Steve Ditko, the original artist and co-creator of Spider-Man, has quite a bit to say regarding recent massive upheavals in the universe of Marvel Comics.

My love of superheroes, but especially of Spider-Man, runs deep, as does my hatred for the way they have been developed and perceived during my own life as opposed to the decades preceding it (especially in the case of Spider-Man.) (However all is not lost: no telling of the story of Spider-Man, not even its original form, has ever been as good as his most recent animated incarnation.)

Most of the reactions I've encountered to Ditko's article have been some variation of, "what?" I think these people are being lazy. True, he comes off as a bitter and slightly crazed old man, but there is a wisdom in what he's saying if you bother to look for it. And further this is not particularly difficult reading; it's dense, but not slightly complicated.

He is extremely correct when he says this:

"Either a super hero is a super hero, having all the legitimate qualities of a super hero, or the super hero is not a super hero and does not have the valid super hero qualities, identity, and therefore is a deliberate fraud, fake and a lie."

In his crazed ramblings I find an echo of my oft-repeated plea to those at the creative helm: stop shitting on my hero.