Avengers 'I Reality Love You'
Episode 4: Euro-Avengers 'Another Day in Paradise'
Episode 5: Euro-Avengers 'What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practise to Perceive.." + BONUS 'Exposition Theater'
Episode 6 : Euro-Avengers 'BOSS FIGHT!'
The 'Scottish Spider-Man'.. Widow Spider because he was the clone widowed from his life.. he feels ultimate resentment to Doc Connors, left for Scotland after the Jackal had done terrible things abominable clones of unimaginable horror .. If Scarlet Spider got Peter's darker traits (but retained Peters sense of humor).. 'Alan' got Peters anger and suspicion. And as we know.. when Peter 'loses it' his anger can be.. hulk-like.
My Original Concept:
Scottish Spider-Man Concept Fanfic art
Naming her 'Moira' would explain why Peter trusted Moira MacTaggert so quickly.
IIRC.. Peter actually *could* be Catholic/Anglican as I seem to rem he has attended both types of Church at low points in his life in the comics. Anglican Father, Catholic Mother. Even (Peter's Father) Richard Parker's mother would have been Irish-Catholic, but in this scenario Richard was raised Anglican.
*(cousin of yes.. THAT Trask) I have invented her for this role as I could have left her nameless but thought this was cooler.
*Norman also changes the name of the university from St.John's Catholic University to Empire State University or ESU.
* / **
[Unknown to Peter, MJ couldn't help herself from flirting with Harry.. later Peter lies to Norman about where he was to cover his identity as Spider-Man, both these things enraged Norman]
Friday, 17 January 2020
List of High Quality Guitar Accessory Manufacturers (Tremolos & Tuners Then Pickup)
Tremolos & Tuners
Schaller
Gotoh
Grover
Wilkinson
HOSCO are *not bad* and their price is decent.. but Wilkinson and Grover (as of the time of writing) give the best price vs quality.
Grover have been making their machinehead tuners further afield than western countries (Wilkinson does this regularly but.. see what I write next) but the quality slips, such as the Epiphone Grovers which are very bad quality and slip quite often. The Wilkinson 'Grover style' Tuners are much better than actually Grovers so.. that's a bad mark for Grover.
Sperzel.. I don't have experience like I do with the above but Sperzel don't make tremolos so.. I didn't include them directly, but instead as a reminder put them here, as they are popular.
Floyd Rose.. has what seems an excellent new trem system. But he doesn't do machineheads, hence here. But I'll note you don't really need good ones with his system. Pickups Premier* Gibson Fender DiMarzio Seymour Duncan Bareknuckle Mid-Tier DiMarziclone (japanese) Iron Gear Entwistle Artec Bill Lawrence Artec are in between budget and mid-tier, having had personal experience (and I own a couple of Artec pickups currently) they are very much good pickups for the money. My fav Artec is their wide-range.. which handles both surf rock and high gain, not the best pickup that has ever walked the earth.. but it manages it without any muddiness, and with decent clarity, although the high gain side could do with a beef up. Pickups I do not own or have experience with: Bare knuckle Iron Gear No idea if these are good or bad or whatever.. they seem to be popular and this isn't a review of all these manufacturers.. just listing them here. Manufacturers I have experience with: Gibson.. my fav humbucker is from them.. the 491T, I put it in the neck for near infinite sustain under high gain (I own 2). Epiphone did a P100 hum cancelling P90 which I also loved (and also own 2 of). Fender single coils are decent, their long rumoured 'DiMarziclone' humbuckers, excellent for high gain. I have noiseless Rev.D they are the only ones that do both clean and high gain (clean is nowhere near as good as the others however.. it does handle high gain!) I had a post on the Fender forums about this but after checking it seems with the closure of Tinypic and Tindeck.. we don't have much other than a conversation. Did a video of it:
The clean sound was the best I'd ever heard iirc.. the high gain was 'tragic the gathering'.
