They have great writers, great artists and a setup I can live with.

I wonder how long the creative teams will stay in place... or how long until issues are late.

We should start a pool <g>....

"Depending on how old Peter is supposed to be now, the fact that he may live with his aunt doesn't make him a loser in my book."

Particularly if the reason he has no money is because he can't commit himself to a full-time job while honoring his duties as Spider-Man.  He may appear like a loser to others, but it is simply one more price he pays for doing the right thing.  Played correctly, it only enhances the aspects of the character that make him so interesting.

BT

"Played correctly, it only enhances the aspects of the character that make him so interesting."

That doesn't apply to the large portion of today's audience that views Peter Parker as a reflection of themselves instead of a fictional character or those who view Spider-Man's whole history as one of change and "growth" leading naturally to the pre-OMD status quo.

Mike

Howard Mackie wrote: ME: <<Well, I'd say things started going off the rails with the Clone Saga. >> It took longer than I thought to invoke the "C" word.

Sorry.  If it helps, I've felt that way long before I knew what this whole "Internet" thing was.  Unfortunately, "sorry Peter, you're the clone" was a jump the shark moment for me.  The series had the chance to jump back, but y'all ended the story with another jump the shark moment for me instead - the return of Norman Osborn.  If you guys had brought back the Jackal to tie everything up and close the loop on the whole story, then never spoke of it again, then my "starting to go off the rails" moment would have been Sins Past.

QUOTE: WHAT does Mephisto get out of this deal that gives Marvel exactly what it seems to want?

In-story answer - he gets to put one over on God because Peter's and MJ's relationship was "blessed by God" or somesuch.  (Mind you, I'm not really sure how tossing in a best friend resurrection as a surprise bonus constitutes "sticking it to Peter...")

QUOTE: How is it that Peter excepts that Mephisto IS who he says he is, and can do what he says he can? And IF Peter excepts Mephisto as the MU version of the Devil, wouldn't he know that he NEVER does what he says he will?

In-story answer - he's desperate enough to try anything.

My real answer is that the characters were doing what they were "told" to do by Joe -n- Joe.  Proper characterization wasn't as large of a concern as getting the pieces where they wanted them to be.  Rather annoying trend at Marvel for the last few years, alas.

MIke Bunge wrote: Regarding the JMS comments from Newsarama, I find it pretty funny that he thinks his anal-retentive-fanboy-constructed retcon would have been sooooo superior to JoeQ's "It's just magic" retcon.

Technically, he's correct that it would make more in-story sense for the retcons.  Still a bad idea, though.

I am on the fence for whether or not I give Brand New Day a shot.  I read one more day, just for the shock value at how a character that brought me into comics, had become involved in one of the worst written and drawn comics ever.  My thoughts are One More Day was done to reset the Spiderman Universe and since Peter Parker doesn't remember it, it will never be mentioned in Spiderman comics again (until the next big even in 6 months or so).  

Some of the new writters (Slott, Guggenheim) give me hope.  If they are able to keep the slate clean, there are the potential for good stories going forward. 

And I have already forgotten all about Sins Past, and the fearsome new Grey Goblin.  Just a bad dream.... 

Dave Phelps wrote: but y'all ended the story with another jump the shark moment for me instead - the return of Norman Osborn.

There's one thing both you and I can agree on concerning Spider-Man, Dave; I really didn't like bringing Norman back from the dead. 

"Technically, he's correct that it would make more in-story sense for the retcons.  Still a bad idea, though."

Oh, I'm sure JMS' version would have hung together a lot better...but as you point out, it's still a massively stupid idea.  I find JMS working so hard to polish up that turd to be more pathetic than JoeQ's boldfaced "Yup!  It's a turd!" approach.

Mike