That said I picked up ASM #546 and gave it my perusal. Before I go into details, I have to say that I’m with the guy who wants to take all of the Spider-Man comics that feature Peter and MJ married and return them to Marvel for a refund. One of the first books I actively sought-out when I began collecting was “Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21,” (the wedding of Peter and Mary Jane, for those of you who don’t know that off the top of your heads). It’s a defining moment in Marvel comics’ history, but Mephisto’s retcon (oddly probably the most evil thing he’s ever accomplished) not only erased the wedding, but also the whole world’s memory of the revelation that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and that “Avengers Disassembled” storyline that saw Spidey develop organic webshooters. I wonder if all powers Spider-Man developed from “The Other” have disappeared as well. All signs point to “yes.” Now, I can understand that there are people who have protested Peter’s marital status since that particular story occurred, but Marvel made the same excuses for those changes that they’re making for the present retcon: that Spider-Man’s long and detailed history makes it difficult to come up with new, exciting stories. If that’s the case, why do we need three Spider-Man (Earth 616) comics every month? Also, the Ultimate line was created as a remedy for that issue, so does this change make Ultimate Spider-Man irrelevant? The answer is a resounding “No.” Eventually comic fans (myself included) are going to have to accept that the details may change, but as long as the character is consistent, some part of us is always going to enjoy it. ”Smallville” takes a lot of liberties with Superman’s mythology, but I still can’t wait to see it every week, because the Clark in that show more often than not resembles his older comicbook counterpart. And you have to give Quesada credit. Love or hate his decisions, they’ve put Marvel Comics in the national media spotlight more often than any EIC has since the 80’s. So I admit it, I enjoyed part one of “Brand New Day.” I didn’t want to, but I admit that I’m curious to see if Harry Osborn goes evil again, how Peter manages to pay the rent, and why in the new continuity did Peter and MJ break up? If nothing else, I know Dan Slott is a great writer who loves Spider-Man and he’s going to do the character justice, with or without MJ. Deep inside, though, I hope they eventually reverse this thing or get Peter and MJ back together. I’d hate to think that Straczynski went through all the trouble of reuniting Pete and MJ, developing his totemic mythology, and giving him new powers just to erase everything in the end.
|
