Sable is back, along with one of my favorite Marvel characters. Does that make me a pervert? Can i say i like her for her wit and personality and her rapport with Spider-Man? Does that sound wrong as well?

Well in whatever way i can say it, i love Black Cat and I'm glad i finally get to see you write her.

And of course, you see the difference in skill level between a young rookie and the Avengers. Rhino and Scorpion never stood a chance.

Very interesting to see the attention switch from Spidey to Ant-man and Wasp. Although that is pretty classic comic book when something crazy is about to happen.

And nice, polite, and emotionally invested Ultron is somehow more unnerving than James Spader Ultron. Kudos.

Kinda hard to believe that the story’s finally over, and yet it’s impressive that you managed to write so damn much in only three years. Meanwhile I’m struggling to find time and motivation to finish the first proper chapter of a bloody novelization! No matter what I or anyone else says, it’s probably safe to say that this is a magnum opus, whether it was your intention or not, and you’ve earned whatever rest you decide to take.

You mentioned in the final author’s notes for the timeline that you initially attempted to keep the fic in line tonally with the show before fully breaking off into your own tale, and I can see exactly what you mean and agree with it. The point that really illustrates this is both the first and final Carnage battles. The first fight it actually felt a tad awkward at how the story seemed to keep assuring the reader that no one was actually killed in the rampage, while the final fight ended with the remains of the Brooklyn Bridge getting a new, red paintjob. There’s no question that peeling away from the show was the correct move on your part, as it allowed so many different story and character beats that never would have flown on the air.

Another thing that this let you do was cover many of the famous storylines from the comics in all their glory, or even at all. I imagine that Warren, while certainly being built up as a villain for future seasons, would not have quite been the vile monster depicted here in story. But being able to show him in such a vile, disgusting fashion was a good example of the advantages of not having to sugarcoat certain subjects for the Saturday morning crowd. IT also allowed for far more mature and complicated themes and plots to come about, like the scope and detail of the OsCorp conspiracy or the frank depiction of personal relationships. Yet even with all of this the fic never really felt like it was going too far for the most part, and could more or less be a decent fit in the series itself. Kinda of like if the creators got a season 3 but aimed it at the mature crowd instead.

And of course actually being able to slot the series into the rest of the Marvel universe. It was a tad strange at the beginning for a bunch of references and characters from the rest of Marvel to start popping up, but honestly there wasn’t really too much that could have helped with that considering that the fic was forced to work with what had been established from the first two seasons, which had almost zero references. Still, made for lots of interesting stories. The X-0Men were always a joy to see when they popped up, and the Daredevil teamup against Tombstone is still probably my favorite crossover story arc in the fic. The Avengers were good for Peter’s character development if nothing else. And the Fantastic Four never really got the level of focus, at least for me, to really make them interesting. But then again with so much that was going on in general (and considering I know almost zilch about them anyway) it’s not really that big of a deal. They’re not the focus anyway.

The focus of course is on the main trio. I’ll start with Gwen, since she’s my favorite character. I really loved her development in the story, going from practically a broken bird at the beginning to being brave enough to face her own death. And the fact that she and Peter managed to spend so much time together as a couple still makes my heart sing. And I really love that she was able to give Peter the emotional support he clearly needed. When she learned his secret and they started dating, it was actually a bit of a relief since they both now had some sort of outlet for each other. And again, slowly but surely she managed to toughen herself up over the course of events. Loved her facing off against the Jackal at the lab; pure catharsis for all the perving he’d been doing on her! And then of course there was her death, which after 500,000 words with her still sucks to read about. I’ll fully admit that it’s a plotline I myself would have never touched, but if you were going to do it at least you managed to make it matter, and it did play a big part in a lot of characters development. And even though she herself was gone, her “ghost” still hovered over the rest of the story, which is good and a long way in making sure the event itself wasn’t cheap.

Peter of course managed to evolve as a hero himself, though probably more along the lines of what most people expect from Spider-Man. But though it wasn’t overt, the Peter that end the story is definitely a different one that started. At the beginning he was still the typical smarmy kid who, despite all the stuff he’d gone through in the show itself, had yet to suffer a truly hardcore incident. The first Carnage battle is probably the wake-up call he needed a little, and slowly but surely after that the reality of what the life he was choosing seemed to begin sinking in a little more, and he began maturing. And throw MJ into the mix and Gwen’s death, and that was quite a way for life to really throw him some curveballs, but in the end he became all the better for it, I think.

And finally MJ. So interesting how a character who in the original version barely played any part at all for most of the story ended up being so important to the rewrite and second half. The best way I can describe her for myself would be comparing her to Snape, in the fact that while they may not be my favorite characters (though I certainly like her a lot more than Snape) I can definitely acknowledge that they are the best written in their respective stories. You managed to really delve into just how shattered she really is, and why her party girl mask is so damn caked onto her face. IT’s kind of shocking to see just how afraid some people can be in letting their masks slip, and how said masks can shape a person’s view on life. Mask or no, it’s clear that MJ at heart is a modern-day hippie, though I’ll admit I was surprised many times at just how far you were willing to go to demonstrate that. It made reading a lot of her scenes a tad on for me, since personally I’m as far away from being a hippie as physically and mentally possible, but that’s not a fault of the story, as you took great pains to show why and how she became the girl she is, and that’s an impressive feat.

