Kitty Pryde... dumped in no words... I think her slow descent into the background said it all. It saddens me, because it was the most exciting thing to me in recent memory. It reminded me of when the book was in it's first days, when everything was so new and exciting and Bendis hadn't soured on the internet crowd yet. The mere
idea of something different from the established continuity. We liked Mary Jane, because we were getting to know her, fall in love with her all over again. Gwen was probably the most drastic change, and we loved the book all the more.
But somewhere along the line, (I'm my opinion, it began after the Carnage arc,) the book got lazy... while continuing arcs were peppered with fanboy goodness, the book grew predictable... conventional. But Kitty Pryde came in, a promise of another change, (not to mention her 616 connection to a different Peter
) and I warmed to the book again.
And now it's over. The Deadpool arc promised what seemed to be the beginnings of a new direction for the series, where you couldn't predict what would happen to him, and MJ's status as sacred cow/Peter's OTL began to crack. But the book has fallen in on itself, and now it feels as though we are back where we started, emotionally, with the characters.
But there are the hints, perhaps MJ's 'cure' isn't as permanent as Reed thought. Gwen/not!Carnage's fate is in the air. And Kitty's fade into the distance... I doubt she will let Peter go so easily.
I'm not done with this book yet... I think there is another head coming in Death of a Goblin.
-Matt Rios