Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 Spoilers/Discussion

[stillanerd]

Spider-Man: No More. Peter has done this before.

Peter turning a blind eye to the Vulture was a page taken directly from Raimi's Spider-Man 2 where Peter turns a blind eye to the criminal in the alley. Of course its a temporary thing.

I have a feeling Peter will soon learn the villians will not wait for him to be Sidey again for he and his family to once again be threatened. In fact, it will probably be worse from years of neglect of crime fighting.

Oh I agree. This certainly is not the first time Peter has decided to give up being Spider-Man for personal reasons. And the Spider-Man 2 example goes to exactly the point I was getting at: whenever Peter Parker decides to forgo being Spider-Man in order have a life of his own, it winds up being a costly mistake which forces him back into the webs again. I believe Dan Slott in past interviews with EW teased we can expect Kraven the Hunter to show up at some point, and if that's the case, I imagine he or some other enemies will try to target Peter through his family.

[boots]

Oh I agree. This certainly is not the first time Peter has decided to give up being Spider-Man for personal reasons. And the Spider-Man 2 example goes to exactly the point I was getting at: whenever Peter Parker decides to forgo being Spider-Man in order have a life of his own, it winds up being a costly mistake which forces him back into the webs again. I believe Dan Slott in past interviews with EW teased we can expect Kraven the Hunter to show up at some point, and if that's the case, I imagine he or some other enemies will try to target Peter through his family.

one exception to that rule was PAD’s “last avengers story” where retiring gave peter the peace he always craved.

[SpiderOrange]

I kinda hate that trope in superhero fiction that says when a new character appears be they a good or bad guy, they are insanely powerful but as time goes on their power levels diminish and become more normalized. Like in episodes of Power Rangers, the 6th ranger appears and is insanely overpowered but by his 5th appearance in the show, he's being taken out by putty patrollers.

Regent comes in and I mean what he did to Hulk... yikes. So clearly this is setting up another come from behind victory for Spidey down the road but it will probably be at great cost. I'm predicting something like MJ being killed or something along those lines like Peter being able to take out Regent but it costs him his own life as well. And that is why we can't have nice things.

[Vortex85]

Slott is really good at creating uber powered characters that come out of nowhere. First Solus and now the Regent.

He's obviously trying to replace Marvel's top most powerful characters with his own. Just kidding. But seriously. Kidding. Serious. About kidding. Yep.

[stillanerd]

I kinda hate that trope in superhero fiction that says when a new character appears be they a good or bad guy, they are insanely powerful but as time goes on their power levels diminish and become more normalized. Like in episodes of Power Rangers, the 6th ranger appears and is insanely overpowered but by his 5th appearance in the show, he's being taken out by putty patrollers.

Regent comes in and I mean what he did to Hulk... yikes. So clearly this is setting up another come from behind victory for Spidey down the road but it will probably be at great cost. I'm predicting something like MJ being killed or something along those lines like Peter being able to take out Regent but it costs him his own life as well. And that is why we can't have nice things.

Or if not Spidey, it will be Annie Parker who somehow defeats the Regent. After all, it seems more than likely if anyone will survive Secret Wars and this tie-in series, it's bound to be her.

And yes, even though I did like this issue, everything involving the Regent was far and away the weakest stuff. I mean, the Hulk--the Incredible friggin Hulk!--being jobbed like this is on par, if not more so, than when Cosmic Spidey jobbed to Solus, aka Morlun's big bad Santa Claus dad, in Spider-Verse.

[boots]

I kinda hate that trope in superhero fiction that says when a new character appears be they a good or bad guy, they are insanely powerful but as time goes on their power levels diminish and become more normalized. Like in episodes of Power Rangers, the 6th ranger appears and is insanely overpowered but by his 5th appearance in the show, he's being taken out by putty patrollers.

i was thinking about this just the other day.

once a villain has been humbled it’s always hard to look at them as the same level of threat after. i’m sure writers could come up with ways, but they just seem to prefer to move on to new toys (exodus from x-men). sometimes they like to humanise them to the point of impotence (spike from buffy). arch-enemies become familiar rather than frightening. kraven was a great exception.

there’s the opposite effect too, where heroes (especially) tend to experience power creep (pretty much every x-man ends up more powerful than it their debut) over time even if they become less bad-ass as people (gambit, bishop, cable etc). hulk seems to be all over the shop in this regard. peter’s more or less flatline.

[boots]

Slott is really good at creating uber powered characters that come out of nowhere. First Solus and now the Regent.

He's obviously trying to replace Marvel's top most powerful characters with his own. Just kidding. But seriously. Kidding. Serious. About kidding. Yep.

shouldn’t the regent be an already existing character?

