Revelations

You know what? I get it. I do. My revelation came Thursday night, January 22, 2009. It was a revelation I was not expecting and it came from a source I was not expecting either. Who would have thought George Lucas would help me see the light?

I've been a long-time defender of the Prequel Trilogy. Yes, I am aware that all my dork cred was just sliced in twain by Exar Kun's double-bladed lightsaber*. My defense has (and will continue to be) that George Lucas makes movies for twelve year-old boys. When were twelve, there wasn't anything cooler than Star Wars. But now we're all growed up. And it's not that Lucas is failing to grow up with us. It's that his target demographic is now younger than us. We of the older generation need to step aside and let the twelve year-olds enjoy their movies (that being said, what if Episode II was Episode I, Episode II was The Clone Wars, and Episode III remained Episode III? There's a kick-@$$ Prequel Trilogy for ya').

Sorry. Back to Spider-Man.

So on Thursday, January 22, 2009, I heard myself saying exactly the same thing about the latest Indiana Jones movie. And that's when it dawned on me: If this is true of Star Wars and Indiana Jones -- why is it not true for Spider-Man?

Who am I to demand that the character grows up with me? Why should we age together? Why should he have to assume the same responsibilities I do? Comics belong in the hands of children. Well, most mainstream comics do.

So, Quesada/Marvel/Mephisto, I get it. I'm too old for Spider-Man. Spider-Man belongs to the twelve year-olds and you're just trying to get him back there. I just wish you had used other means to get him there. Because I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: The deal with the devil sucks.

I wish you would have just come out and said, "hey, Spider-Man's been great, but we want to take him back to his roots. So we're going to tie off all the loose ends, write one last story, and then start over." Not this "let's keep it all in continuity by throwing out twenty years of continuity so we can attract younger readers while keeping all the readers we've cultivated since 1962."

We could let Spider-Man be Spider-Man and, occassionally, maybe once a year, someone could have written a little one-shot or miniseries that explored the on-going life of the 616's Spider-Man.

So, just to let you know, I get it. I'm a man-child who needs to let his hero go. I just wish you could have let me know a little more respectfully.

* But surely that reference does a little to redeem myself? Right? Right?