Editorially driven comics…that really sucks.

I think that almost all comics from the big two are editorially driven these days, Matt.

I am starting to think Joe q is a plant for dc with the way he treats marvel characters. World war hulk, civil war, avengers disambled, fake/new avengers, omd, and I could go on and on. JMS hates the ending majority of fans hate what’s happening. You think Joe q would get a clue but he only he keeps seeing things as aging spider-man. Where are the people with the white coats when you need them. I’m afraid for spidy’s post OMD future. I won’t being reading it though and marvel lucky there maybe a few reading it.

So who is worse - Quesada or Didio for crapping up comics?

Well I hops JMS didn’t write the ending he would’nt be happy with,that just makes no sense if he’s the writer why not just say no?

Maybe its just me but maybe…just maybe…it ends up being a good story in the long run. But I think i am in the minority with this. Witness Protection here i come.

I’m not surprised to hear that JMS does not agree with some aspects of this storyline. After all, he was the one who got Peter and MJ back together within the first two years of his run.

Who can I make a deal with to forget JMS’s run on the book?

well the bright side is that history shows that Marvel’s editorial roster gets flipped every few years.
When this current administration is gone everything will be retconned.

I’m sure that whoever the EIC of Marvel is in 2015 or 2020 will have this story at the top of his retcon list.

Also, he will make sure that stupid, stupid Beyonder is an Inhuman story is taken out of canon as well

Surely that’s a post on rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe - has everyone forgotten Usenet already?

I think it’s funny that, despite JMS’ protests, nobody and I mean nobody once doubted that a story of this “quality” was entirely written by JMS himself. It is admirable to see someone finally be open about Quesada’s strange editorial fiats.

It’s interesting to see the parallels between Quesada and another EiC during a past heyday at Marvel: Shooter. Hopefully as a result of that, Quesada will start to realize that a lot of his editorial decisions are bizarre and out of step with anything even resembling “quality.”

And not for nothing, what’s the sense in respecting a $#!++y decision ever just because there’s passion behind it? Seems like JMS’ attitude is one shared all across Hollywood.

Ok, if I’m Peter and the devil tells me “hell” exists, why wouldn’t I be content with Aunt May dying and going to “heaven” since I am now sure these concepts to be true? Beats her always being sick, in pain, dating Doc Ock, etc….

Isn’t this the exact same idea that Morrison, Waid and company had in mind to break up Lois and Clark about 8 years ago?

“Isn’t this the exact same idea that Morrison, Waid and company had in mind to break up Lois and Clark about 8 years ago?”

Speaking of Superman, isn’t it ironic that this OMD crap is the biggest hype campaign since the Death of SUperman?

God, this is awful writing……I’ll be honest, I hope the marraige does break up but the story sucks. Even if JMS doesn’t like the story and it is Editorially driven by Joe Q, JMS could have said “NO” to writing it. For that reason, he is just as much to blame as Joe Q for the god awful story.

Let me get this straight. The man behind Ezekiel thinks OMD is going in the wrong direction. Irony isn’t the correct term, but karma is about the closest…

By the time Spider-Man 4 comes out, Peter and MJ will be back together in some form.

And people will complain about that as well.

“It’s interesting to see the parallels between Quesada and another EiC during a past heyday at Marvel: Shooter.”

Actually, no. We’re not seeing that at all, we’re only seeing half of it.

Over the last few years Quesada has done a tremendous amount of interviews with Newsarama. Shooter never gave anywhere near that much information to the public about what was going on behind Marvel’s doors. If Joe hadn’t done all those interviews, then One More Day would be the first hint anyone had that the people at Marvel didn’t like the marriage. You can’t compare behind the scenes peaks of one EiC to the end results of another.

Never forget that fans hated the Death of Gwen Stacy when it came out. Stan Lee got death threats back when it meant something, when you had to go to the effort of writing and mailing a letter instead of just logging onto a message board. The writer of that story says he had to avoid conventions for years and Stan Lee eventually started claiming to have nothing to do with the story. Yet people on message boards today swear that it’s the most important Spidey story ever told.

