Webmasters, 57 of 57
by T Campbell on December 30th, 2012If you’re coming to this site for the first time, you may want to start with the very first page of Fans I ever published, here.
You can read this story from the beginning here. (It became 57 pages instead of 39 due to a format change.)
I have very little time tonight to say what I wanted to say about this story, but it’s very surprising, and yet oddly fitting, that Peter Parker was killed off exactly at the same time Zachary Zyzzyva was. I wish I could say that we planned that particular parallel between the two.
But really, I’ve felt for a while now that Spider-Man is a Shakespearean tragedy deferred. “With great power” etc., but he always seems to take on more and more responsibility without expanding his powers at the same rate. (To be fair, he has joined the Avengers and Horizon Labs, two organizations that have expanded his overall effectiveness considerably, but all it takes is one death in his general proximity to send him back into the shame spiral.)
Retirement is no escape: it would only sharpen his awareness of everything he couldwould no longer be doing to oppose evil, preserve life and help the weak. Eventually, and one might say inevitably, such guilt would lead him to lay down his own life rather than add another death to the tally on his ledger. Zach is not someone who feels a lot of responsibility for individual deaths, but his larger sense of duty to his nation and the world ultimately lead him to compromise his own safety.
Zachary’s fate might also be seen as a refutation of themes in Fans, where characters’ specialized knowledge often leads them to triumph against the “webmasters” of society: the wealthy, the shadow government operatives and other high-level manipulators. What the Fans had that Zachary doesn’t is true community. Zach tries to relate to others but his power is ultimately isolating, much like Peter’s guilt.
And, well, that’s probably all I should say. Talk amongst yourselves!
Discussion (38) ¬
The Fans also had less efficient adversaries. Either they were lone wolves who tripped over their own arrogance (Mist, Keith, Thack) or they were a loosely coordinated group of compulsives/obsessives who were easily manipulated once figured out (the Cuckoos, or that conspiracy Keith and the dragon bishop belonged to).
This story was a plausible superhero pitted against a plausible conspiracy. Zach’s mental power — which reminds me a bit of Gordon Dickson’s “R-Master” — was credible in both its applications and its side-effects. And you set enough determined vicious people out to kill anyone, and the intended victim is likely to die.
For Peter Parker, the way to avoid the Shakespearean Tragedy would be to reach out to others and let them in — to accept help. Even during his loner days, the character always seemed to be at his best when interacting with other protagonists. I was still reading comics regularly when the Civil War plotline had PP reveal his secret identity — and I was hoping that would be a permanent change. Seemed healthier for him than living the way Billy Joel described in “code of silence”
In any event, I enjoyed this. Any chance that your next project will revisit Michael and Bones from “Cool Cat Studio?” Come to think of it, a team with Michael, Bones, Zach and Soulson might be one heckuva read.
Spider-Man is a tragic figure at heart, isn’t he? Even his customary rapid-fire joking while fighting crooks, while it helps distract and unnerve them, also ends up being another part of the mask Peter wears. A mask that further cuts him off from other human beings and renders him–even when he does have a reasonably-paying job and is married to MJ–a fundamentally unhappy, self-negating person.
Congratulations, T and Jason on completing the story, and best of luck with your submission to Marvel. (Also, Happy New Year to you both and to everyone reading along here.)
Best of luck with Marvel, T, and looking forward to your next project (whatever it may be).
I must admit that the sudden death and ending of this took me a bit off guard. It seemed all along to be paced for this to be Act 1 of a longer story, only for it to end immediately after the introduction of the villain and the revelation of the nature of ZZ’s powers. I’m convinced that if you (or Marvel) wanted this to continue, you could easily convert it that way.
Okay, I’ve read the final half-dozen installments a few times, and I still can’t figure out how ZZ died, and what it has to do with his door, which would be nowhere near the science building.
Apparently, ZZ is dead, but only because T said so in the blog entry I’m responding to here. Am I being completely dense here? Can someone explain to me what I’m missing? It’s extremely confusing to have someone killed in a story if you don’t see any of it. In fact all we see is ZZ living through the first 5 methods, and then something vague about a jiggly door lock. Are we supposed to infer that he was killed by shoddy locksmithing?
Seriously, WTF?
Thor: Presumably, ZZ was killed by the gas released in the science building while defending himself from Thwip (apparently the authorities arrived in time to rescue Thwip, but not Zach). The jiggly lock was the result of an unseen sixth assassin tampering with something in Zach’s apartment- poisoned food, perhaps, or a malfunctioning gas stove.
- HC
Wait, what? Did they kill Peter Parker again?
@Thor: My reading is that he was killed by an overdose of CO2 he inhaled while fighting Thwip. The door trap (bomb?) was just another failed attempt.
…So what [would happen / would have happened] in the second issue?
overexertion apparently he was too out of it from disarming Thwip that he passed out wand smothered in the CO2 gas that was filling the building. being that it’s heavier then normal air it would be thickest near the floor. chances are since they arrived quickly enough to save Thiwp they could have saved or kidnapped Zach if they wanted. he may have been smaller then Thwip but he was healthier then normal and should have been able to hold out a bit better i’d think
Either way happy new Year and good luck on your submission to Marvel.
