10 Out Of Character Moments That Annoyed Comic Fans

3. Spider-Man - Demonic Deal-Doer

Now we reach the moment which many fans consider to be the death of Spider-Man. The one story which not only did away with decades of Peter Parker's history, rendering countless stories and character developing events meaningless, but spat upon the very lesson the character was built upon. Whilst attempting to flee with his loved ones from the consequences of revealing his identity to the world, Peter witnesses Aunt May being shot by an assassin hired by the Kingpin. After threatening Iron Man to help keep her alive, and finding that everyone from Doctor Strange to Reed Richards cannot fix a simple bullet wound, Peter is eventually approached by Mephisto. In exchange for Peter and Mary Jane's marriage and their happiness, the demon would heal Aunt May and alter history; ensuring her survival but also that their relationship would never develop. Both of them promptly accept this and Peter's life is effectively reduced back to square one. For a character whose driving lesson is that "with great power comes great responsibility" the story only features Peter attempting to dodge responsibility. It features him failing to deal with the repercussions of his unmasking and doing anything besides truly turn himself in to fix the damage, and characters in the comic even call him out on this. This contrived and plot hole ridden sequence of events was so poorly received that writer Joe Michael Straczynski considered having his name removed from the final issues.In fact its only staunch defender seems to be Joe Quesada himself, the chief editor who was behind its creation, who promptly paired up Spider-Man with a character based upon his daughter. Yet even after this, somehow both Marvel and DC are still confused as to why fans cringe every time the words "editorial mandate" are mentioned.