Spidey Kicks Butt

 Read the following taken from "Top Ten Spider-Man Stories" by J. R. Fettinger:

I was reluctant to list ["The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man"] because it is blatantly emotionally manipulative. Also Wizard put it on their top 10, and I wanted to duplicate their list as little as possible. Spider-Man fulfills the wish of a dying boy by visiting him in the hospital and simply spending some time talking to him, including answering the question "Who are you really, Spider-Man?" Yep. Spidey stares out the window for a moment of contemplation before pulling off his mask and telling the boy his real name.

Based on the above passage, what would be a good word to replace "blatantly"?

a. boringly

b. subtly 

c. obviously

d. detrimentally

Scroll down for the answer.

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The way to figure this out if you are not already familiar with the word blatantly to to look at the context.  Mr. Fettinger did not want to include it on the list because it was emotionally manipulative.  Well, a lot of stories can be emotionally manipulative and still be good, so there must be something about this one that makes it almost bad.  Of the answer choices, obviously manipulative is one that most people frown on.  We don't want the author's purpose to be obvious, we want it to surprise us, to grab us before we realize it.  Therefore c. is the correct answer.

If you are a fan of Spidey, check out the entire article at: http://spideykicksbutt.com/Top10s/top10Spideystories.html