QUOTE: I'm not sure if this has already been discussed...but what's the consensus on the thrice-monthly thing?  It obviously came about because they had one book (AMAZING) selling more than the other two Spider-monthlies combined, but is trying to squeeze more money out of the AMAZING audience really the best way to deal with that?

It's an interesting way to get around the whole "second class" status the other books have.  The downside is that some people simply don't want to buy three books starring the same character.  And of course you run the risk that fans who are fond of one writer won't like the others and will drop the whole thing.

That said, the whole thrice monthly round robin (which appears to be planned all the way to #600 (which is also when I think we'll go back to seperate books...)) sounds like it'll be an interesting experiment.  Plus it's the only thing that has me remotely interesting in sticking around.  If it was still three books with their own creative teams, I doubt I'd bother.  It was a lot of fun the first time, but I have no particular need to see "repeats with a twist."  But since they're throwing in some new storytelling tricks (for Spider-Man anyway), I'll give it a fair shot.

Pros:

Spider-Man is again recognizable and not f-ed up beyond belief.  Hopefully vile enemies like Venom and Carnage are also banished.

Cons:

Marvel has now crossed the line and become DC.  Continuity used to be the fine line that marked the true difference between Marvel and DC.  Now that Marvel has done this, basically ALL the stories from about Amazing Spider-Man 200 and on are useless and have no place in Amazing Spider History.  If the last 20 years or so don't mean anything, then what's to make you believe that any future story will really mean anything?  That's why I could never really get too deep into DC characters... the stories don't really mean anything because somewhere down the line, that story won't have mattered.

I think of it like this:  Baseball has SO many games in a season, that any one particular game doesn't really mean anything.  But a single Football game can make or break a season, especially in college.  So a Football game is so much more interesting to watch over a baseball game because the stakes are high.  It used to be that a Marvel story meant a lot because that story might affect all future stories of that character because continuity was consistent.  (Continuity starting in 1961 of course - NOT attempting to deal with Captain America in the 1950's - I wasn't around for that).

So:  End result - I like that Spider-Man is back to normal, but I will no longer care about the character and I will never buy the book, because now nothing matters to the character - Mephisto can just undo whatever I invested in anyway.

Final note - I think the art on that synopsis page was horrific, especially Peter Parker's face, but again, that's just me, lone voice crying in the wilderness.

According to that 2-page spread, Harry Osborn "still hates Spidey with a vengeance".

Since when does Harry (in his normal, sane, non-Goblin mode) hate Spider-Man (aside from in the movies, that is)?