Spider-Man no more?

Warning: this post contains big-time spoilers related to Spider-Man #700!

So… I read The Amazing Spider-Man 700 the other day and, despite all the hype leading up to it, was left a little deflated.

Up until the last page, I was clinging on to the hope – albeit a slim hope – that the writers would rescue the storyline from its inevitable ending, but no.

They killed off Peter Parker.

Again.

Yes, this has already been accomplished in the “Ultimate” Marvel universe, somewhere I’m growing less fond of by the month. But at least when a younger, less experienced character took the reins of the Spider-Man role in that alternate universe, it was fresh and interesting.

This month, it was just a disappointment.

For me, killing off (or re-animating) comic characters is a sure sign that the writer has run out of ideas. Spidey has been through a heap of majorly screwed-up plotlines in the last decade (clones, a pact with the devil, his aunt marrying his nemesis’ father?!) but just when Peter Parker seems to be entering a new phase of his life, he gets killed off.

And replaced with perhaps the lamest of his super-villain adversaries: Dr. Octopus.

Sigh.

Okay, Marvel – I’ll see how this pans out in 2013. But you’ll really have to pull a major surprise out of the bag to keep this jaded reader engaged for much longer.