A Few Thoughts on Comics (not) from this week

Before I return to the pattern of regular reviews, there's something I should finish out.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed issue #590 of the Amazing Spider-Man, an issue that co-starred the Fantastic Four. I had some problems with the details in the story, many of which we determined might be my fault for having missed other stories, but I noted I'd wait on the second part of the story before making a final determination on what I thought.

To start of issue #591, the recap page (aka the front page of the DB) proclaims that this issue takes place before New Avengers #51. This is one of the questions I had regarding the last issue. I'm not so bigheaded that I'd think this was a 'hey Steve, happy now?' moment but it may indicate I wasn't the only one who didn't get the news on the Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, I did read an interview with writer Dan Slott regarding the story after I finished reading it. He noted some problems with the dialogue surrounding the time variations between dimensions. We won't worry about that then.

Johnny and Spidey continue to fuss over his secret identity. Reed thinks it unlikely that they knew Spidey's identity and it got covered up. He just doesn't have those kind of resources. They return to the matter at hand but keep discussing the 'mindwipe' as they go.

Eventually Spidey gets annoyed at Johnny's pushing and has to point out that Johnny's identity, along with the rest of the FF, has been common knowledge for ages. His super-powered family lives together in a 'safe' place. Spidey's friends and family are normal. Johnny's super-hero uniform is a set of clothes to him but Spidey's suit is a disguise, designed to protect those he knows from the full impact of his double life.

Once the adventure is over (the adventure is mostly there to 1. cause this conversation with the team-up and 2. get Pete out of town for a couple months to mess his life up further), the conversation returns to the 'mindwipe' that erased Spidey's secret identity from everyone's mind. While talking to Reed, he refers to it as a 'psychic blindspot' that doesn't allow people to properly connect the dots even if they have the evidence to prove he's Spidey. It seems odd at first that he can speak so confidently about this but he's had a year or so (his time) to see this in action and ponder it so it's not that odd.

Question - does Spidey *know* what happened, to any degree, to cause the mindwipe? He doesn't say here and it would be illogical for him to remember the moment that caused 'Brand New Day' because, really, it didn't happen to him. (Head's starting to hurt...) Does he remember that Mephisto was involved? Does he remember Mary Jane being involved? I don't think they've gone to that level of explanation yet. Just pondering.

Spidey's logic to not reveal his identity is solid. He may trust the FF but things happen. People get their mind read, they get possessed, replaced by Skrulls. Things happen. It's best that he keep this to himself.

Reed offers to duplicate the brainwave that creates the 'blindspot'. This is enough for Pete and he goes along with it, removing his mask, finally being pressured into trusting someone.

Now, this is a sweet moment, very nice and heartwarming. But.

As he removes the mask, he notes 'The way this works, once you see me, it'll all come back to you.' How does he know this? As I noted before, it makes sense that he could of observed the 'blindspot' at work and figured out how it's working. The only way he could really know that revealing his face recalls memories in others would be if he'd already done it before.

Is this a clue that the FF weren't the first to have his identity re-revealed to them? If it's not, it comes across as sloppy storytelling because Pete has knowledge of something that he can't really possess. How would he know? Are there rules regarding mindwipes that he read online? Is there a wiki for that?

Also, how does this affect his decision to reveal his identity to the Avengers team he's on? Is Reed going to hook them up with the 'firewall' as well?

Now, the group returns from the other dimension with two months having passed in their normal dimension. No big deal for the FF maybe but a big deal for our Spidey, both in the storyline and overall.

Another question needs raising: how messed up is Pete's timeline now? At the beginning of 'Brand New Day' it's noted that Spider-Man has been gone for about a year. How does he line up with the rest of the Marvel Universe's general timeline now? Yet we saw Spidey involved in the Civil War, the New Avengers, the Secret Invasion, when was he gone? Now he's lost another two months, mostly to advance the subplots?

Feel free to tell me I'm thinking too hard about this. I do that.

Enjoyable moments but, overall, I'm disappointed. It seems like it was a nice idea to do something simple and cute but it doesn't seem to fit into the overall structure like it was meant to do.