Witty Banter

[sith2886]

I know that the quips are a part of his character but does anyone else beside me utterly hate how spider man is usually written?

I mean when fighting I can get it but when you're hanging on a wall watching Moonknight beat the shit out of some gutter scum and you greet him by saying "Hi ya mooney"...come on.

 

[Ryuugi]

I feel the same. From time to time, he makes a remark that I find funny, but it's rare. Most of the time, he just makes me wish he was a) silent, B) someone else, or c) actually funny.

 

[sith2886]

Oh good it's not just me then.

 

[Shaderic]

I thought it was explained somewhere as a defense mechanism.

Because the idea of fighting a nuclear physicist with four extra indestructible limbs going around wreaking havoc, or having to go around facing cosmic powers, and all the other insanity in this universe, whilst at the same time trying to live up to an ideal that not following got the closest thing to a father he had killed would slowly drive him nuts.

Making the weird quips sort of forces him to laugh, to distance himself from the fact that he just watched someone's tooth fly out of their mouth. That there's no way he can win. That New York city is going to be attacked by a bunch of psychos who want revenge on HIM.

Sort of a 'laugh so you don't cry' response.

 

[sith2886]

which is fine when he's fighting someone but when its just him and some other hero I don't see how it's really necessary.

 

[Hypothesis]

Habit?

 

[sworded]

Habit?

I've always thought it was some form of OCD.

 

[Canis]

The defensive mechanism explanation makes a lot of sense and can easily be extended to his interactions with the other heros. He has to make light of them and constantly crack bad jokes and quips or he'll realize just how insane some of the heros have to be to do what they do. And if he realizes that they're not quite right he's going to have to acknowledge that he isn't quite right himself.

Pretty much the same reason he does it when fighting because when he's interacting with other heroes he's looking into a warped mirror. How warped that mirror is varies from hero to hero, but he sees somebody out doing pretty much the same thing he's doing in pretty much the same way, and with super-heroing (is that actually a word?) it's actually easier to realize just what something entails when observing rather than participating.

 

[byakuryuu]

I personally find Spidey's pre-Quesada quips rather enjoyable. Now... well... I just... don't know... what to believe in, anymore.

Thank God for 2000 AD comics.