This thread's for the Spider-Man comics and spin-offs, whether they're decades old or brand new.
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Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
I've read the full thing now, this is what ASM#900 really ought to have been. Slott's story is great, I love how it's a Maybe Ever After for everyone, I like the little winks at the fact no writer can ever use the 'M' word, but that doesn't stop Slott from inferring that the doctors realize what's obvious about Peter and MJ anyway. Also keep an eye out for The pet dog and who signed the get well soon cards
Another story is the wildly quirky "Spider-Man vs Conspiraton", where Peter faces off against a villain that uses fake news and tinfoil fear gas on people. Also includes a Take That! against Aunt May.
Edited by Zarius on Aug 31st 2022 at 9:32:35 AM
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Peter was subjected to some of the gas and May manifested, saying she was his bigfgest burden and he could never get rid of her.
The story presented itself as a fear Peter had, but I interpreted it more like a Take That, as the character can never move forward so long as she exists.
Edited by Zarius on Aug 31st 2022 at 9:54:38 AM
Aunt May is a boring old biddy!
×4
It's not really a Take That! if it's only your interpretation. It's made clear the actual Aunt May doesn't think that.
NGL, it kinda creeps me out how May gets more hate than any other character for OMD. Not Kingpin, who ordered the hit on her. Not Peter and MJ, who agreed to the deal. Not the literal demon king who is pretty clearly the biggest bad actor here from an objective standpoint.
No, they blame the sweet old lady who was the biggest victim.
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While that's not wrong it's not portraying it really accurately - JMS clearly wasn't entirely on board because he also asked for his name to be taken off OMD.
And the extra retcon he wanted was removing Sins Past, due to it being his greatest regret... that's really not comparable.
Anyway May gets the hate because she's long been a terrible character who only exists to create conflict for Peter. Losing the marriage to continue that - especially with how little sense it makes in-universe - is pretty frustrating.
Edited by Saiga on Aug 31st 2022 at 8:40:37 AM
JMS' retcon would've taken out everything since the early '70s IIRC. It was a For Want Of A Nail scenario where Peter gets Harry into rehab, resulting in Norman not relapsing to the Goblin, resulting in Gwen never dying and Peter still being with her. The biggest side effect (which I believe was the main objection) was that it would Ret-Gone every story involving the "Goblin" clan of villains, which would be... a lot.
Edited by HamburgerTime on Aug 31st 2022 at 11:08:48 AM
Ah, you're right about that - however, he has also said that he'd be happy to write the married Peter/MJ indefinitely, and that he wasn't interested in writing post OMD Peter... so I don't think it's fair to say he was more into it than Quesada.
Just that if he was going to do it, that's how he wanted to do it.
Unclear honestly - I remember reading a while back that more than just JMS talked about bringing Gwen back, so that could also be an influence.
Quesada described JMS' script as making it work in a neat way and it being the story he wanted to tell - so it could just be the idea he had for preventing Peter and MJ from ever being married in the first place.
edit: JMS has been really disparaging about the way OMD was planned by Quesada, saying it made no sense and disliking the "its magic so it works" explanation. That's probably why he went so far back and tried to do In Want For A Nail to set up all the things that would have to change.
Edited by Saiga on Aug 31st 2022 at 9:19:53 AM
Huh. I think JMS is the only one who cares enough to legitimately try and bring Gwen back.
I wonder how that would have gone?
One Strip! One Strip!

Neil Gaiman's story in Amazing Fantasy#1000 is entirely autobiographical, but it's worth a read, especially if you've ever watched the Jonathan Ross documentary.
As for Slott's story? Not bad, it's a story about an elderly Peter still fighting crime as Spidey, missing out on his birthday dinner with MJ, and getting shot and wounded by a burgler. He eventually sneeks out of hospital to prevent a mugging. MJ of course catches him and nags, telling him to get back in bed. MJ's relation to Peter is kept deliberatly ambiguous, she tries to explain to the Doctors that "I'm his..." but never completes the sentence
Apparently Slott's blowing up on twitter about it because fans took some guy's half-assed advance review of it on YT from Monday at face value and assumed things about the story without the proper context. He then went on to say he'd rather fans be surprised by half-true or false solicitations.