Monday, December 3, 2007

Screwing the Spider

Well gang, it's official. They have not only jumped a shark, they virtually cleared the entire ocean. I'm referring to Joe Quesada and the yokels at Marvel. You see, this wad Quesada never liked the fact that Peter and Mary Jane were married. So once he got into the power seat at Marvel, he planned to kill this off. And how did he go about this? By making it an "event" book and raping any respectable Spider fan of 4 bucks a throw. A few months ago I sang the praises of a Spider-man book that had him ratchet up the pain on the Kingpin, basically telling him, "if anything happens to Aunt May, you will never be safe anywhere you are." I liked that Peter had gone from be reactive to proactive. Well, I'm guessing this will be wiped out soon.

When "One More Day" started, I received and email from one of my buds, I think it was Jim. He basically laid out how it was all going to go and at the time I read this I said "nah, they're not that stupid". Guess what? They are! I want to ask a question at this point. Is there any of you guys and gals who read the Spider books with ANY degree of regularity who has not accepted the fact that Peter is married? Anyone?

The last show I did for Cosmic Comix we praised the fact that Marvel had their characters based in some real world theory. And in that theory, things move forward, they are constantly in motion. They don't stand still, no matter how hard we try. It seems that the characters were fine, its the creators who are lost in fantasy. These morons have just (or are about to unless there is a HUGE curveball somewhere) undone the last 15+ years of continuity. And this is not the first time, either.

For some reason known only to Marvel, they feel a need to redo the legend and backstory of Spider-man, who is only their most identifiable character (sorry, Brandon. Wolverine? Please.).
The Spider clone saga? The death of Gwen Stacy? The affair of Gwen and Norman Osborn (yech on sooo many levels)? No wonder Ultimate Spider-man sells so well. They don't screw with their character over and over so you can't tell what in continuity or not.

I recently have had to make cuts in my budget and it has affected what books I get. I had kept a couple of the Spider books since I like the character and his issues sometimes speak to me. But this? Destroy a marriage to a great girl who will love you forever, or let some old lady or raised you and will not last another 10 years die? This has caused me to start to rethink things. I will stick with it (I'm an idiot, I know) and probably check out the first month or so of "brand new day" the sequel. But so help me, they are on a very short leash.

4 comments:

Shawn said...

I'm sure the creative teams on the book hereafter will tell good stories. However, you're right about jumping the shark.

The rumor I've heard is that PETER doesn't go through with it but MJ takes the deal to save MAY.

In the real world no one is going to save the life of an old aunt to sacrifice their true love. No one. What? Save her so she can die in her sleep in three years?

Gah.

Joe Q deserves a lot of credit at Marvel. Hitting the cosmic reset button on Spidey is not one of them.

On the plus side, this week's ULTIMATE SPIDEY is teh awesome.

And the nicest thing I can say about the book is the art is some of Quesada's best.

I'm done with the regular Spidey books for awhile. Even when they start over.

The new SCOTT PILGRIM was one of the coolest comics I ever read.

That's right. I said it.

Ron said...

PvP is my Scott Pilgrim.

And you're right, Quesada has done some things right at Marvel, but this aint even in the top 100.

Matthew said...

They ruined all continuity years ago and it just made it easier for me to drop books. The Spidey universe went off track when Aunt May came back (instead of little May), add the Ezekial Spider-mysticism junk and Gwen and Norman; the unmasking, etc. I haven't considered it the "real" story for some time. Luckily, the real story is published every month in old-style comic fashion in Amazing Spider-girl!!! Not every issue is a grandslam, but she's just such a great character and it's nice to see Peter and MJ happy.

Shawn said...

JMS needed to be removed from this book ages ago.

I'm so excited to know nothing progresses but regresses in SPIDER-MAN's world.

Like I said, "I gots me ULT SPIDEY."

Regular 616 universe is lame anyway.

With the obvious exceptions:

CAP
IRON FIST
X-FACTOR