<<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.>>

THAT is really it? I had heard that I thought I must have missed something. Peter and MJ knew this going into it? AND Mephisto has made good on the deal? Really? Mephisto must be mellowing.

Howard

I just read ASM #546.

This looks like a real Spider-Man story. And I haven't read any of them since JB's and Howard departure from the title (with some exception). I'm very, very satisfacted! 

Fred J Chamberlin wrote: With the exception of the OMD storyline, my perception of Marvel's events has been a "Wouldn't this be cool!!!" attitude.... and no thought given to the wreckage strewn about afterwards.

That's what I would think, too, but then I hear how stuff is planned a year or so in advance, and...  It just seems like they decide what they want their end state to be (new team of Avengers, no more mutants, 70s era Spider-Man, a "permanent" divide in the Marvel Universe, whatever) and then they decide how they want to get there.  If they can't come up with a way that makes sense with the characters as established then they just go with what they have.

QUOTE: This results in some big messes and, at times, even more frustrating.... some huge missed opportunities. The recent reveal of Peter's identity was crap, but the stories that could have been told were endless. PAD was the only one to address JJJ's reaction and he did it after inquiring and finding out that nobody else had even considered it.

To be honest, I'm glad he was the one to do the Peter/JJJ story.  Doubt I would have liked JMS' attempt.

But yeah, if the plan all along was to do a huge reset, they really should have done more to milk the concept.  Of course, that's another problem I have with a lot of the writers at Marvel.  Always trying to move from one "big idea" to another without milking it properly before moving on.

Mike Bunge wrote: For instance, shouldn't SHIELD agents be constantly hounding Spider-Man around New York for being unregistered?

To be fair, give it an issue or two.  He hasn't appeared in costume yet in BND and apparently, aside from the Swing Shift one shot, he hasn't appeared at all since the tail end of Civil War.  (Not sure how the Avengers fits into that.)

QUOTE: 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)?

Depends on who writes it.

I think that if some kind of status quo that resembles the real Spider-Man can be established, then the ends may very well justify the means.

Consider that Spider-Man's status quo has pretty much changed every year for a whole bunch of years. The Spider-Totem stuff, the Avengers stuff, the unmasked stuff. There's really been no stability at all. Changes in powers, costume, supporting cast, and so on.

I've said before that if the Spider-Man of the past few years was the one introduced back in 1962, then the character probably wouldn't have been a success. I'm sure people would have reacted negatively to the constant changes, the multi-part storylines, the increasingly gross and bizarre powers/origin, etc.

"Quote: 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)?

Depends on who writes it."

But it shouldn't depend on that.

Mike

QUOTE: But what about MJ qualifies her to start heroing about?

I still think it's part and parcel of the already-infamous "deal," and that private little whisper that Mephisto thought was really damned funny.

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

Maybe in exchange he gets some of the limelight back from Blackheart, the "dark" thorny whats-it thing he made. And maybe Joe Quesada promised him that he'd never be drawn as a weird looking bug eyed tentacle hair thing ever again.