I avoided this thread when it first came out, due to the fact that I was behind and didn't want to read spoilers.

I moved to a town without a comics shop 5 years ago, so I still get my books from my old shop. He sends them UPS, but I only get them every few months, so I'm always behind, then get a huge stack to read all at once.

When I get them, I sort them and put the most important books at the top of the stack. This most recent shipment had the final issue of Y: The Last Man, followed by all the Avengers/Secret Invasion stuff (more likely to be spoiled than the other stuff), then ASM. And when I was reading ASM, I'd finish a book, get angry, read bullcarp letters, then get mad again when I looked into the box to find another ASM waiting for me.

Spider-Man has been my favorite since I was a little boy (I'm 40), and now I don't even look forward to reading it. As a story, the Zeb Wells Mayan arc was pretty good, but only if you didn't think about the big picture. OMD was ridiculous, and BND is proving to be the same. I REALLY dislike Bob Gale's take on it; if I wanted cheesy Stan-style writing, I'd pull my back issues. Spidey has progressed from those days, which were fine in their time, but he's matured. And now we're, what? Regressing? This was a stupid idea and I can only hope that, lame as it would be, this all turns out to be Skrull-related and we can go back to where we were.

I also don't like the cavalier attitude of the letters page. They cherry-pick the letters from people who for some reason like the new direction and print several of them. Then they'll print one negative one, but the response is all fake-happy saleman-speak. "Hey, sorry you don't like it, but lot's of people do, so it's here to stay, isn't that exciting?!" No, it's not. Don't talk down to me, jerks.

I haven't yet decided if I'll drop the book, which would be heartbreaking, but I'm certainly not enjoying it since OMD. I agree that no reboot was necessary; JQ is an idiot.

Its been weird not reading spidey the last two months, I admit that I miss the book and the character. I read in one of the comic review forums that Mary Jane finally made an apperance and might have her memory, which to me says that they are at least laying the seeds to get out of this story, which i guess is a start. The sales are still dropping so here is to hoping that soon this whole stupid storyline comes to an end!

As I've said before this is the attitude that allows them to do this. They know that they have a core base of people that will keep buying as to "not break my run" or "hang on till it gets better". Sometimes I believe they could do a month of issues with all blank pages as a "special event" with the promise that the "missing scenes" would be revealed over time as important plot points ala One Year Later/52 "missing year".

Tarnish

I think you are absolutely correct on this. I have been talking with a lot of comic readers who are buying the book and they all hate it! I ask them why they would support something they disliked and its all for the love of the character. I understand that, but as I tell them, thats not really the character you have been supporting, just cause the title says Spider-Man doesn't mean it is Spider-Man.

Though I haven't read OMD/BND (the Uk editions I get are like 3 years behind), It's the first time I've ever been angry at marvel.

Iron Man turning into a jerk is fine, I liked Civil War. Cap dying was interesting too, it was a shock (but then I'm not a fan, so maybe it's worse for others). Not yet read what Planet Hulk was even about, but Secret invasion sounds fun.

However Spidey is probably my favourite single comic character, and I can't believe they've actually pulled this ####. Joe Q = Mephisto.

See, for those of us who read and were fans of Iron Man and Captain America, what's happened to them did to us what the change in Spidey does to you.

I read Cap, Iron Man, Thunderbolts, and Avengers before Civil War. Now, shrug....

I know I dropped Marvel totally once before (I was reading various Spiderman titles regular right before the Clone Saga), I'd be up for it again (I'd even give up Thor and Nova) if I thought it'd work (I did give up reading the titles I mentioned because of the stuff that came out of Civil War, but then they lost me when they 'cloned' Thor, which completely killed some characters in my eyes).

Preach it, brotha!

I understand what you are saying. Love Star Wars but really, only ended up seeing the latter prequels out of some kind of misguided loyalty/need to see things out.

At least they had some pretty good lightsaber battles

I absolutely love Dune but have avoided the prequels because A. I feel like Brian Herbert (his son) is trading on his father's name (much like Tolkien's kid) B. by all accounts, the reports I've heard of his books do NOT interest me one whit C. the final nail in coffin was learning he was co-authoring with Kevin J. Anderson (I read an X-Files book written by him is was just bad).

Seems to me that I've developed some kind of survival reflex where I can ignore that OCD "must-complete-the-collect" urge I think this stems from Radiohead's 4th album which was a huge let down for me. Since then, I find I can ignore something which annoys my "deranged collector"ness.

In general I've always liked Spidy. And I read quite a bit of him through out the 80's & into the 90's.
Until they lost me with the clone-####.
Even then though I still picked up an issue here or there over the years - mostly if it tied into some larger story or whenever Electro/Mysterio made an appearance.

But this ####? Even if it tied directly into SI (etc), & both Electro and Mysterio were the stars, Marvels not getting my $ for a BND Spidy book.

RIP Spidy....

This is good news! We're winning! We're winning! How much further can it fall?

Tarnish has it exactly right. As sad as it may be for you, the only way we're going to get this changed back, at least as long as JQ is in charge, is to hurt the sales. So all you can really do is measure your heartbreak from what they've done to Spidey against the heartbreak that would come from dropping the book, and decide which hurts more.

As sad a thought it may be, the current run of issues will always be around, and if you really miss them when the book's worth buying again, they'll be available to find somewhere to complete your collection.

Unfortunately, we can't really do the same with the way things should be. That can only come when they've got a reason to set things right.

Stop reading Spider Man? I stopped reading MARVEL, period! I know ALOT of long time Spider Man fans who have dropped the book after reading it for decades. One of my friends even refuses to use him in Heroclix, except for Zombie Spidey, because, "Spider Man is dead to me"

I'm with you for most of it, so far the new run has been pretty blah in comparison to what we had towards the end of the JMS run. I will say this last 3 parter from Slott was good (the paperdoll storyline) but even that faltered and pittered out at the end (they need to give these guys more than 3 issues per arc) so yeah I aint feeling it as much, it aint my "MUST READ" anymore.

here is the best thing that could happen: mephisto, aunt may, spidey, and mary jane are all skrulls, and have been for a year. complete and utter retcon obliviation. it will never happen, but i would love it.

i hate brand new day and one more day. just stop buying them and hopefully they will get the point.

I'm going to sensor myself since HCRealms is going to anyway...
When I first heard about this new storyline where Aunt May is alive, Mary Jane and Peter are no longer married, and Peter is back in school, I thought it was a load of @#*&. After hearing someone explain that they had to do it because they had been on the same storyline for 20+ years and needed to start over so they can sell comics...I thought it was a load of @#$*. (Notice I added the dollar sign).
The author of this new storyline has ALWAYS hated the storyline where Peter liked Mary Jane. The FIRST issue he EVER had complete control over, he got rid of her...this guy is not trying to make good comics, he's trying to control them to be what HE thinks they're supposed to be. Broke, Rich, or other...Mary Jane Parker was the best change to any comic book that I've ever seen. I liked that married MUCH more than Lois Lane Kent. And I'm a HUGE Superman fan.