marvel needs to get there heads out of there asses and realize 90% of death's are a cheap cheap cheap ploy, and complete lazy writing. The less you kill off the actual more impactful a real death is. Death's are fine, and more than sanctioned.. but marvel does far far far too many these days... in the last ... 5 years we've had far tooo many deaths.. which I honestly can't think of 1 that has had that much of an emotional impact... and half of those dead..... have already returned..
Indeed. I mean, Cable has barely been dead 12 full months and Marvel is already teasing his return - because he was such a sales juggernaut in recent years. Marvel had to literally pair him with Deadpool for 2 years to get a Cable series to sell lately. Deadpool, meanwhile, can still support 1-2 titles above cancellation level. Not that I'm a major 'Pool fan, but I don't recall much demand for Cable. We'll also have a version of Nightcrawler returning, and he's been dead not much longer. CHAOS WAR was used to revive most of ALPHA FLIGHT after a 5-6 year dirt nap, and guess what? Initial demand exceeded Marvel's expectations. Sure, sales for issue two were ugly, but it's something.
Old time death stories became classic because they were rare. Nowadays they have become obligations and often read and are planned as such. Virtually every big event has to provide some designated corpses along with the crossovers to feel "important". But in the end, anything loses value if overused. Even dollars - that's what inflation is.
The best events work as stories that aren't trying to check off points on a checklist but are actually telling a story. While SPIDER-ISLAND isn't flawless, it feels more like a story than FEAR ITSELF does, with better build-up. Hopefully, things don't go downhill as they seem to do in so many Marvel events.
Nobody said she was "dead"... so why react as if somebosy's "assumption" was real... that's the part that I'm finding quite amusing...
lulz...
What do you expect? MJ is a very long term and beloved character in ASM, and everyone knows most events have corpses. Marvel has been seeking to ensure that the Parker marriage won't revive and everyone knows that most senior editors would do almost anything for sales. Tom Brevoort would pretend to eat a comic on camera to try to sell something (and he did).
There also is that sense that Marvel has sought to "oversell" Carlie Cooper to fans and one way of continuing that would be to eliminate MJ. This would be bad; after all, when Joe Q took over in 2000, Mackie was doing this whole labored storyline where he seemingly killed MJ off in an explosion so Pete could be a swingin' single again. It was a disaster, and one he helped end. Funny how a big movie in 2002 pretty much was why JMS was likely encouraged to patch up the couple, when Joe would later claim he'd always hated the marriage.
The issue with MJ is similar to what happens when DC reboots things. To a great deal of readers who are under 30, MJ was a critical part of their Spidey experience and a key component to their enjoyment of the franchise. Getting used to her not being Peter's wife is difficult enough, but killing her off would be even worse. I don't feel now is the time to divide fans further.
That would be correct. Erik Larsen didn't like Venom, so he made him uglier and uglier so he wouldn't have to draw him.
I hadn't heard that one. And the irony is I actually liked Larson's run on ASM overall - although I'll cop to being young and thus impressionable at the time. But the legacy he left behind on Venom didn't always do the character any favors in terms of exaggerated designs.
It's funny, a while back, I said I'd love for Anti-Venom to have a big moment inwhich he heals a load of people thus saving them from some maddening end game as a chance to prove himself. I just didn't want him to die. I was hoping this would be a stepping stone for him into a new chapter of greatness. Here's hoping that if this is the "end" of Anti-Venom, I hope that Brock survives and becomes a mentor of sorts to Flash or something useful that continues his path of growth into a heroic, but unstable being. Dread, I liked your addressing of how his role as the crazy guy trying to do good and spread the truth has been an interesting part of his character. I think if writers continue to use Brock in a consistent voice, he'll be great.
Right. While if Slott has a choice between Brock or MJ as a designated corpse, I'd rather it be Brock, but that's like preferring to lose the pinky finger over the thumb. Ideally, you'd like to lose neither. Let a story play out and try to make it important without a cheap, shock value death - in fact, if I was EIC, that'd be my challenge to all of my writers for a few months.
Brock becoming a mentor to Flash might remind some too much of the Caretaker role that is often used in Ghost Rider, or the role Johnny Blaze once had for Dan Ketch. Neither were known for clarity or sanity many times.
Again, I like the role Anti-Venom seems to be playing in the book since I've been reading it. He has a dodgy reason for why he still has Venom-like powers, without the weaknesses, without the alien, but it's no less dodgy than a lot of comic book contrivances. Slott, at least in "THE GHOST OF JEAN DEWOLFE", seemed to be trying to merge a lot of the conflicting takes on Brock and try to condense them into a whole - which works to a degree since Brock is supposed to be a bit insane (not quite stark raving mad, but not the picture of mental health, either). Anti-Venom wants to be a vigilante, protect the innocent and more importantly, mangle and instill fear into evildoers. He's so crazy that almost nobody trusts him, as he's turned on heroes and villains alike. He's still obsessed with Spider-Man to the point that he eagerly wants to convince Spidey that he's a heroic ally these days - after all, Brock had a lot of stalker-ish qualities to him when he was originally created. Yet Spider-Man and a lot of other criminals don't take him seriously, even with all the teeth and tongue bits. So, he's a monster who isn't always scary, a crazy guy who isn't always wrong, and a vigilante nobody trusts, but who shouldn't always be ignored or dismissed. I see a lot more potential here than in setting all this up just for a heroic sacrifice.
Of course, since Li's powers were a deus ex machina before, there's no telling whether it would be permanent. Kaine was seemingly killed off and buried, but is now the Tarantula.