On Ezekiel and Morlun

Since it's pretty clear that at least Morlun is going to play an important role in the "Spider-Verse" event, I tracked down all the appearances of Ezekiel and Morlun that I originally missed.  These issues appeared after my post-"Clone Saga" departure from collecting, and I'll admit that I was excited about reading them, since I had always meant to fill in that gap someday.

After finishing them -- published 8-13 years ago -- I have to say that I'm surprised by how bad they are, given how much Spider-Fans seem to love Straczynski's run.  I understand that Straczynski came after "Amazing Spider-Man" had hit its nadir, with the "Gathering" following up the Clone Saga.  Straczynski was certainly an improvement on those stories and a reason to be excited.  Moreover, the issues are mostly OK (with some notable exceptions) in terms of standing on their own individually.  My main problem with them is that the dialogue can get clunky, with the hyper-literate criminals in "Amazing Spider-Man" #56 serving as the best example of that.  But, I'll give Straczynski credit for breathing some life into Aunt May, allowing her to be the feisty oldster that she is today rather than the near invalid that she had always been.  Moreover, he does a great job of organically bringing Mary Jane and Peter back together, even if the moment itself relies on some luck to happen.

My real problem with these issues is that Straczynski is telling a grand tale, but falls far short of fleshing out the high concepts that he introduces.  He bases his stories around the idea that Peter is connected to a spider-totem, but fails to really explain this connection or its connotations in full.  You get the sense that he didn't have enough time, given his hasty departure from the series as a result "One More Day."  But, it would be too convenient of an excuse.  Certain parts of both Ezekiel and Morlun's back stories and appearances just frankly make little sense.  Given that they're the vehicles for this changed origin, the failure to explain them dooms the entire enterprise.

Let's start with Ezekiel.  On the face of it, he's a cheap version of Spider-Man.  He got his powers through manipulation, bribing a Peruvian shaman into giving them to him in exchange for saving the shaman's village.  Straczynski introduces the idea here that someone -- presumably either Anansi the West African spider-god or the Great Weaver that we see in "Spider-Man:  The Other" -- chose Peter to become a member of Team Spider.  But, some demi-god didn't choose Ezekiel to join; he chose to be part of it.  But, we never learn why Ezekiel wanted to be a spider or, for that matter, why he wanted to be part of any totem.  We don't even learn how he learned of the totems' existence in the first place.  Given that Peter knew nothing about them, it's pretty clear that they don't exactly advertise in the back of Scientific American.  We just know that Ezekiel appeared in a Peruvian village one day and demanded powers.  Moreover, why does Anansi have an outpost in Peru?  Isn't he a West African god?  Straczynski hints throughout his run that the temples that we see in Ghana, Peru, and Wakanda are all connected, but (again) he never actually clarifies that connection.

We do learn that Ezekiel eventually uses his powers to become a millionaire industrialist.  I can't for the life of me see how spider powers would make one a successful entrepreneur, but, whatever.  I'll just go with it.  Moreover, his colleagues at the company seem to know about his powers, but we never really learn anything about them or the company to draw some sort of conclusion from this revelation.  Outside the revelation that he hired the aforementioned hyper-literate ex-cons for some sort of project in "Amazing Spider-Man" #56, we don't really learn anything else about Ezekiel.  He exists only so far as he serves as a device to move the plot from Point A to Point B.

The problem is that said plot itself doesn't make a lot of sense.  We learn in "Amazing Spider-Man" #507 that Ezekiel is trying to get three Powers connected to the spider-totem -- Morlun, Shathra, and the Gatekeeper -- to take Peter instead of him.  The Powers are apparently mad at Ezekiel for stealing his powers, but he figures that they'd be sated by devouring Peter.  Honestly, that part makes sense in and of itself.  The problem, of course, is that it makes no sense compared to the way that we're introduced to Ezekiel.  In issue #32, he's trying to convince Peter to hide in a bunker so that Morlun can't find him.  In fact, in issue #34, he sacrifices himself to save Peter from Morlun, not sacrifice him to Morlun.  When we later learn that Ezekiel's goal was to sacrifice Peter to the Powers, Straczynski makes no attempt to explain why he initially saved Peter in the first place.  Moreover, we never learn how he survived.  The fact that he survived Morlun's touch seems pretty significant, given how bad-ass we're supposed to believe Morlun to be.  But, Ezekiel just appears in issue #47, no worse for wear.

