Cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #512.
© Marvel Comics
Issue: 512
Authors: J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato Jr., Jose Pimentel
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.25
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #512
By: Tony WhittDate: Thursday, October 07, 2004
M.J. tells Peter who fathered the two super-powered, fully-grown children who are trying to kill him, and who think he killed their mother, Gwen Stacy. And...well, that's all that happens this issue. But oh, what an issue...
Those of you who have not read this issue yet will not want the news spoiled for you, while those of you who have already read it (or have had the misfortune of seeing any Internet posts about it before reading it) already know the news. Puts a reviewer like myself in a tough spot, especially when all the things that are praiseworthy about this issue revolve around that elephant in the room we dare not talk about. Actually, there is something praiseworthy about this issue I can talk about, and I never thought I'd say this: J. Michael Straczynski has completely changed a slice of Spider-Man continuity that's been with us since 1973 and I'm so stunned by the results that I couldn't care less that he did it. This story, the way JMS tells it, is worth the fact that the facts have been changed.
No, really what JMS has done in this issue is the sort of complete revamp of comics continuity that causes most fans to froth rabidly at the mouth, and all it takes to prove this is to go back to that landmark issue of this series, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121. Once you've had a chance to (re)read this issue, go get your copy and take a look at it. (Oh, c'mon, you know you've got either the original or a reprint somewhere...) The events that JMS recounts in this issue in flashback all come from that issue. The proof? Check out the hip threads that M.J., Gwen, and Petey are wearing. Obviously Mike Deodato has, because he's reproduced them absolutely faithfully in the flashback sequences. Now look at the scenes that these flashbacks take place contemporaneously with pages 1-3 and 5-6, right at the very beginning of the issue. There. See the problem? Of course you do.
It's not a case of "Oh, that flashback must've happened just before what we see in #121," or "The flashback happens in between these events" it's a case of "What we see on those pages in #121 didn't...actually...happen...and the events in the flashback did." Now, depending on whether you're in the camp of those who believe that previously-published stories should not be contradicted or outright changed in order to create new ones, or in the camp of those who feel that comics history is fluid and is always shaped by the needs of the present moment (which means you're probably also a DC fan), you'll either regard AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 512 as a perversion of the earlier issue or as an improvement on the earlier issue. I'm in the former of those two camps when it comes to changing Spider-Man stories yet I'm in the latter category when it comes to how I regard JMS' retelling of history. Doesn't quite add up, does it? But as another writer I greatly admire once said, " Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself."
Both #121 and #512 of this series tell extremely moving stories. Both #121 and #512 change the nature of the main characters' relationships in both striking and subtle ways. And #121 had an impact on this series that has reverberated through it for the last thirty-one years - #512 has the potential for the same sort of impact. And yet, both #121 and #512 tell completely different stories.
So?
This may not be good history...but it's good writing. Call it Orwellian if you will, but in this case, I'll take the one over the other any day.
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