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Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
Its pretty much an open secret at this point that the majority of people working at Marvel despise One More Day and Spider-Editorial’s handling of the Spider-Man book in general, as well as that the Spider-Office has become a toxic “boys club” where you only stay in the long term if you play ball with editorial at every turn. It’s a regular source of mockery from books outside the Spider-Office, pretty much every single adaptation and elseworlds since OMD pisses and shits on it in favor of homaging Pre-OMD works, and it’s become extremely noticeable that the Spider-Office is constantly churning through writers while the same three or four guys remain and become increasingly combative with both fans and other staff.
I mean, there was a letter in the letters pages of issue 27 of the Wells Spider-Man run where Nick Lowe openly admits that they’ve had people from inside the Marvel staff — including an unnamed “legendary Spider-Writer” — telling them their work sucks and goes on a defensive rant trying to justify his management that all but admits he will put outrage above good writing.
What's weird is that Lowe calls it "Book of the Week," implying that it's coming this week even though it's showing up next week.
...Did Lowe not update his calendar to reflect that?
Speaking of weird hiccups, MJ's slot gauntlet thing doesn't appear in the second panel it's in. Does that mean the gauntlet just materializes onto her wrist?
Well, either that or Peter will start extolling the virtues of fascism (in which case, I hope Captain America happens to be nearby to give him a classic and very well-deserved right hook to the jaw).
Man, this whole Spider Who Gobbles arc is, like, the nadir of a nadir. It’d already be godawful in a normal run, but as part of what’s already probably one of the worst periods in Spider-Man’s entire history, it’s just embarrassing. The funny thing is, I wouldn’t even object to a story with a more amoral take on Spidey — one of my hot takes on Superior Spider-Man was that it would’ve been better if it were Peter himself who did all the ethically questionable things in that run instead of the dumb “Ock possessing Peter” thing — but the way this is done just… dumb.
He’s not allowed to make mistakes or do bad things on his own, he has to be “infected” with a villain’s bad vibes and he doesn’t have any nuance or interesting elements to his “badness”, he’s just ranting about hating everyone and attacking people in non-creative ways.
You can tell things have gone off the rails when readers are rooting for a goblinized Peter to off the character the writer insisted was "likable". Peter could "Gwen Stacy" Paul and Jackpot...and then time travel to prevent MJ from ever going to that other dimension and butterfly this whole run into oblivion. And it would be the most popular decision they've done.
4x Considering one his villains is the Sandman, I'm surprised he hasn't developed an intense dislike for sand.
3x Will the right hook knock the sins out of him?
To borrow a joke from Dragon Ball Abridged, people aren't rooting for Peter, they're rooting against Paul.
Edited by windleopard on Oct 5th 2023 at 8:26:47 PM
"I'm a big girl, Peter. Nobody took me anywhere."
Oh man, this writing... (*face palms*)
Someone on Twitter pointed out that this makes it sound like MJ chose Paul. On purpose.
Okay, but that's worse. We do get how that's worse, right? Like, it's not just me?
Man, I was already dreading this arc, but to see it realized, it's somehow worse. Why? Not only because Wells is going to paint this as "oooh, MJ is a strong independent woman, guys," but because it's also inconsistent with how MJ was, you know, literally taken to the Rabin World (with Peter, even) by Ben Rabin?
Good grief, I'm about ready for the next ASM writer to just say this MJ was a clone made by Beyond to really dig deep into Peter's fear of losing MJ. Or even a hydro-clone like in the 1994 Animated Series.
Like, if there was ever any hype for a Jackpot mini-series or one-shot or whatever, this issue will be what kills the hype stone dead.
Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Oct 5th 2023 at 4:32:43 AM
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Nah I'm fully rooting for Evil!Peter here after all this crap Wells has put him through
Having Tombstone beat him till he begged for mercy
Working for Norman "I killed you unborn child" Osborn
Pleading for help to be saved from Vulture
Everything about Paul and MJ
I just see this as Peter's "Get Back" starting with burying clone Kraven alive.
Edited by FKJ10 on Oct 5th 2023 at 1:35:52 AM
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It does increasingly feel like this entire run is going to be consigned into the pits of non-canonicity immediately after it’s done. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next writer does something exactly like that and dismisses the entire Wells-Lowe era as a delusion, like how Community basically declared the one Harmonless season to be “that year we had a gas leak that made us all hallucinate” and then never mentioned it again.
Years from now this run will periodically be brought up by Peter as “that couple of months where me and MJ got wasted on hallucinogens and thought she was dating a guy named Paul!”.
Edited by immortaleditor on Oct 5th 2023 at 1:39:07 AM
I'd rather next writer just has MJ wake up and realize it was all an alcohol induced dream with Peter helping her nurse the hangover.
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And yeah that does make everything sound worse as it says MJ knowingly cheated on Peter.
So What did Peter do from the first issue? Get cheated on by his love interest because editorial woke up said "fuck Peter" that day.
Edited by FKJ10 on Oct 5th 2023 at 2:28:20 AM
This whole run has been trying to top itself in how bad it can be. Peter is pathetic (until he fell to the darkside)... MJ is just a stereotype of the heartless ex...Paul only exists to be a pain in the butt...Peter's worst enemy Norman is a guy Peter went to begging for help because he couldn't beat a villain he'd constantly beaten since he was a teenager...the list goes on.
Edited by knightstorm on Oct 5th 2023 at 3:10:08 AM

@Trash Jack: I get the impression a lot of comic writers (and other spiderman media producers) don't like this weird direction marvel has taken. Hence why we get sgudd like dark age where tom taylor depicts
It's just marvel editors ensure that will never happen.
Mind you christos wrote the script for insomniac Spiderman. Which is a Take That at the end for one more day. So it is understanble.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."