Should Spider-Man eventually get a reboot?

[John Ossie]

The 90's animated series had it best. Start Peter off in college again, but do a mini-series showcase for the early years of his heroics.

I like the sound of that idea. IF they ever rebooted of course.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

I'm of the belief that there should be a hard reboot every 20-25 years. That prevents the history/continuity from getting too outdated/convoluted, and is enough time to keep from feeling rushed. Essentially, every generation gets their own unique take on the character.

If you look at the entirety of Spider-Man's history, it feels very disjointed, and some stuff just flat-out doesn't make sense. 55 years is just way too long to go without a hard reboot, and soft reboots are just lazy attempts to have your cake and eat it too.

The closest we've hard to a hard reboot is OMD. Spider-Man's character and world have felt very different since then. In fact, I'd bet most people would have preferred a hard reboot to the disaster that was OMD.

[comicscollector]

A reboot would be bad imo.
I think the time sliding scale is enough to keep the stories and continuity going as it have been without Spider-Man stories having to undergone a reboot.

[Mister Mets]

The 90's animated series had it best. Start Peter off in college again, but do a mini-series showcase for the early years of his heroics.

That might be the smartest way to do a reboot.

They can avoid retelling the big stories unless they want to.

They could have a Peter Parker already familiar with everyone he's encountered before, even if the circumstances are a bit different.

[Pav]

Reboots are great if you love reading the same stories with minor details changed.

I'd prefer new stories, please and thank you.

-Pav, who thinks Marvel does it better than DC...

[oldschool]

But, to me, the value of a reboot isn't adjusting details to fit the modern age and tech; it is to wipe out the increasing confusing continuity. Ex: can someone easily explain to a new reader how many times Doc Ock has died and what his current body is and where it came from?

[Tuck]

Reboots are great if you love reading the same stories with minor details changed.

Then don't do that.

There are the expectations to play into and play on, but I see it like a perennial story like Robin Hood or even Sherlock Holmes. We'll keep watching updated versions of those. The details can be what they want.

[DieHard200904]

But, to me, the value of a reboot isn't adjusting details to fit the modern age and tech; it is to wipe out the increasing confusing continuity. Ex: can someone easily explain to a new reader how many times Doc Ock has died and what his current body is and where it came from?

That's a real issue with continuity that I have. If you are going to kill someone, keep them dead for years to make there be an impact. With Dock Ock, they need to hold off on killing him for a while because that has become rediculous. They don't need a full reboot to do that neccessarily, they could just say that the real Ock was controlling his superior form by remote control or by having himself control by connecting his mind to a computer like in the movie Avatar. The tempting side of a reboot, however, would be to explain after all these years how Spider-Man has to get dumbed down to fight the same villains time after time, especially when he had some epic triumph decades ago, or why Kraven is alive despite the epic ending he had in the 80s.

[Scarlet Spider-Man]

Reboots are great if you love reading the same stories with minor details changed.

I'd prefer new stories, please and thank you.

-Pav, who thinks Marvel does it better than DC...

I would much rather read modern takes on classic stories than new stories that are crap.

[suemorphplus209]

Then don't do that.

There are the expectations to play into and play on, but I see it like a perennial story like Robin Hood or even Sherlock Holmes. We'll keep watching updated versions of those. The details can be what they want.

But it really felt that details were changed in the new Sherlock Holmes set in the 21st Century with Benedict Cumberbatch, forgive me if this was somehow retconned from the show in some way, but:

spoilers:

Moriarty got killed off early on when I usually remember him being a challenging adversary of Sherlock Holmes that could be a pain in the ass to him for some time to come. I only watched up through season 2, so maybe Moriarty faked his death that time.

end of spoilers

[DieHard200904]

Reboots are great if you love reading the same stories with minor details changed.

I'd prefer new stories, please and thank you.

-Pav, who thinks Marvel does it better than DC...

Well, newer stories taking inspiration with elements of older ones can still make for something good. Take for instance, All-Star Superman. That was heavily inspired by older eras but put in a more modern context, and it ran on for a while too.

[Tuck]

But it really felt that details were changed in the new Sherlock Holmes set in the 21st Century with Benedict Cumberbatch, forgive me if this was somehow retconned from the show in some way, but:

spoilers:

Moriarty got killed off early on when I usually remember him being a challenging adversary of Sherlock Holmes that could be a pain in the ass to him for some time to come. I only watched up through season 2, so maybe Moriarty faked his death that time.

end of spoilers

And Irene Adler is Moriarity in Elementary. They play with what's there.

But my point was they can keep things or not or use reader expectation. But the more necessary a deep understanding of continuity is when reading, the more esoteric you make the series.

[Miles To Go]

But it really felt that details were changed in the new Sherlock Holmes set in the 21st Century with Benedict Cumberbatch, forgive me if this was somehow retconned from the show in some way, but:

spoilers:

Moriarty got killed off early on when I usually remember him being a challenging adversary of Sherlock Holmes that could be a pain in the ass to him for some time to come. I only watched up through season 2, so maybe Moriarty faked his death that time.

end of spoilers

People get it wrong with Moriarty. Outside of maybe one or two stories, he was never the persistent nemesis to Holmes that fandom perceived him to be. He had agents that went after Holmes in the aftermath of his final defeat, but the one notable one was Moran from The Empty House

As for the Sherlock tv Moriarty

spoilers:

Yes, he stayed dead, but Sherlock's never-before-seen sister staged a false comeback for Moriarty in order to lure Sherlock into a battle of wits at Sherringford prison, which in itself was just an attempt to get him to rescue her from a crashing passenger plane that was entirely in her mind

end of spoilers]

Lisa: Mom, make Miles tell the story right
Marge: That's what really happened

[DieHard200904]

But it really felt that details were changed in the new Sherlock Holmes set in the 21st Century with Benedict Cumberbatch, forgive me if this was somehow retconned from the show in some way, but:

spoilers:

Moriarty got killed off early on when I usually remember him being a challenging adversary of Sherlock Holmes that could be a pain in the ass to him for some time to come. I only watched up through season 2, so maybe Moriarty faked his death that time.

end of spoilers

To be fair, out of the total showtime, Moriarty was a pain in the ass behind the scenes before the end of season 2, but if it's a retelling or alternate continuity like the show Sherlock is, I am pretty tolerant of there being some differences between classic Moriarty and the modern Moriarty, oh well, Tuck beat me to the details, but when you retell something many times, it's understandable to me how some aspects change. Sherlock is still Sherlock to me regardless of the differences between Cumberbatch, Downey, or whichever other actors portraying him.

[WebLurker]

People get it wrong with Moriarty. Outside of maybe one or two stories, he was never the persistent nemesis to Holmes that fandom perceived him to be. He had agents that went after Holmes in the aftermath of his final defeat, but the one notable one was Moran from The Empty House

Moriarty only appeared directly in "The Final Problem." Holmes did say that he'd discovered that some of the crimes he investigated had been part of Moriarty's operations, but never elaborated on whether any of them were ones seen in the stories. Moriarty was also a hidden player in The Valley of Fear novel, who didn't appear but was pulling the strings of a piece of the mystery.

Beyond that, despite being mentioned on occasion, yeah, Moriarty was not a huge player in the original stories.