Is Quesada making the right move here? I can’t say, ask again in ten years. But I don’t think it’s fair to look at past editors through a haze of nostalgia and say that Quesada is doing something fundamentally different from them.

I actually don’t think that we’re going to see Peter’s marriage end. I think that we’re going to see Aunt May die.

I think it would be rash to rush to judgement, when we don’t even know what exactly it is that JMS wanted to establish. Maybe he was the one that really wanted to break the marriage up. After what he did to Gwen retroactively, who knows what crazy ending he had planned for OMD.

Beau Smith sir, you have a manly ability to forsee the future!

And Boom’s Cover Girl was great fun!

*snaps fingers* dang, Rich beat me to it, sort of!

People make bad decisions. People make good decisions. One does not erase the other. I enjoyed much of what JMS did with Spidey. Not all, but much.

I hope JMS gets more projects that allow him a greater level of freedom.

i dont what to say about this OMD that hasnt been said..no fans are liking it..it mostly the approach towards it…u might aswell have the beyonder come and make him single..

“Shooter never gave anywhere near that much information to the public about what was going on behind Marvel’s doors.”

Not true at all. Shooter did do fan press interviews; I have an issue of the Comics Journal where he does a lengthy interview.

Of course, Shooter didn’t do a weekly column on an Internet site, but that’s strictly because the Internet wasn’t around.

Certainly, Shooter’s successors- DeFalco and Harras- were much more tight-lipped about what they were up to than either Shooter or Quesada. That may be a function of the ownership at the time, or it could just be that those two men didn’t enjoy dealing with fan press (although DeFalco certainly has done a great job connecting with the public when it comes to all things Spider-Girl).

I’m not trying to make Shooter look better or worse than Quesada, but let’s make sure the facts are correct.

Easily the worst part of the story is how Mephisto just up and says “I want your marriage.” It just sounds so incredibly hokey and would quite frankly work better of Joe Q had drawn his own likeness spouting out that dialogue.

There does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Having experienced these so-called “status quo changes” before in my 20 of so years of collecting I’ve seen enough to know when the writers and editors have left an “escape clause” or a means by which the story can be undone and it strikes me that OMD has such an option in place. It just feels that way, anyway…

Good for you, JMS! Good for you by bending over and taking it like the corporate puppet that you are!

I would have had more respect if you had said to Joe Q “We clearly don’t see eye-to-eye on how Spider-man should be handled. Pointy hat or not. I’m outta here”.

This is the second time JMS has bent over for a Joe Q “executive” decision. If you are reading this, Joe, I want to make something clear to you: “Norman Osborn is NOT the Father of Gwen’s kids… Peter IS like JMS had intended”

No offense, Beau, but at the rate this story’s been progressing, it didn’t take a genius to spot it from a year away. If you’d predicted it 5 years ago….

Ba-zing!

Naw, seriously. Just funnin’. We all love One More Delay.

Wait, no we don’t. This storyline makes me cry.

“he wrote one of the most powerful superhero comics ever (the 9/11 issue).”

That’s very debatable. Personally I found it myopic and far too reactionary with very little purpose.

You want a “powerful” Spidey-take on 9/11, see Paul Jenkins Peter Parker #37. In two pages he captured Peter’s take on 9/11 concisely and fully in character.

Another idea John Byrne came up with first that someone from Marvel has stolen. When will Marvel stop plundering the man’s stories and ideas?

I’d want my name off of it too. It stinks.

And no, I don’t have to respect Quesada for being entirely wrong-headed about this.

You can’t blame him to be honest. This story is simply terrible. Joe Quesada should have put his name in the “writer” credit box and left it at that.

I agree with the notion that ONE MORE DAY (along with it’s lead-in, the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN chapters of BACK IN BLACK) have been severely lacking from a storytelling POV (it’s almost a shame that Ron Garney and Joe Q have contributed such exceptional artwork). I don’t have a problem with Mephisto being involved; after all, Spidey has been sniffing around the supernatual world a lot during JMS’ run, and Mephisto has always had a major interest in our dimension’s super-heroes. I don’t think it’s coming out of nowhere at all. However, the pacing of the story itself, how long it took to get to this point, and just how damn whiny Peter has been this whole time (yes, Spider-Man is meant to be melodramatic, but come on…) has really led to a far too long run of poor quality for what should be Marvel’s flagship character/title. It’s pathetic, I hate to say.

