It's over.
A marriage that has lasted for nearly 21 years has ended.
And I am pretty darned upset about it.
The marriage of Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson has been annulled by the demon Mephisto.
Basically, Marvel Comics - after years of hearing complaints that the company erred when it had Mary Jane marry her long-time pal Peter Parker in 1987 - has decided to MacGuffin the Parker marriage.
For the past few months, Marvel has published a four-part series that ran through all of the Spider-Man comics. Entitled "One More Day", the story centered around Peter Parker's attempts to find a way to save his beloved Aunt May - a character that has been near death for approximately 1 trillion times through the course of the various Spider-Man comics.
In the story, Aunt May, critically shot, cannot be saved and Peter Parker, as Spider-Man, desperately searches for a way to cure Aunt May either through natural or supernatural means. And Peter succeeds! Well, sort of.
You see, Mephisto, Marvel's version of Satan but not quite, offers Peter Parker a deal to save Aunt May. That deal? Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson have to give up their marriage and all knowledge of their marriage will be wiped from the minds of everyone, save Mephisto, I suppose. (Mephisto gains because he I guess gets all of their happiness.)
And Mary Jane and Peter take the deal!!
You would think that, Peter Parker, arguably one of the smartest alter-egos ever created, would pause at making a deal with the devil!!
But no! Peter Parker, a gifted chemist who was given a full-ride scholarship to Empire State University, decides, "Hey, making a deal with the devil would be a good idea!! Where do I sign?!"
And so Peter signs the deal, Aunt May recovers and Peter Parker and Mary Jane go back to being friends which is where they will remain I suppose.
I have a number of problems with this storyline and decision by Marvel Comics:
1) You are Peter Parker. You've been picked on for most of your years in high school and are basically a nerd and along comes this radioactive spider that bites you.
After the spider bites you, you gain super powers, you have a pretty exciting life post-high school (i.e. Peter Parker actually turns into a pretty popular dude in college, he bangs Gwen Stacy and he's got a pretty cool mini-bike). And then after college, you get to be a successful photographer for arguably the biggest paper in town, the Daily Bugle, and then your good friend growing up, Mary Jane Watson, somehow blossoms into a pretty hot supermodel. And then you marry her and you get to bang a supermodel!!
So given the choice between keeping his chronically sick Aunt May alive for a few more years (and honestly how much longer could Aunt May last? She constantly seemed to be at death's door in every issue in the 1960s) or remaining married to a hot supermodel where you could probably have hot sex just about every night and never get tired because - for Pete's sake, you're Spider-Man! - you choose the frail, old aunt!
Now don't get me wrong, I understand the desire of Peter to keep Aunt May around since she raised him ever since he was orphaned at an early age. Peter loves and cares for Aunt May; she's been his rock.
But, dude, sometimes you have to let go. Especially if there is a super hot supermodel waiting in the wings! Even Aunt May would support your decision!
2) For years, Marvel comics writers and editors have bitched about how difficult it has been to write Spider-Man because he is "married." (Part of me wonders though, how many Spider-Man writers have been married? How many have actually ever interacted with a girl?)
Many of these writers whined about the days when Peter Parker was dealing with girl problems and wasn't happily settled down.
Yes, writing about a married character is difficult but that is part of the challenge of writing about a character that has been around for 40+ years.
Writing a new and different and interesting Spider-Man story should be a challenge; he is a complex character that millions of people care about.
Basically, annulling Peter Parker's marriage is a copout - especially in the manner it was done. Having the marriage basically erased from existence by a demon is one of the most MacGuffiniest plot twists ever.
My point here is that writers should have embraced the Peter Parker-Mary Jane marriage and done more with it, rather than hide from it. And if they did want to go back to the status quo, they should have opted for.....
3) Peter Parker and Mary Jane getting a divorce.
Now, obviously, the powers that be that run Marvel Comics were never going to go for having its most popular character get divorced but a Mary Jane-Peter Parker split makes much more sense and is much more controversial than a demon annulment!
The news of the Peter Parker-Mary Jane demon anullment got a middling headline on today's Yahoo! But a divorce would have garnered far more new attention and would definitely have sold more comics!!
