Amazing Spider-Man #641

Probably subconsciously inspired by this, I have to admit.

So in retrospect - I still don't understand anything about the mindwipe. This issue actually made it worse in a way - as much of a copout as "it's magic" was for the initial explanation, it's still a lot more cut-and-dried than all this shit about digigenetic viruses (anamnesis is at the very least an actual word, whereas Googling "digigenetic" produces exactly six results, the first two being discussions of this comic) being channeled through the Extremis (which I don't really understand either, and I've read that story twice now).

But really? It's a comic book. If ever you can get away with a bullshit magic/technobabble explanation, it's here. But what still bothers me is that we got the technobabble in lieu of actually making me believe Tony, Reed, or frankly even Doc Strange, would have actually gone along with all this. When Peter went to Tony for help the first time, Tony's big heartfelt gesture (as this very story reminded us) was to not arrest him right there. But the implication here is that a day or two later, five minutes with Strange (whom he was also trying to arrest at the time) is all it takes to change his mind.

The motivation stuff is what really gets me, but getting back to the technobabble, would it have killed Quesada to toss in some kind of handwave regarding the web shooters? I guess they can be chalked up to the chaos aspect, but it was so transparently a marketing decision that to let it just sit there unaddressed is kind of insulting. I disagreed with Quesada philosophically on the need to end the marriage, but I can at least respect his argument editorially; it seems disingenuous, though, to make such a huge change to the story and then use it as an excuse to excise any random little plot threads that you don't care for. Especially one that even the big-budget movie franchise, that most cautious of enterprises, was willing to embrace.

Anyway, the story's over now, and BND as a whole is drawing to a close (whatever that means), so let this be my last word on the subject.

Probably.