ASM #26 Preview

[Sr. Bungle]

Just watched the video.

There's two pages where everyone's clothes just changes colors. Peter's hoodie goes from red to blue.

How is the book this incompetent? Just how?

This entire run is just shockingly, professionally embarrassing.

Got the link?

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Aren't he and Nick Lowe best friends? I am pretty sure the Spider-Man script book that came out recently has a forward from Lowe where he mentions he gave ASM to Wells after hearing that he wanted to start writing comics again. I would have to read it again, but I am pretty sure the reason was laid out in that book.

Honestly, it would make sense. I always got nepotism vibes from how Wells got the book.

Obviously we have no proof that Lowe just gave the book to Wells because they're friends. It's why I avoid bringing it up. But when you look at how incompetent of a writer he is, and how he clearly can't carry a main title like ASM... It's not really a stretch.

If nepotism is a factor here, nothing about that would be surprising.

[Xenon]

Betty wasn't his classmate. Betty was basically a co-worker (who IIRC was retconned to be a bit older than Peter).

There may have been a retcon, but when she was first introduced it was as a classmate who had to drop out, that's why Peter recognized her.

spoilers:

MJ attempted murder. Is that defendable?

end of spoilers

Yes. Also Self-defense, not murder.

You’re talking about Superman, MJ has always been a much more flawed character. And the whole waited 1000 years thing is super unrealistic, even for a walking saint.

I agree with this but like, people are away at war for four years and various other things. It's not THAT big of an ask for people.

LMAO, someone is reading and showing off the whole damn book on YouTube! LOL!

I didn't see that but I did see more 4chan leaks and hoo boy my workout tomorrow is going to be easy "your precious Paul" Precious, now, is he? GFY Wells.

Peter would have a big problem with it.

Yes but he's unreasonable about this.

spoilers:

Rabin make the kids look like Paul and MJ with the intent that they will take care of them, he draw them in the sand and then wiped them away, he did that to connect him with MJ, then he “kills them” There’s no sign of mind control being broken so we can put to rest that theory

end of spoilers

BUT WHY!?!

Like Holy crap I know MJ is not being written in character is the biggest crime in this run but the kid thing is really making a push for it. What purpose do the kids serve? How does it help Rabin? It doesn't make any sense. IT. DOESN'T. MAKE. ANY. SENSE.

People just want to understand why the characters have acted like they have, and we have gotten subpar explanations that have pleased no one. So people try to rationalize what's going on, and come up with theories that the book could easily lean into, but doesn't do.

People are trying to rationalize why this book is bad and hoping it will get better.

But it won't.

Not as long as Zeb Wells and Nick Lowe are working on it.

I mean we can either hope there's something more or do nothing and wait. Not great options.

[stillanerd]

BUT WHY!?!

Like Holy crap I know MJ is not being written in character is the biggest crime in this run but the kid thing is really making a push for it. What purpose do the kids serve? How does it help Rabin? It doesn't make any sense. IT. DOESN'T. MAKE. ANY. SENSE.

I suppose the "purpose" was spoilers:

so that MJ and Paul could become so emotionally attached to them--helped by the fact that they look like younger versions of themselves which Rabin actually points out--that when he does wipe them out of existence, MJ would become so distraught and fly into a murderous rage that it would make herself vunerable and thus "easier" to kill. But even THAT doesn't make any sense when you consider that, in the just previous issue, he tried to kill her when she "accepted her chains" but BEFORE he noped the kids out of existence. And not even getting into the ridiculousness that by allowing himself to die and then come back as a would-be god means that everything he did up to that point--including sending Peter and MJ to the post-apocalyptic dimension--wound up being a complete waste of time. Also, I guess this guy also stole the crown from Julia Carpenter/Madame Web as the Worst Psyhic of All Time.

end of spoilers

[Xenon]

Remember when Wells said he wanted a "fresh start" for year 2?