Floyd Rose.. has what seems an excellent new trem system. But he doesn't do machineheads, hence here. But I'll note you don't really need good ones with his system. Pickups Premier* Gibson Fender DiMarzio Seymour Duncan Bareknuckle Mid-Tier DiMarziclone (japanese) Iron Gear Entwistle Artec Bill Lawrence Artec are in between budget and mid-tier, having had personal experience (and I own a couple of Artec pickups currently) they are very much good pickups for the money. My fav Artec is their wide-range.. which handles both surf rock and high gain, not the best pickup that has ever walked the earth.. but it manages it without any muddiness, and with decent clarity, although the high gain side could do with a beef up. Pickups I do not own or have experience with: Bare knuckle Iron Gear No idea if these are good or bad or whatever.. they seem to be popular and this isn't a review of all these manufacturers.. just listing them here. Manufacturers I have experience with: Gibson.. my fav humbucker is from them.. the 491T, I put it in the neck for near infinite sustain under high gain (I own 2). Epiphone did a P100 hum cancelling P90 which I also loved (and also own 2 of). Fender single coils are decent, their long rumoured 'DiMarziclone' humbuckers, excellent for high gain. I have noiseless Rev.D they are the only ones that do both clean and high gain (clean is nowhere near as good as the others however.. it does handle high gain!) I had a post on the Fender forums about this but after checking it seems with the closure of Tinypic and Tindeck.. we don't have much other than a conversation. Did a video of it:
The clean sound was the best I'd ever heard iirc.. the high gain was 'tragic the gathering'.
Seymour Duncan.. never liked SD's. I own two.. and they are OK.
Really like DiMarzios.. I own a couple at least, the original ones from the 70s. I'm a big fan of DiMarziclones too.. in fact I coined that: 'DiMarziclone' that's how much I like them :D
Entwistle.. I own a load of Aldens and all their pickups are Entwistle's.. really big fan of his stuff.. I collect Aldens.. I have an XG Special, XG-HR (3 pickup) XG Standard, Bluesline Custom Plus, Corsair.. I also have a 'Jazzcaster; which I swapped the neck out on and reworked.. because I really hated that razorblade neck!
I redid the headstock to say 'Shaw' and re-dubbed it.. the Javacaster :D
Artec.. considered a 'budget brand' however.. the real 'budget brands' are no names.
I have a wide-range of theirs and a couple of single coil sized humbuckers. Like I say above.. it handles surf rock and high gain decently.
To sum up.. while some mid-tier will affect the return value of your guitar, DiMarziclone probably will not, especially if they are in the original japanese guitar they came with.
-----------------
*(ones .that won't devalue your guitar)
*https://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=109458&p=1219322#p1219322
Saturday, 4 January 2020
Dava's Hitchhiker's Guide to Squier Guitars
Hi
You know Fender guitars right? They have a 'child brand' called Squier that you've probably also at least heard of.. and here we will explore the history of Squier according to my memory/all iirc. Dava
Update: I found out CBS sold Fender to FMIC in 1985. Which makes a lot less sense to me but facts are facts and I don't spread misinformation. The information here came from (mostly) a rare documentary I watched some years ago.
It doesn't detract too much from what I have written..
----
The Beginnings of Squier
Fender was sold by CBS to FMIC around 1979/1980, but FMIC only got the IP/Blueprints and all names.. nothing physical.. no factory. Once they had this they were like 'hmm..' we need to start making sure we begin producing something so we 1. make money on the millions we just spent 2. so people don't forget us'.
Around first half of 1980, they managed to keep production going in the US but it was expensive, they had seen loads of Japanese Strats flooding the market for a few years now, so they struck on an idea.. why not get a slice of this themselves?
Now the initial run is up for some debate on WHO they got to do that first 6 month run of Squier JVs.. most people will say Fujigen.. and that well may be right.. but other contenders are; Matsumoku, Yamaki and Terada. Let's suppose it was Fujigen..
The initial run had gone so well; demand was very high, they were selling out.. but Fujigen (or who/e) was getting chocolate buttons out of the deal and it was harming their production, a dispute broke out between Fujigen (or whichever company it was) and FMIC, so production of Squiers halted.
In fact Squiers were SO popular, Fender couldn't just let the business go so for 6 months they *had* to make Squiers in the US alongside the the USA Fenders. wow..yeah.. today these guitars have a rep of not being worth the money but as a slice of Fender history, idk perhaps. FMIC saw the figures for Squiers and minds were blown! People were eating them up.. so sometime around the end of December 80 to the end of January 81.. they went back to Japan. This time we know for 100% who they dealt with; Fujigen.
Production was slow through '81 even though demand was high, but that might be in hindsight, as we know they ramped up production in 1982 and again for every year until 1985. Fender even made Fender Japan, a dedicated Japanese division.
People think 1982 was the first year of production, but if you know your stuff you can find these earlier examples.. there were even Fender branded early runs and it is suspected some bodies and neck for the US guitars came from the same initial japanese factory to be reworked in the US.
