ASM #26 Preview

[Frontier]

ffs

Attachment 132260

Issue was fine, 3\5. I'll never get to read it without seeing a good third of the pages spoiled on my twitter timeline, but i guess them's the breaks. The year-long arc is well and closed now, and, well, we have our answers.

Zeb closed the mystery out in a mostly satisfying manner, imho. The pieces fit, save a jagged edge here or there. [spoil]My one major disappointment is the kids. Not that they're make-believe, per se. Just that their "death" is so visually blah. Rabin could've pulled off a Master Pandemonium (google it) bit and it would've been 1000% cooler. Also, Pete not getting the finishing blow on Rabin felt like a miss. It's his book, after all.

My read on the line MJ says to Peter that has everyone berserking is that she means "U're a good guy, Peter. C'mon, snap out of this Jealous Ex\Wannabe Columbo mode. You're better than this."

The Kamala situation...idk, she gets the Black Widow in Endgame (Or Supergirl in the OG Crisis, if you're older) heroic death, with a whole issue set out to honor her sacrifice. It doesn't totally wash off the stink of the mandated hit-job, but it's not as acrid when you see how it actually transpires. As well handled as can be, I suppose. Still, a damn shame.[\spoil]

JRJR still has the magic touch--crystal clear action with big, splashy character beats galore. 2 or 3 panels made my breath catch, it's that good.

Imho the arc peaked with 25, but this was the alright conclusion. I'd like Zeb to step up a bit on year 2: so far the first ~15 issue of the run are the creme de la creme. Gimme more of that!

Haven't other characters been finishing Peter's problems for him since like the 3rd arc? It feels like he barely does anything any more.

I think the problem with the MJ moment is that Peter is bringing up valid concerns about Paul and Paul just takes a swing at him and suddenly MJ is trying to defend him and equating the two when they're really not comparable at all and it comes off as a MJ disrespecting Peter for Paul. It just doesn't feel in-character at all, especially over someone that's barely a character. MJ is better than this.

I dunno, it feels like a pretty bad death scene. Doesn't play to her strengths, doesn't have her go out as Ms. Marvel, continuity-wise it doesn't really make sense, and it has bad optics the more you think about it. I'd rank it pretty low as far as Superhero deaths go and Kamala deserved far better. The worst part is them acting like she's a significant part of this run when she wasn't, which makes it all the more glaring.

I think action is probably the only thing consistently good about JrJr's art at this point because facial expressions and character models are not one of them. Though the inconsistent coloring doesn't help either.

[Brian B]

I have several disparate thoughts about this Spidey run from Wells…

…Do you believe Wells, Lowe and Cebulski actually thought this is a good story? I mean, can you imagine them in a story conference and at the end of it, high-fiving and proclaiming, “Nailed it!” I mean, how could they think this was any good at all?…

…How could someone claim to be a Spidey fan and also claim to enjoy this storyline?…

I'm sorry, but there are more parallels to Avengers 200 in this whole set-up than anyone should have been comfortable with. This is truly deplorable.

Geez, that is ugly, but you’re 100% right. What is it that Marvel editorial has against MJ, and for that matter, Ms. Marvels?…

…We all knew Paul was a dick, really, didn’t we? That’s why we always hated the guy. He’s got big dick energy, but not the good kind…

…Does anyone else think JR Jr.’s substandard art was a result of this awful story? Do you think he took a look at the script or outline and thought: “This is crap. I’m just going to get through this and ignore how bad it all is…?”

[Johnny]

That doesn't seem a bit messed up to you? If MJ waited 60 years for Peter, but he never came back, it would be immoral for her to kiss another man?

People keep going around in circles with this - not if it was any other situation. Peter himself would never ask MJ to close her heart to anyone else, especially if she thought she'd never see him again. He literally told her something to that effect while he was "dying" in her arms in The Other. This isn't any other situation, it's a situation where she found herself trapped with ONE other man in an entire world and then simply forgot the love of her life because of it. The entire argument falls flat because of how cold she was to him that Wells clearly doesn't think requires any further explanation other than "time has passed". There is no version of Mary Jane Watson where she simply forgets about Peter Parker and not only isn't the slightest bit of happy to see him back, but treats him like **** for no reason.

Do I expect MJ to wait for Peter until her dying day in circumstances where she actually has freedom and options to truly "move on" from him? Not necessarily.

Do I expect her to suddenly give up on him, completely forget everything he ever meant to her and treat him like some piece of garbage after she does see him back for no reason other than she hasn't seen him in a couple of years? No, I most definitely don't. This is not Mary Jane Watson. Not that anyone working on this run cares about her characterization.

