Amazing Spider-Man #1 (legacy 802) Discussion and Spoilers

[nightw1ng]

Honestly, I'm still kind of in shock. Those last few pages of the main story, when he's talking to someone off panel, it was so obviously MJ. Yet, I kept thinking to myself that it was a red herring and wondering who the surprise person really was. Upon turning the page, it turns out to really be MJ. It's funny how being burned by over 10 years of teasing about their relationship that having MJ come back into Pete's life feels like an actual twist.

[Kevinroc]

Spencer makes one thing in particular clear that people haven't discussed in this thread.

Robbie clearly knows Peter is Spider-Man.

[oldschool]

Spencer makes one thing in particular clear that people haven't discussed in this thread.

Robbie clearly knows Peter is Spider-Man.

Yes, but he has for years. This is not the first line of dialogue that illustrates that clearly. IIRC, it was even expressed in the Spider-Man Unmasked issues that he always knew but chose to protect his secret once Peter publicly unmasked.

[Prof. Warren]

Spencer makes one thing in particular clear that people haven't discussed in this thread.

Robbie clearly knows Peter is Spider-Man.

Yes, definitely. Hope that gets followed up on.

I also liked how the two issues that some people got worked up about ahead of time from the FCBD issue and the preview pages for #1 - one, that Peter seemed not to know who Boomerang was in his civilian ID and two, why the rest of the heroes gave him a negative reception when he shows up to help against the invasion - were both fully addressed and explained in this issue.

I also like that we're finally going to see Fisk as Mayor make an impact on Spidey's life.

Also, a question - who's the guy with Mysterio at the end? If we've seen him before, it's slipping my memory.

[Mister Mets]

It's an excellent start. Spencer takes advantage of the first issue to set up some interesting stuff, and offer three endings. I'm interested in what happens next to Peter and MJ.

And Ottley's art is impressive, as he tackles the alien invasion and guest starrs, as well as Peter's private life crumbling.

[Rzerox21xx]

I hope it sticks, I suppose the new love interests are a misdirection but lets see, marvel has trolled us before. but Im enjoying that issue.

[Rzerox21xx]

Yes, but he has for years. This is not the first line of dialogue that illustrates that clearly. IIRC, it was even expressed in the Spider-Man Unmasked issues that he always knew but chose to protect his secret once Peter publicly unmasked.

I would love to see Robbie and Jonah have a talk about this, seeing how Jonah knows. I would love the conversation

[CrimsonEchidna]

You know, Spencer is the one who had Cassie Lang become Stinger like her MC2 counterpart. Maybe he really is a big DeFalco fan.

I'm thinking now too, this might explain why Spencer decided to make Boomerang Pete's roommate. Maybe a future plot point is Boomerang tries to use Pete's unemployment to his advantage to try and get him to develop tech for him and the other Superior Foes and Pete uses it as an opportunity to infiltrate the group. :P

[Huntsman Spider]

Man, I loved absolutely everything about this. I love how Peter's fall from grace didn't feel cheap, everything felt justified. I do wish we could've seen exactly why the heroes hate Spider-Man now outside of Kingpin "seeding distrust", but this issue already has so much, and we'll probably find out more about that later. I was afraid the story was gonna be a complete reset that just does its own thing, but nope there is alot of callbacks and loose plot threads being picked up here (and oddly enough no editor notes too). Ottley's art and the colouring is fantastic, Spencer's writing is great as always, I knew from Captain America he's good at weaving a story, but the dialogue also stood out. Extra points to "My sexy chair..."

And of course, that ending. No matter what this ends up leading to, at least its something

Also, regarding that Mysterio ending, I think I have a feeling about what's going on, but I don't know alot about his history, so if anyone else knows exactly what that is about, I would be happy to hear about it.

To make a long story short, Mysterio committed suicide after failing to break Daredevil mentally in the Kevin Smith arc that relaunched Daredevil in the late 90s under the Marvel Knights banner, taking after Daredevil's insult for him as a human Xerox and "stealing a move from Kraven." Of course, as suicide is a mortal sin according to most iterations of the Christian faith that I'm aware of, Mysterio ended up in hell, and even if the suicide itself wasn't what put him there, all of his evildoing beforehand would probably still earn him a spot of eternal punishment. During Peter David's run on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Mysterio was apparently pulled out of hell to screw with Spider-Man some more, though after One More Day, he was back to being a "standard" super-illusionist and his response to being questioned about his death was, "Master of illusion, duh!" Then David revealed years later in Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider that Mysterio had indeed died, gone to hell, and somehow come back to life, making an attempt to lie low and live a normal life out of fear of going back to hell until things involving his daughter Misty and the Scarlet Spider put a kibosh on that. Given this first issue, it looks like we might be getting set up for an answer as to how Mysterio came back to life, as it seems he still owes hell's demons a few favors . . . or else he might just wind up going back down there, permanently.