'JV Squiers' are the 'Pre-CBS' of Squier. JV stands for Japanese Version.
And by that I mean.. what Pre-CBS is to Fender.. JV is to Squier.
The first 6 month, June/July 1980 to Jan 1981, run is known as 'The Gold Series' and you will pretty much never find one.. why? because their serials were weird due to FMIC not having serials worked out yet, they just didn't know what to do with these. In fact.. The 'Silver Series' Squiers are Squier 10 year anniversary models 1991 to 1995. (Although like Gold Series, you CAN find a 1990 Silver Series)
The Fall and Rise of Eastern Oriental Fenders
Around 1985 Fujigen saw all the serious bank Fender was getting from their work, not only this but new labour laws in Japan and workers rights were becoming popular and gaining traction, they wanted to renegotiate with FMIC but Fender were.. reluctant. Fender decided to try out Korea as a cheaper alternative, they made an initial run sometime around spring summer of 1986, they shipped the bodies and hardwear from Japan to Korea and had that plant do the rest of the work. (I don't know which plant, but I rem Sung-Il was involved at some point.. who are Gibsons goto for Korean parts).
Well Fujigen found out and was pretty mad about this.. they stopped all Japanese production of Squiers but not Fenders. FMIC quickly tried to smooth the situation over by offering another 6 month contract to Fujigen, which they accepted.. but Fender were leaving and that was to be that.
By spring 1987 Fender moved production of all Squiers to Korea.. players were devastated, they loved their Japanese instruments.. and now some usurper was in the chicken coup.
The Transition from Japan to Korea
Well it was a total disaster.. people had gotten used to getting a certain level of quality and the new Squier Koreans just weren't cutting it compared to Squier Japan.
Even today.. there is a stigma on Korean guitars due to Fenders handling of this situation, doesn't matter what you buy.. if it's Korean Squier or Fender or pretty much other brand, if it's Korea and you just bought it.. you just lost money on it. There are caveats to this.. Korean Eastwoods, Korean late 90s/2000s Fenders (not Squier) but that was I feel.. a 'sorry' from fender to Korean guitar manuf. for messing up their business.
I own a a 1998 Fender Korean Showmaster.. nick named 'Fender Korean Custom Shop Strat', it is ultra high quality on par with many high end US Fenders.. but you get bunk for selling it.
They have figured tops, Seymour Duncans, set neck.. and regularly go for £300/350. If it was Japanese it would go for £2000 easy.
I digress slightly..
In 1989 FMIC stopped all production of Squiers from Japan.. and in response Fujigen stopped making Japanese Fenders.. FMIC wasn't happy.
Production was very mixed, FMIC trying to take the work to Korea but Fujigen having such pull with them and with fans.. it was hard for FMIC to leave. Educated guess but from 1987 to 1989 80% of Eastern production for Squier was done in Korea.
FMIC were embarrassed on how they treated the company that had helped them out in the early years of Squier.. so they offered them a contract to make Squiers again, this production didn't kick off until late 1990. Fujigen are a well established company (1969) with much honor within the muso community.. it wasn't right for Fender to treat them that way and Fender recognised it, and begun repairing the relationship.
The Silver Series
FMIC and Fujigen had been working on getting the price point to quality correct, as often Fujigen had been providing higher quality for the price point, but now they both had experience in what each other wanted.. Fender knew Fujigen didn't want to ruin its reputation and so honour within the muso community but likewise Fujigen knew Fender didn't want their US sales diminished due to overseas production.
Fender must have told Fujigen about their Fender Mexico and they would perhaps be making some of the Squiers.. the Fender Mexico Squiers started production in 1990 and went almost as long as the other 'Silver Series' but were branded 'Squier Series'.. 1990-1994. Because if Fender had slighted Fujigen again.. they would have kicked off a fight and halt in Japanese production.
Fujigen also got a contract from Gibson around this time to make Orville. So perhaps this was a reaction.. Fujigen accepting the contract from Fenders greatest rival.. so perhaps FMIC didn't tell Fujigen about the Mexican Squiers.. I don't know.
The Silver Series was a success.. I own one. It's almost 100% on par with a 90s Mexican Fender.. which I own one of those also, it was my first Fender*, the two guitars are very similar. With an edge of quality going to Fender Mexico.
