Messy Spider-Man comics continuity just got a whole lot messier

[lazygecko]

Since we have a thread on Berserk news I might as well post my musings on this...

 

This Bleeding Cool article tries its best to give context to the clusterfuck that is the latest Amazing Spider-Man issue:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/kindreds-own-sins-past-in-amazing-spider-man-73-spoilers/

Basically this issue's plot revelations tries to retcon an older, universally reviled story arc from the mid 2000s called "Sins Past" where it was revealed that Gwen Stacy had an affair with Norman Osborn while she was dating Peter during his college years, had twins who grew up with accelerated aging inherited from Norman's goblin serum, and then died. Only, it retcons these events in such a mind-boggling convoluted manner that ends up damaging the history of several characters in the book to the point where it becomes such a monkey's paw situation you question whether it was even worth the trouble in the first place. So writer Nick Spencer's solution is apparently that this AI persona of Harry Osborn (the original mentally damaged Harry who lapsed into his father's Green Goblin identity before he died in the 90s era of the comic) faked the whole thing by cloning the twins in test tubes, and then had Mysterio plant false memories through hypnosis into both Norman Osborn and Mary Jane to believe that there had indeed been an affair between Norman and Gwen. And AI Harry Osborn did all this as a way to get back to his father because in some issues back it was also revealed that Norman had made a deal with Mephisto (boy, is that turning into a recurring writing crutch) at the cost of Harry's soul to save his business from bankruptcy.

 

All of this just kind of makes the whole thing... even worse?

And that's not even addressing the bigger elephant in the room which is the whole One More Day thing. It was an editorial mandate imposed on the book in the late 2000s that retconned Peter and MJ's marriage from the continuity (again, done as a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May's life).

Shortly after current writer Nick Spencer took over the book some 3 years ago, he introduced the character Kindred which has been heavily implied to be Harry Osborn from the pre-OMD continuity coming back from hell (after OMD retconned the marriage continuitiy, they reintroduced an alive and well Harry Osborn as if the events that led to his death in the 90s had never happened). And Spencer's basically been teasing addressing the OMD problem for all of this time. Now his run is almost at an end and the jury's still out on that being retconned, but I wouldn't set my hopes too high since there's been nothing to indicate a change in Marvel's editorial stance on that.

I remember when Spencer had taken over the book from Dan Slott the prevailing narrative was "Dan Slott sucks and Spencer is going to save the book and reinstate the marriage". But that narrative seems to quickly have changed with the direction of the last few issues and the readers having been blueballed for years at this point setting their expectations astronomically high for the conclusion. As for Dan Slott I think he mostly caught flak cause he was the recurring writer that took over the reins once OMD had settled and they attributed him to that decision, but that was never something he was on board with personally and just had to make do with the editorial mandate.

[Azuris]

By reading this, i think i'll stay with the TV Series from the Nineties :D

 

Doesn't matter wich Frenchise, they never should have parallel Universes or Time Travel.