What I don’t agree with, as far as my fellow comic book readers are concerned, is how worked up everyone is getting over Peter and MJ splitting up. If you’ve been a super-hero fan for longer than five minutes, you know that status quos are meant to be broken and fixed infinite times over. All this will amount to is some different stories for awhile (most of which will probably be at least decent, given the creators involved in BRAND NEW DAY), and then a return to Peter and Mary Jane as a couple. It’s no different than Jim Rhodes as Iron Man, Azrael as Batman, the dead Superman, Thunderstrike, the electric blue Superman, multiple Green Lanterns, John Walker as Captain America, the dead Captain America…the list goes on and on. You can even include the Clone Saga. And the funny thing is, you can find plenty of fans of ALL of those time periods. We might be hard pressed to find as many fans of ONE MORE DAY itself, but I’ll betcha BRAND NEW DAY is gonna be a crowd pleaser.

JMS realizes he is playing in someone elses playground,but if he can’t give the assignment his total commimtment ,and if he has second thoughts he should take his name off of it.this happens in tv and the movies,but i can see how story by Alan Smithee could have angered some people at marvel.

I wouldn’t wan’t my name on this horrible arc too.

Poor Spider-Man. I weep for thee (and my wallet for buying this drek).

To all those who think JMS should have walked… it’s time for a lesson in.

REAL WORLD 101

You see, in the business world, there exists this thing called contracts. Especially in the entertainment business. The contract tells the writer what he will be paid for his work, and how long his contract is for. It also guarantees that the employer gets the work done, and that the writer can’t just pull out anytime he damn well feels like it.

So, if JMS just refused, Marvel could sue him for breach of contract.

This has been Real World 101.

“And JMS’s dialogue has suffered over the last few years. “I WANT YOUR MARRIAGE”? I want sentences that don’t sound silly.”

In his defense, can you really think of a way to write that scene where it wouldn’t sound completely asinine? There’s only so much even a great writer can do with an idea that stupid.

OMD is not going to make sense when factoring in the rest of the Marvel Universe. It’s just not. I’m surprised no one has mentioned that.

Some of the OMD dialogue reminds me of McFarlane’s Spider-Man #1 dialogue “His webline… advantageous.”

Quesada’s done many things as EIC, both good and bad, but those who claim he’s “revitalized” titles or turned things around are way off base. Look at all the distribution numbers in the recent Marvel books. Sales of traditional 32-page comics are horrible. These numbers would get about 80% of Marvel’s books canceled at almost any other time in the company’s history.

What has happened in Quesada’s reign has been the expansion of the collected editions (trades, hardbacks, etc) and, of course, the incredible growth of the Marvel characters as licensed movie properties. Even a poorly received movie like “Ghost Rider” or “Elektra” probably made more $$ for Marvel than the sum of every comic ever published featuring those characters.

Far worse than the “I want your marriage!” Line was the opening of the first issue. The longitude/latitude line was the sort of writing you expect in a parody.

“maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have an idea and put it out there for the fans to reply on their thoughts before actually writing it”

That’s a horrible idea.

I am actually a fan of this storyline and I don’t see why everyone is getting so upset. For one thing, it’s not even over yet, so we’re not sure if the marriage is going to end or not. Besides, what could be more Marvel than Mephisto, the prince of lies, offering up something that sounds too good to be true for something that is almsot too horrible to consider?

“Besides, what could be more Marvel than Mephisto, the prince of lies, offering up something that sounds too good to be true for something that is almsot too horrible to consider?”

ErockV, even your account of the dilemma is WAY MORE interesting that JMS’s actual story.