[Brian B]

Why does everyone look high? Also, I think Norman is having flashbacks.

If you were one of these characters, you would be as stoned out of your mind as you could possibly be to get through this dung heap of a story.

[Vegan]

Haven't other characters been finishing Peter's problems for him since like the 3rd arc? It feels like he barely does anything any more.

Yeah I truly don’t know how you can like this run and have an issue with Spider-Man having nothing to do with stopping the bad guy.
It’s the “Spider-Man accomplishes nothing” run. That’s what it does

[Johnny]

Admittedly I am mostly just hoping this is the last we see of MJ. I can't know for sure. I will say I don't really see any reason she'd be in the wedding arc. She only tangentially knows Randy through Peter, they're not very close. I don't even know if she's talked to the Beetle girl he's marrying. So I don't see why they'd be there other than background characters at most. I really just want Zeb Wells to stop writing MJ. If he's not going to give us a satisfying reason she was treating him like garbage, then I just don't want her around because I feel he's just gonna make it worse.

Unfortunately since this entire run has been centered around her story, so she pretty much "has" to be there in some capacity. She'd probably skip a few arcs but this run can't end with her not making anymore appearances. Part of the reason why it's odd that she has this huge presence but before this arc she'd show up once every 4 issues or something.

By the way is the flashback supposed to feature two different scenes? At first it looks like it's the same scene but the different clothes suggests the second page takes place at a different time. If so, they surely they didn't make it clear enough.

[Xenon]

People keep going around in circles with this - not if it was any other situation. Peter himself would never ask MJ to close her heart to anyone else, especially if she thought she'd never see him again. He literally told her something to that effect while he was "dying" in her arms in The Other. This isn't any other situation, it's a situation where she found herself trapped with ONE other man in an entire world and then simply forgot the love of her life because of it. The entire argument falls flat because of how cold she was to him that Wells clearly doesn't think requires any further explanation other than "time has passed". There is no version of Mary Jane Watson where she simply forgets about Peter Parker and not only isn't the slightest bit of happy to see him back, but treats him like **** for no reason.

Do I expect MJ to wait for Peter until her dying day in circumstances where she actually has freedom and options to truly "move on" from him? Not necessarily.

Do I expect her to suddenly give up on him, completely forget everything he ever meant to her and treat him like some piece of garbage after she does see him back for no reason other than she hasn't seen him in a couple of years? No, I most definitely wouldn't. This is not Mary Jane Watson. Not that anyone working on this run cares about her characterization.

I second this. The problem has never been that Mary Jane must be hung up on Peter Parker the rest of her life and have no happiness without him. The issue has always been there's no way she dumps or is unfaithful to him without reason. If he's dead, fine, nothing she can do about that, gotta live your life. If they break up, again, fine, you're adults and sometimes it doesn't work out even if you love each other. But she's not just gonna fall out of love with him because she's trapped with some guy or seperated from Peter for some length of time. That's just telling us she never loved him, which is BS.

Yeah I truly don’t know how you can like this run and have an issue with Spider-Man having nothing to do with stopping the bad guy.
It’s the “Spider-Man accomplishes nothing” run. That’s what it does

Hey hey hey, that's not fair. Peter DID do something. By convincing Kamala he loved MJ, Kamala was extra motivated to keep her safe and got herself killed to save her. Luckily that was exactly what was needed to beat the bad guy. So in a certain way, didn't Spider-Man solve the problem?

highresrollsafe.jpg

[Xenon]

Unfortunately since this entire run has been centered around her story, so she pretty much "has" to be there in some capacity. She'd probably skip a few arcs but this run can't end with her not making anymore appearances. Part of the reason why it's odd that she has this huge presence but before this arc she'd show up once every 4 issues or something.

By the way is the flashback supposed to feature two different scenes? At first it looks like it's the same scene but the different clothes suggests the second page takes place at a different time. If so, they surely they didn't make it clear enough.

There's no way, they're continuing the conversation.

I'll also point out since we're talking about it and I forgot earlier, when Paul opens with the 'if you're going to hit me again', I'm guessing that was to dispense with teh flipped panel from the last issue. They just...dont' show it. And PAul and Peter switched outfits afterwards as a sign of friendship or something.

