I had cut back on going to the comic book store for a couple months, but I’ve been catching up on the storylines for the books that I haven’t read in for a while. Most have been mediocre, but I was really upset at learning the recent retcon on everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! I’m really upset at what they did (and a LOT of crappy stuff has been done to his life, but they are all tragic, this one just makes me angry!)

Spidey has had a long history behind him with plenty of ups and downs. He’s had great moments, and some others that many would rather forget (clone saga, anyone?) But no matter what, they are all in continuity and a part of his mythos. However, Marvel somehow had it in there mind to retcon (for those unfamiliar with the term, it pretty much means a rewrite of a part of his past and the old version is disregarded as if it never happened) some major points of Peter Parker’s life in order to make him more “accessible” to new audiences. That’s great, to bring in new readers, but that’s what we have Ultimate Spider-Man for (this is a completely different Spidey in a different universe). Don’t mess with a character that has decades of stories and generations of fans that remember them!

Now, before I go into what was changed, lets go over what brought it about story-wise. A major series event that crossed over practically all of the Marvel titles, called the Civil War, pitted super hero against super hero over the Superhuman Registration Act. This act required that anyone with super powers to register, reveal their identities, be properly trained, and ultimately be employed by the federal government. This was created to hold superheroes accountable, in case they made a costly mistake that could mean the loss of innocent lives. Anyway, what did this mean to Spider-Man? Well, in a series of events that I won’t go into, Peter was initially a supporter of the act. And believing it the right thing to do, revealed his secret identity publicly to everyone on national television as a sign of advocation for the act. This is personally not a development I was happy with, but it was a big change and I went with it. So now, with all the enemies he has, Peter and his family are pretty much in the crosshairs of danger… most notably that of the Kingpin who orders a hit on Mary Jane and Aunt May. MJ escapes unharmed, but Aunt May is shot by a sniper.

So Aunt May is critically injured and on the brink of death. I stopped reading the comics at this point, so all the following I got from wikipedia. Peter exhausts all of his connections and options to try and save her. Cue the appearance of Mephisto, demon ruler from hell, who offers to save Aunt May’s life. Not for free, of course. In return, Peter and MJ have to essentially give up their marriage… pretty much have it so that they never got married in the first place. To Mephisto, this is a blow to God since Peter and MJ’s love is so strong that such a bond very rarely occurs.

MJ and Petey no longer married?! I understand that Peter was not always married, but when they did get hitched that’s a major point in his history and helped shape him into what he is today. There was actually a point when they were separated and one when MJ was thought to be dead, but the series didn’t receive any boosts in readership. The editorial team seems to think this time around it will be a hit. So now Peter is still doing his webshooting, but he and MJ are not together and their marriage never happened. Other parts have been retconned to: Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn is alive, and his identity is secret again, his public outing erased from existence.

I’m not happy with a lot of aspects of this development. I usually hate retcons and this is no different. But I also don’t like how they did it. To me, Peter wouldn’t deal with the devil, even if it meant saving the life of Aunt May. And the devil? Come on… it just doesn’t fit with me. Peter has always been a distinguished scientist since his high school days. The series hardly ever touched the subject of magic and the occult. And they also retconned his identity to be secret so soon… it just seemed like a big cop-out, like the whole event of him doing it was just a big publicity stunt and they never meant it to be something to be long lasting to develop the character.

But you know what? Despite all these misgivings, I’ll still give the new stories a chance. It could be interesting to see how Peter deals with life now that he’s single. I’d be much happier if it wasn’t such a drastic retcon, but I guess they couldn’t have done it any other way to set the story the way it is now. Don’t drop the ball on this, Marvel. I really want to see some really good stories from now on.