Amazing Spiderman #700

[Nick Ryder]

On the one hand I really half felt like contacting Marvel for a refund of my digital copy and on the other - it is bold storytelling I mean that kind of thing has never happened really. Sure bad guys have body swapped before but the bad guy didn't decide to become a 'good guy' at the end.

But honestly if this lasts more than a year - I'll be pissed. I don't think Octo-Pete will last. All it'll really take is some telepath or even Doc Strange or even some machine of Reed Richards to filter out the OO from the PP and maybe we'll get the more 'mature' Parker we should have. Honestly I can understand Marvel wanting Spider-Man to mature - he can still be youthful and a wiseass but I saw clues to the reasons waaay back in BND's first issue - he's applying for work and basically it's all this 'what were you doing with your time?'

While I think this will have some creepy ramifications - if things go back to status quo, I think he will have no choice really but to step it up. Be the adult. Besides hey I'm still holding out hope that MJ and Pete will have a Mayday Parker and we'll see a Spider-Girl someday lol

[Takeru]

FreezeC77 wrote:

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Uncle Ben is the last true 'nobody stays dead except for...'

Aren't Gwen and George Stacy still dead? I remember the times when Aunt May, Norman and Harry etc. were all dead, I hate that so many of them returned, don't tell me the Stacies are back, too.

[Admiral_Young]

They're still dead. Peter saw them in

the afterlife

Fans are overreacting to this because they don't want this to be another Clone Saga, Sins Past, One More Day, One Moment in Time, etc. "Dying Wish" and what Slott has planned for Superior has been anything but those stories IMO.

[Takeru]

Thank god they're still dead, if they brought them back all they needed to do was get Peter, MJ, Harry, Gwen, Flash, Liz etc. all together, have them hit by a de-aging beam and sent them back to college to complete the "Just like when I was young" plan too many comic book writers seem to follow.

I don't have a problem with this current story, primarily because the door for Peter's return is wide open, he already uploaded parts of his memories/personality back into his body. So his body is alive and his personality is kinda, sorta floating around inside, he's so not dead.
It would be different i they had blown Peter's head off and later made up some idiotic story how he came back because Dr. Strange had a hiccup or something. This isn't about Peter's death, this is about Peter's brain being screwed up by Otto's memories and Peter going gaga for a little time.

[Admiral_Young]

^ Exactly. It's also about Peter botching Otto's plan yet again. Just in a totally different way

[EnsignRicky]

I may be confusing him with one of thirty other superheroes, but didn't they already kill him last year?

This is the very thing that's driving more fans away from the comic racks and towards the video shelves.

Well played Sony.

[PsychoPere]

You're thinking of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Comics line, which is separate from the mainline Marvel Comics Universe.

[Hound of UIster]

Santa Kang wrote:

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Content and its accessibility to new readers is a problem. Getting back into those main avenues is fruitless, if someone picks up the book and it reads like some convoluted, self referential in joke written in a secret language.

Your argument that writing is inaccessible seems specious. The Death of Captain America or Death of Superman both relied heavily upon previously established continuity even more so than ASM #700 and both did well by the standards of their time. I think the current crop of comic book writers are smart enough to know 1) who makes up their purchasing readers (usually the comic book store crowd) and write towards them and still 2) make it accessible to people coming aboard. The book isn't the problem for new readers since most of these "new readers" are generally returning readers and content really is just more a reflection on who is buying and where they are selling them.

[Nerys Myk]

You miss the point. A returning reader isn't a new reader. The industry will not grow and survive by "recycling" readership, any more than it can grow by limiting it's retail outlets.

[Hound of UIster]

The previous avenue for obtaining new readers was cut off from the industry. The LCS is a terrible way to get new readers. Changing the content as you advocate isn't going to change that fact.

[Hartzilla2007]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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The previous avenue for obtaining new readers was cut off from the industry. The LCS is a terrible way to get new readers. Changing the content as you advocate isn't going to change that fact.

People can buy comic on their tablets now so how are they cut off from the industry in a time where I don't even have to leave my frickin house to buy a comic?

[Nerys Myk]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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The previous avenue for obtaining new readers was cut off from the industry. The LCS is a terrible way to get new readers. Changing the content as you advocate isn't going to change that fact.

And where am I suggesting that they should stick with the LCS only business model or that impenetrable content is the only problem?

[Blamo]

*Yawn*

And the comic industry wonders why they're losing readers.

For starters they'd best just stop killing off their heroes only to bring them back. It's tired, it's done, it's boring. Heck, I've only read 4 comics and I'm bored of it just from reading the comic book news! Oh shock! Such and such a character dies! Oh shock! They're back from the dead!

The comic book industry needs to ween itself off superheroes (I'm not saying stop doing them) and needs to start charging more acceptable prices, even if this means a drop in paper quality or an end to coloured comics.

[Captain Craig]

Ok, so lets go ahead and skip ahead to the part where Peter gets back to being Peter.
I wasn't impressed with where this was going back at ASM #698. This grand Anniversary issue showing where once again Ock seems to have gotten the best of Peter is a bit of a let down. I mean the Anniversary issue of such a milestone for the title has the hero not only losing....but seemingly dying(golden loophole and all notwithstanding).

Clearly it seems TPTB want this to be the status quo for some time, not just one 6 issue arc. Wacker has essentially said as much that we can count on this to last for a good year or more. I'm guessing the "or more" depends on feedback and readership numbers for Superior Spiderman where Octo-Pete will be playing out. The ending for this has to already be in bullet point somewhere just ready to polish off and initiate at the right moment, whenever that is determined, one year or more.

So jumping ahead. We have to get Peter's consciousness into something that can fight. Ergo, it's either a mechanical construct like say an LMD, more robotic like a Spider Slayer(look legit fighting Spiderman afterall) or....wait for it...a clone.

I realize I'm on a thin limb here but say Peter clones himself, transfers himself into it, now he's essentially the clone that caused so much uproar in the 90's. Say he gets his real body back. The clone retains fragments of Peter's consciousness and becomes Ben Reilly 3.0?

I'm just not impressed with this story of going all 'Freaky Friday' and looking ahead at ways to end it.

Also, how does this alter, if at all, the Mephisto deal?

[M'rk, son of Mogh]

Blamo wrote:

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The comic book industry needs to ween itself off superheroes (I'm not saying stop doing them) and needs to start charging more acceptable prices, even if this means a drop in paper quality or an end to coloured comics.

What are Marvel and DC thinking? Look how simple the solution is!