All Things Spidey #1

A friend of mine made the observation that the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics seem to be constantly engaged in digging up their old graves like a bunch of ghouls. Editors and writers do not want to allow the dead to rest peacefully in Spider-Man's universe. Rather, it is becoming almost a pastime to defile the graves of old characters and storylines, resurrecting the dead in order to peddle a new story. This has been done in recent years with Spider-Man's clone, the Jackal, the first Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) and the first Hobgoblin.

But this metaphor became literal when in issue #426 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" Peter Parker has a dream about Dr. Octopus's decaying corpse rising out of its grave to get him. Sure enough, the dream became reality when Dr. Octopus was revived at the end of "Amazing" #427 in some type of mystical ceremony set up by the Rose, another retread of a villain. As readers, we still have to patiently wait and see whether this revival of Dr. Octopus is a story worth its price. However, my opinion is that Marvel should stop digging up old corpses and engage in the process of using the past as a foundation to create new characters who combine the best of Spider-Man's tradition with fresh innovations in character and plot.

Roger Stern was the model for innovation within tradition when he created the original Hobgoblin. These stories were dripping with a sense of history as this mysterious figure raided the hideouts, equipment and journals of the Green Goblin. The first story, way back in Amazing #238, was titled "In the Shadow of Evils Past." At the same time, Hobby was clearly a new creation who very quickly became the hottest story in Spider-Man's world in the early 1980s and a legend in his own right. The original Hobgoblin proves that a good writer can bring something fresh to Peter Parker's life without making the stories ridiculously trendy (i.e., keep the stupid Gen-X stuff out!).

The Hobgoblin stories are the stuff that makes a successful comic book. Unfortunately, the Spider books have looked to simply bringing old characters back to life, pumping any new story out of them that they can. The Spider-Clone, the Jackal and Norman Osborn have all been revived in stories that are far, far inferior to their original adventures and departures. For example, it's true that the 3-part "Hobgoblin Lives" story was needed in order to correct a major flaw in the Spider-Man universe. Even so, other than a surprise ending no one saw coming, "Hobgoblin Lives" was just a pale reflection of the original Hobgoblin stories. Its main value (besides nostalgia for old collectors like me) was as a type of "director's cut" to the Hobgoblin story which allowed Roger Stern to reveal who was the Hobgoblin according to him.

In "The Osborn Journal," Mendel Stromm tells Norman Osborn (after being brought back from the almost-dead by him) that he was better off in his grave and should have been left there. This saying should take hold in the editorial offices at Marvel. Some characters are better left off in their graves. Spider-Man is a character that one appreciates with an almost Burkean sense of the importance of his history and tradition. Lately it seems that this tradition, rather than supporting the healthy life of the character, has bogged him down and is suffocating him with old stories that should be left in the past (Kraven's other son, the Stacy family, etc.). If the Spider universe in its respect for the long tradition of the stories of its main character is a contract between the dead, the living and the unborn, then Marvel should start focusing on the living and the unborn and leave the dead in their graves. Sorry, Otto.