Is it just me, or are the new Peter Parker stories by Paul Jenkins annoyingly good. I mean, sure, for the first couple of months it was a bit of a novelty to have these fascinating storylines, with deft characterisation, well-rounded scripts, surprising plot twists and creative angles on new and old situations. But hey, there's only so long that you can deal with that.
Firstly - I don't have the time for this stuff. Now, back in the good old days with Mackie on PPSM, I could grab my comics from the shop, head home, flick through them and get the idea in a minute or two, then file them. But now, there's like 10 or 15 minutes reading in these things - and sometimes I need to read them twice before I get everything out of them. I don't have time for this. I have kids, and I need to spend quality time with them in the evenings.
Then there's the reviewers. The staff used to be able to rip off a quick "what a load of predictable trash" review in a few lines, with sometimes a "showed promise, but fell flat at the end". Now, these reviews require thought, concentration since you have to put enough effort in to be worth of the decent story. Let's have a bit of sympathy for the staff.
But there's more. Collecting Spidey was getting pretty exclusive. Spidey readers were way, way down. And that made me, a Spidey fan, feel pretty special. Now, with Jenkins writing great stuff, and with big names like Straczynski coming on board, all sorts of people might start picking up Spidey and reading it. How does that make me feel? In that case, I'm just one of the crowd.
Then, if the stories are good, then people start getting interested, then there's more traffic on the page... and more people emailing me to say "I used to be a Spidey fan, but I gave up five years ago. I've just started reading again, and can you tell me... yadda yadda...", so it's more work on the Spidey Page, more email, more hassle.
So thanks a bundle Marvel. Good Spidey comics equals a big fat pain in the buttski for us Spidey Fan Site editors. Nice one. Not. Bring back Mackie! Bring back Facade! Bring back X-Men crossovers, rambling storylines, cop-out endings. Long Live Aunt May! Resurrect Uncle Ben! Give me a break here.