kgrogers1979

Yeah, that happened during the Ultimate Clone Saga. Also there was a female clone of Peter that became the Ultimate version of Spider-Woman.

RocShemp

Interesting. I wonder if they'd use that angle in one of the sequels.

I just finished rewatching the movie and when Michael Massey asks Curt Connors

Solid Snake

.........let us never speak of clones and Spidey again.

RocShemp

We're not talking Ben Reilly here.

kgrogers1979

The Ultimate Clone Saga was actually a pretty decent story. The only thing about it I didn't particularly care for was how it turned Doc Ock into Magneto Jr. The rest of the story wasn't bad at all.

RocShemp

Explain, please.

kgrogers1979

Doc Ock was the mastermind behind the Ultimate Clone Saga (unlike in the original universe where Jackal was the mastermind). In an earlier storyarc, Nick Fury had melted Doc Ock's arms in molten lava. The Ultimate Clone Saga revealed that it wasn't just those arms that Doc Ock could mentally control, but that he could mentally control all metal. So he was able to take scrap pieces of metal and forge them into new arms.

Solid Snake

That sounds like a crap development for him.

caligulathegod

Can't be any worse than the current Doc Ock is now Peter Parker in the regular continuity.

kgrogers1979

The Superior Spider-Man!

I'm not reading it. I haven't bothered to read Spider-Man comics in ages because they have continually ruined his character since the 1990s, but I keep up with what's going on through word of mouth.

Worse than Doc Ock as the new Spider-Man is that Peter is now a ghost. I wonder why he doesn't just go to Doctor Strange for help since Strange can see supernatural things like ghosts.

Solid Snake

I dunno. I really liked JMS/Romita run for the most part.

A lot of ups and downs these 10 years or whatever. But mostly middle ground at the very least for Spidey. Which isn't good for a character.

kgrogers1979

JMS wrote Sins Past in which he turned Gwen Stacy into a whore getting knocked up by Norman Osborn.

Solid Snake

That wasn't with Romita Jr. though. I get what you're saying though.

Tom Creo

I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. The main thing in the storyline that sticks out to me is what a fuck up PP has been most of his life or, to put it an other way, what a mess the Spidey writers have made over the last 30 years. It's too bad Marvel doesn't have the balls to continue with the "Superior" SM.

caligulathegod

Here's the problem. Peter Parker should be about 67 years old by now but he's really in, what, his early 30s? He has been kept on an artificially static timeline age-wise but has still had over 50 years of events happen to him. This is how you get clones, un-maskings, weddings and then time reboots to erase things. What I think should happen is to have a running 25 or 30 year timeline. Have the characters develop and age somewhat realistically over a 25-30 year period (some compression can be allowed) and then reboot. This way you can have characters mature, get married, die, etc. and have a reasonable amount of events happen to them. If they want to bring back a dead character, just wait a few years for the reboot. We don't need clones or robots or the 20th stranger to happen across Norman Osborn's secret stash of pumpkin bombs and become some new variation on a goblin. You also don't have to contend with 60 years of continuity or sliding time scales. Having this limited but realistic timescale would paradoxically allow for "permanent" events that really affect the characters.

RocShemp

You basicaly want this character handled the way Dredd is handled (sans reboot).

Draven

That's all well and good, but for these big titles and major characters, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. No one wants to do the "Peter Parker is now in his 50s and getting too old for this shit" run of the book. They want him kicking ass and taking names. With all the crossovers, multiple books, and different artists, writers and execs, there will never be a "single" vision of a character like Spider-Man. He's just too big for something like that.

RocShemp

Maybe someone could do a limited run that tackles the full life of Peter Parker. Kind of how the Punisher MAX series tackled the story of Frank Castle with a definitive end after it was all over.

kgrogers1979

The MC2 universe.

Mary Jane was pregnant in the early 1990s, but at the end of the Clone Saga she apparently had a miscarriage (although it was actually Norman Osborn who stole the baby and ended up being an unresolved cliffhanger that has never resolved even to this day).

Tom DeFalco wrote an issue of "What if" where Mary Jane hadn't lost the baby. Peter and MJ were in their mid/late 40s, and Peter had lost one of his legs in the final battle with Norman Osborn (who stayed permanently dead after the end of the Clone Saga in this universe). Their teenage daughter had spider-powers since she had Peter's blood, and she became Spider-Girl.

That "What If" issue was so popular that DeFalco decided to create an entire universe out of it, and started the Spider-Girl ongoing series that lasted for a little over 100 issues.

That's about as close as we are ever likely to get to a middle-aged Peter Parker.

caligulathegod

Dark Knight Returns was pretty interesting take on a superhero in his 50s getting too old for this shit but still kicking ass and taking names. Artists and authors get old as well and it might be an interesting challenge for them to incorporate their shifting worldviews into a character we've followed for 20 years or so. Plus, 25-30 years really isn't that long in the greater scheme of things. You can see a character go from 16 to 46, which is substantial for a life but still realistic for an audience to follow for that whole time. If they had started the reboot for the current continuity around the time of the early 90s collector boom we would just now be getting close to the end of the cycle.

Anyway, just an idea.

Solid Snake

The issue with aging someone like spider-man is that he's in monthly comics. That maintains the sliding continuity. You can't age something like that appropriately.

RichC2

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Greg MacGuffin

There was also fat Spider-Man from Earth X:

kgrogers1979

Another thing with monthly comics is that although the comic comes out once a month it certainly doesn't mean the hero only has that one and only adventure in that month.

For example, if Spider-Man fights Doc Ock in the January issue and then Venom in the February issue, it doesn't mean that a whole month has passed between those stories. Its more like a couple days.

Its even easier to see in today's comic industry where most stories are done in six issue arcs. A six issue arc would take six months in "real time" but its only a few days in "Marvel time."

caligulathegod

I allowed for some compression. There's also methods to shore up real time. You can also have some characters pre-existing (origins told in flashback) and then bring in "new" characters as needed.