The Four Color Media Monitor

The info gathered on this thread at CBR continued to grow, and as it did, I learned what I'm sure plenty of others already have: they erased the Spider-Marriage. The spoiler for how is as follows:

Ok I will be mr spolier but you might not believe it as it is SO bad. Pete wakes up alone in the bed to find MJ in that bathroom puking I guess (the art & story telling are so bad who can tell what is up). First 3 1/4s was pete & MJ talking over accepting the offer. They come off as so dumb with neither asking the ultimate question, what would May want which we all know she would want then to stay married. So then the devil appears, they say yes cuz... well theres no believable reason they would. Then as just a freebie the devil tosses in that he is gonna rub out the demasking of peter parker. MJ whispers something to the devil to get an easy way out if the writters need it later. Then after they agree the devil says what I predicted, hes rubbing out the child they would have had in the future,,, UGH, Then... poof! Pete wakes up alone, goes downstair to ol aunt may making wheat cakes then run off to a party for .. HARRY OSBORN!!!! Yes everything is totally as if the last 20 years hasnt happened (in fact last panel shows them making a toast & you can see petes web shooters peeking out just to say screw you payed to read is worthless now). It is so much worse than I expected it to be. They have just turned Amazing into the start of Ultimate Spider-man. Its the worst time ever in Amazing Spider-man history.

I wonder if this'll be reflected in any other Marvel books? The part with MJ vomiting sounds as forced as when Zatanna was made to do that in Identity Crisis.

If Harry is shown being back, that's just one more way in which the editors are insulting some of the most well written character demises in comics from past decades. There have been some deaths in the past couple years that were forced and bottom of the barrel, but this, just like the recent case of bringing back Mar-Vell of the Kree, is a case of ruining deaths that were done plausibly. And Spider-Man's own world had at least four character deaths that were well done in their time, that unfortunately, have pretty much all been undone.

When was the last time I bought brand new pamphlet issues of a comic book the month they went to press? Almost four years ago, and since then, with the rise of price and the fall of story quality, I've almost entirely been buying trades. But trades collecting older stories at that, many of them pre-2000. Very little in my TPB collection is stuff that was published post-2003, and as of now, I don't see anything like this travesty entering it.

As the writer there says, those who disapprove of what should have been seen coming should be avoiding Spider-Man books like the plague. But you know something? While it's certainly great that many see Peter and Mary's marriage as something to stand firm upon, I have to wonder - why didn't they react this way when Spidey took off his mask during Civil War more than a year ago? If there's any characters for whom a secret ID is the most plausible, and shouldn't have to change any more than for Superman and Batman, it's Spidey.

I suppose the phrase "better late than never" fits perfectly if anyone chooses wisely to cease having anything to do with Spidey now, but I still find it troubling that they didn't take the same protest stance earlier.

Besides not reading the Spidey books, they'll also have to cease buying a] just about all other Marvel books as well, because they too have been victims, b] action figures of Marvel superheroes, and c] boycott a lot of other licensed products based on their output as well, including computer games they make. For example: whether you think so or not, Steve Rogers has been pretty much a victim of similar mindsets at Marvel, and the undoing of Bucky's death rose from the same kind of mindset as well. It also brings to mind just what's wrong with how "fun" is being offered up these days: if you look at the case of how DC introduced a new Blue Beetle, Atom, and Firestorm, it's only being offered up after they've done something to ruin the previous protagonists. For Captain America, this is somewhat similar when you think about how Steve Rogers went down in defeat, and handcuffs.

Most important of all though: to fight to fix all that should be Spidey et cetera, that's why fans must campaign to have Joe Quesada replaced as EIC. Back in the mid 90s, when Bob Harras was EIC, he may have backed off of the steps taken with the Clone Saga, but he didn't resign then (and four years after aunt May's death, he undid that!). This time, that's what the campaign will need to be about: calling for Quesada's resignation. Because he's considerably worse than Harras, and as long as he's around, there many other things he can do wrong, not just to Spidey's world, but to many other Marvel characters as well.

More discussion on this thread at Spider-Man Crawl Space.

Update: I couldn't find the thread at Newsarama, but I read somewhere that incoming writer Dan Slott was trying to beg people there to give Spidey's book a chance. Frankly, I am quite tired of writers going and pleading poverty with the audience, because that doesn't help matters. However, it does signal a big problem with most of today's writers: they have no solid stands of their own, and are working more for the money than out of true love and devotion. Any comics writer or artist who comes here and starts begging for mercy should be denounced on the spot for going along with bad editorial edictions and implying that they're only in this profession for the money being paid. Which, I suspect, is all that Straczynski was interested in too, if he was willing to go along with it till the very end. Bleah.

Update 2: Newsarama's got a poll that shows that an overwhelming majority disapprove of this forced, instant retcon. Quesada's steps certainly seem to have united a lot of fans. And that's a good sign.

Update 3: Hot Air's readers have taken notice too.

Trackposted to: Adeline and Hazel, Celebrity Smack, Faultline USA, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, The Pink Flamingo, Pirates' Cove, Rosemary's Thoughts, Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful artists, marvel comics, moonbat writers, Spider-Man