Spidey's new status quo

Rob Mclaughlin


Okay. It's done. The Spider-Man universe, as we knew it, is gone. No-one knows who Peter is. MJ was never his wife. It's all wrong, wrong, wrong...

A new .jpg by John Romita Jnr has just dropped into our inbox courtesy of our friends over at Marvel which details the new status quo of the Spider-Man Universe. The image shows how the various core characters in the now weekly spider-themed books will fit into the editorial driven ret-con of the character and the new 'Brand New Day' storyline that begins this week.

With fans and collectors alike still reeling from Marvel's "It's magic, we don't have to explain it" fobbing off of complaints, it looks like this doodle tries to answer some of the questions that the controversial One More Day storyline bought up - and will provide a visual bible for both artists, creators and fans alike.

While it's great that Marvel are putting top notch creative teams on the new books, personally, I feel I am done with Spider-Man. That the 20-odd years' worth of back issues I've got that now haven't happened, storywise, feels like a kick in the teeth for fans who have stuck with the character through thick and thin. From the introduction to Venom to the Clone Saga to Aunt May finding out about Peter's alter ego ... all of this hasn't happened. Some of these were superb stories; others left a lot to be desired, but they all have charm in their own way, and in context it seems that, from this week's Amazing Spiderman #546 onwards, everything that has happened to Peter Parker in the past is irrelevant.

I will leave you to rant below, but really, like Sarah said in her open letter to Joe Q, if the Spider-marriage had to be written out, it could have been done a lot better than this.

 

User's Comments

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by Spidergirl on January 9, 2008 05:04:21 PM

It doesn't maaaaaaaaake sense. I give up caring.

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by SebPatrick on January 9, 2008 05:48:10 PM

Quesada has backtracked, now, and said that most of those stories DID actually happen. They just happened... differently. Which sounds bollocks, frankly - there's still too much that just can't be explained by that...

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by twosheds on January 9, 2008 06:09:40 PM

Re-boots and re-imaginings like this have to happen. I mean, Parker would be 62 by now in a single Spidey continuum. can't think of any comic hero besides Dredd that hasn't faced the continuity problem and had to redraw the map at some point (often several).

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by Spidergirl on January 10, 2008 08:47:42 AM

Re-boots and re-imaginings like this have to happen. I mean, Parker would be 62 by now in a single Spidey continuum.

Nope, because they haven't changed his age at all (he's still in some kind of nebulous twentysomethingthirtysomething bracket). They've just tried to pretend that things that happened to him along the way didn't happen.

Or, more annoyingly, that they DID happen, but that no-one remembers them. Because it's magic, we don't have to explain it.

I like the idea of MJ being a superhero, though that could have happened without Mephisto getting involved and Peter and MJ being separated. But my new biggest problem is the retcon of Civil War.

In Civil War, Spidey unmasked live on TV to show his support for Tony Stark. He registered with the government and, despite misgivings, was basically pro-registration.

Until he found out what Tony was up to, then he switched sides. Everyone knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but Spider-Man was now on the run from the law. All very exciting. One of the main reasons most people were anti-registration was because they were afraid that revealing their identities would put their loved ones in danger... and it did. Aunt May got shot, because Peter unmasked. Considering Spider-Man is all about guilt and responsibility and angst, that's an obvious and good story to give him.

Brand New Day means, ta-da! None of that happened! All of last year didn't happen. Spider-Man's changing sides was a big deal in Civil War ... and now it didn't happen.

Since nearly every Marvel title has been drawn into Civil War and its consequences, though... they just screwed the continuity not only on Spider-Man, but on pretty much every title going. But it's magic, we don't have to explain it.

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by Spidergirl on January 10, 2008 08:50:19 AM

P.S. Martin, if you want to get in on the righteous anger, I could lend you the Peter Parker, Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man Civil War trades, and probably the four issues of One More Day, just so you could see how UTTERLY FUCKED UP it is.

Re: Spidey's new status quo
Posted by Norton77 on February 24, 2008 08:37:40 PM

The only Spider-man series I'm still reading now is the "Ultimate" series. Everything else has gotten so convulted that it just contradicts itself and gets annoying. So there.
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