Should Spider-Man eventually get a reboot?

[John Ossie]

I love how this thread has gone from talking about Spidey to a conversation about Sherlock Holmes

[Tuck]

I love how this thread has gone from talking about Spidey to a conversation about Sherlock Holmes

Was the Russell Crowe Robin Hood that bad? I haven't seen it.

[phantom1592]

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 That prevents the history/continuity from getting too outdated/convoluted, and is enough time to keep from feeling rushed.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.

yeah... that just leads to redundancy. Ultimate Spider-man really is exactly what you described. A hard reboot without continuity for a new generation. And what do we get? Ultimate Doc Ock, Ultimate Venom, Ultimate Carnage, Ultimate Morbius, Ultimate Black Cat... You can set your watch by it. The first thing people do when they get a new reboot is wonder when XXXX is going to show up.

Just look at the movies. Amazing Spider-man rebooted the franchise... First thing they did is start going back to the same old well. Green Goblin, Doc Ock, now Vulture... The 'reboot' could do ANYTHING they wanted to... but we're right back to those 60's villains again.

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.

This. Moriarty was a huge retcon that only was really important for the book he was in. He wasn't some major enemy spectre that had hovered over the whole SH career... He was an afterthought added in when Doyle decided to kill of Holmes with a 'big exit'.

[LordMikel]

yeah... that just leads to redundancy. Ultimate Spider-man really is exactly what you described. A hard reboot without continuity for a new generation. And what do we get? Ultimate Doc Ock, Ultimate Venom, Ultimate Carnage, Ultimate Morbius, Ultimate Black Cat... You can set your watch by it. The first thing people do when they get a new reboot is wonder when XXXX is going to show up.

Just look at the movies. Amazing Spider-man rebooted the franchise... First thing they did is start going back to the same old well. Green Goblin, Doc Ock, now Vulture... The 'reboot' could do ANYTHING they wanted to... but we're right back to those 60's villains again.

I agree completely, and why I am always opposed to reboots. Reboot the character, but not his supporting cast. No Gwen, no Flash, no Mary Jane.

[UnknownEntity]

I agree completely, and why I am always opposed to reboots. Reboot the character, but not his supporting cast. No Gwen, no Flash, no Mary Jane.

Then why bother with rebooting at all. Gwen, Flash and Mary Jane are all awesome characters I don't want to see them not having existed, especially foxy red Mary Jane. What kind of reboot do you guys want? make Uncle Ben the one who survived instead of May, new friends and love interests and completely new villains (in this creatively dead age). The only reboot Marvel would do is simply to start over like USM but with new histories and paths.

[WebLurker]

I think that Marvel should make new series that are not part of 616 continuity, like USM, or the Marvel Adventures, or Spidey, or even the current RYV (although that's more of an alternative present comic with some special twists than an actual reboot like USM was). It allows for a more lively mix of stories (not every one wants to read Spider-Man stories that have him playing Iron Man or would like changes of pace on occasion), gives more options to people who may not be onboard with the current direction, and allows different kinds of stories to be told (like how USM brought back teen Spidey while 616 had adult Spidey, or now, ASM has CEO globetrotter Spidey, while RYV has middle-class family man Spidey being The Incredibles).

Personally, as of right now, I would not pick up ASM unless they did a hard reboot of that specific series (or "go back to formula," as might be the best way to say it on a Spider-Man thread ); it's gone too far afield from the things that made Spider-Man "Spider-Man" (for me, at least) and I can't see Marvel going back anytime soon. However, I don't think it should be rebooted. I don't see the need (the series can just go on as it always has) and there are those who like it, so why not let it continue? Keep it alongside other stuff. More options means we all win.

I agree completely, and why I am always opposed to reboots. Reboot the character, but not his supporting cast. No Gwen, no Flash, no Mary Jane.

No, keep the characters. Add some new ones, but always keep the important characters. The fun of a reboot is the chance for new stories with the old characters.

[Prof. Warren]

Marvel shouldn't reboot their main universe. At least not in a sweeping, starting from square one situation. The most recent issue of Secret Empire hinges so much on the fact that these characters have a long shared history together that it shows how the complex, interconnected tapestry of the MU is a key part of its strength. You don't want to throw all that away for some short term benefit.

That said, the MU is always rebooting in less obvious ways. Aunt May hasn't been the decrepit hag that she was for decades for some time now. Somehow along the way, with no storyline to explain it, she became a much younger "old" person who's no longer constantly teetering on Death's Door. And Tony Stark's origin doesn't include Vietnam anymore. It's never been explained but now he became Iron Man in a more recent war (sad that there's always going to be a newer war to update his origin to). So there's always these "soft" reboots along the way that alter elements of the MU when necessary without any fanfare.

In regards to Spider-Man specifically, bringing Peter back to his teen years or college age years, seems like an absolutely awful idea for the main MU.

The only way Marvel should ever start from scratch is with an Ultimate style line. And I do think it's time to do another one of those. The Ultimate line was a brilliant way to let a generation or two or readers enter on the ground floor and it was a huge success for many years. And the MU is still reaping the benefits of it even after its gone. So an Ultimate universe 2.0 would be great. A reboot of the MU? Preferably never.

