Now team with Japanese Spider-Man. Either one will do.
Interesting things happening in the world of our favorite web heads. Both Peter Parker/Otto Octavius and Miles Morales are getting a change in their lives. And for once it may be all good news.
First it’s Peter Parker…making a LONG overdue return.
Peter Parker, fully back in the spider’s seat of his own mind, is returning to the pages of a relaunched Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April, by the creative team of Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. The NY Daily News just officially confirmed the news that we now know was leaked Wednesday evening by the appearance online of a cover to an upcoming free preview book .
“To do that for a solid year of my life, that’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do — to look small children in the eye at a convention and lie to them,” Slott told The Daily News. “Inside, part of me was dying.” Slott did, however, on a set visit for Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, tell Andrew Garfield that Peter would be back in time for the film.
Yeah, of course Peter will be back before the film, because it’s all about the film, right? Now we wait and see how they bring Gwen back, since she’s in the movie instead of MJ and it seems Gwen Frickin’ Stacy is the one the Spider-Writers don’t stop bringing up. Like Barry Allen next door and we know what happened there.
But the good news is that Peter Parker is coming back! Back after Otto screwed up his reputation, because as we all know…
Something else I threw together in 5 minutes.
The question is, of course, what will happen to Otto. Are they going to kill them off or clone him a new body or something? Will he become a good guy if they do or return to villainy?
Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso says that “people will appreciate him a little more after this.” He added that he thought “people have been taking [Peter] for granted.”
You know, sometimes I comment on a report with bad news and point out something I agree with. Here’s a report with GOOD news so of course something bad has to be in there. “Taking him for granted”? Who’s done that? We’ve been complaining about how you screwed up the character! He had a job where he can do some good and got out of JJ’s thumb, he had a wife, and something resembling happiness. And then you tossed that out, made him strike a deal with Satan Substitute (then blamed it on MJ to destroy her character) and then took him from his “everyman” job and tossed him into a super science lab all to somehow make him relatable. And we couldn’t because we were already doing fine with a married Peter Parker who didn’t strike deals with the devil in order to save the life of someone who didn’t want to be saved!
We didn’t take him for granted. You screwed him up!
As for the return itself, the Daily News was light on details, but Dan Slott has taken to social media to tease fans that at least some hints will come as early as this coming Wednesday, January 15, 2014. In Superior Spider-Man currently, Otto/Spidey has merged with the Venom symbiote – while Dr. Strange’s magic erased Parker from the alien suit’s memory, it does recognize that something is wrong with its host. The Avengers are on the scene, and Peter’s ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper, who has figured out the mind-swap, is currently being held captive by the Green Goblin.
“This Sunday, January 12th there will be some BIG Superior Spider-Man SPOILERS on news & comic news sites,” Slott posted on his Facebook page.
Which he took down. Guess he’s censoring himself now. Of course Osborn is somehow involved. Heck, just break out Miles Warren’s umpteenth clone while you’re at it. So Peter’s coming back. Now if MJ would just be his wife again we can put the stupidity behind us.
Now for Peter’s Ultimate Universe counterpart…oh, right, he’s still dead. But there’s his replacement, Miles Morales. Marvel themselves have the latest on him.
In the pages of CATACLYSM: THE ULTIMATES’ LAST STAND, Galactus has come to the Ultimate Universe with a hunger for planet Earth. It’s a grim state of affairs, and you might be forgiven for thinking that it means the end of the Ultimate Universe.
Thankfully that’s not the case. The Ultimate Universe will survive even this, but there will be casualties, and the heroes and the world that emerges from Cataclysm will look very different, with two new Ultimate books and a new title and a new direction for Miles Morales as part of Ultimate Marvel NOW!
What is it with Marvel and decimating the Ultimate Universe whenever they can? Bendis says that Miles will survive but heroes will be killed off. Again.
Bendis and artist David Marquez will continue Miles’ story in MILES MORALES: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and Miles’ name in the title reflects the character’s new confidence in claiming the Spider-Man mantle.
“What this book is about is how Miles Morales is the Ultimate Spider-Man and how that came to be and what he will do with it,” explains Bendis. “[Cataclysm] was his bar mitzvah, and he comes out of it ready to take it to the next level.”
I haven’t been following the Ultimate universe (why bother? it’s going through more upheavals than the DCU without a full reboot) but Miles didn’t embrace his role as Spider-Man yet? So his meeting the 616 Peter wasn’t enough to pass the torch?
“Things will happen in that issue that will cement Miles’s status as Spider-Man now and for as long as he can survive it.”
Hopefully he can survive for a long while yet, because Bendis has no plans to go anywhere:
“As long as I am physically able and contractually allowed, I will write the book. Ultimate Spider-Man remains the best job in comics. It’s everything you could want to do with a mainstream super hero with nothing holding us back. David Marquez continues to grow in leaps and bounds with every issue. It is one of the great joys of my life that I get to make comics with David, and I can’t tell you how exciting it is to get to do it again.”
The new comic title shows they’re committed to (finally) making Miles the new Spider-Man. He seems like a good kid and they can (and supposedly plan to) go in new directions with him. I don’t have a problem with this because it’s another universe and if you want Peter you will soon have him again.
Meanwhile, Miles will be joining an all-new Ultimates team alongside other Ultimate-ized teen Marvel heroes. Kitty Pride, Cloak, Dagger, a new Black Widow, and a character called Bombshell (new to the Ultimate universe, at least) will take on more street-level crime than their predecessors. For that, Sue Storm is starting a new FF, this time standing for Future Foundation and featuring a new Iron Man, the Falcon, and Machine Man. I’m kind of neutral on these because I don’t know the circumstances following the last cataclysm, much less this one.
So to summarize, Peter’s back and Otto’s out, Miles is gaining confidence, and the root problems aren’t rooted out. Eh, it’s a start.
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