Soooo, I know this is a long shot, but any chance we might get a Fans side-story or something? Those characters are too good to let sit in limbo for too long.
Now that the story is finished, I have to say it’s pretty…
Eh.
It works as a rough draft, but the whole story is delivered like a pizza – sure, what’s under the lid might be rich and tasty, but the guy holding it just wants to hand it over, get his tip and move on. There’s too much telling and not enough showing, essentially reading more like a synopsis of a much longer story.
wuh… what ?
And now we face a new year. Without Fans! as a comic. I think T knows this was something that needed more polish, but was interesting enough to view. My take is that it’s to let us down easy. We’ll be asking for more, but we just HAD more. It will not silence the loudest of us, but it’s deflected a good portion. It seems to me, with projects headed towards ends and no sign of new things starting… that we are at the end of an era. If Mr. Campbell wants to leave online comics, so be it. Thank you for all your hard work. I do not think I, and many of his online fans, have supported him enough, financially. I apologize for my part in this. Good luck T. Campbell. Whatever you decide, do or want… You have made my days better with your work. Again, thank you.
Wow! I have to say, this story has potential! I felt like this was something in-between an outline and what the fleshed out story actually will be. I will admit that I think the ending lacked, but I think the other 97% of the story was great.
Should this get the chance to be published in an expanded form, I’d love to give it a read. Good luck!
I think theres a good Idea in this story somewhere, but there are some serious issues revolving around Zac, particularly that even though he is the protagonist I can’t really care about him or his story since he seems to have nothing but contempt for those around him.
Before you submit this to marvel, You really need to look at this aspect of the character and consider if this is how you really want the character to be perecieved by them.
@Crazeyal: T’s not retiring from webcomics. He’s still co-writing Guilded with Phil Kahn, which, as Phil recently announced, they intend to keep going for the next four years until the story’s done. Also, when T ended QUILTBAG last October, he said that he does have plans for other webcomic projects in the future, just not right away.
*CORRECTION: still writing Guilded Age.
BTW, the Comment function isn’t accepting the “a href” tag for some reason (I wanted to link to Guilded Age for the benefit of Crazeyal, and the note beside the “Post Comment” button does say that tag is allowed.) I tried a number of times to submit the previous comment, adding or subtracting as necessary, and it didn’t show up until I removed the tag entirely.
Ya, but I quit reading Guilded Age ages ago after “the twist” (I’m sure you know what twist I mean). Still interested in T’s next project, just not that one. T’s projects are always interesting… occasionally interesting in a “damn it, this was good and now it sucks!” way but always interesting!
ZZ’s Mom: Why isn’t Zachary returning our calls?
ZZ’s Dad: He’s probably just busy with his studies, dear. I’m sure he’s just fine.
Actually…if there were a part 2, I might enjoy following Jo around as she tries to do the best she can with this new power. Make this a “bait and switch” protagonist. Play it as an Astro City type of story; incredible world, normal people. Well, for some value of normal.
If you absolutely had to, maybe give her a touch of the web knowledge that ZZ had…flashes of insight, instead of a 24/7 type of deal. Just enough to make her canny when things go south. That could be a fun read.
As to good bye and salutations…Thanks for the second time, Mr. Campbell. I said good bye last time you ended Fans. But then you surprised me with this project…and I’ve been following Guilded Age (good stuff)…Good bye just seems like a less, reasonable(?), thing to say this time. Instead, I’ll say “until I find you around a third corner,” and count myself lucky that it will probably occur (ignoring the fact that I’ve already “found” you again, before you went missing). So, thank you for letting me, and the rest of us, hang out with the club for a while longer, good luck on the next project, and, I’ll see you around.
Reminiscent of Limitless or the Harvard Psychedelic Club. I would agree there should be more stories on the idea of enhancing intelligence.
But, IMO, for this story there was too much setup and not enough story.
You spent too many pages setting the stage for a world, and that stage interacted very little with your other message. You did not even use the setup time to introduce your major players (like Qaeid). We are told about real world people in the beginning and how their lives were different in your timeline, but the major players in the ZZ story were mainly “unknowns.” Worse still, you used both your fictional characters and your mortified real world ones the same (artistically as well). This left the reader confused as to who they should know from RL and who you made up. People don’t like to be confused.
I feel like these really are two separate, disjointed stories. One about how the world would have been different if Stan Lee was different, and one about ZZ. There really is little connection between the two other than one is the (far) background for the other. However–given the limited time–IMO you could have let the background for ZZ’s world come out in the telling of his story.
IMO, you overreached; you should’ve deleted(or super-compressed) one and expanded the other. The fact that his world is different from ours is really all that’s relevant for ZZ’s story, and Stan Lee’s story does not go anywhere. Pick one, not both.
Anyway, that’s my two cents, for what they’re worth (answer: two cents).
These are all sound critiques. I think, T, that by considering the ones that make the best sense to you, it’ll be possible to transform this good story into a great one.
Another thing, although a minor point: while, given what I know of Stan Lee and Marvel, I’m sure they’d both be good sports about his being assassinated in the prelude, I suspect Disney, as Marvel’s parent company, may not take kindly to being portrayed, even fictionally, as involved in wetwork (no matter whom the target). “Family-friendly” image to uphold and all that. So you may have to replace references to Disney with a fictional corpor