My Problem With Spiderman

Now don't get mad. In concept I love the character of Spiderman. I used to buy the Spiderman comics all the time, right up until the Clone Saga. I stopped because I didn't like the direction it was going, and I just didn't have the money to keep buying comics. I've kept up a little bit with things here and there and my disappointment with Marvel has only grown. I'm going to try and explain in this post why I have a problem with certain things. Now I might get a thing or two wrong, and if I do feel free to let me know. This is entirely based on my opinion.

1. Spiderman revealing his secret identity. Seriously this was a stupid move. Peter knew the kinds of people he had been fighting and he knew that they would come for his friends and loved ones. He had been worried about that since he started fighting crime. Heck he had to move into the Avenger's mansion to keep his family safe because, surprise surprise, people started coming after them. I really feel like this was an editorial mandate and not something the writers would have done. At least that's what I hope. It was a controversial decision then and led to an even more controversial decision that proved that Joe Quesada is a hack.

2. Spiderman makes a deal with Mephisto. sigh. Where do I begin with this one? The One More Day storyline has been analyzed and reviewed by people with far more training than me but I'll try to put this in my own words. Spiderman has always been one of Marvel's most moral characters. This was put to the test during the Maximum Carnage storyline where his belief in not killing people was put to the test. In the end he held true to his morals, even when it would have been easier to give in and kill his enemies. I liked how that ended as I felt it showed Spiderman genuinely struggling with what to do; but this all came crashing down with another editorial mandate. For those that don't know J. Michael Strazynski had been writing Spiderman for quite a while and was leaving the title. Joe Qesada, a hack and Marvel's head editor, decided that you can't write interesting stories about a married Spiderman so he mandated that Spiderman make a deal with Mephisto to save the life of Aunt May, who had been shot by an assassin. For greater context Aunt May's spirit told Peter to let her go, that she had lived a long life and was alright with dying. So Spiderman, Marvel's one of Marvel's most moral characters, made a deal with the devil; not for the greater good but out of pure selfishness. Quesada corrupted everything Spiderman stood for in that moment, it was an epic jumping of the shark and it is a move I'm not sure I can forgive.

3. Doctor Octopus killing Peter Parker and taking over his body. Again where to begin? I don't know the whole story but it culminated in Doc Oc taking over Peter's body, but retaining all of Peter's memories. This apparently caused the good Doctor to have a moral shift and start fighting crime as the Superior Spiderman and taking over Peter's life. Now if he really was being influenced by Peter's memories and personality don't you think he'd work on a way of bringing the real Peter back? But no he takes over Peter's life, lives on pretending to be Spiderman in a story that will probably end with the real Peter coming back through some contrivance and Doc Oc going evil again.

There are other things I don't like but I could overlook, but with the above three I just can't support Marvel Comics anymore. One of the rules of good storytelling is that when the hero has to make a hard choice it has to be believable. We've seen it before in multiple scenarios. We've also seen heroes refuse to deal with creatures like Mephisto because they knew what they were dealing with, beings of ultimate evil that twist such deals to cause maximum suffering. Heroes, especially noble superheroes, don't make deals with the devil, especially when they offer you everything you want.