I can see what FMIC was thinking when examining the Japanese Squiers vs the Mexican Fenders.. man they got some high quality production over there!
*1994 Fender Mexican Contemporary Special Stratocaster vs my 1995 Silver Series Squier Stratocaster.
*FMIC ran the Squier Series out of their Mexican plant from 1990 to 1998 (and yes I am aware others say 1993-1998.. I've seen in pictures a 1990 one so.. yeah. And a 1991.. and a 1992.. so there's that. I imagine the early ones were limited to not aggravate Fujigen. Imagine FMIC sneaking them out in limited runs.
Fender Korea
Around 1995 FMIC tried Korea again, but I imagine this time Fujigen saw it coming.
They used Young Chang, who is one of the companies that is guessed at, that FMIC used in their initial Korean runs of 1987-1989.
Quality was OK.. much to Fender's pleasure, meaning it wouldn't drive people away from US Fenders. But all was not well in the 'House of Squier'..
Young Chang had started using Chinese plants and not going solely Korean.. whether it was FMIC or Young Chang, I don't know but 1995 was the year of the first Chinese Squier, my then-friend had one.. they were AWFUL. Imagine the worst version of a Strat you can buy today, then stick a razor blade neck in it o_O ..looks traditional, but ultra weak pickups and a razor blade neck.. truss rods that don't work properly.. you get the idea.
Fender only ran these for 2 years.. and I imagine they just about 'took an imodium' when they saw the quality of these pieces of trash, that was aptly trashing their brand they worked hard to build up.. with ultra low quality gear.
In 1997 they did a short run of Fender Japanese guitars as I imagine a opener for Fujigen to say.. 'hey you can come back Fender' but that never materialized. So Fender backpacked to Korea..
FMIC, as stated above.. started thinking how much they had hurt the Korean guitar manufacturing plants.. and they were running out of options, Young Chang were a decent company..Sung Il too decent company. There was also World Musical Instruments.. WMI have a good rep.
Those are the suspects..
They ran Fenders out of Korea for a few years, but Squier was having troubles.. I imagine the Korean Manuf. had got wind of the damage Korean Squiers had done to them and didn't want to touch Squier with a hermetically sealed barge pole.
FMIC tried to start up Squier in India.. these guitars were a flop, big time.. ohw today you get the odd person who will say the Indian Squier replaced their first born in terms of love.. but those people are probably GAS crazy or something. Personally.. I don't have the experience of them. Picture: Necks look OK online, the rest however looks like that 1995 Chinese Squier.
(you can get Indian Squiers dating back to 1989.. these seem to me to have been tester runs.. 89/90.. idk about 1991.. but again in 92/93/94/95 all in super limited quantity.. so much so you won't find much if anything online about them)
FMIC was shopping around for a plant.. everything they had tried after Fender Japan was disastrous.. they gave up and just went shopping around China for a plant.
Meanwhile.. Cort had a bad rep for their Korean guitars at that time, but also due to Korean guitars in general having that mentioned stigma. Cort wanted OUT..
They moved to Indonesia. BEST MOVE EVER! Smart person/s!
FMIC released the Squier Vintage Modified Squier series around 2003. Some had been made in China to decent quality.. some in the Indonesian Cort factory to.. for the price.. staggering quality. Not enough to derail buyers from 'proper Fenders' but enough to pique the interest..
The Squier '51 and Rise and Rise of Squier
So around 2003 a new head took over Squier (sorry can't rem his name.. Bob?) he said why only do 'copies' of Fenders?.. why not something .. new!
FMIC had been skittish for years about new designs after watching Gibson's new designs flounder in the 80s and 90s..but the pitch was.. this is Squier we SHOULD be providing new things.. the tagline being 'Squier is Fenders bratty little brother'.. while of course Squier is the child company to Fender, that ideology stuck in the minds of FMIC and at Squier in general.. FMIC suggested that Squier should be its own company with its own wokings. Squier was 'properly' established around 2002..
The first guitar Squier ever designed from scratch was the Squier '51.. styled after a Telecaster Bass/Early Precision but in guitar form. It is without a doubt Squiers flagship original design.. they rest were modified Strats and Teles.. but this was something *new*.
In 2005 Squier moved pretty much the bulk of production to IC.. Indonesian Cort, and that has been their main place ever since.
2005 the Internet exploded as a 'thing' that pretty much every household had it.