After reading comics for nearly 40 years, I’m finally done.
It’s a sad commentary on the list of creators that have worked on the title, that no one could make a married Super Hero work.
Seriously, where’s the “Sophie’s Choice” in all of this?
Peter has to weigh a 100 year old lady vs. a lifetime supply of red headed Super Model nookie.
There is no choice.
Terrible decision, Joe.

It’s funny how some people believe that the 9/11 JMS story was “powerful”! I think it was one of the most pompous comics I ever read! Oh and we all knew that OMD would be suck! I expected some reality altering thing since the day it was announced. Didn’t everyone else?

I smell hoax on this one. JMS has never been a writer to bow down to an editorial mandate. He proved that with Rising Stars. For this to come out right now, just seems like a publicity stunt. I seem to recall that JMS was not a supporter of the marriage, an if he didn’t like the idea of this story he could have bowed out and had someone else write it. Marvel and Joe Q. have been known to stir the pot and then suprise everyone in the past (The Sentry Hoax). I am a huge Joe Q. supporter, but if this turns out to be true, it will hurt. He has always seemed to allow his writer’s a certain amount of creative freedom, which is why Marvel has such a great stable of writers. I also don’t think JMS would publicly call out Joe or Marvel like this.

Beau’s article was interesting. All good observations.

I, too, want to know why the hell Darryl Banks doesn’t have a monthly book!

Because Banks is extremely slow and unreliable on a monthly.

The really sad thing is that everyone who buys Brand New Day will be justifying the move in Marvel and Joe Q’s eyes because they’ll just say the move worked and the sales prove it. If you really don’t like the story then STOP BUYING IT.

I’m just using it as an excuse to leave the Spider-Man books entirely. He’ll always be married as far as I’m concerned. I won’t buy a book that says otherwise.

Tuckenie - The problem is, I’ve already stopped buying Spider-Man, so I no longer have any power to do anything, because I can’t do anything more. Such is the problem with all boycotts, because once you’ve stopped buying, there’s no other option that’s more injurious, financially speaking. I mean, it’s not like I can actually dip into negative integers of purchasing, or anything …

I hear that one of the new characters set to appear in the new almost-weekly Amazing Spider-Man is ACTUALLY CALLED “Spunky McLoveinterest.”

So there you have it.

//\Oo/\\

Isn’t that Spider-Man strip ghost-written? (Besides which, they’re only about six panels long each, which never lent itself to B-plots in the first place.)

Meh… When I read the spoilers about what was gonna be happening, I decided I’m done with 616 Spidey. I thumbed through chapter 3 of OMD and it looked like crap. Knowing what’s coming up, I really don’t want anything to do with the thrice monthly Amazing, and I’ve been reading that title for 20 years. It’s tempting, what with the “Amazing” creative teams coming up, but that’s what the devil’s supposed to do… tempt you. This undoing of the Secret Identity reveal makes me wish they’d have used the Skrull excuse.

On the other hand, I think Ultimate Spider-Man is better than it’s ever been. Stuart Immonen’s pages are so good.

Tom, your argument that Stan Lee’s opinion is irrelevant since he never had to write a married Spider-Man–whether you count the newspaper strip or not–doesn’t hold water, since your original point was that John Romita didn’t like the idea of a married Spider-Man. I don’t think he’s drawn very many more Spider-Man stories than Stan Lee has written since the marriage.

I think we’re all overlooking two important facts here:

1. If the MJ/Peter marriage is wiped from the continuity of the 616 universe, isn’t this going to turn Spidey in Marvel’s Hawkman? How many retcons is it going to take to fill MJ’s slot in hundreds of stories? I HOPE there’s some sort of plan for that, and not just DC’s “we’ll make this massive continuity change now, and then later, some other writer will figure out how to make it work”.

Although, Kurt Busiek / Geoff John’s run on this book to fix this mess years from now is assured!

2. Regardless of what happens, if MJ and Peter split up, stay together, May lives or dies, we are in for one EPIC, non-stop blast of schmaltzy writing the likes of which have never been seen before.

I’m talking ruminations on love, loss, life, death, family, marriage so hackneyed, so over the top, so preachy, so overripe and saccharin that even Mexican telenovelas will say: “Whoa. That’s…that’s a little much, there.”

