Controversial Spider-Man Opinions

[Project Initiative Cascada]

-Gwen should not have been killed off
-George Stacy should not have been killed off
-Gwen should be brought back
-Peter and Mary Jane are not right for each other
-SHED was an awful story
-Tobey Maguire was a lousy Spider-Man
-Josh Keaton is the best Spider-Man
-Ultimate Spider-Man is a terrible show (though I don't see why that would be controversial)
-Aunt May is still an important character
-The symbiotes should've stopped after Carnage (Though Anti-Venom is good$
-Flash should never have lost his legs
-Eddie Brock should've stayed Anti-Venom
-Remender shouldn't have killed Flash's family

I couldn't agree more with these. I am also glad you believe May is still a prominent character. I have no idea why people want her to be killed off when she is too iconic of a character.

[AJBopp]

I have ALWAYS said this, so I totally agree. I believe the fact that he unmasked in front of the whole world like an idiot was the main reason for the whole OMD reboot, and not solely the fact that he was married like they tried to frame it. I think taking away the marriage was the second biggest thing they wanted to do with a reboot, after giving him his secret identity back. Or at least that's how it always felt to me.

I think they had him unmask to make OMD inevitable in a way the marriage never could. They wanted him unmarried so they invented a ridiculous unmasking story to justify doing it.

[AJBopp]

I couldn't agree more with these. I am also glad you believe May is still a prominent character. I have no idea why people want her to be killed off when she is too iconic of a character.

Thee are some characters who contribute more to the story dead than alive (unrelated controversial opinion : Bucky Barnes is one such character). May reached a pint decades ago where her usefulness to Peters story would be more significant if she were dead than alive. Another poster's opinion that Captain Stacy's & Gwen's deaths are more important than Uncle Ben's underscores this point.

[Dexy]

They had a good way to get around he unmasking in an issue of Avengers Initiative. The MVP clones worked with Peter in their fancy Iron Spider suits and the end made it look like there were several Spider-Men and Pete was just one of them. I think Dan Slott actually wrote it.

That could be a controversial Spider-Man opinion of mine actually. They should bring back the last surviving Scarlett Spider MVP clone and use him regularly. Surely putting on a spider costume made him a target for all of Pete's enemies?

[Metamorphosis]

I think they had him unmask to make OMD inevitable in a way the marriage never could. They wanted him unmarried so they invented a ridiculous unmasking story to justify doing it.

Maybe those means justified Marvel's ends at the time, but I don't think it was planned that way. I just think it's the story Millar wanted to tell with Civil War.

[AJBopp]

Maybe those means justified Marvel's ends at the time, but I don't think it was planned that way. I just think it's the story Millar wanted to tell with Civil War.

I am absolutely convinced it was planned that way. The story led to the inevitable "undoing" arc from the moment the unmasking occurred. As for the story Millar wanted to tell, that would make a lot more sense if Spider-man's unmasking actually had much relevance to Civil War.

[RobertMacQuarrie1]

Maybe those means justified Marvel's ends at the time, but I don't think it was planned that way. I just think it's the story Millar wanted to tell with Civil War.

Actually, that wasn't part of Miller's plan at all. There were interviews at the time with the creators and Joe Q, and I remember that he insisted that there be a big "Second Act reveal" for the book, and that the unmasking should happen in Civil War rather than Spider-Man's book, comparing it to the death of Supergirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths. So it wasn't something that Miller came up with. It was something that he was told to include.

The fact that the act never has any impact on the rest of the story also helps to show it wasn't part of Miller's outline.

[Uncanny Mutie]

I agree with a lot of your points, and even here I agree that Flash Thompson is a better Venom than Eddie Brock, but I do think part of Venom's character is his grayness regarding morality and "hero vs villain." What I would say is that writers should always make sure that Spidey can't trust Venom; Venom should "always" be antagonistic towards Spidey, even when they are teaming up against a great threat.

-Pav, who got the first Big Time collection this past weekend at comic con and loved the introduction of Flash as Venom...

