Another Open Letter to Marvel

(... arrived at the Spidey Desk this morning)

I write this mail in response to the letters section of #660, where Steve asks for feedback on the future of Peter Parker.

I don't want to see drastic changes in either Parker or Spiderman, as they both existed throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. Thomas J. Stacy (the letter writer) is simply wrong. What made Spider-Man special was that he was never truly a "comic book," like, say, Superman was. He was truly a graphic novel. The characters were good, the story great. His personality, the people in his life, what he did, how he was drawn -- all of this captured the imagination in the way a novel might. But if you junk it up too much by giving him too many toys, making him look weird, putting him into a teenage phantasmal world, you run the danger of making him a "comic" again.

You should be going backward, not forward. Try to discover what made the story special: the relationships, his inward struggle struggle, his status as a loner, and the simplicity of his ethical world as it tries to survive in the insanity of the real world, etc. What's the difference between the Parker of the 60s and 70s, and, say, Frodo in Lord of the Rings? Both set about in the world, on their own, to change it for the better -- to rid it of evil -- simply because they felt morally compelled to fulfill the tasks bestowed upon them by forces beyond their control.

Go back and make Spidey the way he was during the first three decades. Draw him the way he used to be. Don't make him a cheap toy. Don't go the sensational route.

Maybe what you should do is start a new comic called Classic Spider-Man, so people like me can continue to read the novel that was so good for twenty plus years. Go backward, not forward.

Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.