[Vworp Vworp]

Just watched a review/recap. It's awful. Of course, that much is a given and will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone. But without the spoilers/leaks, I think it might have been even worse. Because the order in which the major leaks were shared kinda took the edge off one of the worst aspects of this whole ship-show. Presumably the intention in the book, had anyone read it for the first time today, was to have made people think that...

spoilers:

...MJ had been killed. Except she's not. And we're then expected to be what, exactly? Relieved, when it's revealed that it's "only" Kamala!?!!? So aside from any subsequent tweaking of her powers/origin, the entire point of killing Kamala in this issue was for no other reason than her shapeshifting abilities allowed the story to have what it thought was a shocking fake-out moment. This was never even slightly about Kamala as a character. It was about Kamala as literal a plot device.

end of spoilers

[Chris0013]

And the hero doesn't even stop the bad guy in his own book.

[Aura Blaize]

Just watched a review/recap. It's awful. Of course, that much is a given and will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone. But without the spoilers/leaks, I think it might have been even worse. Because the order in which the major leaks were shared kinda took the edge off one of the worst aspects of this whole ship-show. Presumably the intention in the book, had anyone read it for the first time today, was to have made people think that...

spoilers:

...MJ had been killed. Except she's not. And we're then expected to be what, exactly? Relieved, when it's revealed that it's "only" Kamala!?!!? So aside from any subsequent tweaking of her powers/origin, the entire point of killing Kamala in this issue was for no other reason than her shapeshifting abilities allowed the story to have what it thought was a shocking fake-out moment. This was never even slightly about Kamala as a character. It was about Kamala as literal a plot device.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Agreed. She literally exists in this story only to be killed off, surrounded by people she's barely interacted with. I've been saying for a while that if she had to die in a Spider-Man's arms, it should be Miles, since they're actually friends. It's seriously the absolute worst case of Fridging I've ever read in a comic.

end of spoilers

[Kevinroc]

I just want to point out in the MJ/BC mini that MJ said Peter didn't know about her new powers and she made Felicia promise not to reveal them to Peter.

And in this issue, Peter has no reaction when he sees MJ using said new powers, and then says her powers are too unreliable (to take on the big bad).

So MJ just lied to Felicia for no reason?

[Toonstrack]

ffs

Attachment 132260

Issue was fine, 3\5. I'll never get to read it without seeing a good third of the pages spoiled on my twitter timeline, but i guess them's the breaks. The year-long arc is well and closed now, and, well, we have our answers.

Zeb closed the mystery out in a mostly satisfying manner, imho. The pieces fit, save a jagged edge here or there. [spoil]My one major disappointment is the kids. Not that they're make-believe, per se. Just that their "death" is so visually blah. Rabin could've pulled off a Master Pandemonium (google it) bit and it would've been 1000% cooler. Also, Pete not getting the finishing blow on Rabin felt like a miss. It's his book, after all.

My read on the line MJ says to Peter that has everyone berserking is that she means "U're a good guy, Peter. C'mon, snap out of this Jealous Ex\Wannabe Columbo mode. You're better than this."

The Kamala situation...idk, she gets the Black Widow in Endgame (Or Supergirl in the OG Crisis, if you're older) heroic death, with a whole issue set out to honor her sacrifice. It doesn't totally wash off the stink of the mandated hit-job, but it's not as acrid when you see how it actually transpires. As well handled as can be, I suppose. Still, a damn shame.[\spoil]

JRJR still has the magic touch--crystal clear action with big, splashy character beats galore. 2 or 3 panels made my breath catch, it's that good.

Imho the arc peaked with 25, but this was the alright conclusion. I'd like Zeb to step up a bit on year 2: so far the first ~15 issue of the run are the creme de la creme. Gimme more of that!

I'll give it a 4 out of 5. It's not even a bad issue by any stretch.

Im not gonna rate the book bad because I don't like spifey editorial. It's a good issue.

And I actually like how Kamala dies here.. on her own terms and in a way that actually tricked me out. I got spoiled the fact she died but I didn't know the circumstances of it. This was actually a pretty clever usage of her abilities, and the arc explains her presence in the series and why it was so discreet up til now. She was quite literally undercover.

Paul's origin being revealed lines up with what I said befire... that MJ saw in him whats she saw in Peter. Hes a lot like him and thats why she fell for him. I get it.

Its gonna take a while for cooler heads to prevail here on this but by and large this was a decent book. The arc itself was not as good as the earlier ones but I like the finish here.

[Toonstrack]

And the hero doesn't even stop the bad guy in his own book.

Oh cmon. Rabin got finessed but Peter was beating his ass before he ported away.

[Toonstrack]

No further explanation is needed. MJ was stranded in a parallel universe for years and thought that she would never see Peter again. How long should she have waited? 10 years? 30 years? 60 years?

Exactly.

Tough pill to swallow but there is ZERO expectation that she should have stayed "pure" for him or whatever. And anyone saying there is needs to evaluate themselves.