Both Marvel and DC have their share of shortcomings, but the most jarring difference between the two is that DC continues to get mired in long-term story directions, while Marvel plans only for the immediate and very short-term. The first has one driving full force long after leaving the road and the other has one swerving to miss trees since they don't anticipate the curves.

Joe Quesada called into Howard Stern's Sirius show on Tuesday to talk about the reboot. Joe didn't sound troubled by an of this but the fact that he was calling in to explain may suggest Marvel is meeting more resistance to this than they initially thought.

One thing that came out of the conversation is that Marvel is going to stick with this decision for a looooong time. Joe Q said to Howard that Peter should never have been married and that it was a HUGE mistake for Marvel to have done this twenty years ago. He made no mention of the whole revealed secret identity thing that happened under his watch.

It seemed a little hypocritical to me. Peter being married seems like much less an egregious sin than revealing his identity to the whole Marvel Universe. I mean the only reason Aunt May was shot was because of that horribly bad decision.

QUOTE: This is considerably more than a "change of circumstances".

I don't think so.  While they've changed circumstances back to, essentially, what they were prior to the marriage, since it was done in-story in a manner that not only, by Marvel's own statement, is intended to leave the interim stories mostly intact, but has a bright shiny built-in escape hatch enabling them to "undo the undoing," I think a "change of circumstance" is exactly what it is.

<<but has a bright shiny built-in escape hatch enabling them to "undo the undoing," I think a "change of circumstance" is exactly what it is.>>

Funny... I remember the Clone Story being presented that way once upon a time. If you've got to build an "escape hatch"into a story...

Howard

"I think the problem I have with Marvel "big events" these days is that all they seem to care about is the end state.  Making the journey to said end state logical seems to be a peripheral concern at best."

But that's related to the "making stuff up as they go along" point.  They decide what they want to do, but they really don't think beyond that.  For instance, shouldn't SHIELD agents be constantly hounding Spider-Man around New York for being unregistered?  The next time The Thing meets Iron Man, do you think there's going to be any real mention of Stark's responsibility for the death of Ben's friend, Bill Foster (Black Goliath)?

Mike

<<Maybe I could buy it if Mephisto had whupped Spider-man´s ass all over and then, as a final humiliation, rebooted his life.   >>

But what does Mephisto want, and what does he GET out of this deal? Please? Anyone? Explain this to me?

Howard

The marriage has been wiped from existence, except in one teensy tiny part of both Peter's and MJ's souls. Mephisto will feast on the agony of those soul-parts.