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Okay, it has happened again and we’re warning you: There are spoilers in this post!!!

For a while nowm Marvel has been hyping a story line called “The Death of Spider-Man” in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, with a denouement due in June. Well, this morning the NY Post broke the story and told everyone what was going to happen:

“That’s not Peter Parker,” Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso told The Post. “There’s going to be someone new wearing the costume.”

The new webslinger and the new look – a sleek black and red costume revealed here for the first time – will make their debut at some point this summer, after the conclusion of the ominously titled “Death of Spider-Man” storyline in June’s Ultimate Spider-Man No. 160.

The comic will be polybagged, and will shake the comic book world to the core.

“It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before,” Alonso said.


Ahem.

An image of a new Spider-Man costume (with a person unknown wearing it) was also released along with some PR:

Marvel has announced that after the shocking events of Death of Spider-Man, the sold out storyline currently running through Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and Ultimate Comics Avengers Vs Ultimates, there will be a new Spider-Man and a new character under the mask. Something’s happened to Peter Parker and here comes an all-new Spider-Man…in an all-new costume!
 
“We called this story Death of Spider-Man for a reason,” said Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor In Chief. “This is a huge story that’ll have fans around the world talking for a long time as we set the stage for the debut of our new Spider-Man.”
 
The Ultimate Universe is irrevocably changed with the conclusion to Death of Spider-Man in June’s polybagged Ultimate Spider-Man #160, but right now you can get in on the red-hot story that leads to the birth of an all-new Spider-Man, including new printings of the sold out issues:  


Graeme McMillan has a few thoughts on the announcement, but we’re more intrigued by the timing: two months before the issue in question comics out. In other words, this mainstream publicity in a major newspaper is aimed squarely at RETAILERS to order more copies of the issue in question. In the past, many such news stories came out the week an issue went on sale — resulting in lots of civilian interest–but stores who had been kept in the dark as to events being caught short when they did not heed Marvel’s urgings to order more.

This time, Marvel — which seems to have a masterful control of the mainstream press — is saying “Look, we’re getting a lot of PRE ORDER attention for this and will get more when it actually come out. Order with confidence!”

Of course, in two months time, consumers may be tired of this story already — which is why shocks like this are usually embargoed — so it’s a high stakes game that everyone is playing.

Meanwhile writer Brian Bendis tweeted:

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1 COMMENT

  1. The new Spider-Man is Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher- apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger- bratwustle-gerspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.

  2. *Yawn.* Another desperate attempt for relevance and attention from the House of Brain-Dead Ideas.

    “This is a huge story that’ll have fans around the world talking for a long time as we set the stage for the debut of our new Spider-Man.” Uh, no.

  3. Instead of Spider-Man, maybe the doomed costumed individual should be identified as “Spider-Man”, always with quotes, as in “so-called Spider-Man.”

    This to avoid confusing this red-coated, pre-deceased individual with the actual character.

  4. You know, I kinda feel sorry for Bendis. He’s got some serious writing chops, but is pressured (I hope- I’d hate to think he does this by choice) to develop one world-shattering event after another, to the point where none of it matters to the readers any more.
    Please stop reinventing the wheel and just let it spin. We want good stories, not facile devices. If you don’t have any more good stories with those characters, create some new characters and let the old ones rest on their solid narratives. Thank Deities Bill Watterston knew when to quit!

  5. Boring, boring, BORING. When will this stop? We’ve had “new” Spider-Man before. In fact we had so many of them in the 90’s it wasn’t even funny. I know some will say “wait until you’ve read it to judge” or “it doesn’t matter if we’ve seen it before as long as the story is told well” etc, etc, but I just think that we’ve heard and been promised this “game-changing” rhetoric too many times in recent history. Why can’t we just have really good stories told with the characters? You don’t have to try and reinvent the wheel with every issue, honest!

  6. Polybagged, my god, this comic will clearly Change Comics Forever!!! Let’s all buy three copies!!!

    Wow, I’m flashing back to The Death of Superman and I was in elementary school at the time.

  7. My CORE! It’s being shaken, to the core! Please come up with some other hyperbole! PLEASE! It has lost all meaning. Pass on this, in a big way.

    I wish Bendis had made Mary Jane Carnage instead of Gwen Stacy. Oh well.

