Thanks, Bob Harras, for bringing back Aunt May...
...so that she, and the audience, and the fans, could go through such an excruciating ordeal as she clearly does in Amazing Spider-Man #544. And we're next. Among what the reviewer at Broken Frontier has to say:
As for this current storyline, it gets worse:
Besides, didn't Peter already contemplate crime and its consequences back at the beginning of his run in the Silver Age, and how he didn't want to upset Aunt May by becoming a criminal? With the way things are going here, that's one more reason why the current storyline simply isn't welcome.
But now, let me just say thank you very much to former Marvel EIC Bob Harras for bringing back Aunt May so she could go through with this torture, as will anyone with common sense foolish enough to pick up this horror story. Here, she could've had a decent send-off back in 1994, much better thought out than the countless shock tactics that took the place of real writing since goodness knows when, and thanks to Harras' ridiculous idea that she just HAD to be brought back, Aunt May's been thrown into some of the most horrible writing ever to litter up comic books. Even if she doesn't die after this ghastly item here, she'll still have been sent through the proverbial meat grinder and a fate-worse-than-death for nothing more than just more tired hand-wringing.
Harras should never be allowed to edit Marvel comics again, unless perhaps he can admit to his mistakes and agree that they should be fixed, but tastefully at that.
From the offset, this is a difficult story to get behind. May has already died and returned before - an event which Straczynski bizarrely ignores all mention of. Peter and Mary Jane (as well as readers) have all been through this, and the dramatic impact of déjà vu isn’t what writers would claim it to be. Basically, when a particular, named character’s death becomes formula, you know it’s a problem. Regardless of the myriad caption boxes that wax operatic on Peter’s internal struggle and emotional instability, it’s just not buyable from a character or continuity standpoint. Peter has dealt with personal tragedy more than any other super-hero known. It’s his distinction as an icon. So when his elderly, frail aunt, who’s lived a long and fulfilling life, lies at death’s door (again!), should it be treated as a major event? Of course. But can it really be called a life-altering tragedy?It occurred to me that by now, the only way it could have impact, in the minds of the editorial edicters, is if May was blown to death at the hands of criminals, here being the Kingpin's own hired guns. When Aunt May originally died in ASM #400 in 1994, it was meant to be by natural causes, which IMO is the most acceptable and tasteful form of death by today in storytelling, seeing the overkill of deaths by murders and other gruesome things that's overrun the comic landscape. And that can sum up a big problem with more than enough comics today, how natural death is not being taken as an option any longer.
As for this current storyline, it gets worse:
“One More Day” wants readers to believe that May’s possible death (a situation she’s suffered numerous times in Spider-Man’s published past) would move Peter to criminal activities. It also wants readers to believe that such criminal activities are somehow different from all the other criminal activities he’s enacted as Spider-Man (all those being defined as “near-criminal” here). Straczynski wants readers to understand that Peter has always bent the law, but never broken it, which he now has. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. While last issue (#543) focused and catalogued the precise law-breaking minutiae Peter chose to do, hardly any of them are acts he hasn’t done before, especially the “assaulting an officer” charge, which, come on, he’s webbed-up, punched, tossed, and otherwise incapacitated dozens of policemen throughout his vigilante career. And, hey, while we’re on the subject, being a vigilante is breaking the law, not bending it.Let me just disagree slightly with the part about vigilantism, since Batman and the Gotham Knights are also vigilantes, and ply their trade to put a stop to real lawbreakers who do far worse things than they have. Regardless of that, I find it extremely irritating and in fact offensive, that JMS would want us to even wonder if Peter would stoop to literal crime. That sure won't have me coming back to read an already much-maimed franchise any time soon, and while some might find the idea intriguing, it only makes me feel even more that originality is a horrible thing to try out anymore. By now, those trying for originality, if you ask me, are only moving things closer to disaster.
Besides, didn't Peter already contemplate crime and its consequences back at the beginning of his run in the Silver Age, and how he didn't want to upset Aunt May by becoming a criminal? With the way things are going here, that's one more reason why the current storyline simply isn't welcome.
But now, let me just say thank you very much to former Marvel EIC Bob Harras for bringing back Aunt May so she could go through with this torture, as will anyone with common sense foolish enough to pick up this horror story. Here, she could've had a decent send-off back in 1994, much better thought out than the countless shock tactics that took the place of real writing since goodness knows when, and thanks to Harras' ridiculous idea that she just HAD to be brought back, Aunt May's been thrown into some of the most horrible writing ever to litter up comic books. Even if she doesn't die after this ghastly item here, she'll still have been sent through the proverbial meat grinder and a fate-worse-than-death for nothing more than just more tired hand-wringing.
Harras should never be allowed to edit Marvel comics again, unless perhaps he can admit to his mistakes and agree that they should be fixed, but tastefully at that.
Labels: bad editors, marvel comics, Spider-Man
