So, I just heard that the upcoming Spider-Man and Wolverine comic is going to be featuring Omega Red as a villain, teamed up with Kraven the Hunter.
It comes out May 7 and, from the article, it sounds like it is set in the present From the Ashes era. Only problem: Omega Red is currently in Greymalkin prison and has been for months. How can he be there and appearing here at the same time? Is this actually current, or does this take place earlier/later in the Marvel timeline? There's something about this timeline that isn't sitting right with me. Is this even Omega Red, or are both the clone boys causing trouble? I have no idea. It isn't making any sense.
I will check it out, because it has Omega Red set to appear, but I am rather confused at the moment, if not frustrated with Marvel for not keeping track of their own characters and their continuity. Omega Red only just appeared in Sentinels, has been name-dropped in Uncanny and Adjectiveless X-men, and he appeared constantly in the Krakoa era. It's not like Marvel is reviving a character who has been gone for years. Editorial should know where he is, if he is able to be used, and should be able to tell a writer "no" in cases like this where he's being used elsewhere.
This upcoming comic also highlights a concern that I and other Omega Red fans have had ever since Arkady was thrown into Greymalkin: that Marvel is trying to walk back Arkady’s redemption arc he's been on since 2017 just so Wolverine can have someone to punch. Just because Omega Red has historically been a villain is no excuse to not respect his continuity and story arc as a character over the past several years. He was just teammates with Wolverine in the last era. Kraven the Hunter was an enemy to them both when he attacked Krakoa during Judgment Day. Wolverine and Spider-man even just had a recent team-up in Fall of X, there shouldn't be anything between those two to cause the conflict that is being teased between the two of them. Marvel should not be ignoring recent events to revert to the perceived status quo -- and this goes for all the characters involved in this upcoming book.
This is really a problem when they bring back writers who are fans of specific, older eras: they want to return back to those days of nostalgia rather than respect the character progress that has been made in the decades since they have read/wrote about these characters. Especially with regards to villains, who they almost never consider when they make stories like these. Their continuity needs to be respected the same way the hero's continuity is respected -- especially when they're involved in other storylines taking place at the same time that makes a double appearance like this very conflicting. Omega Red can't be in prison and palling around with Kraven the Hunter at the same time. You can have one or the other, not both.
We will see what this comic (which is being promoted as an ongoing) will actually do and if Marvel will respect the continuity they themselves have made or toss it aside to make money off of their cash cows at the expense of making the timeline make sense. I'm not holding my breath, though. Marvel seems to do this sort of thing when they're out of ideas and want to make quick money, falling back on the Wolverine and Spider-man zombie fanbases to save them and get guaranteed money. Unfortunately, no matter how Marvel tries to spin this as an easy jumping-on point/accessible story for new readers stories like these just never fit easy into the timeline that Marvel has and make it even harder for anyone to follow what is going on. Marvel really needs to get their act together. Continuity has to be respected.