Well, the question is whether Lee ever put thought towards actually writing a married Spider-Man - which Romita clearly did.

Tom, your last comment makes no sense. Why would you assume that Stan Lee never “put thought towards actually writing a married Spider-Man,” or that “Romita clearly did”? What’s your evidence for this assumption? And why would Romita “put towards actually writing a married Spider-Man,” when he’s an artist and not a writer - and even then, an artist whose actual comics work since the wedding has been scarce?

You’re just looking for anything that backs your argument and ignoring anything that doesn’t.

John Romita would come up with the plots, and that is the relevant aspect of storytelling here. And it’s worth pondering whether Stan has actually written any good comics since the 1960s? I love Stan, but I don’t think so. His grasp of plotting in 1987 is therefore suspect.

OMD seems liek a retcon waiting to happen to get rid of the marrige..what i have always liked about marvel and not dc is that the stories were believable…no matter if it was a cosmic being comming by or a someone gettign mugged ona a subway..DC seems fake in this sense that some of their characters are killed and ressurected and some are still paralyzed and cant walk and cant retcon that..figure that one out. my point is marvel will pull a DC if they do this and i wont find stories of BND beleievable because some things like ..i dunno love..cant happen with pete again knowing that mephisto will pop up…but saying that iv always been a fan oh JMS run…even after OMD. its not over but lets see what happens.. ihope there is no retcon..

It would be nice if OMD ended with a twist but given JQ’s oft stated distaste for the marriage I can’t see that it will.JMS dislike of specificly the final two issues seems to support that there won’t be any last minute saving graces on the important points.While the solicits for BND have been intentionally vague they too suggest the end of te marriage though they are less clear about the unmasking being undone.To some it might matter if this is just a memory wipe as opposed to a ‘true’ reality change but if everyone ends up with false memories to accomodate it the affect is virtually the same.It may give Marvel in the future material for alot of mini series to explain the rewritten history of the plots where MJ as Peter’s wife featured most heavilly.But if sales are not affected or only minimally so then Quesada certainly won’t back ot of a story he had so big a hand in and there’s no sign he’s leaving soon. Similarly, if sales do not dip severely any future editor will have no motive to change it back. Internet vilification is relatively meaningless compared to sales.By ending all the books but Amazing they are bound to pick up some readers from the others even if not all. Thus a notable sales drop is unlikely and any thre is may have more to do with people balking at havin to get all three books per month than any plot considerations.
That said I hate the idea of breaking up the marriage, magic reboots and deals with the devil. The latter really does not fit Spiderman regardless of what it does. There are characters it could fit. This not only halts character developement it reverses it. Not only does Peter’s marriage end he goes back to being an itinerant photographer at the Bugle, Aunt May probably lives etc.I’m waiting to hear he’s gone back to college…..
The first time around 20 years ago he was single but the reader did not know if he’d ever marry.After this I can’t see a marriage ever being allowed again with anyone [unless they're immediately killed off as TV used to do.] His job situation will never really advance and he’ll never have children. Without the marriage the tease that baby May lived is gone because she never existed [or no one will know she did.]I can’t see in the future how they will even achieve the illusion of change because the status quo in so many areas is predetrmined.Spiderman will be artificially restored to a warped version of his 1960’s-early 80’s situation perpetually. Normally,it’s true nothing in comics is permanent. But what reason would they have to ever restore what they’re changing now, some old gripes on the internet?If sales remainthe same or increase they will claim they gave readers what they wanted and it will stick.

quesada has no respect for spider man. OMD story and Gwen’s memory rape are going to be pages in darkness for his (remarkable) career.

Look, Spider-man has been bad for quite a while. Whenthey did the Unmasking I quit for good because I knew they weren’t going to do it right. They weren’t going to do stories where Jonah confronted Peter over him being SPider-man, or do stories where Spidey’s villians reacted. Not in Amazing, no they were going to do them in the other two books which nobody read and whose sales fell even further.