  8. Can they kill off the rest of the Ultimate line too while they’re at it…and just NOT bring it back?

  9. You know you guys, it is possible that there are comics enthusiasts who were not yet old enough to read comics in the 90s.

    IT IS ALWAYS SOMEONE’S FIRST COMIC.

  10. Sorry, Heidi, I wasn’t making fun of the readers, just the hype, and the marketer assumption that people actually will buy three copies. I mean, maybe they will, it just strikes me as unlikely.

    And frankly, the hype is all I remember of Death of Superman because as a little kid, the last thing I wanted to read about was a superhero dying.

  11. I don’t believe the axiom – it’s always someone’s first comic – is true anymore. I believe it’s not true based on the sales numbers we see. They’re, um, not very high. Off the top of my head, I think the average sales for both Marvel and DC was right around 30,000, right? That’s sales to retailers, too, so it’s probably fair to say 10% of those are going unsold, so average sales to customers would then be right around 27,000 a month?

    I gave a lot (i.e. too much) thought to it over the weekend and I think the comics market was broken. I think between $4 issues, the whole Mephisto-Spidey thing, and endless events where nothing is really changed…I think the passion is kinda gone all around. I mean, look at this comment thread…no one’s discussing the story, everyone’s just cynically commenting on the marketing. I’m sure there are people out there who are still eating the stories up, but I think that group is shrinking and that’s kinda scary.

    Meanwhile – Los Bros Hernandez will save us with L&R v4!

  12. It’s not just that they did this before, it’s that they did this last month, and the month before. It’s “somebody’s first comic” is just special pleading. Why can’t their first comic be at least a little bit innovative, or even just a little different? Maybe they’d buy another.

  13. Nobody cares about the Ultimate universe. It was only created to do storylines that they wouldn’t dare to do in their mainstream comics.

    But they only do the same stories as their mainstream lines anyway (death of Johnny Storm, Captain America?).

    It’s just packaged to look more adult, when it is really just more juvenile at heart…

    …and boring.

  14. Sadly I think the average consumer can deduce that it’s not the ‘real’ Spider-Man due to being in the ultimate line and not the standard 616.

    Once they twig that other Spidey is hanging out over in Amazing all interest will be gone.

  15. “The comic will be polybagged, and will shake the comic book world to the core.”

    Yawn.

    “Thanks to Marvel and Bendis as to why I download bootleg scans and never pay for the stuff anymore…”

    I have a better solution: Don’t waste your time. Read something worthwhile.

  16. *yYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAaaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnNNNNNN*

    I hope the clowns at Marvel that type that kind of “fans the world over will be talking” and “change the UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT” hyperbole for the CharlieSheenOmatic “journalists” of the world will look back on this crap in 3 years when they’re slinging chicken parts for the Colonel and think “Man… I wish I hadn’t been such a big part of the DEMISE OF THE AMERICAN COMIC BOOK…”

  17. @ Keyser. Don’t blame Marvel or Bendis for why you’re not buying comics anymore. You download bootleg scans because you’re a THIEF. What kind of ass backwards logic is that anyway?! Grow up.

  18. I am impressed that Bendis can tweet.Normally that statement would of been dragged out over 15 issues with 2 mini series explaining the back story

  19. I bet it will end up being a clown…uhm,I meant clone! Besides, who cares about this hype, we all know Peter Parker will return in time for the Anniversary issue #200!

    On a seperate note, I agree with Christopher Taylor. –> “Rich” people like you are killing the comic industry and actual think they can complain about the quality of the books? Dont buy it if it is crap but stealing and critizing just isnt right.

  20. Keyser, if you download bootlegs you are forcing Marvel to become more of what you hate because they can’t take chances in the market.

    Buy a goddamn comic if you care–otherwise go brag somewhere else while your thievery kills the industry.

  21. ““Thanks to Marvel and Bendis as to why I download bootleg scans and never pay for the stuff anymore…”

    I have a better solution: Don’t waste your time. Read something worthwhile.”

    You KNOW your comic’s suck when people don’t even want to (download and) read them for FREE!

  22. Actually, I’m a pretty smart guy. And the premise of this storyline which will rock everyone to the “core” sounds like the same old crap. I think the morons are the people who give it a chance — despite the cliched hype — and then complain about how it’s the same old crap.

    Speaking of morons, someone on here seems to think that I download stuff for free. I don’t. Keyser said he was downloading them.