2006 The Squier '51 fell to rock bottom prices.. putting them in the hands of people who didn't mind 'taking a punt' on them just to try them out.. then soon after a community arose of musos raving about this guitar.. I was one of them. Squier '51 modding sites and accessories started to appear in certain shops.
Today
Squier does runs from various companies, from around South East Asia and China, FMIC have had four decades to perfect the goldilocks zone of QC.. and for this.. they pretty much stick with IC, Indo-Cort, smart. Don't tick off your partners.. or you will end up with no partners.
Additional.. slow and calm voice, like at the end of a cop show:
Fender and Fujigen did make up but the relationship is often rocky, inthat it jumps on the swings and roundabouts of good to bad. Excellent to frosty.
Fender Korea never recovered from the damage FMIC did to them.
Gibson still get all their Korean parts from Sung-Il, it wouldn't surprise me if this is where they got the Firebird Zero and SG Fusion stuff. Gibson and Sung-Il have a good relationship.
Korean guitars are still worth bunk. Except Eastwood Koreans.
Eastwood have certain plants they will use, that are the source of the following brands: Alden, Guild, (some) Jay Turser. you can id them by the abalone gong on MOP horns.
I collect (set neck only) Alden guitars.
You know Fender guitars right? They have a 'child brand' called Squier that you've probably also at least heard of.. and here we will explore the history of Squier according to my memory/all iirc. Dava
Update: I found out CBS sold Fender to FMIC in 1985. Which makes a lot less sense to me but facts are facts and I don't spread misinformation. The information here came from (mostly) a rare documentary I watched some years ago.
It doesn't detract too much from what I have written..
----
The Beginnings of Squier
Fender was sold by CBS to FMIC around 1979/1980, but FMIC only got the IP/Blueprints and all names.. nothing physical.. no factory. Once they had this they were like 'hmm..' we need to start making sure we begin producing something so we 1. make money on the millions we just spent 2. so people don't forget us'.
Around first half of 1980, they managed to keep production going in the US but it was expensive, they had seen loads of Japanese Strats flooding the market for a few years now, so they struck on an idea.. why not get a slice of this themselves?
Now the initial run is up for some debate on WHO they got to do that first 6 month run of Squier JVs.. most people will say Fujigen.. and that well may be right.. but other contenders are; Matsumoku, Yamaki and Terada. Let's suppose it was Fujigen..
The initial run had gone so well; demand was very high, they were selling out.. but Fujigen (or who/e) was getting chocolate buttons out of the deal and it was harming their production, a dispute broke out between Fujigen (or whichever company it was) and FMIC, so production of Squiers halted.
In fact Squiers were SO popular, Fender couldn't just let the business go so for 6 months they *had* to make Squiers in the US alongside the the USA Fenders. wow..yeah.. today these guitars have a rep of not being worth the money but as a slice of Fender history, idk perhaps. FMIC saw the figures for Squiers and minds were blown! People were eating them up.. so sometime around the end of December 80 to the end of January 81.. they went back to Japan. This time we know for 100% who they dealt with; Fujigen.
Production was slow through '81 even though demand was high, but that might be in hindsight, as we know they ramped up production in 1982 and again for every year until 1985. Fender even made Fender Japan, a dedicated Japanese division.
People think 1982 was the first year of production, but if you know your stuff you can find these earlier examples.. there were even Fender branded early runs and it is suspected some bodies and neck for the US guitars came from the same initial japanese factory to be reworked in the US.
'JV Squiers' are the 'Pre-CBS' of Squier. JV stands for Japanese Version.
And by that I mean.. what Pre-CBS is to Fender.. JV is to Squier.
The first 6 month, June/July 1980 to Jan 1981, run is known as 'The Gold Series' and you will pretty much never find one.. why? because their serials were weird due to FMIC not having serials worked out yet, they just didn't know what to do with these. In fact.. The 'Silver Series' Squiers are Squier 10 year anniversary models 1991 to 1995. (Although like Gold Series, you CAN find a 1990 Silver Series)
The Fall and Rise of Eastern Oriental Fenders
Around 1985 Fujigen saw all the serious bank Fender was getting from their work, not only this but new labour laws in Japan and workers rights were becoming popular and gaining traction, they wanted to renegotiate with FMIC but Fender were.. reluctant. Fender decided to try out Korea as a cheaper alternative, they made an initial run sometime around spring summer of 1986, they shipped the bodies and hardwear from Japan to Korea and had that plant do the rest of the work. (I don't know which plant, but I rem Sung-Il was involved at some point.. who are Gibsons goto for Korean parts).