[Frontier]

I'm thinking now too, this might explain why Spencer decided to make Boomerang Pete's roommate. Maybe a future plot point is Boomerang tries to use Pete's unemployment to his advantage to try and get him to develop tech for him and the other Superior Foes and Pete uses it as an opportunity to infiltrate the group. :P

Although realistically I don't know if the police would hire someone who falsified photos and a thesis or ever trust them with working with evidence from crime scenes.

[blackspidey2099]

Now I honestly expected this issue to be trash tier, and I wasn’t even going to buy this book TBH, but I just couldn’t resist checking it out. And man, am I glad I did. This was some great stuff. I love that Spencer brought MJ back as a major supporting character. I’m glad Spencer got rid of that stupid science editor job and put Peter back in school doing science where he belongs. Even though I didn’t like all the overly Parker Luck stuff that happened extremely abruptly, Spencer did it right by also showing how Peter was actually competent (he had a better theory than Doc Ock did anyways, he just didn’t get to show it) and I’m glad Peter is well aware of who Boomerang is. And of course, that Mysterio backup was just crazy (in a good way). For a bit, I wasn’t sure if the weird hallucination guy was supposed to be Mephisto, but it looks like it’s a continuation from FNSM which is still interesting enough. Anyways, I hope Spencer is done breaking Peter down, since it looks like Peter has a long way up from here (get his PhD and then go back to being a well respected scientist). Overall, amazing first issue, and I hope this is a sign of things to come from Spencer.

As for things I didn’t like, there were only a few bits. The heroes disliking Spider-Man in the beginning still felt disrespectful, and even though Spencer tried to explain it, he didn’t succeed. I didn’t see any connection between Peter refusing to take the key to the city from Fisk and the heroes hating Peter. The ESU anti-plagiarism demonstration also seemed very rushed; unless Spencer’s planning to reveal that lady is a super villain or has some sort of ulterior motive, it is a bit weird. I also didn’t like Peter making it seem like keeping the doctorate he got from Ock was a bad thing. He literally had no way to renounce that doctorate without revealing his secret identity, and he has already shown that he has the knowledge and intelligence worthy of any number of PhD degrees, so I don’t think it’s fair to blame him for not revealing his secret identity. Finally, I didn’t think Ottley’s art was that great - it was good for most of the issue but some panels were really bad IMO. It’s probably just me, since I prefer realistic rather than stylistic art, but I thought it detracted from the quality of the issue. But I’m glad to say that’s all I didn’t like about the issue.

I know I said I’d be dropping ASM after that horrible ASM 800, but I’m glad I couldn’t keep my vow. If Spencer can keep this quality and characterization up throughout his run, I think we have another classic Spider-Man run on our hands!

[Noronha]

And just like that Peter´s back, MJ is back...and I am back!

After 10 years amazing spider-man is back on my pull list!

I've waited soooo long for this...please don't let it end with the rug pulled from under me.

[Wissenschaft]

I both like this issue and hated it. I wanted to slap people in this comic. Don't you talk like that to Peter, Aunt may. You have NO idea what hes been through. Ugh, all that was annoying. Seriously, explain to me why Parker hasn't quit being spiderman? No seriously, F the MCU. Let the people of this stupid universe suffer, they aren't worth saving. Ugh...I swear parker is a masochist. Now Batman I can see taking this abuse because hes totally a masochist. But Peter Parker?

That said, this is a return to old school parker luck. And its nice to have the hope that One more day might finally be ending. Even if that terrible story isn't retcon, at least the two idiots are finally getting back together again. Though I feel like strangling people in this comic.

Sigh, I'm not good with soap opera drama.

[Huntsman Spider]

Now I honestly expected this issue to be trash tier, and I wasn’t even going to buy this book TBH, but I just couldn’t resist checking it out. And man, am I glad I did. This was some great stuff. I love that Spencer brought MJ back as a major supporting character. I’m glad Spencer got rid of that stupid science editor job and put Peter back in school doing science where he belongs. Even though I didn’t like all the overly Parker Luck stuff that happened extremely abruptly, Spencer did it right by also showing how Peter was actually competent (he had a better theory than Doc Ock did anyways, he just didn’t get to show it) and I’m glad Peter is well aware of who Boomerang is. And of course, that Mysterio backup was just crazy (in a good way). For a bit, I wasn’t sure if the weird hallucination guy was supposed to be Mephisto, but it looks like it’s a continuation from FNSM which is still interesting enough. Anyways, I hope Spencer is done breaking Peter down, since it looks like Peter has a long way up from here (get his PhD and then go back to being a well respected scientist). Overall, amazing first issue, and I hope this is a sign of things to come from Spencer.

