not sure how many comic fans out there, but Marvel have made the bold move of axing probably their #1 character: Peter Parker, Spiderman.

I heard the writer, Slott got death threats over this story arc, but I think it's pretty cool despite my local comic retailer reassuring me: Peter will be back. Any one keep up with this, opinions?

i was going to say something about spoilers since this issue just came out, but it's been plastered all over teh intarwebs so really there's no avoiding it. 

It'll be reversed like all other comic book deaths... i give it a year or so.

Superman died, Batman got his back broken... yeah these were hyped, helped sell a bunch of comics, and sure enough after a few months things were back to normal (Superman lived again, and Batman got his back fixed). I was never into mainstream comic books because, well, I thought the plot lines were typically stupid and of course in the end any popular character never died, and things basically stayed status quo with no real story nor depth to the characters. There are of course exceptions, and most of these exceptions happen to be found in limited series. For example, if you want to read a great Batman book, you should look at these:

Batman the Dark Knight Returns
Batman the Long Halloween

one of my personal favorite stories (also beautifully painted) is:

Kingdom Come

which is primarily a Superman story, but includes most of the big DC characters. In my personal opinion, the best comic book stories are by far and wide found in smaller press. For instance, if you want a an original and epic read, you need to seek out

Bone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_%28comics%29

needless to say, I will not be picking up Spiderman 700 or anything along those lines...

Its a status quo shattering move designed to sell comics. The universe will reset itself shortly and we can all stop caring so much.

sorry people for totally disregarding spoilers here. sure its status quo, but in this case I think it was executed rather nicely with a more inventive 'comic book' plotline rather than the brute force route that superman and batman suffered with totally bland villains in their case. Of course in comics death means nothing but for the time being I'm interested to see how the new character will develop. I don't pick up superhero books expecting a lot, and I am disappointed a fair share of the time, but some stories stand taller than others and they are there to be found, so I don't disregard the genre entirely.

Yeah, but this is not one of those stories that stand taller than the others. I would argue it stands shorter than the majority, which in superhero comics is not a good thing. That's my personal opinion!

It probably wouldn't hurt to edit your post and at least spoiler out the details of the issue.

I can't claim to have kept up with comics at all over the past 10-15 years but I agree that looking back over my ones from before there is not a whole lot of substance in the story.  Really with like 22 pages a month - mostly of pictures - just how much story can there be?  So yeah American comics seem to me to be mostly about pretty pictures and cool characters.

I can't claim to keep up with manga either but I know a couple of the ones I did read through like 20th Century Boys and Pluto were much more substantial and interesting story-wise, no doubt partially because the focus is much less on the black-and-white art.  (It's also highly likely the writer of those two is one of the best in the biz, Naoki Urasawa.)

That said the child in me does love the classic comic characters and their special powers and even with the deluge these past several years I still love me a good comic book movie, especially ones where the writers and director manage to keep the standout qualities of the comic but frame them in a more realistic, believable world for the general audience.

But certainly no "death of" storyline is going to get me to buy a comic unless I hear it has an exceptionally high standard of writing overall.

Actually, I found that manga was just as much about the "art" (illustrations) as American comic books if not more so. I find most manga to fall into either

1)warrior who overcomes lots of obstacles while slicing and dicing his way to whatever
2)robots with lots of things that blow up
3)a mix of 1 and 2

meh. To each their own. I'm not a fan of American superhero comics either for the most part. However, the independent comics tend to be pretty cool. The last excellent series I read was this acclaimed piece (which by the way, I think is being turned into a movie trilogy, and fortunately there are NO superheroes here)

http://www.idwpublishing.com/lockekey/

edit: I should add the disclaimer that I haven't read mainstream comics nor manga in years, but read quite a bit during high school. I do pick up "acclaimed" books now and then to see if they're any good, and Locke and Key is well worth the read!

i'd be more distraught if they killed off Peter Griffin.
of course everyone knows it would be Stewie's doing.

This is pretty much my problem with the nature of comics in a nutshell. Thing is, I adore the medium. I love it as a way of telling stories, a fantastic mix of words and imagery. So much can be done with it and so much is, there have been some amazing classics.

But I always encounter two major problems with comics -

A) Most superhero comics, in my opinion, are total rubbish and feel like they are made with no love whatsoever.

B) The continuing format means there can be no real third acts and certainly no real endings.

Don't get me wrong, I really like superheroes. It's not that I think the whole idea is rubbish. I just think most stories just happen to be rubbish. Take Planet Hulk as an example. Anyone read that? It's actually really good. I loved it. But it couldn't have a proper ending because of problem B and then it got all typical superhero nonsense with the next story, World War Hulk, and it all went to hell. Would have been great if Planet Hulk could have existed on its own with a definitive ending. But it couldn't.

They always seem to descend into the same old stuff and it makes the form unsatisfying for me. I could get into one but either a book will never end or it will get rubbish and, eventually cancelled. Very few have the balls to actually finish a story when the book is doing well. Sandman is the only one I can think of.

As others have said, Peter Parker's death will be reversed. This is meaningless, as is just about every other plot point in a superhero comic because they will always be reversed.

The only comic of worth right now that I can think of that doesn't fall into that trap is The Walking Dead which, IMO, is awesome. But even that suffers from problem B. I actually think the series should have finished some time ago.

Just go read Sandman or Watchmen if you wanna see how comics should be done

I respect your opinion, but how can you form it fairly having admitted to not reading the book?

To point A, true the medium is inundated with garbage, but what I always loved about comics was it was a below-the-radar medium where basically everyone dismisses it, but then someone is doing something wild and subversive right in the midst. So its just up to each person to find the good things. The recommendations in this thread are probably great places to start, including the ones you made.

To point B, it is not limited to comics, it is any commercial serialized storytelling form: sitcoms have the same issue where everything must reset to 0 at the end of the episode; and even television dramas suffer from being dragged on and on. Manga are also huge offenders, comics like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto will go on for ages because they are making big money and no one in the production/distribution side wants that to end. Its the nature of the beast and it creates some strange circumstances, like newspaper comic strips with characters over 100!

Spiderman is also getting up there in years, so they have to do something interesting or he will fall off the radar, its the same with all these 'vintage' books, and I don't have any real deep attachments to these characters to keep following all these years, but I like a good read once in a while and thought I may have found one.

You're right, it's certainly not a problem limited to comics but few forms seem to be as unlimited as comic books. Even the sitcoms hit an end eventually. Comics go decades and never ever really seem to end. They are an infinite form. I have little doubt that when I'm long dead and my grandchildren are old, Peter Parker will still be wisecracking, pining over Mary Jane and battling Doc Ock.

If a character's death can be reversed, then the writers can't adequately explore how the other characters deal with grief. When Chewbacca died in the Yuuzhan Vong series of books, it was irreversible, and the character Han Solo acted out grief in a very realistic way. If Chewbacca could come back (and the writers were cognizant of it), then there would be little impetus to make Han Solo turn away from everyone.

Pretty much what others have also said. The problem with mainstream superhero comic books is that once a character becomes popular (ie brings in money) the writers have no impetus to change anything in the long run. Sure, Wolverine might lose his claws temporarily, or this or that might happen, but eventually everything is back to normal.

The ONLY time we actually see character development and anything of real interest is

1)in independent comic books
2)in a limited superhero series that takes place in a "separate Universe" from the mainstream stuff

so yeah, those reasons are why I don't have to read Spiderman 700 to know I'm not going to care nor have I any interest.