Venom wasn't very grey when Brock first got the symbiote and was bent solely on killing Parker/Spider-Man, which is when he was at his best. And he also wasn't grey at all when Mac Gargan was the host. But grey or not, he just needs to always be a villain to Spider-Man, because that's when he's at his best. Anything else is pretty much a waste to the Spider-Man universe, and is just as bad as how everybody kept calling Norman Osborn Green Goblin Spider-Man's "arch enemy" during the 25 years that he was dead.

[Uncanny Mutie]

Norman Osborn is a bland, one-note villain. Harry and Roderick are the best Goblins.

Doctor Octopus was the greatest Spider-Man villain even before Superior.

I very strongly agree with these two.

Doc Ock has always been a better arch enemy for Spidey because they are so similar in so many ways, yet he is Peter's antithesis. But people always say Norman is Spidey's arch enemy because he has "the most personal connection" with Peter, but Harry was the one who was had the best personal connection due to being Peter's best friend. That dynamic combined with Harry constantly struggling with his Father's legacy as the Green Goblin always made Harry 1,000 times better as the Green Goblin to me than Norman, even if Norman did kill Gwen. Hell, Doc Ock killed Captain Stacy, but nobody ever mentions that.

Also, I keep hoping that Harry will come back from Europe one day and take up the mantle of Green Goblin again, especially since Marvel has decided to make Norman more of Lex Luthor type villain for the broader Marvel Universe these days.

[Doctor Cosmic]

I very strongly agree with these two.

Doc Ock has always been a better arch enemy for Spidey because they are so similar in so many ways, yet he is Peter's antithesis. But people always say Norman is Spidey's arch enemy because he has "the most personal connection" with Peter, but Harry was the one who was had the best personal connection due to being Peter's best friend. That dynamic combined with Harry constantly struggling with his Father's legacy as the Green Goblin always made Harry 1,000 times better as the Green Goblin to me than Norman, even if Norman did kill Gwen. Hell, Doc Ock killed Captain Stacy, but nobody ever mentions that.

Also, I keep hoping that Harry will come back from Europe one day and take up the mantle of Green Goblin again, especially since Marvel has decided to make Norman more of Lex Luthor type villain for the broader Marvel Universe these days.

I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but I have to do so again. Seeing people mention how great a villain Doc Ock and Harry are just makes The Clone Saga that more painful to think about.

Had the story been much shorter with either Otto or Harry as the mastermind, it would have gone down as an instant classic. It was also the best opportunity to undo the marriage, even though I don't think that needed to be done. Had MJ been another clone and degenerated or left Peter after finding out she was a clone, the "problem" of the marriage would have had an easier out than divorce or the Howard Mackie "she's missing" idea.

[Mister Mets]

Miles Morales would have been better recieved if he was introduced before peter died. If bendis gave fans a chance to get to know him before killing peter, I think more people would have been accepting of peter dying and the person replacing him. I get that "Anything can happen and death can strike anyone at any time and that's not how it happens in real life" well, people can't fly, juggle tanks, or climb up skyscrapers in real life either.

One More Day/Brand New Day could have been avoided if Peter didn't unmask publicly during civil war. Seriously, why did peter have to unmask on live television? He could have revealed it to shield and left it at that. I suppose someone could hack into shields files and reveal it that way, it would be less stupid.

I don't think that peter needs to always be broke/unemployed/single to be interesting. As we saw before Superior Spider Man, having a job and a girlfriend/wife can bring on a whole new set of problems, a writer just has to be creative. Let the poor guy be happy.

I would like it if peter saw a therapist to deal with his guilt complex, yes his guilt is what urged him to be a hero, but carrying all that guilt inside is not good for you.

While I agreed with the main goal of One More Day (making Peter Parker without divorce, MJ's death or the reveal that MJ was an imposter) it is worth noting that the only reason the unmasking happened was that the writers were aware that the genie was going to go back in the bottle.

Roger Stern is a wonderful Spiderman writer.

J. Michael Straczynski is one of the worst things to ever happen to the Spiderman comics.

That first opinion is certainly not controversial.

[StoneGold]

So when she had Peters memory she felt affection to specific women and when she developed an own consciousness her feelings of affection and attraction disappeared? Huh. That's odd and not how sexuality works.
I'm confused and think I will not say she's heterosexual or bisexual until proven otherwise.