It's almost funny how bad he failed at that. Not only is it not a fresh start. He goes into his second year being possibly the most hated writer of all time, and definitely competing for being in the middle of the worst run of all time. Like enough spoilers have ben poster I think I can fill in the gaps. I kept wanting to hold out a little hope because "fixing" MJ would require almost no effort on Wells part, just like one word bubble but tha't just not happening here with lines like "precious paul". Just.....like this issue isn't as bad as 25. But 25 is a bottom five of all time issue, and maybe it's top three now that Sins Past has lost its fangs. Just.....holy crap. i am out. Like I'm gonna rage a few days I'm sure but I am super out.

I suppose the "purpose" was spoilers:

so that MJ and Paul could become so emotionally attached to them--helped by the fact that they look like younger versions of themselves which Rabin actually points out--that when he does wipe them out of existence, MJ would become so distraught and fly into a murderous rage that it would make herself vunerable and thus "easier" to kill. But even THAT doesn't make any sense when you consider that, in the just previous issue, he tried to kill her when she "accepted her chains" but BEFORE he noped the kids out of existence. And not even getting into the ridiculousness that by allowing himself to die and then come back as a would-be god means that everything he did up to that point--including sending Peter and MJ to the post-apocalyptic dimension--wound up being a complete waste of time. Also, I guess this guy also stole the crown from Julia Carpenter/Madame Web as the Worst Psyhic of All Time.

end of spoilers

Like the last vestige of purpose to those kids was that perhaps they were totems of some kind that made Mary Jane make bad decisions. And maybe the next writer will be able to jump onto that point to redeem her. But tha'ts clearly not what Wells ever intended and so.....there just isn't any theory that works. He doesn't even kill them in front of her. Like why not dissappear them in front of her? Hold them hostage? Are you kidding me?

This sucks. The worst part is it's a long time until they fix it too. Just....awful.

[Garlador]

But 25 is a bottom five of all time issue, and maybe it's top three now that Sins Past has lost its fangs. Just.....holy crap. i am out. Like I'm gonna rage a few days I'm sure but I am super out.

I keep shaking my head when I pulled up Sins Past and realized Mary Jane's defense of Paul is nearly IDENTITICAL to Gwen's defense of Norman.

Like, the first Sins Past never should have made it to publication, but they did it TWICE.

[Frontier]

Honestly a part of me wants to blame Wells, and it's not like the writing is great or even all that solid at this point, but I feel like editorial is really hamstringing this run that I doubt anyone could salvage it.

[stillanerd]

Some potential silver lining from all this? This should logically spoilers:

send Paul on the path to becoming a super villain. Aside from the fact that he's the "good son" of another super villain who feels guilt-ridden about what their father did--just like Harry Osborn, I might add--the kids being "dead" is what would drive him towards that path. Since MJ was told directly by Rabin that he adoptive children were never real, nor did she actually witness them "die," she would go through the five stages of grief rather quickly, eventually coming to accept that Owen and Romy are "dead." But not Paul. Having seen them "die" and seeing how grief stricken MJ is, what if Paul decides to resume his experiemnets into "quantum symbology" in order to bring Owen and Romy back? And in so doing, he becomes just as obsessive and crazy as his father the more he tries tapping into the language of the universe.

end of spoilers

But again, the key word is "logically." And thus far, logic has been thrown out the window when it comes to this run.

[Xenon]

So I read the whole thing on 4chan. Not as bad as 25. Amazing how they can do so little with so much.

