There are plenty of subjects that are guaranteed to make bloggers mad—: politics, DRM, other bloggers. But apparently nothing gets them angrier than news of Spider-Man’s deadly radioactive spunk. An upcoming issue of Spider-Man: Reign (which is set 35 years in the future) explains that Peter Parker’s wife, Mary Jane, dies from cancer caused by Spidey’s fluids. The Comics Journal‘s blog, Journalista, has collected a few comments; Brian Hibbs, owner of San Francisco comic-book store Comix Experience, lost his shit.

The ew factor here is obvious, but the anger isn’t surprising—-—comics readers always get worked up whenever reality starts showing up in their fantasy world. (“Reality” being a relative term here—in the Marvel world, a tale about Spider-Man’s mutant biohazardous love muscle practically qualifies as documentary-level verite.) A couple weeks back the books blog Galley Cat pitched a fit at a storyline in For Better or For Worse in which a character instantaneously scored a book deal for an unsolicited manuscript of his first novel. “The current plot in the comic strip For Better of for Worse makes me want to punch Lynn Johnson dead in the face,” one pundit wrote. “A debut novel, submitted without an agent, gets a $25,000 offer just like that?” huffed Ron Hogan.

Well, to be fair, it’s $25,000 Canadian. But what was perhaps most surprising about the foofaraw was that it revealed how many bloggers read For Better or For Worse. Perhaps they’re all still angry at Johnston for killing off Farley?