And yes, this is gonna be beating a dead horse, but since it played such a large part in the second half and this is a final review, it needs to be brought up. The evolution of the trios relationship, I’m willing to bet, is not one the showrunners probably would have taken, nor have any comics to my knowledge. Looking back on my initial review of the first version of chapter 50, I myself was extremely against it. And yes, a lot of that did have to do with personal reasons, but in the initial version it also happened way too fast since MJ didn’t have much of a presence before. But I have to give you props for your dedication to MJ and your determination to make this unique arc work, to the point of overhauling the entire first half to give her more presence and lay the groundwork. There is no doubt that the new version works so much better, and pushing their, for lack of a better word, consummation until near the end made the whole thing feel a lot more organic. Considering how big of a deal this was for the trio, and all of the emotional baggage they carried, it was important for the emotional aspect to click as perfectly as it could. Having read the entire thing by this point, I will admit that it’s still not my favorite part of the story, but I will also happily say that you made the whole thing work, and that in the context of the story, the trio really felt a unique kind of love together, all supported by the writing through and through.

A lot of different characters were introduced, with so many different arc that this review would probably be as long as a typical fanfiction if I were to go into detail on all of them, so I’ll just mention three real quick. First is that I really liked Eddie’s final redemption, and even if he and Peter will never be like they were before, at least the water seems under the bridge at this point. The other two were Kaine and Reilly. I actually quite liked both of them, with Reilly being adorable and Kaine being such a wild card that you could never really tell what side he was on until the very ending. But you also mentioned that you might consider cutting them in the future. As much as I like Reilly, I think if you were going to cut someone I’d say it have to be her, since after she hooked up with Torch (ReillyxMJ FTW I WILL RIDE THIS SHIP LIKE THE TITANIC!) she really did kind of disappear from the story, so unless you manage to come up with a way to work her into the last few arcs she’d be my choice to go. But I definitely think Kaine should stay. One of the good things about the Clone Saga (in your fic at least) is Peter physically confronting the other sides of himself through the clones, which would be lost if both of them are cut out. Should you decide to cut Reilly in version 3.0 I’d use the opportunity to take the “dark side of Peter” and really run with it with Kaine, plus it’s a bit of poetry that the final battle of the story deals with Peter’s greatest enemies: himself and the alien who’s literally been in his head. But 3.0 is obviously a VERY long way away, and as it stands now the story and characters are fine as is.

So hopefully that covers anything important that I think would need to be addressed in a wrap up. It’s certainly been one hell of a roller coaster of a story, with so much happening and lots of reviews and back and forth discussions together. No matter what we’ve talked about together it’s been a true joy to read this story, and since we’ll almost certainly never get an official season three, I have the feeling that most people who read this, myself included, will have no problem agreeing that Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs is the next best thing. Fantastic job.

Now go get some rest, you’ve earned it!

I was starting to think you’re actually Greg Weisman under an alias because this story is just THAT DAMN GOOD! I’ve only started reading it last week and I’m done now and it made me laugh and cry and everything in between!

Good job Peter, this is definitely something you can’t just walk away from. I’m glad he found a therapist to get help, and surprisingly from someone so obscure as Leo Zelinsky at that. Very nice addition.

Also, brilliant use of the other heroes and villains seeing this guy. Cap (His biggest problem in life), Tony (Only yourself to blame), Groot (Not sure what he has to complain about), Kraven (Bad kitty), Bullseye (Go sheer at rats asshole, and Deadpool (Nice wall break). So good.

It’s when Spider-Man doesn’t make jokes that you should be worried, Carnage.

And Uncle Ben can effect people who aren’t even his nephew it’s his wise old speeches.

And the first real interaction with the Fantastic Four. Good, I love the family dynamic with him and the FF.

Well when you have an alien symbiote join with a serial killer to create a monster called Carnage, are we expect8ng something else than a monster looking to amputee poor people in the middle of the street.

And thus the satanic red goop is born. Also very clever twist on the web running joke.

Here comes Cletus, the most deranged Symbiote host ever. And that's saying something.

Other than that, very sweet with the goodbye to Sally and Liz and Peter proving that he really likes Gwen.

Great job on the story. The timeline was good, as well as the quips you've put in.(I think you have some kind of displeasure towards Liz Allen). Good thing a lot was resolved after this story. Peter and MJ earned their happy ending as Mephisto didn't interfere with their love life.

What a wonderful read.

A nice little closing segment, to wrap this up. Gives us some more info, on what happened before/after, while filling in some needed story elements. Plus, it gives the story a bit of a more, bittersweet feel to it. Still a good ending, to an incredibly wonderful story. Good job.

good story

Now that is a timeline that sums up literally everthing. At least by 2098, the Spectacular Spider-man "Went Down Swinging". Loved it. Thank you for building a Spectacular conclusion.

I really loved this story. Thank you for making this. I hope you enjoy life and I will always enjoy this story.

Congratulations on finishing the story! I just realized it's been almost exactly two years since it started, wow. Man, I'm going to miss this story. Great epilogue, I always thought that May, Annie, and Benjy should exist in the same timeline. That last line was a nice callback to the animated series as well. I was so pissed when they cancelled Spectacular Spider-Man, but this fic was just what us true believers needed. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this!