It's an event. 10 issues with tie-ins from FF, SSM, Avengers Assemble, and a few other titles.
They made a big deal about SSM cuz it was issue 700 in the same year of his 50th anniversary and that Peter Parker was gonna "die" in this last issue of ASM. They started SSM cuz it's essentially a new status quo and if you check the dialogue Doc Ock refers to himself in a specific way. Most importantly, new #1s are good for business. So any excuse to do it they will.
When I say AU might be retconned by time travel I'd also add that it's still matter cuz that retcon would also be changing the entire MU. The main rumor is that Wolverine and the Invisible Woman I think with a few other ppl are gonna travel back in time and stop Hank Pym from creating Ultron a.k.a. Wolverine is gonna kill Ant Man. Doing that would change a lot and no it wouldn't just create an alt reality cuz they'll probably be using doomlocks (devices made by doom that actually allow you to change events in the past and still return to your timeline).
Dying isn't all that important or special. I tend to focus on the journey getting there and yes event deaths have become more than cliche. As far as bringing ppl back the only person left I think off limits is Uncle Ben and the adult Jean Grey has been dead for like 9 years now cuz writers had nothing to write for her and felt it was the only way to develop Cyclops. Another rumor out there is Wolverine is going to really die and stay dead for awhile in 2014.
Don't think so. There were like mini events/limited editions like Onslaught Unleashed and one other one. The only other Onslaught reference I've seen lately was at the end of the last issue of Uncanny Avengers.
