“Did you hear that Marvel gave Aunt May a stroke?” was what someone asked me.
To which I immediately replied with, “What? Again?”
So this is the hook for the 1000th overall issue of The Amazing Spider-Man… which promises to change things up FOREVER… which means it’ll last about six months before sales go to shit and we revert everything back to whatever stupid status quo we have going right now.
I feel compelled to remind people that 600 issues previous, Marvel actually had the balls to KILL OFF Aunt May by letting her die peacefully in her sleep. And you want to know something? Amazing Spider-Man #400 was a tremendous issue that grew a relationship and gave a character that has been around for decades a dignified road to the pearly gates, which rarely happens in comics… and then cops came around and arrested Peter for murder because Marvel can’t leave nice things alone.
By the way, Aunt May was eventually brought back to life… on account of the woman who died was an actress and the real May had been a prisoner of Norman Osborne, who also returned to life around that time, too… and she’d get shot and that became the impetus for One More Day… the less said, the better.
Look, I don’t know what becomes of May this time around. Maybe they finally found the balls to kill her off and we can all finally attempt to evolve whatever sad sack they’re calling Peter Parker these days into the next phase of his life. I’m not asking for them to bring back the marriage because I don’t trust these people to handle that piece of business without completely fucking it up per usual. Nor am I asking them to undo everything since One More Day because that would be a disservice to whatever following this thing has gained since that time. Just because I don’t care for what they’re doing with the Spider-Man character these days doesn’t mean others don’t. Nobody wants Marvel to pull a NEW 52 and alienate those who became fans outside of what veterans perceive as the “golden years” of the character or whatever term you wish to use.
All I’m asking is that if you’re going to change one thing – just ONE thing – it’s to overcome whatever aversion you have to character GROWTH and let the character GROW. Whatever excuse you have for not making this character grow beyond “that darn Parker luck” in an attempt to make him related no longer holds mustard. If you want to make Parker a loser because that’s how you see your audience, that’s your prerogative and the people who complain about this stuff and yet still continue to provide you business or defend your name being sullied probably deserve to be called losers as a result.
Not me, though; I haven’t bought a Spider-Man comic in years and the last one I did buy was a trade paperback collection for Maximum Carnage, which was a comic event from the 90s… though most people probably know it as the thing that inspired the video game.
On the bright side… I’ve heard good things about the new movie. Maybe I’ll give it a watch one of these days… once it’s on DVD.
Oh wait, Sony doesn’t do physical media any more…
Never mind.
