I’m sorry it’s come to this, but, well, there’s no easy way to say it.

You’re fired.

Oh, I’m sure you’ll be continuing on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for years to come, but I won’t be around to see it. And sure, I could write the typical angry foaming poison-pen letter about AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #512 (the kind you’re no doubt receiving by the dozen right now), but what does that solve? It just wastes both of our time, and probably makes you less inclined to consider the criticism. And I want to make certain that, in a very concrete way, both you and Marvel understand just how unpleasant and unsatisfying I find your current storyline, and how much I dislike the way it disrespects the work of your talented predecessors on the series, and well, the only way I can do that is to no longer buy any SPIDER-MAN books produced by you. All the reader can really do is vote with their wallet, and by making sure you no longer see a penny of my money as long as you’re writing the book, I’m casting my ballot accordingly.

And I’m a great admirer of your work, it must be said. I’ve only recently discovered the absolutely astounding BABYLON 5, which is most likely one of the single greatest achievements in the television medium: a novel for television that spans five seasons, with a singleness of theme and vision that at times has taken my breath away. Your comics work has also not failed to impress. MIDNIGHT NATION and RISING STARS are top-notch series, and SUPREME POWER is month for month one of the best books on the shelves. Which is why it comes as such a surprise that your conception of the character is now so far removed from mine that I’m forced to stop buying AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. And make no mistake: it takes a lot to get me stop buying SPIDER-MAN. The last time was the Clone Saga, after which it took years for Marvel to get me back on board. What got me back in? You did, Joe. Your approach to the character reminded me more of the SPIDER-MAN comics of my youth than any I’d read in years. You weren’t afraid to take the book in new directions, yet the characterization, the voice, sounded true to the Spidey I grew up reading. It seemed to me that you were the first writer to come along in years to really understand what made the character appealing, and who had the ability to translate that to new stories that weren’t merely retreads of what had come before.

And now this. Gwen Stacy having consensual sex with Norman Osborn? Norman Osborn? Really? Please.

Putting aside the somewhat shaky mechanics of the story, that stretching Gwen’s trip to Europe to seven months is tenuous at best, and that the character is seen in cutaways in England in the original SPIDER-MAN issues and is clearly not pregnant, and allowing for the deux ex machina aspects of the Osborn Goblin formula, which apparently does whatever the writer needs to make a story work (Heal a mortal chest wound? Okay. Artificially age unborn children? Sure, why not. Always seemed to me that the Goblin formula only did two things: Made you strong and made you crazy. And if that’s not the case, why didn’t Harry and Liz Allen’s son grow older super-fast? But I digress…), the better question is why? Why ruin probably the most powerful story in the history of the character, and arguably in Marvel Comics, by retroactively making Gwen Stacy an unfaithful, lying cheat?

I’m now supposed to believe that Gwen Stacy, drawn by Norman Osborn’s “strength and magnetism,” would have sex with the father of her boyfriend’s best friend? I’m assuming that this “strength and magnetism” business is your emergency-exit out, that it could be revealed that Osborn used some sort of hypnotic or mind-control hoodoo to force Gwen to have sex with him (and let’s face it -- with hair like that, he’d probably need it…), but even if you do go that way, why? What does this story arc really do for the character in the long-term?

The death of Gwen Stacy in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 and 122 was so powerful because it highlighted so many of the recurrent themes for Lee, Ditko and Romita’s run of the book: power, responsibility and guilt. Why did Gwen die? Gwen died because of who Peter Parker was. Gwen was an innocent, used as a tool by Spidey’s most hated and feared enemy, to strike at him in the cruelest manner possible, just because he could. And Peter, despite all the power at his disposal, trying as hard as he could, just couldn’t save her. It’s brutal, it’s cruel, and it’s unfair. That’s life. And Peter has to live with it.

