Nightwing:
And Aldous, I'm not sure what you meant by saying the Spider-Buggy (or whatever it was called) was more "honest." But if my memory's right, it did fit more naturally into the cynical, jaded worldview of Spider-Man. I think it was developed by a firm that paid Spidey to drive around in it as an advertisement. And though he wasn't crazy about the idea, he did need the cash...as always...so he did it. When it finally ended up at the bottom of the Hudson River, I think Spidey was as happy as the rest of us to see it go.
Maybe that's what you meant by "honest"...it's possible the writer and artist were sending us a not-so veiled message that the buggy was being forced down their throats by the guys in Marketing.
You know pretty much what I meant, Nightwing. I actually see the Supermobile as more cynical because, unlike in Spider-Man, the reader is supposed to just swallow this contraption with a straight face, and let's all pretend it's not a marketing ploy to try to milk more money from Superman. With Spidey, they let it all hang out, even to the extent of coming clean in Spidey's world itself... And another mark against Supermobile was that Spider-Mobile (yes, that's what it was called) came first, so Superman wasn't just ripping off his fans, and swiping the idea of Adamantium, but he was also blatantly stealing the whole S-Mobile deal from Spidey without so much as an apology.