I don't have the issue in front of me since I am at work, but I will look it up later.

I have to say that seeing the piles of unsold BND ASMs has been gratifying. But Spider-Man is still pretty dead to me right now. Even during the Osborn twins fiasco, the Other fiasco, the unmasking (which I thought was gutsy and bold, if forever character-altering) I always stayed curious enough to follow the book, even if I only occasionally bought a copy. But Brand New Day simply hasn't interested me one whit, AND I'm still a bit furious over the retconning of MJ via the Devil.

It's worse than the Clone Saga. At least then the Ben Reilly run actually read pretty well for its short run.

None of it did ever happen. 'Tis fiction, y'see.

Is there any other industry where people continue to buy things they don't like in the hope that one day it'll get better?

AS long as a large contingent of comic fans have a "I'll keep buying until..." or a "I can't break my run......" or a "It'll get better eventually and I don't wanna get behind.." mentality; comics will continue to ignore their customers in favor of writers and EICs that "know what the fans really want better than the fans do".

As long as they have a built in fan base that they almost can't lose they have no reason to produce quality books. It's almost better for them to mess things over for a year or so, just to have a huge sales driving event to return things to normal.

Tarnish

Heroclix. :D

You might just have me with that one

But it is comic related, so maybe there's some carryover attitude....

Tarnish

Ok, fine. D&D. Look at how many people are mad about 4th edition coming out and look at how many of them are planning on getting the books.

Also, there's fans of the Detroit Lions.

You could probably make that argument for movie series (Star Wars is a good example as many folks absolutely hated Phantom Menace and still stuck it through to see Revenge Of The Sith) and series of novels (Dune might be a good example of that one). I guess it's the nature of things that are serialized -- you feel an investment that you want to carry through to the end. And thats' probably even more pronounced if you're a completist.

My advice to techdog is to stop buying at the end of the year. That would mean you have every Amazing Spider-Man issue for 25 years and you can feel like you've given it more then an even chance to improve before throwing the towel in.

Doesn't every character? Instead of filling in the gaps of uninspired runs with gimmicky premises, wouldn't it have better to just not publish a Spider-Man comic? Until a good writer with a genuinely good idea comes along, maybe Spidey should have been given a rest. The same goes for every character really.

When I was a kid I remember getting so angry at a video I slammed my fist on some concrete and it went numb for about ten seconds. I know what you mean about feeling silly about getting so angry about something. Since then I've learned the importance of cooling down, so I was just trying to share that.

As for Spidey, I guess what I said above applies here as well. When you look at the last ten years of Spider-Man comics, how much of it was made up of quality stories and how much of it was just filler? By filler, I mean a comic produced by Marvel because they need X number of Spider-Man comics to ensure that they reach a certain quota. The same problem applies to so many other characters such like Batman, Superman, and Wolverine. Characters whose best stories are few and far in between the dozens and dozens of comics that tell the same old stories with a new coat of paint.

I enjoy reading my monthly Spider-Man comic, it's fun in a comforting sorta way. Though I have to ask myself, would I miss a good chunk of those comics if they never existed? Did I really need to read about Spider-Carnage? Or the Revenge of the Sinister Six? That's essentially the point I'm making, that Marvel produces all these Spider-Man comics to fill a gap in their shipping schedule without much regard for quality and instead goes with a story that is merely "good enough". I know they'd never put him on the shelf, but that seems like something that's way past due to me. Not buying the comic is the smartest thing to do, though I'm confident all that will lead to is yet another instant reboot and possibly a fourth Spider-Man title added to the mix.

Ya know those are really excellent points and I agree with what you are saying. I think a great example is Captain America, the monthly book was wanning, it was kinda lost without direction, it was really a played out piece in Marvel that was being recycled cause it was Cap. Then, in comes Brubaker who relaunches the book and has a long term plan for the character and his supporting cast and it becomes one of the best books Marvel is putting out. Before the relaunch, Cap went away for a few months and it was fine in the end. So, I completely agree with that aspect of your post.

If reading spidey every month was still comforting to me I would still be buying it, but its not, its the exact opposite of comforting so I won't buy it anymore. If it does comfort you, I say keep on reading, no one should be denied that joy if they can get it.

This is the exact premise that joey Q. lives and does business by. You are correct as long as he knows he will not lose the fans no matter what, he can do anything he wants. And the only way to prove him wrong is to hit his sales numbers, which is sad, but true.

I just keep asking myself how long till Q leaves Marvel and we get a new EiC who can give us a "magic retcon" to erase OMD. Or simply say it never happened and later retcon all stories during that period so that they fit with a timeline where it never happened. It's only a matter of time.

My personal theory that I imagine is the "true" story? Spider-Man actually was captured by SHIELD, and is currently in the Negative Zone. Aunt May died (or made a miraculous recovery, whichever floats your boat), the current run of Amazing Spider-Man is all Peters imagination created by one of those virtual reality things they hook some prisoners up to. Spider-Man in the rest of the Marvel Universe? Clone created by the government to keep people from getting suspicious. Any other inconsistencies?
Who cares? OMD didn't happen!

My problem was more with OMD to be exact, and the crappy JMS/Quesada run that lead up to it. I thoroughly detested the influence both had on the character. Plus they finally dropped the increasing amount of angst they were forcing on him. Angst is for X-Baby mutant types. Spider-Man is more of a multi-tasker, having to resolve several complications of responsabilities at once.

Still BND hasn't really given anybody, any reason to overlook the OMD ret-con fiasco. It also has driven a wedge between Spidey and the rest of the Marvel Universe. Not that anything is really happening there either, from House of M to Planet Hulk. Avengers Initiative is basically the only Marvel comic I read anymore, so I would not only complain about Spider-Man post OMD, but the state of Marvel Universe in general.

Spidey's entire motivation is based on a guilt complex he applies to every situation in his life, almost. How is that not angst?

But you see, that's exactly why you should stop reading. Comics should be fun, we should feel no obligation whatsoever to struggle through a comic book that we don't like and that we aren't enjoying. I love Spidey but I won't support a complete hollowing out of his character, to the point that he doesn't even resemble his former self, just because I don't want to break my ASM run. In the end, we're all forced to vote with our wallets. By continuing to buy and read something that you admit that you don't like, you're essentially voting to keep the wrong candidate in office. It tells Joe Q that you like the way he broke Spidey's back and it helps to validate his misguided vision of the character. Personally, I love Spidey too much to keep supporting Marvel with my wallet no matter what abuse they heap on the character. They'll never get the message that they screwed up if we just keep mindlessly buying Spider-man comics regardless of their content.