Spider-man wasn’t Spider-man, he was the gimmick of the month. Civil War and New Avengers were more important than the actual character and his regular book he was a schizoid character with new powers, a magical origin, and a weird new costume who did what he was told by some guy he just started working for while at the same time working at a High School and apparently an amnesiac Flash was there. It would of been neat to see what Flash’s reaction was to the guy he hassled was the superhero he was the biggest fan of, but it was too messed up so I couldn’t read it anymore.

Just saying ‘were forget all this and start again’ in such a way where apparently Civil War #2 didn’t happen and Amazing Spider-man #300 didnt’ happen. One book I Abhore and one book I’m the biggest of fans. What’s a fan to do?

JMS never got Spider-man. He did O.K. for a while, but eventually I went ‘Hey, where is everyone?’ Where was Jonah and Robbie? They were in other books for some reason and couldn’t be given more than five pages in Amazing after the ‘Unmasking’. If there going to waste that opportunity, I don’t see how I can read a book where nothing happens.

I hate to say this, but I’m calling JoeQ out on this one. I never did buy the whole “killing MJ would make the character unrelatable argument.” Has anyone ever completely related to Spider-Man? And I mean beyond the sympathetic vibe he puts out. Have you been bitten by a radioactive spider and suddenly been able to cool crap like Spider-Man does? No? Thought so. Its been done before, and Gwen Stacy’s death is still a major thing with fans. If this turns out like rumored, it just shows Marvel has no gumption for controversy anymore. Quesada needs to grow a pair and make a stand. Spidey is either broken, or it isn’t. If the marriage is really over, they should write MJ out. Completely. No more hot redhead.

This whole thing reeks of a way for Marvel to have its cake and eat it too. They get the MJless Peter for a while, and if they want, its a built in story to get it all back. They just need to let someone die, and have at it.

This whole storyline sucks.

First of all, turning Mephisto into an Anti-Monitor/deus ex machina character capable of reshaping the universe makes no sense. In the past, he’s only had domain over unearthly matters, mainly souls. If he with two human being’s permission could remake the universe, he would have a long time ago. I also don’t buy his explanation that Peter and MJ’s marriage is so holy that it’s an enormous victory against God to end it. Two years ago, didn’t Scarlet Witch put Peter in an ideal world where he was married to Gwen Stacy and MJ was some actress he worked with? Somewhere in the Marvel universe, there have to be two people more in love and more gullible. (It seems he would have made the same offer to Betty Ross and Bruce Banner to get Bruce away from that gamma bomb years ago.) Plus, it seems Peter and MJ are too smart to trust Mephisto or think they ultimately have the upper hand against him.

Obviously, this undid more than Peter’s marriage. I assume it undid the unmasking do, as he’s running around New York like a normal guy. So how much of Civil War was retconned? (Maybe that’s why the saga was so bold; Marvel knew they had OMD to weasel out of any changes.) How many “post-Crisis” versions of villains will we see?

I’ll allow Crisis-like reworkings of time and space if the writers do it intelligently and the end results are worth it, but I have a distaste for them, particularly in streetwise series. If you want to use a plot device like this to rework Silver Surfer or Dr. Strange, it’d at least have some thematic unity to the rest of the series. This peeves me for the same reason, the magical resurrection of Jason Todd does; it’s not something that fits into the hero’s world.

Joe Q has always disliked the marriage, as well as the possibility of divorcing or widowing the character, because it ages Spider-Man. What is so wrong with that? Why can’t characters grow up and mature? Spidey, the X-Men and others were teenagers when introduced; we accepted them as adults. Why not go further? I can pick up a trade paperback and read about a young Spider-Man. I can pick up Ultimate Spider-Man if I want to modernized one. Now I can go nowhere for a sensibly aged one. A married or divorced Spider-Man is no less a Spider-Man; he’s just an older Spider-Man.

Lastly, it’s out of character for Spider-Man to give into a literal demon to fix his mistakes. When Uncle Ben died, he dedicated his life to seeing no one else would die like that. When Gwen died, he redoubled that mission. He didn’t go to Mephisto then. Why can’t he learn from his role in Aunt May’s death and do the same? He’d represent why superheroes shouldn’t unmask; he’d fight Iron Man and the Initiative with new fury. He’d help younger superheroes stay out of the system. He’d be moving forward as a character, not backward.

