Robot 6
‘This wasn’t Brian somehow flipping the bird to the Spidey guys’
From "New Avengers" #51
On his blog at Marvel.com, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort responds to reader reactions to Spider-Man’s latest unmasking in The New Avengers #51.
“… Seriously, folks, do any of you really believe that Brian Bendis unilaterally decided to have Spider-Man unmask himself to his fellow New Avengers without talking to anybody else about it?” Brevoort writes.
After noting the amount of editorial oversight and coordination between titles, he continues: “So no, this wasn’t Brian somehow flipping the bird to the Spidey guys. It wasn’t an editorial commentary on ‘One More Day’ or the thrice-monthly ASM. And it wasn’t some stealth operation that was snuck onto the racks without anybody knowing about it. Just think about it for two seconds — really, how likely is that? Really?”
Brevoort goes on to say that Spider-Man revealing his identity to his teammates doesn’t negate the reason for the controversial “One More Day” storyline.
However, not all of his commenters are buying it.
“The conversation between Jessica Jones and Peter was funny, but it didn’t make any sense,” says challenger_15. “Why didn’t she respond to him earlier on in the series before she was made to forget? They were around each other. They hung out at the same place during the post-Civil War New Avengers run. He was unmasked then, why didn’t she say something then?”
“Whoever said that it just didn’t make sense for P.P. to stay hidden behind the mask in the wake of the Secret Invasion was completely correct,” writes Thomas More. “Can’t wait for the whole, ‘why couldn’t I remember who you were?’ conversation, it’ll be sweet! Nah, on second thought, Brian Bendis is the Marvel Overlord and everyone bows down and does what he says, he controls everything …”
- April 10, 2009 @ 09:56 AM by Kevin Melrose
7 Comments
Matt Spatola
April 10, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I think that it will all make sense very shortly. On Newsarama Dan Slott states that what really happened to the whole identity thing will be revealed in the next issue I believe. Everyone should chill out til then and see what they come up with.
Preston
April 10, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Maybe if they coordinated it, publisher wise, to have it explained before the New Avengers issue or at least put an editor’s note in the issue or online, this wouldn’t seem like an editorial mess. Because it actually is an editorial mess when people are confused why a certain plotpoint happened and no one explains it until a week or so later, so I’d appreciate it if Marvel spends more time actually making sure people understand their actions instead of justifying them later on.
Graeme White
April 11, 2009 at 3:49 am
I don’t see a problem.
OMD/BN came about because EVERYONE knew who Spidey was, it put his wife, Aunt and friends in danger.
I see no problem though, with Pete sharing his ID with people he repects and trusts (and in my opinion Wolvie already knew cos he doesn’t forget stuff anymore thanks to Wanda). I do think they should have waited til after the FF story though, and have him share his ID with Torch first as that story’s resolution, after all, the Human Torch is supposed to be Spidey’s best friend.
Alan Coil
April 11, 2009 at 7:13 am
“So no, this wasn’t Brian somehow flipping the bird to the Spidey guys.”
Wow, what a leap in logic.
But it is plain that if anybody is to be blamed for One More Day, it is Quesada.
Graeme White said:
“OMD/BN came about because EVERYONE knew who Spidey was, it put his wife, Aunt and friends in danger.”
And the balme for that gores back to Civil War, and the editorial decision to allow the unmasking to happen.
Patent Dragon
April 11, 2009 at 8:36 am
I’d always thought the whole Spidey identity revealed thing was adequately dealt with in The Initiative, when he ran into the Scarlet Spiders, and they publicly revealed he HAD been one of them (a lie), but quit. Strange. A whole story set up to achieve a single end, but promptly ignored. The Spiders even employed holograms of different Spidey-suits to support their claims…
Ah well…
Jake Saint
April 13, 2009 at 7:23 am
It could be a cool story point if something in the Mephisto deal made it impossible for anyone to remember that Peter Parker is Spider-Man– no matter how many times he revealed his secret. That way, he can never be in a trusting relationship with anybody; this would twist Spidey’s “must keep his secret” aspect to “has no choice”– the effect to his personal life is essentially the same but without any hope of relieving the burden.
Blackjak
April 14, 2009 at 7:32 am
@ Patent Dragon:
Yeah! That’s what I found confusing! There was the perfect explanation, written by one of the “Spidey Brain-Trust”, as the perfect “out” for the identity revelation…
I still think Geoff Johns covered the whole “wish the knowledge away” thing when he had The Spectre (Hal Jordan) do the same thing for Wally West… He went over the consequences really well.
BND just plain sucked… Particularly how the New Avengers, who by their very nature (and in hte middle of hte whole Skrull Invasion NEEDED to know each others identities…