Marvel Comics says: The Year of Spider-Man is 2010

While we were busy lounging around in our pajamas and eating left over Christmas dinner we received a cryptic message from Marvel Comics that simply said:

The Year of Spider-Man is 2010

It was accompanied by this image:

 

Spider-Man in 2010

 

And then this one came in:

 

Spider-Man in 2010

 

Followed by this image on Wednesday:

 

Spider-Man in 2010

 

Make of that what you will.

 

UPDATE: Here is the puzzle completely assembled:

 

Spider-Man in 2010

Comments

  1. The Spidey Brain-Trust have won me over in the last year. Looking forward to whatever they have cooked up.

  2. Dear God! Another clone-saga!

    I know a lot of people are having fun with the current Spidey books, but I find it shifting from mediocre to alright. Who is the Iron Spider dude? I know black spidey is Venom.

  3. ooooo …. exciting! Very NiCe.

  4. Swweeeett!

  5. Take THAT DC Earth One!… oh wait, this isn’t nearly as exciting…

    oh well. i anxiously await more details

  6. @muddi900

    The Iron Spider is the last of (or one of the last of) the MVP clones from Avengers Initiative.  I forget if he’s currently working in the Initiative or in the ex-Initiative "Underground Avengers" with Tigra and Gauntlet and all them.

  7. Bo-ring!

  8. Could we maybe wait until we have the second 1/8th of the image and a second sentence of explanation before we call "bo-ring"?

    Goddamn fuckin’ internet.

  9. I hope it has to do something with OMD. I’m sorry I shouldn’t bring it up, but Joey Q did say that storyline was coming back! Like it or not they have to finish that plot point in some capacity.

    Either way, maybe it’ll be interesting enough to read ASM again. Cause lord knows I have had zero interest in reading the title as it is now.

  10. At first I thought this would have something to do with the Spider-man musical thingy that’s due next year (I think?) but it would make sense for them to push a big comic plotline around that time as well.

    I will always have a place in my heart for Spidey, looking forward to seeing how this develops. 

  11. Oh, also, there’s another image: http://marvel.com/images/633119./from/content.story.10789

  12. Not really much of an announcement. "Things will be better next year", the slogan for just about every product and politcal voice up for reelection.

  13. @Ruo21: Who said it was an announcment? It’s a teaser image for next year.

  14. @HBD   I believe he is the last of the MVP clones and he is currently with the Avengers Underground

  15. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in a while, but Iron Spider was my favorite JMS story in years.

  16. Is that Madame Web, or aunt May in costume?

  17. @Cooper: Now with that second image, it looks like Parker is reaching out to someone…..Maybe his past?

    The idea of this going back to Mephisto is looking stronger…

  18. I got it!

    Bottom left corner: He’s reaching out to MJ.

    Just guessing right now but I have a good feeling that MJ is on the other side of the cover.

  19. Obviously it makes no sense to pre-emptively declare Amazing Spider-man boring in 2010 based on a teaser image, but it is entirely legitimate to declare the teaser boring. It is entirely fair to say, hey, Marvel marketing department. Your lame puzzle is not doing it for me. If I was not reading Spider-man this would not make me start buying.

  20. multiple spiders……..please dont be clones.

  21. You know what’s funny… the whole incomplete jigsaw puzzle thing was boring and unappealing back when DC did it for Bruce Wayne Murderer/Fugitive. Let’s just hope Marvel doesn’t go for the asinine "Let’s put each new piece on the cover of the book and in the end it will reveal the cover to #XXX" thing like that gimmick, too. I saw this and immediately was reminded of the Batman promotions.

    On pure aesthetics, there’s far too much black and misused space. My eye is drawn to the washed-out middle piece, but it’s hard to discern any detail, thus defeating the point of making it the centerpiece. It would have been more fun to have a handful of pieces scattered across the page, giving away little hints and such.

    Still, no enticement for me to read the book. I have to admit, the idea of the gauntlet storyline wants me to give the book a try, but not enough to surmount my dislike of the "premise."  

  22. I’m hoping that they’re developing a spider-man family like the flash family in DC

  23. The (potentially) bad news?  Looking at the March solicits, it appears that ASM is going weekly.  That’s #$12-$15 dollars a month, probably more with the rate they’ve been sprinkling in $3.99 issues.  I know a lot of people have a problem with the $9 a month thing, so I can’t imagine many of them will be on board for this.  Again, this is just speculation based on the March Solicits

    But I just dropped the book after the last issue, so what do I care?  Have fun, kids!

  24. Im thinking so.  Lady Kraven has been collecting "spiders" for a while now, so I imagine when the gauntlet is over, we will see them as a sort of "family" group. 