As for things I didn’t like, there were only a few bits. The heroes disliking Spider-Man in the beginning still felt disrespectful, and even though Spencer tried to explain it, he didn’t succeed. I didn’t see any connection between Peter refusing to take the key to the city from Fisk and the heroes hating Peter. The ESU anti-plagiarism demonstration also seemed very rushed; unless Spencer’s planning to reveal that lady is a super villain or has some sort of ulterior motive, it is a bit weird. I also didn’t like Peter making it seem like keeping the doctorate he got from Ock was a bad thing. He literally had no way to renounce that doctorate without revealing his secret identity, and he has already shown that he has the knowledge and intelligence worthy of any number of PhD degrees, so I don’t think it’s fair to blame him for not revealing his secret identity. Finally, I didn’t think Ottley’s art was that great - it was good for most of the issue but some panels were really bad IMO. It’s probably just me, since I prefer realistic rather than stylistic art, but I thought it detracted from the quality of the issue. But I’m glad to say that’s all I didn’t like about the issue.

I know I said I’d be dropping ASM after that horrible ASM 800, but I’m glad I couldn’t keep my vow. If Spencer can keep this quality and characterization up throughout his run, I think we have another classic Spider-Man run on our hands!

The fact that Fisk offered Spider-Man a key to the city at all, while coming down so harshly on other costumed heroes/vigilantes, was what drove the wedge between him and them. Most of them have no idea who he actually is behind that mask, whereas everyone else just about knows everything about each other, so Spider-Man getting praise from Fisk makes them more suspicious of him than they might've been already. That justification aside, they should at least know him well enough to know that he's not the kind of guy that would take a bribe or a job from Fisk, no matter how big or how lucrative.

I both like this issue and hated it. I wanted to slap people in this comic. Don't you talk like that to Peter, Aunt may. You have NO idea what hes been through. Ugh, all that was annoying. Seriously, explain to me why Parker hasn't quit being spiderman? No seriously, F the MCU. Let the people of this stupid universe suffer, they aren't worth saving. Ugh...I swear parker is a masochist. Now Batman I can see taking this abuse because hes totally a masochist. But Peter Parker?

That said, this is a return to old school parker luck. And its nice to have the hope that One more day might finally be ending. Even if that terrible story isn't retcon, at least the two idiots are finally getting back together again. Though I feel like strangling people in this comic.

Sigh, I'm not good with soap opera drama.

I can understand that, and I generally agree with you. That said, Peter doesn't quit being Spider-Man because contrary to what Aunt May currently believes about him, he was raised better than that, and while it might come off masochistic, it's that very dedication to doing the right thing in spite of the adversity he faces that has saved the people of the Marvel Universe (and even occasionally Marvel Multiverse) again and again. Of course, I could see him telling the rest of the superheroes to go screw themselves; not like being in their club has done him any favors lately, with the way they treat him, and if they can't see that Fisk is trying to play them, they can definitely go hang.

[Wissenschaft]

I can understand that, and I generally agree with you. That said, Peter doesn't quit being Spider-Man because contrary to what Aunt May currently believes about him, he was raised better than that, and while it might come off masochistic, it's that very dedication to doing the right thing in spite of the adversity he faces that has saved the people of the Marvel Universe (and even occasionally Marvel Multiverse) again and again. Of course, I could see him telling the rest of the superheroes to go screw themselves; not like being in their club has done him any favors lately, with the way they treat him, and if they can't see that Fisk is trying to play them, they can definitely go hang.

Ugh, that was even worst. How on Earth could any of those superheroes fall for that? Its like this issue was written in a vacuum and these heroes have no past history with Wilson Fist to know how manipulative he is. Nor the previous experience to know they can trust spidey. Peter is such a nice guy that he doesn't even hold a grudge against his hero friends for giving him the cold shoulder. O.o

Parker needs an intervention. Stop being so nice. Nice people get run over, especially in the MCU. lol

I suppose this is why I also like reading comics like Punisher and Wolverine. Sometimes its just cathartic to read the hero just being cruel back to the bad guys.