That image is a perfect way in showing how Marvel robed its long time fans of their hero.

Am I alone in thinking that Peter Parker’s internal monologue in the first page is just plain dreadful?

Wow! Peter Parker, the lovable loser who can’t get a job, can’t get a date, lives with his aunt, and has to worry about his career as Spider-Man preventing him from getting ahead!

Another fresh innovation from the House of Ideas. *sigh*

Hey, that was my joke!

http://www.marvel.com/blogs/Spider-Office/entry/978

So did he teach or didn’t he? Agh… who am I kidding? Who cares at this point? Not me, at least. I came back to comics a couple of years ago, right around the time Civil War started and it turned me into a bigger Marvel fan than I ever was before (’ve always been more of a DC guy).

Say what you will about how CW played out, but it had me intrigued and I was happy to go along for the ride on a number of books. The Spidey titles among them. Now that the unmasking has been undone (or at least no one remembers who Spidey is - stupid) and everything else in Peter’s world is pretty much reset I’m jumping off of ASM.

I would loved it if May had finally died (for good this time), or if MJ had decided that she couldn’t live this life on the run anymore and that she needed to leave. Or maybe Peter convinces MJ to leave and assume a new identity. Any of that would’ve worked for me. But not what Joephisto came up with.

It’s crap, he lied about the unmasking, and I’m not continuing with ASM. That first page of BND was distasteful enough to turn me off even if I’d thoughts of giving it a try. I’ll stick with Cap, Iron Man and New Avengers (I wonder how thy’re gonna explain Spidey’s presence there… Is that Spidey a Skrull?) but that’s the extent of my Marvel buying now.

I think the whole story line, screwing with your best Marvel Character, going back 20 years is the worst idea I could even Imagine. I have read spiderman comics for 25 years now, have them all. To have spiderman start over by making a deal with a devil, lose his powers, getting back his stupid web shooters, and keeping aunt may alive,(which she was killed before) is poor planning and just a terrible story line. Isnt this why marvel came up with Ultimate Spiderman, to keep him a young kid, nerd, and have no life? Peter has made and grwon up, gotten married and was living a good life. I would have killed aunt may AND MJ, making spiderman a more darker and kick ass super hero with his new inhanced powers from his “other” storyline. Tell me why go back and put him living under the same roof with aunt may? GAY!!!!
AND:
I really dont see how they are going to fit him in with his New Avengers story lines, other cross overs and really makes no sense to me. Is anyone with me? I thought the civil war story was a terrible idea, iron spiderman was gay and if someone doesnt change the way Spiderman is heading I am afraid the spiderman books will be not worth reading, or, are they getting that way now? Dont screw up something that is your bread and butter I have always said. I guess Stan Lee has enough butter for his bread to remain “dry” for a while since I am very disappointed with Marvel right now and think Joe Q needs to have his ass fired for what has to be the worst comic book story ever written since Howard the Duck… God will this just be another stupid dream or storyline and Peter wakes up from it all. Did Venom, carnage, clone saga, Spidermans “Other” story line ever happen and not there? Who the hell transfers a comic hero back 20 years and all this was for nothing? Wow, if anyone is happy with this than you really dont like Spiderman or see how marvel is just making there flag ship character worse than lobo in DC right now…. All I have to say and yes, Stan Lee your an idiot for publishing these!!

I hated One More Dumb idea. None of the continuity makes any sense. There’s no way SHIELD or Stark or Strange would ignore a cosmic level reality shift, especially one that’s altered their memories in such a sloppy way. What kind of guy sacrifices his wife and future for a mother-figure who clearly wanted otherwise? All the explanations and assurances from Marvel seem pretty ridiculous and desperate. I bought Brand New Dumb idea and it was bland and unpromising. The Aunt May scene was creepy now. And excuse me, I don’t know how to blank out a spoiler, but has anyone mentioned how pathetically obvious Mr. Negative’s identity is? The story fragments at the end were thoroughly unwelcome. Not getting any more cash from me.

“Brand New Day” is an absolutely ridiculous storyline- the Spiderman equivalent to “Heroes Reborn” another attempt by Marvel to change the continuity of their best characters. It faioed miserably (saw the entire collection in a discount bin) and this will fail too.

It seems that every few years or so marvel decides to play with its continuity- they even tried it before with Spidey with the Clone Saga- IT NEVER WORKS!!!!

i could tlerate it if it hadn’t been so silly in its execution- his civil war unmasking is not remembered???? How is this going to fit in with new avengers- didn’t they all know MJ????

My guess is that they are doing to bide time until they come up with a better arc- then they will have some epic battle between Dr. Strange and mephisto over Mary Jane and Peter’s Love- the good news is this could be corrected very easily….

I got into Spidey during JR Jr’s classic run. Then I thoroughly enjoyed Ron Frenz’s clean pencils. And McFarlane’s fantastic art needs no introduction. Then Marvel lost me.

To be honest I never paid much attention to who was doing the writing. Granted, I was younger and more impressed by the artwork on the panels. Sadly, Michelinie, who started out strong with the introduction of Venom (McFarlane’s new, dark style certainly helped that creation), seemed hell bent on hamming up the storyline to the point where I lost interest. Clone Sagas, Carnage (a contrived character at best), Peter’s parents, Clone Sagas, corn ball villians who were less compelling than the villians of the 70’s (read: Grizzly, Rocket Racer, Stegron, Kangaroo), and Clone Sagas drove away readers for 10 years.

It wasn’t until JMS came on board that readers slowly started getting their curiousity piqued. His refreshing, creative style made me realize that it really wasn’t JUST the artist who attracted me to the series as a kid. The writing had to be compelling enough to make the reader frantic for the next issue. JMS did that in his 6 year run, and between Deodato and JR Jr it didn’t hurt that the artwork was top notch.

So given the creative life cycles and sales cycles of the past 3 decades, does this wretched creative move signal the next downturn in Marvel’s publishing path? I suppose that with the success of the movies Hollywood is turning out (Hulk, Iron Man, Spidey, X-Men, etc)there is a push to make the comics match more closely with what the non-comic reading masses are familiar. And the movies have made Marvel fortunes.

It’s a sad state when the almighty dollar snuffs creativity. Yes, I’m a comic nerd. I wear that label proudly. Comic books (specifically DC and Marvel) used to have almost a subversive, counter-culture appeal to them. They were fanboy driven. They challenged our intellect and made us consider the lives of the characters as we lived our own. They sparked the imagination and provided hours and hours of enjoyment to kids and adults alike.

Much like ‘No Child Left Behind’ has done to the education system, this new direction in ASM has pandered to the lowest common denominator. It flatly insults the intelligence of the longtime and even casual reader. No child gets left behind becuase no one’s going forward. Shame on you, Quasada. You’ve joined the ranks of George W. Bush and others who are taking the United States backward in time, sophistication, and intelligence. I hope you enjoy your new riches earned from illiterate, under-educated, dopey masses. They’ll appreciate the less intriguing, less sophisticated, less thought-provoking, 1950’s style of comic book story telling. I’ll go back to reading novels.