Spider-Man: Reign
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Spider-Man: Reign is a four issue comic book mini-series featuring Spider-Man, written and illustrated by Kaare Andrews and published by Marvel Comics. Set 35 years into Spider-Man's future, the series has been compared (not always favorably) to DC's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
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[edit] History
On December 12, 2006 Marvel announced that issue #1 had sold out through Diamond Comic Distributors and that a second printing would be released.[1]
[edit] Controversy
On December 6, 2006, the same day that Spider-Man: Reign #1 shipped to retailers, Marvel issued an apology and a "CONTENT ADVISORY" statement, announcing that the issue was now returnable as it "contains an image that may be misinterpreted by some readers as inappropriate"[2]. This was due to a panel showing a naked and elderly Peter Parker sitting on a bed, an image in which his genitalia are apparently visible. Spider-Man: Reign had shipped with a T+ (Teens & Up) rating.
[edit] Story
[edit] Characters
- Peter Parker/ Spider-Man
- J Jonah Jameson
- Aunt May Parker
- Mary Jane Watson - Parker
- The Sinister Six - including Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter and The Sandman.
- Otto Octavius
- Venom
[edit] Plot
[edit] Part One
We begin in a dark gloomy future of New York. Not one 'super crime' has happened in over a decade, but the government in New York employs fascist methods on regular crime. In this world, justice takes the form of a merciless police force known as 'Reign'. We see a group of pre-teens spray-painting a wall with the message 'Where did u Go?', presumably addressed to the missing Spider-Man, only to be caught and assaulted by several police officers, who stun one of them with an electroshock gun.
We switch to our narrative - a bearded, decrepit Peter Parker, barely managing a job at a flower shop. A young couple complains that he sent cream roses instead of white, ruining their wedding. He understands and is willing to fix it but the couple leave, disgusted. Parker's boss, enraged that he has made yet another mistake, fires him for incompetence and halts his last paycheck to compensate for the wedding. This doesn't seem to bother Peter, as he simply walks out, depressed, carrying a bunch of white lillies.
As he walks the streets, Parker runs into one of the fleeing kids from the beginning scene, ruining his flowers and giving time for the officers of 'Reign' to show up. Parker tries to reason with them, but being not as strong as he once was is beaten up as he tries to pull them away. As the cops take the kid, the one remaining child despairs in that Peter was too weak to stop them, and that no-one can protect them now. Parker goes back to his apartment . While eating his dinner, he retains memories of his wife Mary-Jane, who he had tried to get the flowers for, and imagines her at the other end of his dining table.
Meanwhile, the mayor of New York, Mayor Waters, is getting interviewed by Daily Bugle reporters. He tells the Bugle that he's working on a barrier to help protect NY from terrorist attacks - at the cost of having to remove metal from buildings and old crosses to melt down for construction. A Bugle reporter comments that, with all the success he is achieving now, he might one day spread his methods to the rest of the USA. However, once alone, the mayor is revealed to be keeping a prisoner - an old, obese man, seemingly in a vegetative state. The mayor taunts him, proclaiming that he will always come every year to mock him for his bloated victory.
Back at Peter Parker's apartment, a grumpy old man approaches the building, muttering about how terrible the world has become - it is none other than J Jonah Jameson, who has come to visit his old friend. At the doorway, he tries to talk about 'old times' and wants to deliver a package, but Parker is too depressed to talk and simply slams the door in his face. Jameson pleads, telling Peter that he was sorry for unknowingly hating him all those years in the past, and that he sold the Bugle, feeling that he had run it on lies.
Getting no response, Jameson leaves, and begins to cause a stir, shouting about how the world is now full of liars and oppressors. Upon his bashing on the windshield of a parked car, two 'Reign' officers try to restrain him, but he just hits one of them. While the officers begin to beat up Jameson, Parker opens the package to find one of his old cameras from his days at the Daily Bugle, as well as a mask.
Jameson, cursing, calls for help as the Reign officers beat him. He screams that the city needs Parker, that he's got to do something and he's got to fight. He begins to apologise, and the officers ask whether it was about the car or the illegal brass knuckles he kept in his pocket. It turns out to be neither; Jameson was apologising to Peter Parker, who has donned a black mask and gone out in nothing but his underwear and socks. Jameson succeeded: Spider-Man has returned.
The issue ends abruptly with Spider-Man beating the Reign officers in his classic style while spouting abusive wisecracks. In his rage, he imagines himself to be young and musclebound once again, and in front of regular police officers, brutally kills one of the assailants, throwing him to the ground.
[edit] Part Two
According to Solicitations{fact}, in Part Two Mayor Waters will release the Sinister Six from jail to deal with Spider-Man.
[edit] Part Three
Solicitations claim{fact} that Spider-Man will have to face 'The Thing formerly known as Otto Octavius'.
[edit] Part Four
Solicitations claim{fact} that Venom, having been in hiding since Spider-Man's disappearance, will appear to attempt at finally destroying him.
