Comments on: One Less Wife update

By: Bob Brodsky

Bob Brodsky — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:15:15 +0000

As a Christian I was disturbed how MJ and Peter continued to use God’s name throughout OMD but bever called on Him for help. Mary Jane told the minister at the hospital something like she and Peter didn’t believe in prayer, while Peter called him a vulture!

When in doubt, deal with the devil. A terrible story on so many levels!

By: seth

seth — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:30:11 +0000

this is stupid. and my favorite thing about it is it’s so bad, i don’t even have to try and justify my position. it’s just fucking stupid.

By: Alana Abbott

Alana Abbott — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:48:16 +0000

Wow, continuity. It just hurts.

Call me new to the comics scene (I’m only about seven years deep; didn’t get started until after college), but I’ve never known a Spider-Man without a Mary Jane. I thought their romance (in its many appearances in the many incarnations of the Spider-Man story) was *the* great romance of the Marvel U. So Spidey without MJ? It’s great power and great responsibility sans the other part of the story that was great. ;)

I also thought that the best thing about Civil War was that it shook up the way the Marvel U characters were dealing with their realities–something that is, to me (as a new comics reader) fundamentally more interesting than stagnation. Reboots are for new series. If you’re going to keep telling the same story over and over… let Robin Hood shoot his arrow, put it together in a nice collection, hard bound, limited edition (with six different covers), and you’ll still get several years of sales off of the re-reads. I also loved the interplay with the regular Marvel U characters and the “new” series–like Runaways. A retcon this big doesn’t just impact one series, it impacts every series where Spiderman has ever shown up. That strikes me as bad storytelling.

By: Jason Green

Jason Green — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:58:00 +0000

And just a PS on the reaction my wallet will have because of One More Day: I’ll be buying Brand New Day for at least the first few months because of the high level of quality stories the creators on it have done in the past. If it hasn’t wowed me enough by the time each team has had a chance to overcome my distaste for the new status quo, I’m done. I’m much more excited for Spider-Girl and Terry Moore’s upcoming Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane than I am for Amazing Spider-Man. *sigh*

By: Jason Green

Jason Green — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:55:37 +0000

Wraith:
“The ONLY reason why many fans (at least on the net) are upset about the marriage ending, is because many of them (NOT ALL of them) wrongly believe that Spidey (and other Marvel and DC superheroes) should age and grow with them. They seem to have forgotten that these characters were NEVER meant to grow and age with their readers. They don’t realize it was always about the “Illusion of change” and NOT actual permanent changes and growth.”

I hardly think that’s the case. I started reading Spider-Man when I was 5. Spider-Man got married when I was 8. I had no problem with that development at all, nor did I have any problem with reading about a married Spider-Man, something I certainly couldn’t identify with at that age. I liked the stories, so I kept reading them, and I don’t see why any “actual permanent changes and growth” harm ones enjoyment of the story whether Amazing #545 was someone’s first Spidey comic or their 1000th.

If apparently there was some great desire out there to return to an unmarried Spider-Man, why have all of his best-selling adventures take place while he was married? Does Joe Quesada think Spider-Man #1 would have sold 10 million instead of 2 if only Mary Jane wasn’t around?

By: Mark Coale

Mark Coale — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:23:21 +0000

Would Spider-Man being divorced in 2008 (or whatever nebulous present in which the MU takes places) really generate a “stigma” toward the character or “controversey?”

By: James Riley

James Riley — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:50:47 +0000

Anyone else get the feeling that this specific plot was chosen so it wouldn’t be carried by any major media? Joe Quesada has mentioned not doing this in the past because he didn’t want Spider-man to be seen as divorced, that he didn’t want that image out there. The story of a permanent split between Peter and MJ might have still been portrayed that way on a slow news day … unless steps were taken to make it as convoluted as possible, involving deals with the devil, huge year-long crossovers, time-travel and other comic plot devices that would have made any non-comics-reading reporter just give up in frustration and move on.

