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So, as you may or may not know, Spider-Man went through this massive change recently. In the dumbest massive retcon in... actually, less time than I care to think about... Spider-Man and Mary Jane made a deal with The Devil Mephisto (an evil being who lives on another plane of existence and collects human souls for fun and profit). He'd save Aunt May's life, but, in the process, would steal their eternal love, meaning that their entire marriage was literally magicked out of existence. (This was done because Joe Quesada, the guy in charge at Marvel, couldn't figure out how to tell interesting stories about a mature adult relationship.)
The most frustrating thing about all this is that they did a good job of it. They brought in a new creative team, including one of my favorite writers, fixed a lot of problems that the old people had left behind, reintroduced stuff like a supporting cast, spider-tracers, mechanical webshooters, etc. And now, instead of three monthly books, each with its own story, they have one book that comes out three times a month.
It was shiny and new and, if not perfect, still pretty cool.
But, as part of it, they decided that they needed some new villains. (They also decided to reintroduce the "Parker luck", where everything Peter tries to do, big or small, blows up in his face or at least backfires. Which is one of the dumber traditions I'd been happy to see left behind.)
So, their new and original villains so far?
1. Menace. Yet another guy on a goblin glider. Woo. Add him to the list. We already had three Green Goblins, at least two Hobgoblins, Jack O'Lantern, and I forget who else.
2. A guy whose name I forget. He drives a supercar. The twist with him is that he's a huge Spider-Man fanboy. Which is kind of interesting, but only used as a joke, and in strict moderation.
3. Freak. This is the one who prompted me to write this whole thing in the first place...
Freak is a junkie who broke into the wrong lab and injected himself with the first syringes he found, assuming they were full of heroin or something. Except that they were full of experimental animal technobabble created by Curt "The Lizard" Connors. So now he's a monster with bits and pieces of genes from half a dozen animals. Okay. Been done, but could be interesting, right?
Well, Doc Connors just figured out and explained his powers in last week's issue. When he's killed, his body (using twisted caterpillar DNA) creates a cocoon around him and then, due to technobabble, he regenerates and reforms, hatching a day or so later invulnerable to the thing that killed him. He was shot, he cocooned, he emerged bulletproof. He died in a fire, he cocooned, he'll emerge fireproof.
So... On the upside, at least we don't have a bogus technobabble explanation of how he died so many times that he "evolved past death." And we don't have a nonsensical extension of the power which says that not only is he invulnerable to the cause of death, he's invulnerable to the person who killed him (so the same guy couldn't have shot him and also set him on fire.
On the downside... he's still freaking Doomsday. You know, the guy from The Death of Superman? That's his power. The whole "whatever kills me makes me stronger" bit? That's what he does. It's his signature. He gets killed, then regenerates and comes back as a more powerful version of himself who is invulnerable to whatever killed him last time.
The spider-team decided they needed a fresh new villain to make things more interesting, and they gave us Doomsday as a Spider-Man villain.
The most frustrating thing about all this is that they did a good job of it. They brought in a new creative team, including one of my favorite writers, fixed a lot of problems that the old people had left behind, reintroduced stuff like a supporting cast, spider-tracers, mechanical webshooters, etc. And now, instead of three monthly books, each with its own story, they have one book that comes out three times a month.
It was shiny and new and, if not perfect, still pretty cool.
But, as part of it, they decided that they needed some new villains. (They also decided to reintroduce the "Parker luck", where everything Peter tries to do, big or small, blows up in his face or at least backfires. Which is one of the dumber traditions I'd been happy to see left behind.)
So, their new and original villains so far?
1. Menace. Yet another guy on a goblin glider. Woo. Add him to the list. We already had three Green Goblins, at least two Hobgoblins, Jack O'Lantern, and I forget who else.
2. A guy whose name I forget. He drives a supercar. The twist with him is that he's a huge Spider-Man fanboy. Which is kind of interesting, but only used as a joke, and in strict moderation.
3. Freak. This is the one who prompted me to write this whole thing in the first place...
Freak is a junkie who broke into the wrong lab and injected himself with the first syringes he found, assuming they were full of heroin or something. Except that they were full of experimental animal technobabble created by Curt "The Lizard" Connors. So now he's a monster with bits and pieces of genes from half a dozen animals. Okay. Been done, but could be interesting, right?
Well, Doc Connors just figured out and explained his powers in last week's issue. When he's killed, his body (using twisted caterpillar DNA) creates a cocoon around him and then, due to technobabble, he regenerates and reforms, hatching a day or so later invulnerable to the thing that killed him. He was shot, he cocooned, he emerged bulletproof. He died in a fire, he cocooned, he'll emerge fireproof.
So... On the upside, at least we don't have a bogus technobabble explanation of how he died so many times that he "evolved past death." And we don't have a nonsensical extension of the power which says that not only is he invulnerable to the cause of death, he's invulnerable to the person who killed him (so the same guy couldn't have shot him and also set him on fire.
