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Subject: Re: Amazing Spider-Man #510 (SPOILER SPACE--BIG REVELATION) Date: 05 Aug 2004 06:52:44 GMT From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe To jump in here...as much as I can, I always try to do my homework, and I'd have to be the sloppiest writer in the history of...well, really sloppy writers to not take into account the time factor in Spidey chronology, and deal with it straight-up in the writing. And we do, about two issues down the road, address this issue in absolutely straightforward terms. The math not only works, in fact it becomes a major aspect of the story, as you will see in about two months. To the broader questions raised here...I don't generally believe in cheats. In B5, we only did one time-travel story (across two episodes, showing both sides of that story) and I went clear around the horn to make sure that there were no cheats in that story. This isn't a time travel deal, it's not an alternate history story, it's not a hoax, it's not a clone story, it's not, in short, a *cheat*. I have too much respect for the readers to do that. Is it what people are assuming it is, with only part of the information? Yes...and no. All the information isn't out there yet. All I can say is...it isn't a throw-away, reset the button story, it's the real deal. The amusing thing has been watching some of the online critics who, being themselves unable to think how it could be done in a way that isn't stupid, come to the assumption that the story is going to be as stupid as those assumptions...and go after it as a result, not understanding that it's the parameters they're seeing inside their own head that they're reacting to, not what's in the story...because the story hasn't been told in full yet. There are four more issues to go in this story, and every one of them is a real toad-strangler. jms (jmsatb5@aol.com) (all message content (c) 2004 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine and don't send me story ideas)