Spiderman Crib Sheet

Spiderman, as one of the brightest stars of the Marvel universe, and maybe having the most to lose by revealing his identity, went through a lot because of Civil War.

The whole thing started with Peter Parker seemingly in the pocket of Tony Stark, depicted as both beneficial, with the new suit stark gave him and it's extra robot arms and sleek colors, to the overwhelming control. Peter was the face of the Superhero registration Act, the lynchpin of the whole plotline, and it started out with him and Iron Man acting like Batman and Robin.

A telling sign that the cooperation would not last was when Peter found tracking and recording bugs in his fancy new suit. Then he fought Captain America, winning by default as Cap had to get away, but webbing Cap's shield where he could retrieve it after he left it behind.

When he went rogue, he took Mary Jane and Aunt May into hiding with him, but before they were completely secure, Aunt May was shot by one of the Kingpin's costumed assassins. Peter was grief-stricken, May was hospitalized under constantly changing aliases as they tried to hide from Iron Man and the government. In the end, Tony Stark personally financed May's medical care, through his butler, but there was nothing they could ultimately do, she was going to die.

The series "One More Day," was Peter trying to find some way to save his Aunt May, and when you run in the circles he has run in, you surely start thinking there is a way around this mortality thing. Nobody could help him, until Mephisto appeared, offering a deal. If Peter were to agree to leave Mary Jane, breaking up what he called "true love", he would restore Aunt May's life.

Mephisto is one of Marvel's versions of the devil. It seems to me that he was the one that brought in the Ghost Rider, but maybe not the father of the former hero they called the Son of Satan. One cool place to find all of those facts out, from far more detail oriented people than me, is the Marvel Comics Database Wiki, one of the places I found to catch myself up.

Mary Jane made the deal for Peter, ending their marriage but making Mephisto agree to several other terms, such as getting Peter out of the jams he was in, mostly from revealing his identity. In the current series, Brand New Day, which may or may not be open ended, everything has changed.

There is a list on the second issue of exactly what happened, but let me put it in a nutshell: Peter is back to living with Aunt May, he never revealed his identity, is not even dating Mary Jane, and is just starting to break the rules against superheroes working without being registered.

Doing this plot turn, around one of the central characters of the whole Civil War saga, is a serious crime against consistency. Really? Making one person forget a secret identity is old hat, but an entire country? It strains the suspension of disbelief.

It was a price they had to pay, somebody had written Spiderman into a corner and he had to get out. If they planned it like they did it, shame on them, but I can accept that they needed to change it up. Peter Parker is essentially living the same five yers of his life over and over, for forty years now, inconsistency might be the rule, not the exception.

It's happened before, more than once. One broken plot string was "The Scarlet Spider," as Marvel tried to find a way to kick start sales for their character back in the 90's. I bought some of these issues, and they are some of the few older comics I have left.

JUST SO NOBODY THINKS I AM DELUSIONAL:
I realize that Marvel is just selling comic books, and have little or no respect for their characters. They will pull nearly any stunt it takes to sell comics and avoid the bankruptcy that they went through in the 90's. I hope they fired the writers who screwed Spidey up this last time and I hope they found someone who can guide his character back to health, of course, ending back up with Mary Jane.