    This looks to have some refference to OMD.  I hope we get some pay off to that one, we’ve been going along with this for some time now.  The story is due to come around and at least develop more.

  25. @Slockhart: It’s never bad news to have more good comics.

  26. @conor  agreed, i can’t get enough ASM. I’m so used to three of them a month i don’t know what i’ll do if they ever go back to the once a month schedule

     

  27. @Slockhart: I’m buying ASM in trades since OMD started because it’s more affordable than the single issues. That might be a solution for you.

  28. I think that TheNextChampion is right about this one. That’s going to be MJ on the other side.

  29. I wonder what the point is of having his mask off as well.  That too would point to it being someone in Peter Parker’s life as opposed to Spidey’s. 

  30. and i thought 2010 was the year of the Tiger! (man, that was a lame joke)

  31. @ slockhart

    with how much I have been enjoying ASM I would love weekly! The pace has been great I love the feel of being flown through a story lune in like 1-2 months. It’s sort of like a trade, but you still have that “and next issue” feel that I miss when I read trades but without the month (or longer, yeah I’m looking at you JMS and Millar!) to add to the story!

  32. wonder who the girl is that peter is kissing in the background image on the right? is that carlie?

  33. Oh joy, another year of a character I once loved being over used and raped. I wonder if this is how wolverine fans felt in the 90s?

  34. I believe that the first appearance of the Iron Spider costume was in Amazing Spider-Man 529 (Apr 2006). It was a gift to Peter from Tony Stark… when he and MJ were still living with Stark. For a few issues during Civil War after Peter turned and went underground, he continued to wear it but he stopped in order to prevent Stark from being able to track him (I think)… The Iron Spider costume didn’t reappear in Avengers Initiative until at least June 2007 (issue #1 of that series)…

    Personally, I think that status quo snobs should quit bitching about OMD/BND … In the Silver Age, Spidey’s first crush was Jameson’s secretary… then he went with Gwen Stacy… in continuity, Spidey has never been a one woman guy–and anyone could argue that OMD/BND merely returned Spidey to his roots as a character… GET OVER IT… if it sucks so bad why is it the best-selling monthly comic? ASM sells over 180,000 issues/month these days. Those who claim Spidey would never make a "deal with the Devil" should recall that the death of his Uncle was a core element in the character’s origin… Spidey would do ANYTHING to repeat that mistake…

  35. I’m not in unless they include Spider-Ham.

  36. Hooray I might be right! But I won’t say 100% that it’s correct, cause it could be a massive swerve in the end.

    Still I am happy to think that we’re FINALLY going to see some resolution out of OMD in the future. But hearing that I might need to buy ASM every week is a bit of a worry. I got a tight budget as it is and as much as I want to enjoy Spider-Man again……Four issues a month is just asking too much for me.

    But we’ll see how it plays out. 

  37. I buy Spider-Man in trades and I’m behind so I’m a little confused, I thought ASM was already a weekly book?

  38. @Jediaxle: It’s three times a month.

  39. I probably wouldn’t even have noticed the weekly thing if it weren’t for March having 5 Wednesdays, so it’s not really that big of a deal.  For all I know it might not be going weekly and they might just be putting out some issues they’ve had done, but had to wait for Gauntlet to wrap up.  We probably won’t know for sure until the April solicits come out, so I wouldn’t get too excited/worked up over this yet.

    I get that a lot of people love the book, so the more the better.  I just meant that for people like me who found it good, but felt it maybe wasn’t 3x a month-good, more could be a bad thing.  As for me dropping it, I dropped it purely out of the fact that I can’t get into The Gauntlet.

  40. I hope they kill off MJ and she falls to her death like Gwen Stacy, I know that’s morbid, but since this image is him falling, and an outstreched, female looking hand (as NextChampion has proclaimed), it could be fitting.

  41. Does anyone know who the artist is for this teaser

  42. How is that MJ on the other side? That partial hand and arm are clearly in costume.

  43. I believe that’s Pasqual Ferry’s art.

  44. Brand New Puzzle?

  45. We’re gonna need Russell to get this part of the puzzle to fit now. 🙂

  46. @RoiVampire I think that is Carlie he’s kissing.  They’ve been teasing that relationship since the first issue of Brand New Day, so I guess we’re finally going to see it.

  47. I always borrow the latest HC from my buddy who buys them, and I’ve come to love this series.  If there’s an omnibus or massive oversize collection of this stuff, I would buy it.

  48. @ActualButt: Could be MJ,its just a white sleeve.And I’m thinking that looks like white gauzy fabric obscuring the lower part of the Iron Spider costume…a veil perhaps,MJ in a wedding dress?