[powerpackers90]

I kinda hate that trope in superhero fiction that says when a new character appears be they a good or bad guy, they are insanely powerful but as time goes on their power levels diminish and become more normalized. Like in episodes of Power Rangers, the 6th ranger appears and is insanely overpowered but by his 5th appearance in the show, he's being taken out by putty patrollers.

To be fair To Tommy he was getting weaker by the Green Candle.

[Loose Threads]

To be fair To Tommy he was getting weaker by the Green Candle.

What's priceless about that is when he gets the upgrade to White. Zordon tells him the powers can never be taken away by the forces of evil, and then in Ninja Quest, he and his whole team lose their powers (though it's supposed to be Tommy's fault)

[Kevinroc]

There are a couple of things I haven't seen enough discussion on about this issue.

1: Peter doesn't make any major decision about his family's future without MJ giving her opinion. When Iron Man offers Spidey a place with the Avengers, Peter immediately wants to consult with his wife. When Venom threatens Annie, MJ lets her thoughts be known. I think Slott wants to emphasize their marriage as a partnership.

2: "Renew Your Vows" obviously has multiple meanings. The most obvious is the relationship between Peter and MJ, as that was the initial promotion, and a major part of the promotion for this project. But the other major meaning should be obvious after reading this issue. Under some understandable circumstances, Spidey kills someone. Slott has emphasized Spidey killing someone as a bad thing. Spidey broke his vow (although whether or not this particular Spidey ever did the "No One Dies" vow is pretty irrelevant, as Spidey trying to save lives is a major part of his character).

Think of the opening act of the Batman Beyond animated series. Bruce Wayne builds the Beyond suit so he can continue to act as Batman. But he still breaks his vow and picks up a gun, a sure sign that he can't be Batman anymore. A similar vow-breaking occurs here, with Spider-Man killing his foe. But since we can't expect a "Terry McGinnis" to come in to fill the suit, Peter will have to renew his vow of being Spider-Man. (Unless Annie tries to be the "Terry McGinnis" of this story. And that's what spurs Peter back into action.)

At least that's my impression at this point in time.

3: There are two major time skips related to Secret Wars. One was the "Time Runs Out" arc of Avengers/New Avengers (which was pretty quiet on what was going on in Spidey's life), and the other will happen after Secret Wars. What is going on, I wonder?

[skyjumpermike]

As a dad to a little girl, I loved this issue. I would believe a story that made Peter a bad guy if it meant protecting the one thing he loves the most in the world.

[Loose Threads]

It didn't address OMD like some were hoping for

Not yet anyway, but I reckon it's coming.

Think about it...Mephisto could well have been lying about Peter and MJ's marriage enabling them to have Annie in their timeline, what if the whole time he meant they would have been strong parental figures to Annie if she carried over from Battleworld? According to the One-Above-All, Peter and MJ would have had a kid called Mary as well as a Benjy if they had stayed married, with no mention of Annie, so how does that align? Unless Annie eventually went her own way and the Parkers went on to have kids of their own.

[Darthfury78]

Not yet anyway, but I reckon it's coming.

Think about it...Mephisto could well have been lying about Peter and MJ's marriage enabling them to have Annie in their timeline, what if the whole time he meant they would have been strong parental figures to Annie if she carried over from Battleworld? According to the One-Above-All, Peter and MJ would have had a kid called Mary as well as a Benjy if they had stayed married, with no mention of Annie, so how does that align? Unless Annie eventually went her own way and the Parkers went on to have kids of their own.

That was another alternate reality. Just like Mayday Parker of Earth-X. What would be cool break is to see a child whose the daughter of Spider-Man x Black Widow or Spider-Man x Black Cat.

[Loose Threads]

That was another alternate reality

It may have been, it may have not been, it could still happen. It just feels like another elephant in the room (and who knows, if it was an alternate reality, it might lead again to a return to a marriage-era universe just to bring those kids into the current universe, rofl)

[Tien Long]

While others have no qualms with Peter taking a life, this part of the story did trouble me. In a way, it appears to be Slott's way of saying that there are consequences to Peter having his wife and child back. Indeed, I found Peter choosing to protect his family over upholding his code of "no one dies" and letting the bad guy win to be the most powerful aspects of this issue. This isn't wrong per se. Indeed, a husband protecting his wife and daughter is very noble and selfless. But, in an ideal world, Peter would be able to keep his codes as well as protect his family. I thought that this series would be a wonderful happy ending filled with superheroics, but it appears as though Slott is not making the story that easy.

As for the other aspects of the issue, yeah, I agree, there was definitely a very 90s vibe to this series. Was it just me, or was the mentioning of Moon Knight, Punisher, and Night Thrasher an homage to the "Round Robin" storyline back in Amazing Spider-Man? Oh yeah, definitely liked Mary Jane's characterization and the tender moments among Peter, MJ, and Anne.

Will continue on with the series. Wondering where it will go.