Norman is back sooner than I (or possibly anyone?) expected. Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr have him now. He features pretty prominently in the preview for Amazing Spider-Man #2 and…thanks, I hate it. Let’s take a look:

You’re probably sick of my negativity by now but this makes no sense whatsoever. Yes, Norman has had his sins blasted away with a magic gun but he’s still very much the same person who murdered Gwen and countless other innocents. Peter’s reaction to him turning up at his apartment should be, shall we say, a little more than “frosty.”

“Take these” – hardly the words of a loving grandfather, are they?

Okay, this I did get excited about, I admit. Harry’s sons! I didn’t expect to see them so soon. And wow, finally the writers have remembered Stanley exists. Awww, he even seems to have built up some sort of relationship with Peter if the fistbump is anything to go by. But alas, he is still white.

Stanley’s whitewashing is even more inexplicable when you remember John Romita Jr. was also the artist for much of the Lily/Menace story and thus knows what Stanley’s mother looks like.

And yet, in some of her more recent appearances Lily seems to have lost her skin colour as well. Check out her picture on the Marvel Wiki! That’s a white woman! Ugh, it annoys me.

There’s a ‘lily-white’ pun in there somewhere.

Anyway, back to the preview. I just can’t understand why merely seeing Norman with the kids didn’t result in Peter screaming “Get the hell away from my godson” and punching him into the next issue.

See this… this also makes no sense. Liz has had some, uh, character ups and downs in the last few years but she’s always loved her son: NO WAY is she going to leave him with Norman, who she hates and who surely she must blame for the death of her husband?! And speaking of said husband, the subject of this blog… He’s not mentioned at all in this preview. We’ve got his father and his kids but no mention whatsoever of his death. Perhaps Marvel too are so lost, confused and mad about the Kindred arc they weren’t even sure where to start?

Well, that’s that for now. Interestingly, there’s supposed to be a Gwen(‘s ghost) story coming up later this year, where she (or somebody) will ‘judge’ Peter. I uh… I think she might be judging this Peter quite harshly?