Warning: Spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #700…
In the comic ,we saw that Doctor Otto Octavius had successfully ‘swapped bodies’ with Peter Parker with the mind of Doc Ock now being in the body of Spider-Man. At the end of issue #700, Peter (inside Doc Ock’s body) passes away, leaving Doc Ock in his body and a vow to become ‘The Superior Spider-Man,’ thus setting up the new Marvel comic series in February.
Fan reaction has been very divided about the ending with many that are pleased and excited for the upcoming relaunch. Some chose to show their displeasure in very un-civil ways, prompting Slott to put up this message on his Facebook:
Reality check: There is NO such thing as a “funny death threat.” Especially if you TAG someone in it. If you think, because of something happening to a FICTIONAL character, that you need to type out a death threat and SEND it to someone: You. Need. Help. If you follow my twitter, you know I’ve taken a devilish bit of delight in re-posting these (mainly because they usually make the OP look like a raving loon– and, for a time, that WAS funny to me.) Well… That’s over. From now on, they ALL get reported. The End.
“The fan reaction never really surprises me,” Marvel editor Stephen Wacker told CNN. “Anything you do with any of our characters, there’s a big vocal fan base, particularly online. It gets more magnified with Spidey. You find people of all stripes reacting — people who have been reading it for 50 years and love it, and others who say they’re quitting Marvel forever.
“I keep all the fan mail. You can see some of the same people who have written about six things over the past six years that made them drop Marvel forever. There are not a lot of storytelling opportunities in the world where you get such an immediate, visceral reaction. That’s a part of the job I like.”