This was powerful stuff, far ahead of its time, and its impact still remains with me. In point of fact, that comic is still one of the few from which I can recite from memory, to this day. (“So do the proud men die – crucified not on a cross of gold, but a stake of humble tin.”) It’s enough that the Goblin murders Gwen because he’s crazy and evil and out to hurt Peter Parker. It’s enough.

The story was already blunted by the lamebrained and desperate decision a few years ago, motivated by the need to undo the countless mistakes from the Clone Saga, to bring Norman Osborn back from the dead. But by adding in this tawdry layer of supposed “realism,” that Norman was jealous of Peter and angry that Gwen was going to keep him from their children (and I can’t even describe how wrong it feels to type that), all of the sadness and tragedy of Gwen’s death is taken away. Before this, Gwen died because she happened to love Peter Parker, and Peter was forced to live with that on his conscience. With this revelation, Gwen’s reduced to little more than an easily manipulated simp who died because she made the mistake of cheating on Peter with his best friend’s father. Gee, that’s a much better story. Thanks, Joe.

If the point of this is to finally alleviate Peter from the guilt over Gwen’s death, then I suppose technically it works, but at the cost of a much better story and motivation for Peter. It’s ultimately a failure, though, because you’re simply never going to convince me that the character as I know her, based on the original Stan Lee appearances, would ever do this. And I’m still at a loss to figure out why you’d want to try. Whether by Lee and subsequent writer Gerry Conway’s original intention or just the passage of time, the Gwen character had come to represent a lot: first love, innocence, the road not taken. Why you thought it’d be better to piss all over that with this notion of Gwen shacking up with the Green Goblin, presumably for sheer shock value, is a mystery to me.

It kind of makes one wonder what the role of editorial at Marvel is these days, between this and the Parade of Pointless Death currently going on in AVENGERS. It seems to me that there should still be someone whose job it is to look at the long-term picture, to act as a caretaker of the characters and say “Sure, that’s a great shocking idea for sales today, but where does that leave us down the road? Do the short-term sales and buzz outweigh the loss of our fan base of long-term readers?” As I suspect Marvel will find out when the traditional AVENGERS fans abandon the new title, and after Bendis has left the series and taken his hardcore fans with him, it’s a lot harder to get people back once you’ve scorched the earth and spat upon the ashes.

An opinion like mine always leaves one open to the easy rejoinders: “They’re only fictional characters. Geez, get a life. Readers need to be able to accept change.” This kind of argument is rubbish, quite frankly. The whole point of fiction is to make the reader emotionally invested in the characters. If we’re more invested in stories from 30 years ago than we are in today’s, maybe that should tell you something about the current round of creative decisions. And let’s be honest, Joe, you knew how people would react to this story. You know they’d be upset, and incensed. That’s why you did it. To make a big hubbub, and hopefully draw some attention and sales to your book. It was just your bad luck that the story happened in Comics’ Summer of Cruelty, when DC Comics decided that rape was a valid marketing tool, and Marvel decreed that you can’t tell one dead Avenger from another without a scorecard. By comparison, your big revelation of Gwen Stacy getting some Hot Goblin Lovin’ looks almost quaint.

Now I suppose there’s always a chance that this is all a red herring, that you’ll pull a reversal at the very end and somehow redeem Gwen’s character. If that’s the case, I’ll smile broadly, say “You got me, Joe. Nicely done,” and buy the issues I missed and the trade with no regrets. But if, as it looks now, this is the new status quo, I can’t take the chance of you and Marvel getting a single dollar more from me in support of it. So consider me gone.

Best regards,

Scott

And by the way, I could have happily gone my entire life without seeing Gwen Stacy in gynecological stirrups. “MARVEL COMICS: Your First Choice in Shitting on the Favorite Stories of Your Childhood.” If you have questions about who the hell thought this was a good idea, well, I don’t have any answers for you, but I’m happy to listen. Send your letters to stipton99x@moviepoopshoot.com.

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | ARCHIVES