When you're dealing with transgender mind transplant clones, I'm pretty sure there's no real world science on the matter.

[Beacon]

There have been more good stories about a single Spider-Man and a married on in the 2000s. That almost entirely because of Paul Jenkins doing so many one-shot stories while MJ was “dead”.

I think they had him unmask to make OMD inevitable in a way the marriage never could. They wanted him unmarried so they invented a ridiculous unmasking story to justify doing it.

Probably. IIRC some of the writers who said they we against the unmasking not so much because of the unmasking but because of what it was leading to. That implies it was the plan all along.

Plus they’d been trying to write MJ out of the series for years and never stuck with it because of fan backlash. First they tried to replace Peter with Ben so Peter and MJ could ride off into a sunset. Then they “killed” MJ only to write her out of the series for another year and a half only to have them reconcile under the pen of JMS. The backlash against OND is pretty ironic when you consider he used to be considered the savoir of the Spider-Marriage.

Doc Ock has always been a better arch enemy for Spidey because they are so similar in so many ways, yet he is Peter's antithesis.

Well really a lot of Spidey foes qualify there. Spider-Man is right up there with Batman when it comes to fighting twisted versions of himself. Most of the Lee/Ditko guys were results of a science experiment gone wrong who didn’t learn the lesson in responsibility. Still, Otto was an awkward angry kid (who became an awkward angry adult) and modeled himself after an eight limbed creature after a lab accident gave him powers so there’s a lot of early Peter there.

But people always say Norman is Spidey's arch enemy because he has "the most personal connection" with Peter,

Most personal connection? Did they retcon it so that he killed Ben, Richard, and Mary? Never mind, I don’t want to give Marvel ideas.

but Harry was the one who was had the best personal connection due to being Peter's best friend.

I’ve said it a bunch of times already; the hero’s best friend makes for a more interesting villain than the hero’s best friend’s creepy dad.

That dynamic combined with Harry constantly struggling with his Father's legacy as the Green Goblin always made Harry 1,000 times better as the Green Goblin to me than Norman, even if Norman did kill Gwen.

It’s funny that you mention “legacy”. Norman is one of those rare characters who has more value dead than alive. I understand the temptation to bring Harry back even though it invalidates the wonderful Spectacular #200 but I don’t get why Norman had to return.

Hell, Doc Ock killed Captain Stacy, but nobody ever mentions that.

And Bennett Brant died in a fight between Blackie Gaxton and Otto. Ock gets Peter’s loved ones (and their loved ones) killed without even trying.

Body count doesn’t really mean anything though. If it did then we’d be talking about Carnage. Otto deserves props for being a Master Planner back when Norman was making clumsy attempts to take over the underworld. Otto formed the Sinister Six while Norman was ensuring that guys like the Crime Master and Robot Master would hate him far more than Spider-Man. I’m still waiting for the Jackal to try go after Norman with a clone army since that makes a LOT more sense than playing head games with Peter and Kaine.

Also, I keep hoping that Harry will come back from Europe one day and take up the mantle of Green Goblin again,

Or they could just use the Hobgoblin. Under Stern Kingsly became everything Norman tried and failed to be.

especially since Marvel has decided to make Norman more of Lex Luthor type villain for the broader Marvel Universe these days.

As of Superior, Norman seems to be more of a Stern-era Hobgoblin. It’s a little sad when he starts imitating his imitator.

[The Amazing Spider-Man]

I believe Aunt May is a useless character. Her being kept alive has stunted Peter's growth as a character. He should have at least one death that isn't brought on by his being Spider-Man, so he could grieve like a normal person, and have one death he isn't guilty of contributing to.

[Qrx2]

I believe Aunt May is a useless character. Her being kept alive has stunted Peter's growth as a character. He should have at least one death that isn't brought on by his being Spider-Man, so he could grieve like a normal person, and have one death he isn't guilty of contributing to.

Marvel has pretty much said that's exactly why May will never die. They feel like she's a major factor in keeping his character from being aged too much.