I like the idea of Peter being single, having a secret identity, having Harry back, etc. But if anyone thinks this solves the problems with Spider-Man, that's just wishful thinking, I'm afraid.

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SER: I agree. I'm not sure why they brought back Harry. It's funny. He was dead for the five years since the first Spider-Man movie and now they bring him back when that character is now dead in the films. In fact, most of the changes come *after* the film series has pretty much ended.

As to your point about not solving the problems with Spider-Man, I'd also agree. This was handled terribly. There was no heroism in Peter's actions, and the part of me that remembers classic superhero stories expected a twist because a hero doesn't make a deal with the devil -- period.

It also reminds me of a comment JB made about a similar situation with Superman in his second ACTION COMICS run: "Yes, I'm going to become your willing slave, thus potentially placing the whole world in jeopardy,if you give me your word you will free the few people in this room 'cuz you're the devil, so I can trust you, right?"

I preferred the Doctor Strange option, as someone said. And the elimination of the unmasking, which resulted in Aunt May's shooting, would have the ramification of removing the memory of Peter's dual identity from MJ and Aunt May -- both of whom were instrumental in persuading Peter to make the decision in the first place. And if MJ had never known Peter was Spider-Man, they would have never gotten together and so on.

This I liked because it would not be so overt as "I'll fix everything but at the cost of your marriage." It would be more subtle - basically, "I can remove this blunder you made but it will mean eliminating a lot of what caused you make the blunder in the first place."

"The optimist in me can't imagine that the current Marvel administration does not recognize all this. The optimist in me believes that this is not the final word on the whole matter, that there will be a follow-up that deals properly with the moral ramifications of this story and shows Mephisto getting his comeuppance. But the optimist in me has been wrong before!"

I see what your saying and I get it.  I really do.  But wouldn't it be better, this decision having being made, to forget the past completley and move forward?  Personally I like what the end result is, evan though the execution sounds dubious.  The last few years of Spidey have been pretty naff and I too, have not bought Spider-Man regularly since Sins Past.  And, if this is the end result, I would have gone further.  I'd have had Peter back in college with all of the gang (Gwen, Harry, MJ, Flash the Bugle crew etc.) back around Amazing Spider-Man 90.  But I'll give Marvel the benefit of the doubt and see what comes of this. 

Andy

Andy

Cross-posted from the pull-list thread:

With a couple of exceptions, I've never read any of the Spider-Man books regularly.

Busiek's Untold Tales of Spider-Man and PAD's more recent Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are the two major exceptions, and there've been a couple of times I've read one or more regularly, but it never lasted more than a year.

That said, I've been fine and comfy with Peter & MJ married.  I don't think the marriage precludes telling good stories...and, yes, "good Spider-Man stories."  Unfortunately, the execution's been sorely lacking - with a few exceptions here and there.

If it was wrong as an idea, it must be even wronger as an actuality!

I've been somewhat darkly amused by the number of times I've seen this storyline referred to as "Byrne's rejected proposal..."

Anyway, since I've never been particularly opposed to the marriage, I certainly don't agree that desperate measures like partial rebooting in stories that make very little sense from a character perspective were necessary to get rid of it.  Especially when they go the extra mile to negate virtually everything that's been in place since I was reading.  (I don't see any indication that Harry's married to Liz for example, which backdates him to before the late 70s.)

Beyond that, to me Spider-Man's "realism" was far more important than his age so the whole idea goes completely against my feeling of what Spider-Man's "core concept" really is, namely the "normal guy in a superhero suit."  Normal guys graduate from high school, move away from home, change jobs, get married, quit school, go back to school, lose friends, gain new friends, etc.  Normal guys do not make deals with the devil that annul their marriage, bring their best friend back to life and move them back home.  (I'm sure some may want to, but that's beside the point.)  I wasn't "clamoring" for any of that stuff, but once it was done that should have been the end of it.

I really don't know what I'm going to do about #546 and beyond.  I was really looking forward to what Slott and co. had in store but this whole thing leaves such a bad taste in my mouth I don't know.  And even if I do go for it and like what the new guys do, I'm worried that half the time I'm going to be thinking "enjoyable, but why did they have to piss on everything that's happened in my lifetime to make it work?"  Maybe if I can rationalize the whole exercise as "Marvel Adventures: The Later Years..."