Speaking of mysterious returns from the dead, let's talk about Morlun now.  On some level, you could argue that Ezekiel made sense if you ignore that first arc where he's trying to save Peter.  If you look at just his later appearance, you could cobble together a coherent story.  Straczynski could've eventually fleshed out his back story a bit, telling us how he learned of the totem, why he wanted the powers, and how his company worked.  In other words, Ezekiel as a concept could've worked at some point, and we could've gotten a better sense of the spider-totem along the way.

Morlun?

Yeah, I just don't get Morlun.

First, Straczynski puts no effort into giving us any background on him.  He is essentially the Marvel version of Doomsday, ripping through a series of issues to defeat the hero, a heretofore unknown villain that just so happens to have our guy's number.  I assumed that he was connected to the spider-totem, since he devours the life essences of Spider-Men, but Straczynski doesn't really spell out this connection.  He really just appears, announces that Peter's mojo is so strong that it could sustain him for 100 years (sexy), and tries to devour him.  Does the Great Weaver know?  Shouldn't he be, like, pissed?

Beyond his unclear back story, Morlun's characterization is just bizarre.  In "Amazing Spider-Man" #32, he asks Dex if an outfit makes his butt look fat (no joke) and, in "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" #1, he exclaims, "Snake eyes" to announce Peter's imminent death.  It's like he's a cross between Liberace and Dean Martin who just happens to be a vampire that feeds off the energy of people attached to a spider-totem.  Sure.  But, these sorts of pop cultural references make even less sense when you consider that he appears in "Amazing Spider-Man" #4 on a different planet and clearly travels through the multiverse with ease.  Does he get Netflix out there?  What cable provider does he use?  Also, he has a personal assistant named Dex that he's employing against his will, given that Dex asks Morlun to kill him in issue #31 and Morlun refuses.  But, we never learn anything about Dex.  He simply shoots Morlun, appears to lose his mind a little, and then disappears.  Everything about him is just a jumbled mess.

Finally, I have no idea what his powers are.  As I mentioned, he appears indestructible when we first see him; among other things, he survives blowing up a building on top of himself in "Amazing Spider-Man" #33.  However, Dex eventually kills him with a simple bullet; sure, Morlun's weakened from the radiation that he's absorbed from Peter, but it still seems a pretty simple end for a guy that blows up buildings on top of himself.  Of course, he does survive that, though we're never given any explanation for how he survives getting shot in the heart.  Furthermore, when he's ready to feed on Peter in "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" #3, he has to abandon his plans because of the police descending on the scene.  Straczynski has him say that he's strong, not indestructible, but it just makes no sense, given what we've seen him do.  Moreover, also in issue #33, he's able to move so quickly that he's covers the same ground that Peter did while web-swinging.  If so, why couldn't he have just grabbed Peter's body and escaped somewhere more private?

Spider-totems, vampires, West African gods, Peruvian temples:  they're not stories that you associate with Spider-Man.  Straczynski had a tall order in selling them as such, but he could've made it happen.  But, to do so, he needed stronger messengers than half-drawn characters like Ezekiel and Morlun.  We seem to have an opportunity here for Dan Slott to fill in the gaps, and, if "Spider-Verse" is anything like "Spider-Island," then I think that it's possible that Morlun might emerge a fully formed character and villain.  But, as it stands, I can see why neither character was used after Straczynski left the title.  With so many questions left unanswered, Straczynski didn't seal the deal on recreating Spidey's origin, and the time stream re-asserted itself to give us the origin that we've always known.  Of course, then Spidey makes a deal with the Devil to erase his past, but that's a story for another time.