What happened to the old Spider-man?
It's amazing how fun this book was and how it just stops me think of the horrible things Marvel did with Spider-man for a few minutes. That's pretty impressive.
Then, right at the end, it reminds you again in two ways. The Red Hulk calls Spider-man 'the kid' even though Peter is supposed to be about 27. That's not a kid. It gets worse, Iron man asks if Spider-man ever considered wearing a helmet like they barely knew each other. Again, if Marvel never wanted to do anything with the whole Unmasking Iron-Magical-Spider-Man story they should of chosen restraint. Now, the horrible nature returns.
But wait, there's more. Peter's masked it ripped up and he's talking to Jonah. Jonah doesn't recognize his old employee. what the hell is that?
For god's sake, how bad is a story when every little thing in a book reminds you of it and how they refused to do a story where Jonah is mad about one of his photographers was the super-hero that he took pictures of after setting it up and then not doing what would be a 'ground breaking' story. What bizarro universe is this? What stupid comic book is this? Oh yeah, it's the worst comic ever. 'Spider-man is the worst comic ever'. Read that too yourself and see if it sinks in despite the fact many of us would of said Spider-man was the best comic book character ever if you had asked us ten years ago.
All I see is Marvel making sure nothing happens in Spider-man anymore... ever. To hammer home that point look at Spider-man and try to tell me what personality he's supposed to have now. Brooding? Reflective? Morally conflicted? There's absolutely nothing there but a guy who is either very happy or vaguely sad.
Look at the Red Hulk in comparison. he's angry. He's duty bound, yet has a bad attitude as a result of his normal personality, military background, and his transformation. He's fun to watch. If not in this book, then in his own. If they didn't want Spider-man to be a deep character anymore, then I guess that's not too bad. Another regime at Marvel could change that, but fans were (Again) promised the biggest things in the world as Spider-man had become hard to recognize already. There's no explanation as to why Spider-man cannot die. Apparently, he comes back to life in a cocoon, due to his new origin of recieving his powers from a magical Spider-totem. Is he not magical anymore? Is this a different Spider-man from the one who married Mary Jane or the one who saw his girlfriend die after being thrown off the top of a bridge? It sure seems like it and has for quite a while.
It was sad to see Marvel just give up their credibility and tell fans they have these big stories that aren't there. Readers still believed that Marvel would do this story right, even though they just kept introducing new costumes and powers every other month at the time and now it's clear they lied to the readers. There was no unmasking story, it's just 'wait to get Aunt May sick again and turn back the clock in idiotic ways'. It was a masquerade as a story. How can a person be excited by antoher generic team-up when we were promised the biggest thing in the world and lied to about it. Again, not to mention this Spider-man seems kind of like a kid with no personality. Again, he looks like Peter Parker and is standing and talking to J. Jonah Jameson and his face is clearly visible.
You look at this book and this 'this is fun, this would of made a neat Spider-man comic'. On another upside, it sure was nice to see Joe Mad draw again. Maybe Inks on his pencils would of looked better and he could of put more backgrounds in, but it was nice to see him do something of an interior storytelling nature.