Like many I was shocked and appalled that Spider-Man sold his soul to the devil to magically erase his marriage to MJ from continuity, and refused to read the new stories for a couple of years after that. But I recently got a few of the Brand New Day trades and I must begrudgingly admit they're damn good. I don't like the road we took to get here, but these are some of the best Spidey stories I've ever read. The plots are big and momentous and the supporting cast is more interesting than it's been in a very long time. So what do you think of the new Spidey? And what are your favorite and least favorite stories from it? I'm wondering which other trades to buy. "New Ways to Die", which featured the return of Norman Osbourn and the Thunderbolts and Venom to the pages of Spidey, was absolutely excellent. Hilarious dialogue and John Romita Jr art (my all time favorite Spidey artist). "Election Day" was another insta-classic, the culimination of two years of storylines with Menace and the Spider Tracer Killer and the NYC Mayoral Election. And again, gorgeous JRJR artwork. I've always read "Brand New Day" Volumes 1 2 3 and "Kraven's First Hunt". BND123 were pretty good but not classic, while Kraven I found extremely uninteresting. So what else is good out there? I'm looking forward to the "American Son" trade this Nov 25th which apparently features a Dark Reign Norman dealing with Harry. Have they revealed yet whether MJ remembers the real continuity or not? It's heavily implied in the early issues.
Well now, they could at least tell more stories about a character their core fanbase could relate to: an unmarried thirty year old guy living with his surrogate mother.
Wasn't it M.J. who agreed to have their love erased in order to save Aunt May? Or was it that she had sex with Mephisto in order to erase Pete's identity reveal as well?
Neither Mary Jane nor Peter had sex with Mephisto - not sure where you got that from. Although Mary Jane was the one who accepted Mephisto's offer to sacrifice their marriage in return for saving Aunt May's life, it was stated quite clearly that this would only work if Peter agreed to the deal as well (an important distinction to those who say that Peter is blameless in the whole thing since it was Mary Jane who sealed the deal, etc). The story behind the identity-reveal erasure hasn't been told yet, though the issue has been dealt with a little bit in the team-up with the Fantastic Four a few months back.
I was one of the fanboys that boycotted AMS after BND. But after reading American Son I was hooked again. I love the book. I just hate how Marvel (Quesada) got there.
I have to admit that i've been reading the trades and following the storyline and have...ugh...can't believe I'm saying this...enjoying Brand New Day. Especially the stories that have begun to include Spider-man into the Marvel Universe like American Son and the aforementioned New Ways to Die. Also how many illegitimate children can Norman have the Spoiler: Spoilers for American Son Lilly Hollister being pregnant with Norman's kid
I really, really enjoyed it, thus far. My question is; did Marvel know how screwed up they made Spider-Man and were trying to simply press a reset button? Or did they just plan this out this long?
I've been reading them either on the stand or picking them up en masse for $1 a piece at comic shows. Seeing as how dealers are overordering just to get a vairant they are ditching the surplus(proof how readership is down) in the cheap bin. I also AM still anti-BND. Color me unimpressed with the Menace storyline. Freak, Screwball and Paperdoll aren't that interesting. Not that every Spidey villain is anyway but these mediocore stories could've been told with a married Peter&MJ heck a legit divoreced Peter&MJ with Aunt May dead. The Anti-Venom storyline was the first glimmer of an actual good story post OMD. The return of the Kravinoffs is nothing new. The Spidey team(in some form) has revisited that family at least 3 times prior. Again could've been done with Spidey&MJ together. Aunt May in bed with JJJ's father??? Stupid Peter trying to avoid his roomie and keep the secret, not impressed, boring stuff. The upcoming Gauntlet storyline is just a retooling of Sinister Six in a way meets Knightfall(at least the advance solicits read that way). I'm not even one of those who says the marriage has to come back. What I do want gone is the uncharteristic ties to Mephisto. Aunt May would have used what strength she had to kick Peter in the ass for dealing with the devil for her. That is not being RESPONSIBLE at all.
As for what came before, I got every single trade of the JMS run on Spidey and I enjoyed it (even if he did the usual recycling of B5 concepts and dialogue that marks all his post-B5 work). Sure some bits were better than others but I thought he had a good voice for Spidey and the whole Ezekiel storyline was pretty cool. Plus almost the entire run was with JRJR art!
