Amazing Spider-Man #66

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[scorntx]

"Yes, it's me, Norman's identical brother he's never mentioned before, Fred!"

Sorry, but... it's just... Bagleyface. And it doesn't help when father and son look nigh-identical most of the time anyway.

I'm guessing that's supposed to actually be Harry (or a Harry), and we're supposed to be shocked that Nick Spencer has produced another Sudden Twist regarding Kindred.


It is also cute that Kindred / Harry / Not-Harry / Whoever thinks he can kill Norman Osborn.
Sure, everyone else who's tried it has failed, but this time, Ms. Lion in a Harry costume will succeed where all those others didn't!
Maybe!

[cyberghostface]

I'd be happy if that's the real Harry in the cell.

As much as I dislike how they undid his original redemption/death having him as some walking bug-filled corpse digging up Gwen Stacy's grave wasn't the best way to rectify that.

[nyadnar17]

Pretty much.

Harry is a pretty heroic character in my mind. My favorite interpretation is of him and peter as brothers with Osborn as their abusive "father". I would really love to him him allowed to be a hero.

[dcbanacek]

I would really love to him him allowed to be a hero.

While that would be a great storyline, if done right, eventually some writer wanting to do a "classic" story would undo all the hard work that went into it.

See the Sandman for an example.

[cyberghostface]

Even if he's still a criminal at least the writers have been keeping Sandman on the sympathetic side lately.

[tinygaylaura]

I think the theory that there are two Harry's as a result of Peter's deal with Mephisto may be true. Kindred is The Harry Who Died and this is The Harry Who Lived

Yes I did capitalise that as a Doctor Who reference

[silverhammerman]

Me, when I see that it's issue #66 and Spencer is still flogging the Kindred story and introducing another "twist":



Seriously though, it's astonishing to me that Marvel has been content to let Spencer drag his feet on this tedious mystery and boring villain that no one cares about for years now. What exactly is the behind the scenes calculus that leads Marvel to conclude that Spider-Man, THE Marvel superhero, can have his solo title be an at-best unremarkable slog written by a somewhat disgraced journeyman? It's like the bizarre old DC policy of keeping big talent off of Batman and Superman, since those books were expected to sell no matter what.

[shakalooloo]

I guess Non-Stop was introduced to cater for the fans that want something less slow-burn?

[laughing_tree]

>What exactly is the behind the scenes calculus

The calculus is simple enough. As of the most recent Marvel sales figures I can find (March 2021), it was the #1 selling Marvel superhero comic. The only higher Marvel comic for that month was ALIEN #1.

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, I guess it's selling well enough. I just can't work out if that's because Spider-Man will always sell or because Spencer's appealing to comics' Silent Majority.

[akodo_rokku]

I have the same question about Aaron's Avengers Recton Fanficpalooza, and the only answer can be that it's selling enough copies to not mess with it.

[scorntx]

Or the editors and other writers have just been ignoring the living daylights out Aaron as much as is humanly possible, and that's why it's lasted so long.

[zachbeacon]

"...drag his feet on this tedious mystery and boring villain that no one cares about for years now. What exactly is the behind the scenes calculus that leads Marvel to conclude ... superhero, can have his solo title be an at-best unremarkable slog written by a somewhat disgraced journeyman?"

Don't mind me. I'm just over here thinking about Red Hulk.

Hey, maybe they'll let Jeff Parker salvage this too.

(I kid. Mostly. I don't love everything Spencer is doing but he's a much better writer than Loeb. Still, Marvel has a bad habit of dragging out a mystery for so long that people stop caring. Lady Thor also springs to mind)

[tinygaylaura]

"This is why everything had to happen"

Look I'm not a demon from hell full of bugs but I think there had to be an easier way for Harry to get to this point than

1) Making a vague deal with Mysterio

2) Stalking Peter Parker for months

3) ?????

4) Bringing back the Sin Eater and having him go on a Mind Control Spree with a magic shotgun and an army of psychotic followers

5) Having a series of convoluted events happen that just happen to result in the Sin Eater shooting your abusive father with his Evil Destroying Shotgun...his...

EVIL

DESTROYING

SHOTGUN


6) Abducting, torturing and complaining at Peter Parker and Mary Jane

7) Having this long ranging plan of murder, mind control, bringing the dead back to life and kidnapping end with you being captured by the Kingpin and your dad who is pretending to be evil but is secretly good

8) Nearly getting killed by Baron Mordo

9) Getting freed from an asylum by your dad with the help of obscure Spider-Man villain The Spot

I feel like if you asked Harry to toast bread he'd rob a bank to pay henchmen to kidnap multiple nobel prize winning scientists to create a device that opens a doorway to a theoretical alternative universe where the bread is already toast rather than just putting it in a goddamn toaster

[tcampbell1000]

Well and wonderfully said.

[tinygaylaura]

Even The Light from the Young Justice animated series think this plan is overly complicated

[1wordreaction]

Again?

[starwolf_oakley]

Without saying "It's all been done," I've seen THIS bit before.

Alfred is captured by Hush, who also has another prisoner: Tommy Elliot! I don't know how it was explained, though.

[scorntx]

Clayface?
I mean, with Batman, if someone's pretending to be someone else, 90% of the time, it's Clayface.
Never Falseface.

[tinygaylaura]

It was Clayface all aloooooooong

[donnblake]

Surprise- Matches Malone!

[scorntx]

One day, one Gotham punk is going to have a really bizarre evening when he finds out that Matches Malone has been pretending to be Bruce Wayne all this time.

[donnblake]

You know, you could probably hang together a decent conspiracy theory there. Bruce Wayne vanishes during his world-tour sabbatical. The conniving Butler finds a petty criminal who looks enough like him to stage his return to Gotham....

(For bonus points, have them convinced that while Matches is living as Bruce Wayne, the actual Bruce Wayne has returned to the city as Batman)...