Well Fujigen found out and was pretty mad about this.. they stopped all Japanese production of Squiers but not Fenders. FMIC quickly tried to smooth the situation over by offering another 6 month contract to Fujigen, which they accepted.. but Fender were leaving and that was to be that.
By spring 1987 Fender moved production of all Squiers to Korea.. players were devastated, they loved their Japanese instruments.. and now some usurper was in the chicken coup.
The Transition from Japan to Korea
Well it was a total disaster.. people had gotten used to getting a certain level of quality and the new Squier Koreans just weren't cutting it compared to Squier Japan.
Even today.. there is a stigma on Korean guitars due to Fenders handling of this situation, doesn't matter what you buy.. if it's Korean Squier or Fender or pretty much other brand, if it's Korea and you just bought it.. you just lost money on it. There are caveats to this.. Korean Eastwoods, Korean late 90s/2000s Fenders (not Squier) but that was I feel.. a 'sorry' from fender to Korean guitar manuf. for messing up their business.
I own a a 1998 Fender Korean Showmaster.. nick named 'Fender Korean Custom Shop Strat', it is ultra high quality on par with many high end US Fenders.. but you get bunk for selling it.
They have figured tops, Seymour Duncans, set neck.. and regularly go for £300/350. If it was Japanese it would go for £2000 easy.
I digress slightly..
In 1989 FMIC stopped all production of Squiers from Japan.. and in response Fujigen stopped making Japanese Fenders.. FMIC wasn't happy.
Production was very mixed, FMIC trying to take the work to Korea but Fujigen having such pull with them and with fans.. it was hard for FMIC to leave. Educated guess but from 1987 to 1989 80% of Eastern production for Squier was done in Korea.
FMIC were embarrassed on how they treated the company that had helped them out in the early years of Squier.. so they offered them a contract to make Squiers again, this production didn't kick off until late 1990. Fujigen are a well established company (1969) with much honor within the muso community.. it wasn't right for Fender to treat them that way and Fender recognised it, and begun repairing the relationship.
The Silver Series
FMIC and Fujigen had been working on getting the price point to quality correct, as often Fujigen had been providing higher quality for the price point, but now they both had experience in what each other wanted.. Fender knew Fujigen didn't want to ruin its reputation and so honour within the muso community but likewise Fujigen knew Fender didn't want their US sales diminished due to overseas production.
Fender must have told Fujigen about their Fender Mexico and they would perhaps be making some of the Squiers.. the Fender Mexico Squiers started production in 1990 and went almost as long as the other 'Silver Series' but were branded 'Squier Series'.. 1990-1994. Because if Fender had slighted Fujigen again.. they would have kicked off a fight and halt in Japanese production.
Fujigen also got a contract from Gibson around this time to make Orville. So perhaps this was a reaction.. Fujigen accepting the contract from Fenders greatest rival.. so perhaps FMIC didn't tell Fujigen about the Mexican Squiers.. I don't know.
The Silver Series was a success.. I own one. It's almost 100% on par with a 90s Mexican Fender.. which I own one of those also, it was my first Fender*, the two guitars are very similar. With an edge of quality going to Fender Mexico.
I can see what FMIC was thinking when examining the Japanese Squiers vs the Mexican Fenders.. man they got some high quality production over there!
*1994 Fender Mexican Contemporary Special Stratocaster vs my 1995 Silver Series Squier Stratocaster.
*FMIC ran the Squier Series out of their Mexican plant from 1990 to 1998 (and yes I am aware others say 1993-1998.. I've seen in pictures a 1990 one so.. yeah. And a 1991.. and a 1992.. so there's that. I imagine the early ones were limited to not aggravate Fujigen. Imagine FMIC sneaking them out in limited runs.
Fender Korea
Around 1995 FMIC tried Korea again, but I imagine this time Fujigen saw it coming.
They used Young Chang, who is one of the companies that is guessed at, that FMIC used in their initial Korean runs of 1987-1989.
Quality was OK.. much to Fender's pleasure, meaning it wouldn't drive people away from US Fenders. But all was not well in the 'House of Squier'..
Young Chang had started using Chinese plants and not going solely Korean.. whether it was FMIC or Young Chang, I don't know but 1995 was the year of the first Chinese Squier, my then-friend had one.. they were AWFUL. Imagine the worst version of a Strat you can buy today, then stick a razor blade neck in it o_O ..looks traditional, but ultra weak pickups and a razor blade neck.. truss rods that don't work properly.. you get the idea.