I seem to remember seeing her whisper something in Mephisto's ear, y'know, like she was offering to sweeten the deal. I fugured that's why Pete got more than just auntie back.
All of these stories could have been told with him married to MJ, and overall everytime they do a story to shake things up they wuss out. Case in point: Harry SHOULD have become American Son and permanently become part of Norman's team, while working to take him out from within. No Menace being pregnant BS. It would redeem Harry's character after decades of him being this neurotic manchild. Also, as soon as Dark Reign started it should have been reflected in the books instead of just American Son (even now the books seem like DR isn't happening). And this BS with Peter having a drunked one-night stand with Michelle, that isn't Spider-Man EVER. No, it's just no good.
superhero comics are so f'in stupid. Thank god people make movies and cartoons out of them so we can enjoy the heroes without having to sit through this insipid nonsense.
As if my post didn't state it enough...I'm against BND as well, at least Joe Q's excuse for what it was necessary in the first place. I can still see the bulk of these stories happening while Peter and Mary Jane are still married, maybe not the Carlie Cooper/Lilli Hollister stuff with Pete but Harry could have been brought some other way, perhaps Norman would have made and alternate deal with Mephisto to bring back his son and start the Dark Reign. To add to my original post as well...I'm looking forward to the end of Dark Reign just to see what part Peter will play in Norman's downfall, maybe I'm reaching, but the cover released for Dark Avengers #11 would seem to indicate that Peter will play a major part in helping bring him down.
I'm only going to buy The Deadpool issue. That should be all types of win. It will be like an MC battle with one-liners. Spidey will win, because it's his book. Even though Deadpool should, because he's still funny and entertaining. I haven't cared about that whiny girl Parker in years. Although my sympathy goes out to his fans for Parker being the biggest victim of Quesada's reign of terror. I wasn't as offended by OMD/BND as everyone else. I expected it from a creative thug like Quesada. After Sins Past and Reign, the entire Spider-Man brand lost all credibility to me. So I really don't give a fuck. They could turn Spidey into a child-molesting, transvestite, drug-addict, porn-star with irritable bowl syndrome and I'd be like "Sure. Go for it. It's not like it would be all that different from the shit you've already done to the character.". Of course, now I'm just giving Quesada ideas. Most of Marvel has become an unintentional self-parody to me anyway. Deadpool seems to be the only character who's fully aware of it. They certainly are nowadays. It's a niche market that's only going to get nichier after the movie deals dry up.
I stopped reading Spider-Man because of the events of One Last Day, but even if they hadn't fucked up the Spider-verse as bad as they had with that story, the fact that they started publishing ASM three times a month was and still is enough to keep me from picking it up.
I really hate the OMD story and the way it diminishes Peter in my eyes, this is the flagship character of the Marvel Universe who is making deals with the devil. If this was someone like the Punisher it would've been more acceptable. And regardless, I see it as a cheap cop out, a deus ex machina. It would've been easier to have them stay divorced. But I think Marvel realized they put themselves into a corner with the whole secret identity exposed storyline. Despite my anger I got around to reading the post BND stories and found them to be getting better and better. It really picks up with the introduction of Jameson's father, builds steam with the Mayoral election (and the eventual winner was a big WTF moment for me and really shook up the Spidey cast in many ways). American Son was great stuff and with the exception of the Black Cat story, the recent stuff is fun as well. It's been hinted that Peter and MJ are aware that their timeline has been changed. And if you notice the two of them haven't been shown talking directly to cue the readers in. Part of me knows that eventually this whole thing will be ret-conned and/or forgotten just as with many storylines. For instance it's been forgotten that Flash Thompson was in the Viet Nam War and now it's shown that he served in Afghanistan, John Byrne's rebooting of Spidey has been ignored, and so on. Just as I knew that Steve Rogers would come back, I know that this will be history but it probably won't happen until Quesada is no longer in charge. So for now I have a screw it attitude and try to be patient.
Nice to see a fellow ''Dead-Head'' on the boards. And I don't even buy ''SUPER'' comics anymore unless it's Dead-pool.