I know they’ve had a tough time deciding what to with the character in the last 20 years but Marvel shouldn’t have tried such an underhanded way to reinvent Spider-Man. They better have something good planned for the next few years to show that this was worth it.

About 10 years ago, the time of the Clone saga nonsense, I quit reading Spider-Man. Between the ‘re-start’ of ASM and some of the other titles that were in the hundreds, among other DeFalco decisions (I was never big on ‘Spider-Girl’ either, made me wonder if they were going to get dumb like Superman was with SuperCat, SuperHorse, etc) I had had enough.

I later came back when I found out the clone saga was nixed and the new EIC had restored the old ASM. Then, OMD happened.

I understand why he doesnt want PP married, but should PP be ‘dating’ someone forever? 30, 40 years (in real life) and no marriage? That would be almost as bad. One other poster makes a good point about how MJ just re-appeared in 87 even though she was barely used anymore. But what if PP had been with Gwen the whole time, 65-present? Would fans not be almost as annoyed of the endless courtship? I would.

This whole retcon has an annoying DC feel to it. As a golden age fan I was already annoyed of the utterly lame Venus retcon in Agents of Atlas (Here’s hoping that is undone), but this takes the cake.

One lesson i learned over and over again by reading comics when i was a kid was the difference between right and wrong.
Comic book heros like Superman and Spiderman always carried with them a strong sense of moral responsiblity. Heros always dealt with things like cause and effect, choice and consequense, action and reaction. As hokey as it might sound, between these funny comicbook characters like Spiderman and real life people like own father i was instilled with a strong sense right and wrong, Honor, and moral responsiblity, that has guided me into my adult life.

Spiderman’s moral message for years has been “with great power, comes great responsiblity”. This is something that can be related to by all readers, in their own real life senarios. One thing that i always loved about Spiderman that has taught me a great deal about life, is a quality that i have also seen in my own father; They both always took responsiblity for thier actions, be they good or bad. They dealt with the consequences of their actions, and trudge on through life the best they can, and try to make the best of what the situation was. It was a quality that i had always looked up to and tried to emulate throughout my life.

What’s really sad to me in this whole fiasco with OMD is that we see Joe Quesada taking Spiderman away from a message of Moral Responsiblity, to a place where any sense of consequense is now meaningless. This is a trend that we are noticing more and more in the society that we live in. A culture that cultivates no sense of responsiblity for ones actions and a total disregard for the consequenses of those actions, and how they affect others. These are not the traits of a hero.
Life is about making mistakes and upon realizing that one has made those mistakes, one learns something valuable from it, and grows, as either a character in a funnybook, or as a person in real life.

The message that we are now receiving from Quesada and his OMD storyline is that one need’nt feel responsible for the consequenses of one’s own actions; That if you do something wrong that has a negative effect on your life, that instead of dealing with it and trying to learn a lesson, that instead there is an easy way out. That way out, being shown to us now with Quesada, is to just go on about your merry ole way, and pretend like nothing ever happened in the first place. To completly ignore any of the negative consequenses that a bad decision might bring into our lives, and into the lives of those around us. I think we’ve ALL seen people who travel this road in real life, and the sad state it leads to.

Quesada’s Marvel is really starting to remind me of that used car you see on the car lot up for sale; all nice and pretty on the outside, but all rusted and broken on the inside. Spiderman may legally belong to Marvel Comics, but a part of him also belongs to the rest of us who have been with him through the years. It’s a shame that Quesada seems to have forgotten this

