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

[cyberghostface]

Also, what was the point of Kraven's family making the Lizard eat his son? How did that benefit them?

[bradhanon]

Actually, I think it takes a LOT away from the story. JMS likes writing stories about Destiny-With-A-Big-D, which is cool and all, but I don't like destiny stories. I don't like the idea that only certain special destined people can be heroes. I like stories where people become heroes through luck and smarts and doing the right thing.

Spider-Man's story is about a nebbishy teenager from Queens who, when he was 15, got one enormous stroke of luck, and made one enormous, irreversible mistake. His life has been defined by those two things ever since. That's what made him so compelling as a character in the first place, the relatability of his struggle to be a hero. He was the guy who had the ordinary life the readers did, the same self-doubt and fear, but he got that one break, and made that one terrible misjudgment. Could happen to any of us.

Only no, according to JMS, it couldn't happen to any of us. It could only happen to the perfect person selected in advance by the spider-gods. So Peter Parker is now Peter Parker, Perfect Person, and we have as much chance of being him as we have of being Tony Stark or Reed Richards or freakin' Kal-El. That's not an improvement, in my human, fallible opinion.

[cyberghostface]

I'm hardly one to think that comics should be specifically tailored to children given that children probably don't read comics anymore, but seriously...Spider-Man is probably one of the few kid-friendly superheroes at the moment and here we have him tearing off someone's face.

And this is pretty tame compared to the Lizard eating his son and using rapey powers on New Yorkers.

[shadowpsykie]

See, I don't see it that way. I don't see Destiny, automatically meaning anyone can't be a hero. It still comes down to choice. Why can't it be anyones's destiny to become a hero? Destiny doesn't necissarily mean anyone is bared from something. I mean the question of destiny vs choice vs happenstance is a debate that has been and probably will be debated till the end of time.

I think its open to interprectaion and even the reader can take that story and decide for themselves what to believe

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

It pushed the Lizard into a new stage of development, making him more dangerous than he'd ever been before, and further harrowing Peter for the eventual showdown. Again: right there on the page.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

No, it was supposed to explain why she's wearing Julia's outfit in Young Allies, and totally did.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Isn't being kid-friendly rather specifically why Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad exist? Amazing is rated A for a reason.

[big_daddy_d]

What would make it more awesome is if we had a teenage Mayday here. Father, mother, and daughter spider-team versus Kraven clan. If Marvel can retcon Sins Past and make Gabriel Stacy Pete's kid, he can take on Alyosha. Someone for everyone.

[cyberghostface]

Isn't being kid-friendly rather specifically why Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad exist?

Isn't MA: SM being cancelled?

Also, USM was never meant to be a "kiddie" alternative to the "adult" ASM--it was meant at the time to be a more streamlined title for newer audiences.

Amazing is rated A for a reason.

You do know "A" means "appropriate for ages 9 and up", right?

Funny you bring up the ratings, because I just checked and USM is T+! Which means it has a rating intended for older audiences than ASM!

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, she does come back looking with but a really bad scar later on in these scans. The panel, with all the red, makes it feel like something way worse was happening, but fair enough.

[darkknightjrk]

Exactly--it also helped that even after Peter had his adventure with Ezekiel and saw the temple, Peter didn't believe it still. To him, whether it was chance or fate, he is who he is.

[philippos42]

I'm taking bets on how long until Araña is happily calling herself Spider-Girl in the comix.

[halloweenjack]

are we going to have long story line where Black Cat becomes a werecat and starts stealing cream and laying on peoples keyboards?

See, rants are more convincing when you don't throw in funny lines like that. I would straight-up buy Spider-Man if they did some of this Silver Age DC-type stuff once in a while.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah--the ending looks really weak-ass, and there are some annoying bits scattered around, but it wasn't too bad at all.

[darkknightjrk]

I'd say a super-villain dentist, but there's one already.

[foxhack]

Also, "A Brother"?

Really? That's all they could think of for his gravestone?

[darkknightjrk]

"Isn't MA: SM being cancelled?"

To be revamped into a new series, if I remember right.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

That's odd. Just based on the cover, you'd expect "A" to mean "Adults," and now that I think about it, I think I've had this very conversation with Rabican before on here.

Just the same: there are kid-friendlier Spider-Man books available from the same publisher, and marketed specifically to a younger audience. ASM is pretty blatantly marketed to an older crowd of die-hard comics fans and has been for quite some time now. I'm not sure the "for the children" point of argument really applies.

[foxhack]

It wouldn't be of any use.

For all we know, a cavity-causing supervillain would come after Kraven, kill his patients, and force him back into a life of crime.

[cyberghostface]

I'm not saying it should be tailored "for the children" but at the same time I don't think content-wise it should go any farther than where the Spider-Man films went or past what the MPAA would likely rate a PG-13. Keep in mind the Spidey films were pretty violent and intense at times.

And it would be one thing if they made one arc once in a while darker for effect, but BND has been consistently gruesome and filled with all sorts of sexual innuendo for a while now ever since the Freak storyline (with the junkie having his body being turned graphically inside out like something from a Cronenberg film).

[punishermax]

I think we can all be forgiven if we are still a little blurry about what happened right after Clone.

[midnightvoyager]

General comics "must wring 100% everything dry until there is nothing left of value in it whatsoever" bullshit that I find terrifically hard to care about. So, uh, what the other guy said, I guess.

[midnightvoyager]

It applies when the rating specifically says "9+".

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, they haven't shied away from the grue or innuendo at all, but they've also made sure to provide much kid-friendlier fare featuring the same character at a competitive price. It's a widespread problem in comics in general, though, and is hardly unique to ASM.

[fifthie]

The spider-totem was cool up to that one arc right before Sins Past where it was an interesting way of looking at things that didn't really change the core mythology and fucking stupid in any usage after that where it became about a literal Spider God that made Peter eat himself or whatever the hell.