In Meta-Messages, I explore the context behind (using reader danjack's term) "meta-messages." A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator (or sometimes even themselves) in their comic. Each time around, I'll give you the context behind one such "meta-message."
Today, reader Steve M. suggested that I spotlight an amusing bit of teasing of the whole "Ganke becoming Ned" aspect of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Now, to set the scene, you have to know that in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #2 (by Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli and Justin Ponsor), Miles Morales has to tell someone about his newly discovered (as of the previous issue) superpowers. He doesn't want to tell his parents, so instead he tells his best friend, Ganke Lee, who handles it hilariously well...
Ganke is a great character. In fact, he's SUCH a great character that it sure looks like the folks behind Spider-Man: Homecoming simply took the Ganke Lee character and added him to the film as Ned instead of Ganke...
with him now being best friends with Peter Parker instead of Miles Morales.
I mean, they even kept the whole "playing with Legos when he finds out his best friend has superpowers" scene!
When the news first came out about Ganke essentially becoming Ned in Homecoming, Bendis was asked about it and he had some interesting thoughts on the topic. From a CBR article by L.D. Nolan on the subject back in 2017:
"I'll be very honest right now. I have not talked about this publicly, but it feels very bizarre," Bendis told the Ultimate Spin podcast. "Most of the time the characters that I've had a hand in creating that have made it to the screen, from Jessica [Jones] all the way to Maria Hill and Quake, the level of quality of the adaptation and care in which they bring the character forward past the adaptation into its new life has been uniformly amazing -- my luck in this area has been second to none.
"I've not seen 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' so I'm gonna wait until we see what we see. But, yeah, it was bizarre and flattering," Bendis continued. "I don't even know if Ganke was the inspiration, or they just got to their own place with a character like this on their own. I don't know. It does seem like it might have been, but no one's told me either way. There's so much else in that trailer that's from 'Ultimate Spider-Man' that I would assume that, yes, it is... It's weird only because Ganke wasn't part of Peter's story -- he was part of Miles' story."
Later in the year, though, Bendis found a clever way to address the controversy...
Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='You're not a Ned...']
In the new Spider-Man series that Bendis launched in 2016 after Secret Wars, with Miles Morales now part of the "main" Marvel Earth, Ganke is along for the ride. When a YouTube blogger does a video about Miles, Ganke tries to deal with her. However, slowly but surely, Ganke and the vlogger, Danika Hart, got close to each other. He still felt that he couldn't use his real name because he knew that if she knew who he was, it would be a piece of cake to then find out that Miles was Spider-Man.
So in Spider-Man #16 (by Bendis, Oscar Bazaldua and Justin Ponsor), he decides to come up with a fake name and I bet you know what his fake name is...
Very cute stuff overall. Ganke is the best.
Thanks for the suggestion, Steve!
If anyone else has a suggestion for a good Meta-Messages, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!