*There is no explanation, no hint, no nothing regarding MJ's past behavior. Wells clearly thinks that any woman stuck away from teh man she loves will immediately fall out of love with him and bang whoever is nearby. Regardless of who they are and their established character, because that's the only way you could publish these issues. That Lowe let them through will be an eternal black mark.
*Rabin just dies because he killed the wrong girl. That's it. No one does anything. Just...he dies because he killed Kamala and thought it was MJ.
*There's nothing else about the kids. He brings them up, nukes them from afar saying they've served their purpose, and MJ flips out and attacks him ineffectually. Why were they created? How did they "chain" MJ? For what purpose did he chain MJ? No idea. Never brought up. He just says they don't belong in this world, we flashback to Paul's origin, come back, he nukes the kids. Maybe wells can follow up on the chains thing next time MJ appears. Maybe someone else-please god send someone else ASAP-can do the same. WE've already talked about this to death, and I don't want her mind controlled, but maybe they like whispered in her mind and influenced her decision making.
*If I had one good thing to say about this issue, it's that it does nothing to make it harder to suggest MJ wasn't unfaithful to Peter after all. It doesn't make it easier but it's something.
*Spider-Man? Oh, well he does push MJ out of the way of Rabin's initial attack, and he does talk MJ into running away, but.....that's all he does. The Fantastic Four show up and reaffirm they're his friends, then they and Norman go off to fight a giant lizard monster that Rabin summoned (Reed beats him by figuring out symbology and having Jonny carve a symbol into him).
*Kamala at one point says she promised MJ's Boyfriend that she'd keep her safe, to which MJ replies that Spider-Man is not her boyfriend, but it was still a nice word bubble for a second. Outside of that she's I guess the most important hero of the issue, he saves MJ when she foolishly attacks, has teh plan to distract and...well that's kinda it. No one apparently ever had a plan to deal with him if he came back.
*People are freaking out about MJ defending Paul but honestly in context it's like....half fine? Peter is clearly just mad that Paul stole his wife, and is grasping for reasons to hate him. Which is fair. And Paul did lie to them when they first met him. But he was ultimately an unwitting pawn in his father's games, and he did fight back once he knew. Mj's justification echoing Sins Past is.....terrible, and her comparing it to Spider-Man is pathetic, but it's like, 10% as bad as the hospital scene.
*The letters page makes me sick.

And...that's it? Like..I have precious few thoughts about this issue. It jsut...doesnt' do anything. It gets rid of Rabin. ok. It gives Paul a backstory, but it's not a GOOD or interesting backstory that leads anywhere, it's just a backstory. Who gives a F about Paul? The kids are gone, but the way there are gone is...less than satisfying. It serves no purpose, just as them existing at all served no purpose. I'm actually pretty angry about the whole kid thing, because it's literally one of the worst subplots of all time. It doesn't serve any purpose other than to hurt the readers. No evidence of their effect is given. And frankly it would have made a better story if they did. If after Rabin nuked the kids MJ fell over and just was like 'what the hell have I been doing for the last four years!?!" and then got distracted and overwhelmed with emotion with how it was all a waste and how she was sorry to Peter and that threw everyone off their game and made them easier targets, then fine, but all it does is...make MJ attack him. But how did he know she would attack him when she's just a normal chick? And how is that any different than when she attacked him BEFORE THE KIDS EXISTED. Like the kids plus the MJ stuff....yeah I'm moving this saga up to #3 on the worst of all time list, and honestly it's coming for OMIT's spot. (OMD being the foundation for these other bad stories gives it the advantage). But I'm slightly amazed at how little we got from these issues. the only character that gets any depth is PAUL.

It's laughable that Wells thought this would give him a clean slate for year two. No, bro, you still left MJ in a **** place, she's still gonna hang over your run like an acid rain cloud, destroying all that you try to build. If he was good there's a clear path out now that the kids are gone of course. MJ comes back alone, apologizes to Peter, tells him her head feels more clear than it has for years, tells him she and Paul were never intimate it was just that he was MJ's Partner for so long she felt she had to stick with him adjusting to the new world and couldn't break up the family, and then...whatever. You can go lots of places, even some that don't make the most sense (which is them just getting back together). solves everything, like 2-4 pages. But Wells has successfully beaten any hope out of me and 26 certainly doesn't give any reason to think any of that is going to happen.

