Amazing Spider-Man #700 is the last issue of that series. The reason?
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
Peter Parker is killed by Doc Ock!
What’s really pissing off some fans, though is He does it by switching bodies with Parker…and is the new Superior Spider-Man.
Cool. Bets on how long until the reboot?
There may not be one-the story works.
Maybe so. But will it still be selling comic books in six months?
I predict this won’t be any more permanent than previous similar events.
Ok last time we did this, it was how long till they bring the human torch back from the dead. I correctly predicted it would be for issue 600, less than 13 issues.
I give this 18 issues before they go back, and the method of the retcon is obvious.
No minds were actually exchanged, just memories, so the still living peter just thinks he is doc ock and the supressed memories of the real peter reassert themselves
They said that about the Clone Saga. And it was true, briefly.
I hope they shitcan the whole series permanently. I stopped reading it when Quesada did the whole sell-my-marriage-to-the-devil bullshit storyline.
I drifted away well before then; but hearing about that was enough to convince me not to even consider coming back.
If there is one thing a man who is also a spider needs, it is a good adjective.
Basically this. To me, Spider-Man was already dead. Unless they’ve ruined Doctor Octopus since the last I knew of him, I’d rather this sticks.
I was reading since its first year of publication, but haven’t picked up a copy since around 1986. No specific shark jump, the series just, uh, petered out and failed to retain my interest.
Isn’t doctor octomom a bad guy? How would he be as spider Man?
Oh I just rang the second bell in dark souls. Thanks for your support!
And 8 limbs. So basically all Doc Ock ever needed was the adjective?
Shouldn’t a Spideropus have eight legs and eight arms?
The Doc has been operating with a deseased mind for quite some time now, and didn’t figure on what would happen when he transferred his personality into Parker’s brain. Suddenly, he was mentally healthy, and he retained all of Parker’s memories. It reminded me of a fantasy story I read once, where the Satan actually conquers Heaven in the Final Battle…then realizes that the only way to make things work was to become God.
What I can’t understand about Marvel is the sheer number of crossovers. It totally ruins the individual series’ integrity. I swear, every six months, it’s always “HOLY CRAP, IT’S THE BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT EVENT TO EVER HAPPEN IN MARVEL HISTORY.” I couldn’t keep up with it. You have your Civil Wars, Annihiliations, Secret Wars, Secret Invasions, Avengers vs. Xmen. It gets tiring trying to keep up with everything. And then you have spillover into individual series that screws everything up.
I contend it was the Civil War that ruined the Amazing Spider-Man (also the fact J. Michael Stracynski overstayed his run by about twenty issues. He should have dropped off the title as soon as John Romita Jr. did.). They unmasked Spidey, which is fine, as long as they have the balls to stick with it, but they didn’t. So in order to ‘un-mask’ Spidey, they had to have some convoluted storyline rivaling a fever dream in its sheer incoherency with Peter selling his marriage to Mephisto and the whole Spider-man universe rebooting to when Harry Osborn was still alive. WHAT…THE…HELL? They totally erased some of the best Spider-Man storylines from the mythos with the reboot. Just off the top of my head: Kraven’s Last Hunt, Harry’s Death, The Return of the Green Goblin, A Death In The Family, etc. And that’s when I stopped reading the Amazing Spider-Man.
I appreciate that Marvel likes to present a universe that’s connected and something that happens in one comic book affects what happens in another. But they’ve overdone it.
Superman came back from the dead.
Barry Allen came back from the dead.
Hal Jordan came back from the dead.
Professor Xavier came back from the dead.
Bucky Barnes came back from the dead.
Aunt May came back from the dead.
Jean Grey came back from the dead.
etc. etc. ad infinitum
Peter Parker will be back. I have no doubt.
That’s not spiderman…It’s his GHOST!
When Spiderspirit#1 comes out, I might buy a comic book again.
Hell yes, they have. Not that DC is much better with their trend of, “Huh, sales are down slightly. Time to ASPLODE TEH UNIBERS!!!” I mean, seriously, how many times has the entire universe/multiverse been destroyed in DC now? Three?
And let’s not get into the obnoxious ongoing, “Aunt May is dying” storyline which keeps coming up. I don’t mind if they want to roughly keep Spider-Man static. However, the character has aged a few years. Let him be an adult. Adults have to deal with things that younger, more innocent people usually don’t. If Aunt May gets sick or hurt, she may die. This can be done and have real meaning. What you can’t do is say, “Oh, she’s gonna die! Nope, she’s not! yes she is! No she’s not!”
It’s the same crap they keep doing with bringing back dead characters, but even more teasing. Death in comics is really cheap and frankly, not that interesting. Consider: the very first reply was wondering how long it would be until they simply rebooted the comic or something. If you’re not willing to stick with a character death, don’t do it in the first place, because you just cheapen the impact. I don’t know anyone who cares at all when a comic book character dies anymore, because they know it’s either a minor character nobody bothers with, or the character will be back shortly.
There’s also no real reason for it. I want to see the hero live to defeat the villain, not kill the villain. I’m perfectly happy for the villain to get blowed up in a terribly base-demolishing explosion that NO ONE COULD SURVIVE! Because after all, we know that means the villain can back for another great story. if the thematic arc of a story demands the villains’ death, then fine - then you can’t bring him back. That hurts the old story, and you probably don’t have anything really good to do with the villain anyway. Is the Green Goblin now really worth the retroactive damage done to the entire Spider-Man line by bringing him back?
And hey, let’s say you do have a really, really good reason to bring the villain back. Let’s say there’s some impressive story you want to tell. Make the villain’s return be a significant event itself. The villain absolutely should not just show up one day and then make some vague excuse for why they were on vacation. Have the villain actually be brought back. You’ve got mystics, pyschics, super-technology, and random deities wandering around. It’s not impossible for dead people to get back. But it also be an important event. Who will try to make it happen, and why? Is this part of another evil plot, and what comes of it? Will other heroes be involved?
Were I in charge of a major comic company, I’d establish the Death Rule: it’s fine for some characters to survive apparent deaths as long as it’s been specifically get up and telegraphed. But otherwise, you get one chance every two real-time years to try and bring back a villain, and you’ll have to compete with every other writer wanting to bring theirs back. Best story concept wins.
And here is perhaps the fundamental issue in comics today. Editors simply don’t do their job: they want somebody else’s job. Editors in comics don’t edit. They want to write. They try to dictate plots and arcs and demand that writers do certain things. This is not their job, and it is not helping. The job of the editor is to reign-in and correct writers when they go astray or make mistakes. But instead of doing that, they’re actively pushing the worst excesses of the art.
It has possibilities, but not unlimited ones. A great character can be summed up in 12 words or less, and Superior Spider-Man can’t be summed up in under 30. Peter’ll be back by summertime.