Spidey's new status quo

A new .jpg by John Romita Jnr has just dropped into our inbox courtesy of our friends over at Marvel which details the new status quo of the Spider-Man Universe. The image shows how the various core characters in the now weekly spider-themed books will fit into the editorial driven ret-con of the character and the new 'Brand New Day' storyline that begins this week.

With fans and collectors alike still reeling from Marvel's "It's magic, we don't have to explain it" fobbing off of complaints, it looks like this doodle tries to answer some of the questions that the controversial One More Day storyline bought up - and will provide a visual bible for both artists, creators and fans alike.

While it's great that Marvel are putting top notch creative teams on the new books, personally, I feel I am done with Spider-Man. That the 20-odd years' worth of back issues I've got that now haven't happened, storywise, feels like a kick in the teeth for fans who have stuck with the character through thick and thin. From the introduction to Venom to the Clone Saga to Aunt May finding out about Peter's alter ego ... all of this hasn't happened. Some of these were superb stories; others left a lot to be desired, but they all have charm in their own way, and in context it seems that, from this week's Amazing Spiderman #546 onwards, everything that has happened to Peter Parker in the past is irrelevant.

I will leave you to rant below, but really, like Sarah said in her open letter to Joe Q, if the Spider-marriage had to be written out, it could have been done a lot better than this.