It's the worst run ever, which is not something I say lightly. I've said it was in competition before but I always held out hope that something by the end would recontextualize it. But that's not happening. It might...probably WILL happen in the future, but that's a separate story, and a retcon at this point. There just...isn't anything to recommend. Peter doesn't get to DO almost anything in his own book, the bigges subplot is "The character assassination of Mary Jane by the Coward Zeb Wells", the biggest plot line so far is based on that character assassination, mixed up plot points, and random dead unrealated heroes. The second biggest plot line is about how bad Ben Reilly is, an incredibly "popular" story. What does this book do well? The art really isn't that bad when you're just reading through it but doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The storylines are crap. The hero doesn't get to do heroic things. The characters are badly written. Like I'm a open Slott hater but at least I could point to Slott's stories and go "there's a kernal of a good story in there". Slott even tricked me several times into enjoying the first half of his stories only to be let down by the end. But still, enjoying HALF a story is better than enjoying none of it.

I've been more than fair. While I stopped reading when Wells took over i kept it on my pull list thinking that there would be some answer that would be enough that i could enjoy the run at some point. But that's over now. Tomorrow's errand run will sadly contain a trip to the comic shop to pick up my last Pull list for the time being as I'm telling them to cancel it all for now (I only read Batman besides Spider-Man adjecent book so there's nothing left on it at this point). once i get the rage out of my system i'll probably disappear again until they do somethign to fix MJ. A real shame. Those three glory years when Spencer was on feel so far away now. Damn you substack.

[Xenon]

Some potential silver lining from all this? This should logically spoilers:

send Paul on the path to becoming a super villain. Aside from the fact that he's the "good son" of another super villain who feels guilt-ridden about what their father did--just like Harry Osborn, I might add--the kids being "dead" is what would drive him towards that path. Since MJ was told directly by Rabin that he adoptive children were never real, nor did she actually witness them "die," she would go through the five stages of grief rather quickly, eventually coming to accept that Owen and Romy are "dead." But not Paul. Having seen them "die" and seeing how grief stricken MJ is, what if Paul decides to resume his experiemnets into "quantum symbology" in order to bring Owen and Romy back? And in so doing, he becomes just as obsessive and crazy as his father the more he tries tapping into the language of the universe.

end of spoilers

But again, the key word is "logically." And thus far, logic has been thrown out the window when it comes to this run.

I just wnat to be done with Paul. Have MJ and him disappear for awhile and have only MJ come back and reveal they were never together together and we'll never speak of him again. Just...be done with it already.

[Batman Begins 2005]

My name is Paul and it's my Dad's birthday today, same day as The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #26. Happy birthday, Dad. I love you xxx. We're both Spider-Man fans. Sympathise with our plight please.

[Kevinroc]

The traditional way stories like this are done where the male hero ends up in some magical land for many years with a female friend (Superman and Batman have both been in similar situations with their friend Wonder Woman) is their feelings for their partner (Lois and Catwoman respectively) are so strong that they wouldn't dare sleep with their friend even when she offers companionship (and there's a lot to unpack about putting Wonder Woman in this situation with Superman and Batman), but if we put MJ in a similar situation, she, what? Falls out of love with Peter? I know she's a supporting character, but I can't shake the idea that this whole set-up feels incredibly sexist. Like women don't care about their partners as much as men do.

[Kurus]

The traditional way stories like this are done where the male hero ends up in some magical land for many years with a female friend (Superman and Batman have both been in similar situations with their friend Wonder Woman) is their feelings for their partner (Lois and Catwoman respectively) are so strong that they wouldn't dare sleep with their friend even when she offers companionship (and there's a lot to unpack about putting Wonder Woman in this situation with Superman and Batman), but if we put MJ in a similar situation, she, what? Falls out of love with Peter? I know she's a supporting character, but I can't shake the idea that this whole set-up feels incredibly sexist. Like women don't care about their partners as much as men do.

Or maybe it’s just MJ. This whole run seems designed to make people hate her.

[Derek Metaltron]

Or maybe it’s just MJ. This whole run seems designed to make people hate her.

Marvel has variously attempted to do that since 2007 and OMD. Makes me wonder if we should expect another decade of her getting tainted by the story and other writers having no clue what to do with her as happened after OMD.

[Kevinroc]

Or maybe it’s just MJ. This whole run seems designed to make people hate her.

Felicia comes across as a consolation prize because Peter can't have the item, I mean love interest, he really wants.

The sexism is baked into this run.