Marvel does it again! Back in the 90’s they delivered a kick to the stomach of all Spidey fans with the “Peter Parker was not the real Spiderman but a clone instead” storyline. After that debacle I left all Spiderman comics on the shelf and only glanced back years later when I noticed JMS’s name on some TPBs. I glanced through some and even bought a few. Now Marvel is reminding me of why I left Spiderman behind. JoeQ may love the character but he obviously has little, if any, respect for us fans. We invest our time and money in our favorite characters’ books because we want to see them grow and evolve over the years like a friend, even if we don’t like how they do it. But with the clone story and now this OMD story, Marvel and JoeQ have thrown Spiderman’s life in a blender and hit the puree button for whatever reasons they have. The character does not grow in any way, learns nothing from the experience, and in the end is lessened by what they have been subjected to. If JoeQ really wanted stories about a nerdy, single Spiderman then why not just put out a series set before he married MJ? Or maybe this is just another attempt - like the atrocious clone thing - to get people talking about the comic and then reverse the story when enough fans cry foul and start supporting the series again. Poor Spiderman/Peter Parker never saw that the greatest threat to him was not from a super-villian, but from the editors at the company that puts out his books. After all these years, you deserve better treatment and repect.

Who is the greatest Spider-Man villain ever created and just what makes him Spidey’s best nemesis?”
Joe Q, hands down. He’s the only one actually managing to kill Peter and get away with it. He’s even hired a clone to fill in the gap. A nigh perfect crime, no other villain can boast of such an evil deed.

I bet you Kingpin is confused too. “Who was that fellow who humiliated and beat me while i was in prison? Damndest thing, I simply can’t recall, I must have revenge… no.. wait.. for some odd reason I don’t really care about this one… odd. Oh well, what’s on telly”
Logic? Schmogic I say.

Plot lines and possibilities lost:
1) Kingpin being bested by Peter in the jail. How will the criminal element perceive Spidey after this sound thrashing, long term effects etc. Gone.
2) May on the brink of death, will she die? Will she live? Gone.
3) Fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. the law and Stark. Long term, how will Spidey do what he does when he’s hunted thus? Gone.
4) Long term, how will Peter cope with the general public knowing his identity? Gone.
5) MJ and Peter, how, again, long term, will they cope with above situation(s)? Will love conquer all? We’ll never know. Gone.
6) MJ, can she work again? Everybody knows she’s the wife of Spidey, will she get blacklisted? Will she be hunted as accessory to whichever crimes her husband did? Gone.
7) J.J.Jameson. After the showdown with Peter from Back In Black, how will he perceive our webslinger? Will he respect him for his dedication? Will he understand him better? How will this affect his editorial direction? Gone.
Peters ex-pupils, will they be inspired to do… what? Having had Spiderman for a teacher must have had an impact like none other. Not to mention those pupils he helped more directly. Long term. Gone.
9) Peters evolved abilities. Long term. How will he adapt to them? Will they change the way he perceives himself? Will they change the way he fights? (they did already, when he carried that girl from the collapsed building, and sensed his surroundings by touch alone) Will his spider sense evolve further as seen when he pinpoints the assassin at the trainstation. Gone.
10) The general excitement of No Status Quo, everything can change. Gone, as in, back to square one.
11) The older, more mature Peter, maturing futher in the hardships ahead. Gone.
12) The perception of Peter, after all his actions/crimes by his peers. I imagine Wolverine would approve, Ms. Marvel probably wouldn’t, Luke Cage would, The Sentry wouldn’t… etc. Long term. Gone.

Plot lines dangling in the aether, polluting the collective unconscious. Creating despondency and a sense of loss (okay, a bit much, but for those of us who likes closure).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for change, all for challenging the status quo. But sensibly, well written, logically. Besides, pre-OMD Spidey was very much NOT status quo, his world had been rocked and turned tupsy turvey.
The post-OMD Spidey on the other hand, is 1970’s status quo, it’s a step back into the past, it’s not progress at all. It’s Spidey nostalgia.

I know new readers will flock and sales will proliferate, business as usual. Readers come and go, always have, always will. I’m just hugely dissapointed in the way it was handled.

Dangling plotlines galore.

Any company can change the direction of their characters, they have that right. I think it’s impolite, however, to do so before tying up all the plot lines and story ditto.
Not just brutally sever a story in progress. Bad form.

I have also given up on the book, I simply can’t care for this watered down version of our hero.