Amazing Spider-Man #655

[cyberghostface]

Color me surprised, as this is the second time in a row that a BND issue was pretty good. I guess my final opinion hinges on how the next issue turns out, but overall, I thought this was a very solid effort in terms of writing and art and definitely one of the better issues of the BND era by far.

Anyway, the issue deals with the aftermath of the fridging of Jonah's wife, Marla. The bulk of it is a dream sequence in which Peter is reminded of all the people who knows who has died during his tenure as Spider-Man. I was actually impressed with the actual continuity here as we see a lot of dead characters from years ago...for example, Nathan Lubensky, Aunt May's former lover is there as well as Charlie, the girl Spidey accidentally killed during the Spider-Man vs Wolverine one-shot. I'd like to post some of these pages, but there's no way I could post just four and get the effect across to you. There's some interesting presentation here, with one two-page spread looking like something out of a M. C. Escher painting.

Basically, it brings up how Spidey doesn't kill people, with his villains chastising him and blaming their victims' deaths on him for not having the courage to kill them.

At the end, Spidey runs into the burglar that killed Uncle Ben. Spider-Man decides to take matters into his own hands, and beats the burglar into a bloody pulp, when...







The issue ends, however, with a hostage situation in which a new villain kills one of his hostages before the police even have time to negotiate. He says that he has he has no regard for human life, and if they don't do everything he says, they're going to have a massacre on their hands (he puts emphasis on the word 'massacre', so I'm guessing that's his name).

So basically, and what's gotten the internet riled up, is that a lot of people are saying that this issue is leading up to Spidey breaking his "no-kill rule" and that he is going to kill this guy next issue. I personally don't think it'll get that far, but if it did, what would you think?

Comments

[stolisomancer]

I will say this, though: didn't Scandal spend the next few months after Knockout's death reeling drunkenly through the Salvation Run crossover, before eventually moving on to date a woman who resembles Knockout?

I'm nowhere near awake enough to have this discussion intelligently, but I think your example's faulty.

[turtlefu]

Yes, she did, but the way GS handled it was different. Slott's approach is overly sappy, meant to emphasize DRAMA and how NOTHING IS EVER THE SAME and SPIDEY IS GOING TO KILL NOW.
Gail turned into into character arc, while still maintaning humor. There are a lot of nice character moments between Scandal, her teammates, Liana,
It was never made so ridiculously over the top to emphasize the DRAMA.

And I think that is what is important. The whole tone of the thing and the writing. Like, the latest FF was actually rather nice, because it wasn't so over the top and utterly pretentious like this ASM issue is.

[stolisomancer]

So the issue for you isn't that Marla was killed, it's that Slott took the opportunity to write an overwrought and melodramatic piece as a reaction to her death, whereas the original "women in refrigerators" piece that you're referring to via the verb "fridging" was a pointed commentary on character roles in superhero fiction.

Thus, you've altered the already loose definition of the term, hence my initial confusion.

[mrstatham]

I think you're actually not even talking about fridging, then. You're talking about how someone handles a character death in their writing. That's not fridging.

Comparing the two doesn't work at all, either, because they're different circumstances entirely. Scandal's a deeply passionate person in love with a woman she lost through means beyond her control. Spider-Man repeatedly loses people through means he could possibly control, and regrets it. Spider-Man is all about the melodrama, has been since Uncle Ben got shot. It's over the top and it is dramatic. You're also comparing different kinds of writers, which I think is unfair.

[darkblade]

It's the manner of how character death is handled that determines if it is a Fridging or not though.

If it's the logical result of existing plots and/or the effects are wide reaching for the other characters. Then I woulodn't call it a Fridging.

If it comes out of nowhere to catch the reader/viewer by surprise and the issue caused by the death are used for cheap temporary mellodrama then it's a Fridging.

[mrstatham]

Yes, but what was being attacked here was the reaction to a death. What Turtlefu seems to be talking about is the matter of this issue and how it is a melodramatic piece of writing on Slott's behalf, which is always down to personal opinion. They're not discussing the matter of Marla's death itself, more the reaction Slott has Peter in. I think Marla's death itself nearly verges on a fridging, but as you suggest, if Slott has this have impact on both Peter and Jonah in the months to come, that will move it further from a fridging.

As it is, Marla's death is arguably the latest part of a plot from the earliest days of the Spider-Man stories. Jonah funded the initial versions of the machines, and this came back to bite him in the ass when Smythe became terminally ill and blamed him. Now Smythe's son has killed Jonah's wife. This is a development of that, I believe. So that in itself is some manner of development of old stories.

Someone else has suggested this, and I agree, the 'fridging' term is deployed far too often, these days. If Amazing Fantasy #15 were published these days, everyone would cry 'fridge' over Uncle Ben's death.

[shadowpsykie]

okay then how is Marla's stuff rediculously over the top? how is it overly sappy? for Jonah, is wife was killed by a man HE funded for a personal vendetta.

Peter takes EVERY death Personally.

Like, the latest FF was actually rather nice, because it wasn't so over the top and utterly pretentious like this ASM issue is.

It had Valeria, a child, begining to plan to kill another being (and possibly comit genocide) with another group of kids. how is that not pretentious and over the top?

how can you say that His death has more value than marla's death and the way these characters mourn is better than the way another set of different characters mourn?

infact, the issue after Marla's death was very much like this issue of FF. the mourning process, at least with the first issue seems.

Spider-man and Jonah (and the rest of the spider clan) would mourn differently than the FF would mourn. Spider-man has always been prone to rage after the death or injury of a loved one. beating a man sensless, he's done that before, he's had to have been brought back from that before. Its in character. The way the FF are mourning, is in cahracter for THEM