The problem is, that super hero characters are more than just fictional creations around which we read their adventures. They are also hot intellectual properties upon which literally billions of dollars have been generated, a business that’s built on brand recognition. And part of the billion-dollar-building of said brand recognition is a familiar back story that everyone knows (because it works so well with the crowd at large).

If the folks in charge over there want to keep the property viable and not have to work around all their existing licenses (the film deal with Sony, for example) that would need the consumer to be brought up to speed on the paradigm, they are not going to let Otto keep Pete’s body. If anything, the harder job is going to be in explaining how they got Otto Octavius a new body in the series, as he much like Parker is also a trademarked property around which all sorts of merchandising is sold…

Hey, everyone, it’s Tony Esteves, creator of Legendary Woodsman!

Your interpretation of the Pete’s no death policy is a lot more generous than mine! Given that Marla Jameson wasn’t someone of great importance to Pete, like say, Gwen Stacy, and that her death wasn’t something that Pete was responsible for, his reaction seemed kind of overwrought.

If Slott was trying to make some kind of statement about meaningless deaths in comics, I’d say that his “killing” of Peter Parker makes him a hypocrite. Even if Pete wasn’t technically killed, and the situation is comparatively easy to reverse, it’s not much better than any of the other non-deaths that have plagued comics for the last couple of decades. It’s still being touted as a big deal and used for publicity. (Or, as I said, if this death actually sticks, it’s an unforgivable betrayal of everything that Spider-Man is about.)

With Doc Ock taking over Peter’s body, we get to have the death hype without an actual death. Easily reversed without a time machine, clone, deal with the devil, or cosmic ordeal. In the meantime, we get to read some comics with awkward megalomaniacal Spider-Ock pretending to be Peter while Peter attempts to regain control. Sounds good, right?

I railed against the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe, thinking that it would be a temporary publicity stunt, so the fact that Miles is still Spider-Man is a pleasant surprise. And from what I’ve read (about six issues), the series does capture the spirit that I expect from a Spider-Man book.

I do expect Pete to return to his body in the regular continuity before too long, both because of the fan backlash to the whole thing, as well as the nature of the mind-swap. Because it was accomplished through some sort of neural override or somesuch, it would be so easy to just have Pete’s consciousness reassert itself in his brain or something. They wouldn’t even have to resort to some far-out resurrection storyline.

I’ve always hated these “big death” things and then the ensuing resurrection, but Bendis created a character that felt totally right. Miles continues a lot of what I enjoyed about Peter Parker while being a breath of fresh air at the same time.

I’ve been enjoying it enough that I’d been thinking lately that it might be fun to start picking up titles in the main Marvel universe where Peter’s still alive.

So yeah, about that…

When I heard about this death, I was amused to realize that this was exactly the kind of thing I’d been afraid Bendis would do, but that he actually avoided.

The funny thing is, I’m still optimistic. I’m betting that this is a relatively short term thing (by comparison to Captain America at least), and that the trade paperback of how Peter Parker comes back from this will be fun to read.

On the off chance that this isn’t the case, well… That would suck.

Whatever happens, I’m unlikely to pick up a main universe Spider-man comic for a while.

It feels gimmicky to me. Like the 90’s. It doesn’t bode well for the industry but that is a whole other topic.

That’s a good analogy (carnival barking, I mean)!

Yes, the Marvel NOW initiative strikes me as a direct response to the New 52, but because Marvel doesn’t do big continuity resets the way that DC does, it’s difficult to understand what the event actually is. Basically, they’re ending their main titles and starting new titles with the same characters. So it’s just another way of reseting their issue numbers without doing much else. Amazing Spider-Man is being replaced by Superior Spider-Man. Bleh.

And yes, they’re pulling a few stunts in an attempt to shake things up, like the Spider-Man death, and a few redesigned costumes. But it seems pretty meaningless to me, and as a response to the New 52, it’s kind of pathetic.

To be honest I am not to familiar with the NOW stuff. Seemed to me it was Marvel reacting to the DC New 52. I understand your continuing to read Marvel because I fell for the DC New 52 and am reading a couple of those titles. I am sure it is only a matter of time before the New 52 fall back into gimmicks and crossovers and major deaths. It is even spilling over into indie books I love, the supposed BIG ULTIMATE DEATH THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING. Kirkman has been doing it with Walking Dead and now Invincible. Both 100 issue’s promised a big shocking death. To me that isn’t storytelling that is carnival barking.

Hey, everyone, it’s Kevin Gentilcore, creator of Teenage Love Zombies!

Thanks for bringing up the death threats! I had meant to address that in my post, but I forgot. As much as I hate what Slott has done with my favorite character, he absolutely did not deserve death threats, or any kind of threats for that matter. People need to keep things in perspective, and I find the degree of entitlement of these readers to be a far worse than anything Slott did.

And you’re right about Marvel in general. I’ve been tempted to stop reading for a good while, but I’m a sucker. I’m always waiting for the next creative team to take over and make things better. And to be fair, some decent comics do still rise above the middling quality stuff that they’re mass-producing. But this “death” of Peter Parker, apart from being awful in its own right, is part of the whole “Marvel NOW!” thing, which is the most meaningless publicity stunt since the last one.