Sunday, February 03, 2008

Comics: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

So I did my bitching about Spider-Man One More Day and now here we are at the aftermath of the deal with the devil and arrived at Brand New Day. Writer Dan Slott has been given the un-inviable task of writing the first story arc after, in my opinion, one of the worst hit jobs on a character since the Bobby Ewing debacle on Dallas, y'know the one where his character is revived after they discover an entire season was just a dream. On some levels this Mephisto taking away the marriage may be ten times worse.

JMS' run ends with Peter and MJ and the rest of the world forgetting that they were ever married and somehow Peter's best friend Harry Osborn is alive and well sans wife Liz, sans little son Norman. I can't wait for the explanation on how Pete's now non-existant marriage somehow stops Harry from settling down with a wife and kid. Peter is living the loser life, as he was 30 some years ago, with his Aunt May in Queens and he is jobless, again. These tired stories have been told to the hilt in Spider-Man for his first twenty or so years. What is new and fresh about a guy in his late 20's living with his old, old aunt where he can't find a girl and he can't find a job? I'm sorry he's more than a loser he is pathetic. Maybe this is what the deal with the devil was supposed to entail. Peter Parker losing his ball sack along with his hot model wife. Anyway the new arc was written by Dan Slott (Avengers: The Initiative, She-Hulk and Deadpool) and drawn by the very excellent Steve McNiven (Civil War and New Avengers). I wanted to like this I really did, I love McNiven's work from Civil War and I think he's a great fit for Spider-Man. I have enjoyed the Initiative stuff so it would be fair to say that I was looking forward to seeing what Dan Slott could do.

The only problem was getting past this deal with the devil thing. I don't know every change in Spidey's new continuity now so it's frustrating because so much about Spider-Man is based on his past. It's such a great character to be built on so many events and to have so many writers take those experiences and move him forward. Now that they have erased a union that has been around for so long that they have, in a nutshell, changed the personality of Peter Parker. He now has a giant hole in his timeline and now the writers are going to have to take all of this time explaining the new continuity. I guess the thing that really pisses me off is that Quesada and others at Marvel keep saying in interviews that they did not change much of anything in Spidey's History. They should really stop saying that. They have changed EVERYTHING in his past, rather than make substantive changes toward the future they have made changes in the past and only because they wanted to get around the damn marriage. Overall Brand New Day wasn't bad but it wasn't great either, especially the stuff with the new super heroine Jackpot. Are you kidding me Jackpot? She has red hair and she is a model in her real life--I wonder who she can be in real life. This is the worst idea ever and it continues to get worse. So I'm letting you know you are now on notice Marvel! I will give the next 3 part arc a shot but if it is as lackluster as this one then I'm going to have to drop this series altogether.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

so his web isn't internal anymore and he doesn't go through the Evolve or Die part again? Thats dumb.

Unknown said...

Actually Joe Q. claim that the Evolve or Die stuff happened but they don't explain why he doesn't have the organic web shooters anymore.

Anonymous said...

I've been collecting Spider-Man comics since 1978.

The only times I've ever quit collecting was in the 90's with the whole clone/Ben Reilly crap.

The second time was a few weeks ago.

Brand New Day is a very, very bad idea.

Unknown said...

I completely agree- I also stopped after the Clone stuff and didn't come back until about four issues into JMS' run. If this Brand New Day continue to be as terrible I'll be dropping it as well.

Unknown said...

Personally, I really enjoyed the Clone Saga. Best thing Marvel ever did for the character. Didn't care for OMD, though. Seems like character regression more than anything else.

Anonymous said...

I can sum up Spider-Man:Brand New Day in 3 words, WORST IDEA EVER!! I mean Joe Quesada (Editor in Cheif of Marvel comics) has done a horrible thing, he has ruined a perfectly good comic book. Peter Parker/Spider-Man marrying Mary Jane was in my opinion the best thing that happened tn the marvel universe I mean (not to be offensive) Spidey being killed by Morlun was better than this. I don't think i will ever think about Spidermn the same way again! So thank you Joe Quesada, thank you! Thank you for ruining my belief in Spider-Man. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!!!