  49. Last corner is posted on Marvel’s website and it features a certain red head.  Also, theres some of the Juggernaut not looking too hot

  50. Look at my link 3 posts up to see the almost-complete puzzle.

  51. Every year is a Spider-Man year in my household. 

  52. Well this means either two things:

    A) OMD will finally be resolved

    B) MJ is going to get married at some point in the year

    Either way it might be interesting to read. 

  53. Holy crap! I predicted it three hours before Marvel updated their post with the last corner…..thats kind of spooky   O_O

  54. Here’s the complete image with an interesting image at the top:

    [url=http://img402.imageshack.us/i/spideydone.jpg/][img=http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4916/spideydone.jpg][/url]
     

  55. Crap, inserted the link wrong. Try this one instead:

     http://marvel.com/images/634411./from/content.story.10818/viewmode/fullsize/

  56. @rockleerules, Yeah, no one has commented on the baby.  In all the One More Day/Brand New Day madness, Peter & MJ’s baby (and it’s ultimate fate and Norman Osborne’s part in the deception) has been the one narrative thread left dangling, which no one seems to address or even hint about.  Wonder how baby Watson-Parker fits in with post-BND continuity.

  57. I think Marvel Editorial Staff hit the cause of Spidey’s stagnation right on the head. The Mary Jane marriage brought a lot of stability and ‘boring grown-up’ problems to a property that is primarily beloved for being archetypal beleaguered teen-hero. While I think the method for ending their marriage was moronic (a divorce would’ve been simpler, and Lord knows MJ had every reason in the world to call it quits), I love that Spider-man is not married anymore. Love it. The current Spidey status quo as been perfect. Progressive enough to where he doesn’t feel like he’s in high school anymore, but not quite the fuddy duddy that we all found boring during the twilight of Mackie’s run, or the Earth X-universe (man, Peter makes for an annoying dad).

    So I’m pulling for that wedding gown to be intended for a wedding-other-then-Peter’s. MJ getting married to someone else would be great.

    ps: That is not to say that I don’t think you can’t write good Spider-man comics without Peter being a swinging bachelor, I’m just saying removing his marriage certainly solved the rut we were in 3 or so years ago. Also, I’ve never found Mary Jane to be a compelling character in the least.

  58. Well, I’m not reading Spider-man, so this doesn’t do much for me either way, but here’s my one comment based on the idea that "One More Day" could be "coming back."

    I think it’s a bad idea, although it may be more of an apology than anything else.

    Y’see, as a long time comics fan, I accept that books like GL:Rebirth or One More Day or Crisis or Zero Hour have to exist — they exist as devices to rearrange/reset continuity to push things into a different direction. So, I accept these books, but I’ve always found them to be awkward and contrived. However, they usually reset the continuity for a good reason, and I most often enjoy the results afterwards.

    Now, I didn’t read One More Day, but it was famously set up to forge a new "single" direction for Peter without making him a widower or divorcee. Contrived story, but it got them what they wanted. Cool. But don’t go back to it! Don’t make it the center of a new storyline! It was never that strong to begin with!

     Unless, they’re just trying to undo what they did because they’ve realized it was a mistake. But then you’ve got just one more lame, contrived device to undo what you did before. 

     

     

  59. To be fair, they were always planning on coming back to address OMD at some point. All of the writers and Joe Q have said it in multiple interviews. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It should be making the people who bitched about OMD happy, but it actually seems to be making them the angriest. Wish more people had given Spidey a chance during the last 2 years, but it looks like only iFanbase users have really taken to it. The boards on Newsarama and CBR still act like someone kicked a puppy in editorial. Hopefully this helps them move on.

  60. @Anson: I’m happy about it. Finally I have a reason to read ASM again if it does happen.

  61. I’m trying really hard not to be a crust lately but… a puzzle? What in the name of Gertrude kind of marketing is that?

  62. @Anson17-But daccampoo isn’t talking about only addressing the issue of what was said to Mephisto by MJ he is talking about completely reversing course on the whole thing and getting them back together.  That is completely separate from just talking about what happened.  If they discuss what happened and why during OMD, that is one thing, but the picture intimates that they will be resetting the reset, and that is quite another thing. 

    For the record, I agree with daccampo’s assesment of the situation, that there are necessary evils for this entertainment format.  And while clunky, OMD got done what it wanted.  But, if that is what Marvel decides to do, I will be surprised because that will be Joe Q raising the white flag on one of his three big ‘fixes’ that he had in mind when he took over Marvel.

  63. omd was the best thing to happen to comics in a long time.  if it goes away, i go away from spider-man.