No, Really, This Time EVERYONE DIES!
NEWSARAMA - Speaking of upcoming events in Civil War, Quesada said that no Spider-Man fan should miss Civil War #2, as it features a very significant event in the life of Spider-Man.
Civil War, yadda yadda, Spider-Man's life will change FOREVAR OMG WTF BBQ!!!
God, haven't we heard that before? Wasn't that the pitch for The Other? Or Disassembled? I'm not saying that change is bad. I'm just saying there's been a lot of changes recently, one on top of the other and none of them are getting much attention.
My Mom used to say that Lenny Bruce said "You can't hit a hooker in the head and say 'I Love You'." (I can't find the actual wording of that quote, but you get the idea, I hope.) There's only so many times we can hear 'In this issue... THIS PERSON DIES!' or 'This character's life is changed FOREVER'' before we start to lose that thrill. It's common knowledge that death is not permanent, a self-referential joke about a simple short-coming. I'm almost to the point of wanting characters to die so they can get a fresh start again when they come back. Heck, kill Rogue! Get that girl away from Gambit and a new life! Kill Xavier and Magneto so they can reboot back to working as a team and watch things fall apart. Hell, let Punisher kill the whole damned lot and let me catch up on my TPs.
But that's my inner grouchy old cat lady talking.
It's almost a given by this point that Spider-Man is going to fess up to being Peter Parker. Marvel could pull a different rabbit out of the hat, but I'd give it a 85% chance. At work, my manager thinks this will radically change the character and is enthusiastic about the development. Me, I'm not so thrilled. Sure, there would be some good stories to come out of the change and would certainly put the crosshairs on Mary Jane and Aunt May, but... for how long? How long will it take for writers to get bored of the change and put things back? A couple years? I just don't see this having any staying power.
Armchair Civil Warrior
Okay: in Civil War, SHIELD is going to start going after unregistered superheroes. With assistance from those who have registered, they will make a task force of honed skill and power in order to take down most of Earth's Mightiest and Co., right? I'll follow that. Only if you can explain to me why SHIELD hasn't done this before for supervillains. I mean, if they really want to get rid of vigilantism, then they have to provide better security for the common man. And if they have the manpower to take down someone like Captain America, then why is the Rhino a problem? Supervillains create the need for superhero and if the average policeman or even SHIELD operative could handle them, then there wouldn't be a need for that something extra your average costumed hero provides.
Which makes me think of something else: so we're getting rid of all the heroes? Xavier's School at Westchester is now an 'internment camp'? Sentinels seen as protectors of mutants and humans? Heroes will be 'hunting' down traitors? What's Rachel Grey think of all this? Now while I'm not historian when it comes to Days of Future Past, I do remember some key points that sound awfully familiar. So far, all I've seen Rachel Grey do is talk to a therapist and rent movies. Mind you, I can't really say the X-Men are doing anything to better their postion regarding their home-turned-internment camp. But is that where we're headed?
Hrm. Maybe we're going to find ourselves in Claremont's alternate future, run around with that as the reality and then Rachel Grey, maybe Wanda as some retribution and, oh say, the Sentry, are going to combine forces, and do what Rachel was supposed to do when she came back and that's fix the Days of Future Past reality from coming true. Then we'll get a huge reboot back to the 80's... I don't know. I'm just thinking outloud again.