Disney purchases Marvel

[Magneto]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Quesada is the same. In one of his interviews, he admited one of the other reasons for BND was to boost sales of Spider-Girl and eventually give her some leverage with a wider audience since Peter and MJ have grown as parents in that continuity, plus it's outlasted EVERY attempt at rebooting continuity to the point it's practically definitive.

That's a pretty shoddy reason amongst others for the idea of BND, but that's not all that terribly surprising. Under Joseph's reign as Editor-in-Chief, Spider-Man has experienced some very unsatisfying storylines come about. OMD being one, BND being another, and the previously mentioned Sins Past being yet another (just off the top of my head). Thankfully for him, he can always fall back on the Ultimate line being created under his tenure. Otherwise, he would appear pretty inept when it comes to handling Spider-Man in my estimation.

I don't mind if Marvel want to reboot the franchise, it's obvious they think they have no choice, but they could have just made the Ultimate Universe the mainstream timeline and boosted it's popularity, instead of slowly depriving it of it's dignity and relevancy.

As mentioned above, I think alot of fans find Joe Q completely inept when handling anything related to Spider-Man. He's been dead set on doing away with the marriage for years now, and if that was truly the case, which it is, you would think it wouldnt have been implemented in such a shoddy way as we saw in OMD. But whats done is done. Spider-Man franchise, and Quesada's strong feelings about having Peter single again aside, I think most fans will still take the reg 616 universe over the ultimate line anyday. Theres alot of good stuff in the regular continuity that is extremely entertaining. It really doesnt need a complete overall.

Bittersweet? Hardly. It actually fits so well into continuity and even gives readers a chance to plug gaps with fresh continuty (not to mention seems to be bringing back long-discarded characterisation like Sandman going straight), that it makes BND look even more incompetant and dated. Reallisticly, it's not contributing to the sales decline of ASM, but it's still TRUE Spider-Man. That's something BND can barely lay claim to.

That's exactly what would make reading such a strip bittersweet in my estimation. To read something that feels more like Spider-Man than what is currently being presented in the marvel comics (since it's very apparent that comparisons are going to be made), and to know all-too-well in the back of your mind that it will never be acknowledged in the continuity.