The "Ultimate" comics were the intentional second-universe of Marvel books intended to, initially, kick-start the Marvel U for a new generation. That didn't really happen (although one could argue the creative directions in the books significantly helped guide the mainstream Marvel U), and it mostly meant Marvel now has an "Earth 2" that they can muck with and use to kill characters when it seems "neat". These books sell decently, but their star has certainly fallen in sales and "who gives a @#$% anymore?" in the comics geek-o-sphere.
A while back Marvel brass said they planned to start routinely killing characters because of what it did for sales. They were maybe joking, but it sure didn't sound like it. Plus, they do, in fact, keep killing characters because of what it does for sales. It was when they made the announcement that I felt the last vestiges of my Marvel fandom slip away. I'm now a fan of creators who go to work at Marvel, and I'm a fan of certain characters (see: Rocket Raccoon), but I just don't care anymore about the company.
Anyhow, RHPT asked if I knew about the death of Ultimate Spider-Man/ Peter Parker occurring in the pages of Ultimate Spidey this week.
I knew it was coming thanks to the fact that Marvel called their months' long storyline "The Death of Ultimate Spider-Man", but I didn't know when it was going down as I don't buy Ultimate Spidey anymore and haven't since about 2007 or so.
From the article:
Fans of Spider-Man need not worry much, though, because the Ultimates imprint is separate from Marvel's bigger universe. Whatever fate may befall Ultimate Spider-Man won't count in the pages of the other series, including Amazing Spider-Man.So, there's another reason I don't take much notice.
I am sure the death is story driven, etc... but I'm just not involved as a reader or fan. So, aside from basically knowing Ultimate Spidey is dead as a point of trivia, its not anything that I'm worked up about.
As someone who enjoys Ultimate Spider-Man in trades from the library I can't complain too much about this the end of the story would have been spoiled for me long before I got a chance to read it. However, in saying that i still think this is a crap move by Marvel.
ReplyDeleteEven though the storyline is called "Death of Spider-Man" there is still wiggle room in there. Maybe this would be the death of Spider-Man only, perhaps something happens that would prevent Peter Parker from being Spider-Man like his identity being revealed to the world. Then Peter would join up as Captain America's new side kick or some such plot twist.
This seems to be a bit of an FU to regular readers and they were robbed of getting to the final page of the series and feeling the full emotional impact. Hell the published the final page all over the internet before people got a chance to get it in their grubby little hands.
For shame, Marvel, for shame.