[WeirdSpider]

No reboots are stupid and unfair to long time fans.

All Marvel needs to do to make Spider-Man great again is to undo One More Day and get a new writer.

[John Ossie]

Was the Russell Crowe Robin Hood that bad? I haven't seen it.

Never seen it to be fair. But then I don't plan on seeing it as I don't like Crowe. So I guess I'll never know if his Robin Hood was good or bad.

[Spidercide]

I have heard a few people argue for a reboot of Marvel, especially Spider-Man, to me, it feels pretty bad that he can't hold on to a job, which has been one short job after another relatively speaking, but that can be fixed IMO, without a reboot, just assign him to a job and make it stick. The real reason I could see for a reboot would be to make him in his early 20s or his late teens, but even there, he could go out with MJ or whomever and marry whomever, because there's literally Infinite time to do that as it is. If there's more commentary on rebooting spider-man, let's get the discussion rolling...

a) Making him younger in order to date isn't a good enough justifcation for a reboot. It's boring and repetative of doomed to fail plot lines we've seen before and frankly got done better. Character development is gold dust so throwing it away is unacceptable. That's a major reason people are loving Rebirth Superman. It's the Superman who's got the character development and is doing new shit from there.

b) Reboots cause more problems than they solve. Even Crisis on Infinite Earths needed at least 1 tweak, frequent retcons and eventually people pissed off about their DC universe dying contorted the existing one to recreate it and then blew it up for the New 52 abomination. Organically transitioning a status quo is one thing...rebooting frankly hardly ever works in superhero comic books, it really doesn't. For Spider-Man who's got such a defined rich history it would be sacrilligious. hell OMD in changing his history is already seen that way

c) Young Spider-Man is boring because he's EVERYWHERE. Once upon a time that was fresh and original. But once other characters got in on the act he started it became cliche. MOST stories are now about 'young' people 'growing up'. It's been done to death and we've seen it at LEAST 2 times with Spider-Man as is. We don't need to see it AGAIN. We don't need to see him and Mary Jane or Black Cat hook up AGAIN...especially when modern writers have demonstrated how utterly incompetent they are with...basically every Spider-Man universe character. Shit, I don't even think Ultimate Spider-Man with Bendis back int he day even did the character's mythos correctly. Just this weird ass fanfic AU that was different for the sake of being different

d) Miles Morales, Spidey and any other AU teen series with peter you want to do renders the need for rebooting 616 Spider-man redundant and lazy

[Spidercide]

Continuity is a mess, but with THE Ultimate Universe, it became a mess of continuity of its own at what I would argue a faster rate. The writers and whatnot wanted Ultimate everything and such. I bring up Ultimate because that is quite likely how a reboot would be unless there was serious plans and constraint as to how much you could shove in to the new rebooted Spider-Man or Marvel Universe in so little time. An AU could easily just give us a young Spider-Man, although with the MCU, they just take inspiration from ultimate, which has already passed.

Continuity is only a real mess post-OMD.

And it's a FIXABLE mess at that.

People are so damn lazy with this stuff and want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Having a lot of continuity doesn't mean you need to know all of it.

And it doesn't mean ALL of it need be relvent all the time.

Nor that it all has to be utterly seamless. Some shit can not make sense and be ignored so long as it's not too egregious or a big deal, but sure stuff that is a big deal CAN be fixed.

Look at Hobgoblin Lives, look at Untold Tales, look at Spider-Girl. All those series USED continuity and told awesome stories, largely BECAUSE they used that continuity.

[Spidercide]

No reboots are stupid and unfair to long time fans.

All Marvel needs to do to make Spider-Man great again is to undo One More Day and get a new writer.

Doctor Who PROVES how reboots are not necesarry.

it came back after a 26 year run and a 15+ year hiatus during which other stories were told and was able to continue marching forwards entertaining old school and new fans too.

Spider-Man and all Marvel can do the same so long as they write to multiple audiences at the same time.

[Spidercide]

Maybe.

This isn't about One More Day or Spider-Man's love life, but we may soon get to a point where the character's background is incompatible with comics published in the 1960s. The lives of young adults now are quite different than in the Silver Age.

But Spider-man isn't the same age. it doesn't matter.

All you do is contextualize those comics in the era they were written and move on. That was Spider-man when he was a teenager, but he's a 30 year old in the 2010s so he's to be written in such a way that would be realistic for today whilst respecting the history as much as possible. Plus it wasn't like Peter was typical even for a 1962 teen

[Spidercide]

That's a good point, IMO, restarting in a modern setting, especially when it has changed a lot since the 1980s alone.

But then you'd have to keep doing that with ever diminishing returns.

[Spidercide]

We haven't been dealing with the classic continuity [where he was happily married] for a decade now...if they rebooted now, I don't think many would blink an eyelid. It'd be like looking at Jenny Agitar naked: ''seen that''

We're in eternal reruns with this character and his world. We have been instructed not to care about change or stakes.

People would care because anyone who began with BND would have their stories erased too. Plus surely the priority should be fixing that whcih is broken not burning the barn down and rebuilding from scratch