If it had occurred in a movie, it would be a very intense scene-probably almost unwatchable for me.

However, it doesn't have the same impact on the comic page. for me.

The last image I think drives home the point-that he has just taking the worst beating of his life and there is no way to stop Morlun.  I think, in the context of the story, it was needed to show what they wanted to show.

Evolve or Die.

As fro Kraven's last Hunt, it was one of the very first Spider-men stories I had read.  I was 9 or 10.  I really thought Kraven was a scary and tough villain. Little did I know when I would read his earlier appearances that he was not quite the handful he was in that story.

Looking back, I came in at a violent time for Spidey-The Gang War was just rapping up and then he would be buried alive by Kraven and then was it Ann Nocenti who sent him into a pscho ward in the Mad Dog storyline? Lots of guns and stuff. They were pretty intense

Getting comics at the flea market and newstand, never did see how Gang War ended.  I'm not even sure these were all brand new at the time, but these are the comics I read first

I can't believe I thought he might be dead at the end of that Magma storyline

I've done some seriously violent scenes myself -- the Demon biting a guy's whole face off, for instance! -- and in the end it comes down to one thing: does the scene serve the story that is being told, or does the story being told exist only to make the scene possible? In the case of the Spider-Man scene, it "feels" like the latter, but since my mind-reading powers have faded with age, I cannot saw with any certainty.

I've done some seriously violent scenes myself -- the Demon biting a guy's whole face off, for instance! -- and in the end it comes down to one thing: does the scene serve the story that is being told, or does the story being told exist only to make the scene possible? In the case of the Spider-Man scene, it "feels" like the latter, but since my mind-reading powers have faded with age, I cannot saw with any certainty.

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I've read the issue in question (though, "read" is a rather generous term to use given the story quality), as I strongly believe it's the latter. I'd even argue that you could come to that conclusion *without* having read the issue -- with no mind-reading possible -- because Quesada hyped the whole "Spider-Man will lose an organ" thing as a major selling point of this series.

Now, let's put aside the appropriateness of the eye-gouging and cannibalism, let's just discuss how it works as a story. As bad as the final season of Buffy was, when something similar happened to a character, we were not treated to cannibalism and the injury was permanent and something that symbolized the tremendous loss Buffy had suffered. In other words, it mattered.

Spider-Man's brutal beating does not really matter to the story. For one, he's DYING ANYWAY. Now, one can argue that it's less entertaining to have him keel over from some unknown illness and then be reborn. Fine. But the loss of organ means nothing -- we don't see him dealing with the loss and we never will. He will most likely have the eye when he's "reborn." So, this screams sensationalism to me.

And was it even in character for Morlun to do this? I'd argue no based on his previous appearance. Even if because he was defeated before, he wanted to humiliate and destroy Peter, that seems mostly pointless since his goal is to not have him live with that defeat. He plans on "consuming" him. Thus, an issue-long ass-whipping is extremely self-indulgent. It's like my throwing a pig around the room, beating the crap out of him, and then yanking out his eye before making sausage out of him. It's a bit extreme.

If Morlun is basically Kraven the Hunter with a vampiric angle, no one has explained to me why he doesn't just shoot him with a high-powered rifle and then get down to business. In other words, this character's actions are intended to serve the story without any grounding in logic. Why not just suck the lifeforce from him while he's yelling with pain after you've yanked out his eye? Why then proceed to pound him into the pavement? It's all so excessive.

Also, I think there's sort of an unwritten rule that characters can be beaten up and while they might "realistically" look like what Peter did in FNSM #3, they generally will just have a fat lip and a black eye. In other words, it doesn't get that grotesque. I point to when Lana Lang was tortured off camera in Superman #2 or Robin is beaten with a crowbar in Batman #427 or when Batman is beaten nearly to death by Bane in Batman #497 (as bad as that issue was, it didn't sink to the ASM #527 levels).

This is just part of the evidence that makes me think that this storyline so far was all about sensationalism at the expense of an actual story.

Matt, I hope you are now recovered from your shocking experience that, heaven forfend, someone actually likes the Other. Just comfort yourself with the knowledge that I obviously don't get Spider-man.

Joe, the last scene was shocking and brutal. Voyeuristic? I don't know. I didn't feel like a voyeur. Strangely, in the unpublished Man XL 3, that I wrote and drew for Mondo (Britain's Greatest Fanzine) back in the mid 90's I had a scene that almost exactly duplicated this one. Maybe that's why I am okay with it.

Steve Jones wrote: Just comfort yourself with the knowledge that I obviously don't get Spider-man.

As with many things you tend to have a knee jerk, nearly compulsive need to be contrary about, I did this a long time ago.  Hence the sarcasm in my post above.

Matt, I agree I can appear to be contrary for the sake of it, which, you may not believe it, I have been trying to change as it can be annoying. But I would never read a comic and pretend to like it or not just to be contrary. I read the Other and thought it was fab and groovy. Hudlin's first two issues were so so but other than that it was fine. The debate started on this board and before I could fully participate I thought I had better read the source material. I am sure there are many here who have expressed opinions on the Other who have only read the online scans or are basing their judgement on what other people are saying, which to my eyes is stupid.

What made that story stand out was that Spider-Man stories
before and after Kraven's Last Hunt were business-as-usual,
with Spider-Man cracking jokes, dealing with money problems
and super-villains and Aunt May and all of it.

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As shown above, it was immediately followed by Spider-man being locked in a mental ward, as a "mad dog" unsure if he was crazy or rational, wearing a straight jacket and being mentally absued by a psychiatrist. after that things more or less returned to normal.