Fender only ran these for 2 years.. and I imagine they just about 'took an imodium' when they saw the quality of these pieces of trash, that was aptly trashing their brand they worked hard to build up.. with ultra low quality gear.
In 1997 they did a short run of Fender Japanese guitars as I imagine a opener for Fujigen to say.. 'hey you can come back Fender' but that never materialized. So Fender backpacked to Korea..
FMIC, as stated above.. started thinking how much they had hurt the Korean guitar manufacturing plants.. and they were running out of options, Young Chang were a decent company..Sung Il too decent company. There was also World Musical Instruments.. WMI have a good rep.
Those are the suspects..
They ran Fenders out of Korea for a few years, but Squier was having troubles.. I imagine the Korean Manuf. had got wind of the damage Korean Squiers had done to them and didn't want to touch Squier with a hermetically sealed barge pole.
FMIC tried to start up Squier in India.. these guitars were a flop, big time.. ohw today you get the odd person who will say the Indian Squier replaced their first born in terms of love.. but those people are probably GAS crazy or something. Personally.. I don't have the experience of them. Picture: Necks look OK online, the rest however looks like that 1995 Chinese Squier.
(you can get Indian Squiers dating back to 1989.. these seem to me to have been tester runs.. 89/90.. idk about 1991.. but again in 92/93/94/95 all in super limited quantity.. so much so you won't find much if anything online about them)
FMIC was shopping around for a plant.. everything they had tried after Fender Japan was disastrous.. they gave up and just went shopping around China for a plant.
Meanwhile.. Cort had a bad rep for their Korean guitars at that time, but also due to Korean guitars in general having that mentioned stigma. Cort wanted OUT..
They moved to Indonesia. BEST MOVE EVER! Smart person/s!
FMIC released the Squier Vintage Modified Squier series around 2003. Some had been made in China to decent quality.. some in the Indonesian Cort factory to.. for the price.. staggering quality. Not enough to derail buyers from 'proper Fenders' but enough to pique the interest..
The Squier '51 and Rise and Rise of Squier
So around 2003 a new head took over Squier (sorry can't rem his name.. Bob?) he said why only do 'copies' of Fenders?.. why not something .. new!
FMIC had been skittish for years about new designs after watching Gibson's new designs flounder in the 80s and 90s..but the pitch was.. this is Squier we SHOULD be providing new things.. the tagline being 'Squier is Fenders bratty little brother'.. while of course Squier is the child company to Fender, that ideology stuck in the minds of FMIC and at Squier in general.. FMIC suggested that Squier should be its own company with its own wokings. Squier was 'properly' established around 2002..
The first guitar Squier ever designed from scratch was the Squier '51.. styled after a Telecaster Bass/Early Precision but in guitar form. It is without a doubt Squiers flagship original design.. they rest were modified Strats and Teles.. but this was something *new*.
In 2005 Squier moved pretty much the bulk of production to IC.. Indonesian Cort, and that has been their main place ever since.
2005 the Internet exploded as a 'thing' that pretty much every household had it.
2006 The Squier '51 fell to rock bottom prices.. putting them in the hands of people who didn't mind 'taking a punt' on them just to try them out.. then soon after a community arose of musos raving about this guitar.. I was one of them. Squier '51 modding sites and accessories started to appear in certain shops.
Today
Squier does runs from various companies, from around South East Asia and China, FMIC have had four decades to perfect the goldilocks zone of QC.. and for this.. they pretty much stick with IC, Indo-Cort, smart. Don't tick off your partners.. or you will end up with no partners.
Additional.. slow and calm voice, like at the end of a cop show:
Fender and Fujigen did make up but the relationship is often rocky, inthat it jumps on the swings and roundabouts of good to bad. Excellent to frosty.
Fender Korea never recovered from the damage FMIC did to them.
Gibson still get all their Korean parts from Sung-Il, it wouldn't surprise me if this is where they got the Firebird Zero and SG Fusion stuff. Gibson and Sung-Il have a good relationship.
Korean guitars are still worth bunk. Except Eastwood Koreans.
Eastwood have certain plants they will use, that are the source of the following brands: Alden, Guild, (some) Jay Turser. you can id them by the abalone gong on MOP horns.
I collect (set neck only) Alden guitars.
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