What is the Vanishing Point?

6 Comments

1. My THEORY on the Vanishing Point, and the ONLY way I’d actually be interested in the Vanishing Point is as follows:

   The Vanishing Point is the time when the deal with Mary Jane, Peter and Mephisto caused the marriage to be erased. That means there’s a point in time where the marriage’s existence can be found and allow it to return to the Marvel books. Think about it. What else really “vanished” in Marvel as memorably and controversially as Spider-Man’s marriage? Notice how in the center of this “Secret Empire” cover, a story about the controversial and universally hated Hydra Cap, is not Captain America at all, but Spider-Man. Yes, he’s with Miles and there are other heroes on this cover too like the Hawkeyes and the Hulks, but none of the other heroes on the cover had anything “vanish” as memorably as Spidey did. Marvel’s been letting Joe Kelly tease Mephisto knowing of the deal in the “Deadpool/Spider-Man” comic, Marvel let “Renew Your Vows” come out first during “Secret Wars” and now as an ongoing monthly, and Mary Jane is popping up all over the place in terms of merchandise and variant comic covers. If Marvel doesn’t have these Mary Jane teases pay off in some way by bringing back the marriage, it won’t work out well for Marvel in the short term and long term view of things and the last thing Marvel wants/needs is for things not to work out. Sales on the comics are down, fans are being turned off by recent badly written stories, too many events and relaunches, etc., and Marvel is trying to “break the internet in half” with some big return. The only big return that could really do that is the return of the very thing Marvel foolishly spent the last decade burying, bad-mouthing, insisting never happened in continuity at all, gave us another truly terrible story in One Moment In Time, and finally gave back to fans as an alternate reality comic (though a truly excellent one to read): the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker. Sure, it could be the return of the Fantastic Four that Marvel is hoping would “break the internet” by bringing their original superhero team back, but which do you think of the two would REALLY break the internet and really show signs that Marvel is listening to their fans and making steps to mend fences with the fans they’ve turned away? My point exactly.

   I could be wrong, but I really, REALLY hope I’m not. Besides, what better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary year of Spidey’s marriage to Mary Jane than by bringing it back into continuity for fans to read and enjoy again?

   I hope you all are having a great day and have a safe, wonderful weekend.

2. Judging by how they’re recycling the original teaser for Generations, I’m guessing that the Vanishing Point is the “tool” that’s been alluded to how for Generations will team up the new characters with the old ones. And here I thought that Generations was supposed to be SEPARATE from Secret Empire.

   I really wouldn’t be surprised if this is them setting up ANOTHER event, since I imagine that Marvel isn’t going to commit to holding off on events for eighteen months.

3. The latest thing from Marvel to not give a **** about?

4. Wait, wasn’t the Vanishing Point where the Time Masters lived in season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow? I knew the phrase sounded familiar.

5. I’d say the vanishing point is the point where all fans vanish completely after getting fed up with Marvel’s nonsense and their lack of desire to actually tell stories fan want to read, and instead just keep getting their attention with controversy after controversy with no real thematic weight or resonance for the fans.

6. It is the point at which readers interest in Secret Empire completely disappears.

   Aw, who am I kidding? We’ve already reached that point.