> 1. It was at the cleaners

And he had to go in wearing a paper bag on his head so he can hide the fact that he's Peter Parker (wink wink).

> 2. His wife reminded him how much she hates that costume because Venom once tormented her back when they were first married.

Not in continuityless Nu-Marvel. Besides, JMS already changed that particular facet of continuity already. >_>

> 3. The EIC is drawing it and he wanted to draw the original

Actually, this could be a real reason. I don't mind by the way - if the marriage is to end, do it in the red and blues. But I wanted the black costume to hang around longer than just a few months, I was thinking a few years but I should have known better.

> 4. Aunt May actually woke up but then screamed at the sight of the black Spider-Man and lapsed back into a coma

Nah, she would have thought it was Eddie and remember 'he's such a nice man'.

> 5. They're hoping Peter David will notice and pick up a story about the switch in a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man special.

Heh, too true. PAD has saved the books in the past few years.

> 6. He was in the black costume? I thought he was just really dirty.

...

> 7. It ran away because of all the talks and rants this story has generated months before it even started.

Well, if you're going to take a gamble and pick a controversial topic, you have to be prepared for a backlash. These guys obviously rewrote their own continuity already because they seem to have forgot how severely they screwed up the ball on The Other and Sins Past and have hastily had assorted 'defences' on each story after confessing how 'backstage stuff' made them 'less than they could have been'. At least PAD made one of them mean something.

-Jeremiah Ecks,
who wishes PAD could have written Spidey post-Clone Saga.