By: Brian Jacoby from Secret Headquarters Tallahassee, Florida

Brian Jacoby from Secret Headquarters Tallahassee, Florida — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:41:56 +0000

I’ve had slightly more than 10% of subscribers drop ASM since Friday due to the way this story was handled.

By: Jesse Post

Jesse Post — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:21:32 +0000

Also forgot to mention above that, for the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to reading Spider-Man and finding out how this all plays out and how he gets his old life back. So I guess that’s point, Marvel in this debate.

By: Jared Good

Jared Good — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:57:19 +0000

@Patrick Dean: Ha! Joe Q did say there were some stories you could only tell with a single Spidey. Random dating/fucking are the only ones I can think of.

By: William Shatner

William Shatner — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:31:18 +0000

There’s a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn’t read comics! I LIVED! So… move out of your parent’s basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it’s just a comic book dammit, IT’S JUST A COMIC BOOK!

By: Mark Tague

Mark Tague — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:07:09 +0000

As a rapidly aging fan, 57 years old next May, I read Spider-Man and other superhero comics in chunks that are often 2 to 5 years behind the times(recent retcon of Thor being an exception). I have loved the Ultimate Spider-Man stories, read about 60 issues in bargain bin issues and heavily discounted trades, as well as the other titles current during that run, esp SMS written stories. All of which makes me not typical and not part of Marvel’s marketing plan.

The news of this sudden rewriting of the Spider-Man mythos seems remarkably poor. This is either a cheap stunt intended to play out for a number of issues as the lead-in story to new weekly issue “experiment”, designed to be reverted or it is a move by a corporate publisher with no institutional memory of the damage it wreaked upon its franchise character with the Clone Saga. If it truly is a purposeful editorial change, I think that the bleeding of readers that will occur will be very similar to that which accompianied the Clone Saga and will be eventually be reversed to save the property. How long that would be would be dependant on the stubborness and ego of the management.
However, I cynically believe that stunt is more probable and think the comics community is being played. For those that care, and for some reason inexplicable to me, I find myself in that number, don’t invest emotionally or financially in this stupid, tasteless, inelegant and disrepectful editorial fiasco.

By: spike

spike — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:37:05 +0000

I’m pretty sure the reason they went ahead with the unmasking in the first place was because they knew they were going to retcon it–both events were hatched concurrently. It gave the powers that be a chance to create a “bold” status-quo-changing event without the messy ramifications of permanence.

And yeah, the door was left open to undo OMD–I think Marvel learned the lessons of the Clone Saga and Heroes Reborn well enough to leave an escape route for the next editorial regime–or if fan outrage impacts sales badly enough during the current regime…

By: Eddie C

Eddie C — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:32:50 +0000

Like most of the “big” ideas under Joe Quesada’s leadership, they’re interesting to begin with, but the execution totally screws it up. “Civil War” suffered the same fate, seemingly doing away with years of characterization and making characters like Tony Stark now unlikeable. Even the unmasking was a bold idea, but JQ himself obviously felt the need to retcon it, so what does that tell you. Now, with 20 years of continuity wiped out with a misguided gesture. Retconning is always problematic, as even what is changed can be changed back or ignored over time (sometimes immediately). I sort of understand why he felt the need to “unmarry” PP, but the execution of that idea leaves much to be desired, so he’s likely to alienate readers who may prefer a single Spidey. It does open up interesting story possibilities (aside from new love interests), but it causes just as many problems when taking continuity into account. And with the diehard fans, you always have to take continuity into account. If a major change is going to be made, it should be done for the right reason and in a way that won’t piss off the fans. I just can’t see this working out in the long run and it will probably be retconned in due time.

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:34:47 +0000

Wraith: “wrongly believe” is a debatable choice to describe readers’ opinions on such matters where the DC and Marvel Universe characters are concerned.