On the downside... he's still freaking Doomsday. You know, the guy from The Death of Superman? That's his power. The whole "whatever kills me makes me stronger" bit? That's what he does. It's his signature. He gets killed, then regenerates and comes back as a more powerful version of himself who is invulnerable to whatever killed him last time.
The spider-team decided they needed a fresh new villain to make things more interesting, and they gave us Doomsday as a Spider-Man villain.
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But this... the new villains... it's just lame.
Well, I'm sticking with it (no pun intended) for now.
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I used to be a HUGE Spider-Man fan (...and I don't mean because my waistline was bigger then. *lol*) -- I have a box full of Spidey comics from the end of the 80's, start of the 90's. Some of the most amazing (pun intended) comic books I've ever read are sitting in that box.
...and then, one day, they decided that Peter Parker's parent's weren't really dead and, just a bit later, that he was actually just a clone and... something or other. I forget, because it angered me so much that I stopped reading the comics.
I'll go for Superman dying then coming back, somehow - sure it's a bit far-fetched and all, but if they tell it properly, it can work. But when they go and tell us that EVERYTHING we've read about a certain hero is actually not the truth and it wasn't even really him and... ARGH!!! This is just as bad as ending a TV series with a last episode which tells you, in no uncertain terms, that the entire thing was JUST A DREAM. ....you mean to say I got attached to these characters and watched several years of a show that, it turns out, is just a figment of one of these characters' imagination. Are you friggin' kidding me? How stupid do these people think we are, to treat us this way? Sure, we watch, we buy, we read, but dammit... a little respect, please. We're the ones who kept you in business, in case you haven't realized it yet.
BLAH!
So.... back to Spidey... When I read about the whole "magical memory loss" I totally rolled my eyes at the sheer stupidity. They've erased one of the most fun and endearing (imho) relationships they had. How lame? How totally uncalled for and useless and lame? Why is it so important to save aunt May to begin with? Peter is an adult now, isn't he? And May isn't so young. She could die of old age soon enough anyway. Why not just have let her die then? Anyway... I was annoyed - then, I suddenly remembered the clone-deal and I was almost grateful that I'd stopped reading back then, because this latest idea would have had me throwing out my comic books for sure. They can't keep doing stuff like that. Reinventing characters, in a way, yes - erasing or doing away what a big chunk of what was good about them sucks big time!
As for Doomsday... *headdesk* Should we expect a Death of Spider-Man, Funeral for a Friend and more clones to come, soon?
*sighs*
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He actually mentioned that as part of his deliberations. But the thing is that the reason May was dying was that she'd been hit by a sniper bullet meant for him. He'd revealed his identity to the world, a sniper was sent after him, he dodged... and the bullet hit May. He said that if it'd been natural causes, he could have accepted it, but since it was partially his fault...
In any case, yes. Joe Q's inability to handle the idea of the marriage is infantile and lame. There can't possibly be good and interesting stories about a relationship like that for a super hero. Never mind that Spidey has been doing it for 20 years. Not to mention Reed and Sue of the FF. And, seeing the success of the move with Spidey and MJ, 10 years later, DC was actually willing to follow suit with Superman and Lois. But no, it can't possibly work and must have been a huge mistake that needs to be completely wiped out. *sigh*
Should we expect a Death of Spider-Man, Funeral for a Friend and more clones to come, soon?
No, I don't think so. Just the ripped-off villain is enough. Death of Spidey happened (Kraven's Last Hunt), and it was done well. One of the things they specifically said was that they weren't going to redo old stories anymore (no more "homages" with "girl falling off a bridge," etc).
It's not that bad... (Yet.)
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I guess that makes sense. Except, really... it was kind of his fault that Ben died, too, wasn't it? And he (or rather *they*) let him die anyway. Sure there was no one around to go to that would magically bring the man back, but still, he blamed himself for that, yet he learned to live with it. That's life, really - learning to live with mistakes and choices and sometimes adversity. Quick fixes only lead to disasters, especially in comic books.
Plus, imho, wouldn't May much rather go and join Ben, instead of knowing that her being alive means the breakup of her beloved nephew's marriage? I think so...
Death of Spidey happened (Kraven's Last Hunt), and it was done well.
HA! You know... I think I may have that comic book actually. I'll have to look this evening, but I somehow recall a TPB with a tombstone on it. Unless that's something else -- my memory is just a chunk of swiss cheese (and that's on a good day!).
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But yes, there are issues with magical quick fixes. Unfortunately, Spidey didn't have a choice. It was destiny, as laid out by Joe Q...
TPB with a tombstone on it (and Spidey literally crawling out of his own grave)? That does sound like Kraven's Last Hunt. Give it a read, see what you think. :)
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*adds another reason not to read the title*
*goes muttering off into my little corner again*
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