Amazing Spider-Man #637

[cyberghostface]

So, quick recap. Kraven's family killed Spider-Man to resurrect Kraven. Turns out they killed Kaine instead, so now Kraven's stuck in a "living death"--unable to die unless at the hands of Spider-Man. So Kraven's pissed off at his family, needless to say.


Sasha Kravinoff slits Madame Web's throat. In her dying moments, Web transfers her psychic abilities to Arachne.




That's right. Spidey just tore off her face. Granted, it's not as if she didn't have it coming, but... Spidey just tore off her face.



So Arachne (is that what she's called?) shows how Spidey killing Kraven will essentially destroy him and turn him into a monster. Granted, I can imagine it being a slippery slope, but Kraven's essentially in a state of suffering and "living death" against his will, so would putting him out of his misery be that much off a horrible thing?



Somehow I think J. M. DeMatteis is saying the same exact thing as Kraven right now.



So later, the Spider crew visit Kaine's grave. Arachne's blind and the new Madam Web, and now Arana has taken her place (wearing her Arachne's costume). Only she still wants to be called Arana, saying that the name "Spider-Girl" is "corny and makes you want to puke".  Nice.

Kraven and his family escape to the Savage Land to rebuild his family. Sasha wants nothing to do with it, calling Kraven a coward. Kraven snaps her neck.  Alyosha flees. Kraven's daughter stays with him, and to prove herself she goes off to hunt and kill Alyosha. And thus the story ends.

EDIT: Turns out I was wrong. The very last page shows Kaine rising from his grave as some mutated Tarantula-man. Yeahbuhwhah?

And somewhere, J. M. DeMatteis is probably drinking himself into a stupor now.
 

Comments

[freezer]

Their job is to repeatedly hit the reset button on their characters to revert them back to their popularity peaks? To strip mine classic stories until all relevance is gone? To do both of the above to the exclusion of letting creative teams do new things (or falling back to them when the new things don't immediately spike sales)?

My excuse it that they suck at their job.

[anewchallenger]

Seriously. I'm a teacher. I teach kids. If I have a class of 4th graders, I can't take them out to the swings for an hour and then do a finger painting class because "YOU WERE SO MUCH MORE ICONIC WHEN YOU WERE KINDERGARTNERS!"

Things have to move on and grow, at some point. The current trend of reversion in comics is pushing a lot of us out, because we understand that. Why punish your readers for having common sense?

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Whenever they try to do something nostalgic, or which ties in with a previous story, the fans bitch because they aren't moving forward.

Whenever they try to do something new, regardless of the creative team or the freedom they receive, most of the fans ignore it completely unless it's explicitly attached to an existing franchise, and sometimes even then.

So sometimes, they try to split the difference and write a story that uses old continuity in a new setting to shake up some old characters, and then people like you bitch that they're A) "strip mining" and B) "hitting the reset button."

You have carefully constructed a scenario that does not allow them to win unless they obey the secret manual of comic book style that only exists in your head and which actually bears no resemblance to how the modern comic book industry works. Congratulations, sir or madam; you are part of the problem.

[freezer]

Pointing out the flaws in a flawed story (flaws both DC and other Marvel stories share in spades, BTW) is not "constructing a scenario."

And if stating "This story sucks. Here's why" is "part of the problem", then Guilty As Charged.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Your criticisms are faulty and are based on the most superficial possible reading of the story, to the point where I would not be surprised if you had not read it at all, like most of the people on s_d who complain about these things.

[freezer]

Okay!