Let me ask you a question, both comic book fans and non comic fans alike. The Amazing Spider-Man is about to reach the milestone issue #700 this fall. Would you be more or less inclined to buy the comic if the writer went around telling everyone that you’re going to hate it?

Writer Dan Slott seems to think that we’re going to hate what he does to the character in Amazing Spider-Man #700.

I already kind of hate the cover

This kind of comic book advertising – or hype – annoys me to no end. So why is Slott doing it? Why is Marvel Comics doing it? Why even write the story if you know that fans are going to be angered and upset with you? But then for that matter, what is the balance between keeping your fans happy and entertained vs. writing compelling and interesting stories?

The answer to all of these questions is easy. Anger is an emotion, and as long as they get some emotion out of comic book fans, that’s good writing. Right? Makes sense to me. But why not instead try for the happier emotions like love or delight? Why use Amazing Spider-Man #700 to write a story that you know the fans of the character are going to hate? But I digress.

I’m not trying to say that comic book writers should be afraid to write stories that anger the fans, that they should never push the boundaries and try for something new and different. My problem is with then going ahead and using the potential anger as a selling point.

Here is what Slott said in a recent interview about what he has planned for Amazing Spider-Man #700:

I’m really happy with our 1-2-3 punch of #698, #699 and #700. I think people are not going to forget this one. This story will raise some really strong emotions in Spider-Man fans. It will probably be one of the biggest things I ever do to a Marvel Comics character in my career. I don’t know if people will start making little dart boards of me or not for this one. I’ve said it before, but I’m going into hiding after issue #700 comes out. I’m not looking at message boards. I’m not poking my head up out of that hole, because what happens in issue #700 is big!

He’s joking about having to go into hiding because of how angry the fans will be at him. How is that funny? Why can’t he say something nice about the comic? Even with this big change coming, why not hype it up as something awesome and cool? Why be negative about it? This frustrates me. When I pick up Amazing Spider-Man #700 in a few months, I’m going to be worried and afraid to see what happens. I would prefer to be excited and elated to see what happens.

(And that’s assuming USA Today doesn’t spoil the change a week or a day in advance, like Marvel is wont to do these days.)

The story, for anyone curious, is that longtime Spider-Man arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus is on his death bed. He has only hours left to live, and he’s horrified at how little he’s accomplished with his life. But in those final hours, Doc Ock discovers Spider-Man’s secret identity. What he does with this knowledge is apparently going to anger all of us Spider-Man fans.

Are we sure he can do anything more than just wet himself?

Let me explain my position a bit more. Comic book fans hate change. It’s why all the most popular superheroes remain relatively the same today as they were when they first appeared decades ago. Comic book fans like reading about their favorite heroes doing awesome things. If you change the character or change the things they do, it’s not the same comic anymore. It’s not the same enjoyment.

On the flipside, comic book writers have a job to do. They want to tell new and exciting stories about character that they love just as much as the fans. But if they can’t change or shake up the status quo, the stories are going to get really stale really fast. How many times can Batman fight the Joker before you’re just reading the same story over and over again? Why not let the Joker reap some real, life-altering carnage? Why not let the Joker do something so huge and evil that Batman is forever changed?

A good example of this fans vs. writers conundrum happened only a few years ago in Spider-Man comics, a story called One More Day.

You’re not reaching hard enough!

In 2007, Marvel decided that they needed to make Spider-Man more appealing to younger readers, because that’s just good business. The comic book industry can’t survive on its old, aging fans forever. Kids need to read comic books too. But at the time, Spider-Man was happily married to Mary Jane Watson, and had just revealed to the world that he was secretly Peter Parker. So his identity wasn’t a secret anymore. Marvel’s line of thought was that kids don’t want to read about an old married guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. They want a young, single, happy-go-lucky Spidey! But they couldn’t kill Mary Jane or have them get divorced, because nobody wants to read about Spider-Man the widower or Spider-Man the divorcee.

So Marvel decided to tell a story in which Spider-Man uses black magic to reshape his life.

With Spider-Man’s identity known to the world, his arch enemies send an assassin to kill Peter Parker. But the sniper’s bullet instead shoots Peter’s beloved Aunt May, and her life hangs in the balance. After exhausting all other possibilities to save her, Spider-Man then makes a deal with the Devil in order to save Aunt May’s life. The Devil’s fee is Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. He wants the soul or essence of marriage between them. They eventually agree to pay this price, and the Devil uses his magic to save Aunt May. He then makes everybody forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. And he changes history so that Peter Parker was late to his wedding day and he and Mary Jane never actually got hitched. In order to maintain two decades worth of stories where they were married, Marvel said that Peter and Mary Jane were only ever in a long term committed relationship.

Spider-Man fans the world over HATED this story. And for good reason.

Because he made a DEAL with the DEVIL!

First of all, people actually liked Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. It wasn’t like the fans wanted the two of them to break up, the fans were happy with the union. So sacrificing the marriage in the name of sales is just revolting. Second, Peter Parker MADE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL in order to make this happen. And it wasn’t part of some larger story where this choice came back to haunt him in the end and he regretted the whole thing or learned a lesson. This was a one time thing. Marvel wanted Peter to be single again, so they just thought up the first mystical being who might have the kind of power and magic to make it happen. It didn’t seem to matter to Marvel that Peter Parker as a good and heroic character would be forever tainted by MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL!

I know comic book fans who stopped reading Spider-Man after One More Day, fans who still hold a grudge against Marvel and refuse to go back to Spider-Man comics because of it. I don’t blame them.

And the point I’m trying to make with this example is that comic book fans will hold a grudge and will stop buying your comic if you write a bad story and piss them off.

Still, I want to emphasize that I’m not saying that writers should never anger their fans. It’s an old rule when writing fiction that you hurt the ones you love, especially when it comes to character. If you never change the status quo of the character or hurt them in some way, you’ll never have interesting conflict in  your stories. So by all means, Slott can do whatever he wants to Spider-Man in issue #700. Let the fans get mad. Maybe it’ll turn me off reading Amazing Spider-Man for awhile, but I know I always come back eventually.

I’m just saying that if you’re writing a comic book that you know will harm the character and anger the fans, maybe you shouldn’t brag about it.

((P.S. My guess is that Slott is going to kill Mary Jane!))