And a divorce would have been more real. Imagine a plotline where Mary Jane, after years of being threatened by villains and worrying about the danger Peter puts himself through, decides she can't remain married to Peter anymore and files for divorce. Now that would be a storyline!! (Ironically, Marvel Comics teetered close to this plotline a few years back and even had the couple separate but they eventually reconciled.)
Imagine the storylines that would unspin from a Peter-MJ divorce; you could have animosity generated back and forth between Peter and Mary Jane. You would have all of their friends wonder what caused them to split. Imagine the actual divorce proceedings where Mary Jane asks for half of Peter's possessions, including his web shooters!
But writing a divorce storyline would have been all too real - and, of course, too difficult - for the Spider-Man writers so they opted for the MacGuffin.
4) My final problem with bringing Peter Parker back to his single roots is that it's a mistaken belief by writers that Peter Parker, as a guy who has bad luck with the ladies and pretty much rotten luck all around, is a much more interesting character and becomes easier to write.
I don't think it's that easy. I think that many of the stories featuring Peter Parker in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s focused on his bad luck. From 1962 (when Spider-Man was created) to 1987, you essentially had 25 years of stories that showed Peter Parker being hapless with the ladies.
For whatever reason, there is some kind of wishful thinking that those stories were better. At the time, they were better; DC Comics had no sense of continuity and would publish imaginary tales of Superman.
There was no competition for Marvel in the 1960s and 1970s as far as character-driven storytelling went and Peter Parker, as the most relatable and Everyman of all the comics heroes, was the most popular.
And today's comics writers remember those days fondly and wish for a return when Peter Parker was a bumbling nerd and had women problems.
But now that they have their wish, I think they will find that the comic marketplace is a far more competitive place. The stories from the 1960s are not the stories from the 2000s.
Comics publishers have found that they can sell more comics by publishing character-driven comics (influenced of course by heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men).
So where Peter Parker/Spider-Man was once a unique character plagued by the problems that everyday male teenagers faced, he is now surrounded by dozens of characters who also have similar problems or face "everyday problems." There are at least 10 comic titles out there, if not more, that focus on teenage heroes who face everyday problems. (One such title, "Spider-Girl" is an alternate universe take on a Mary Jane-Peter Parker daughter.)
So while Peter Parker has now been returned to being single, I think it will remain just as great a challenge of coming up with new stories to write for Spider-Man as before. If not more.
Because now, not only do you have to come up with a new and original idea for the Spider-Man mythos - one that has not been written in the past 40+ years - you also have to come up with a fresh story that competes and outdraws and outsells the other 30-40 comics titles in the marketplace.
Alas, Mary Jane and Peter Parker, I am sorry it had to end this way. May you find true love in Ultimate Spider-Man. Or the movies.
I, myself, would rather go out with Kitty Pryde.
A marriage that has lasted for nearly 21 years has ended.
And I am pretty darned upset about it.
The marriage of Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson has been annulled by the demon Mephisto.
Basically, Marvel Comics - after years of hearing complaints that the company erred when it had Mary Jane marry her long-time pal Peter Parker in 1987 - has decided to MacGuffin the Parker marriage.
For the past few months, Marvel has published a four-part series that ran through all of the Spider-Man comics. Entitled "One More Day", the story centered around Peter Parker's attempts to find a way to save his beloved Aunt May - a character that has been near death for approximately 1 trillion times through the course of the various Spider-Man comics.
In the story, Aunt May, critically shot, cannot be saved and Peter Parker, as Spider-Man, desperately searches for a way to cure Aunt May either through natural or supernatural means. And Peter succeeds! Well, sort of.
You see, Mephisto, Marvel's version of Satan but not quite, offers Peter Parker a deal to save Aunt May. That deal? Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson have to give up their marriage and all knowledge of their marriage will be wiped from the minds of everyone, save Mephisto, I suppose. (Mephisto gains because he I guess gets all of their happiness.)
And Mary Jane and Peter take the deal!!
You would think that, Peter Parker, arguably one of the smartest alter-egos ever created, would pause at making a deal with the devil!!
But no! Peter Parker, a gifted chemist who was given a full-ride scholarship to Empire State University, decides, "Hey, making a deal with the devil would be a good idea!! Where do I sign?!"
And so Peter signs the deal, Aunt May recovers and Peter Parker and Mary Jane go back to being friends which is where they will remain I suppose.
I have a number of problems with this storyline and decision by Marvel Comics:
1) You are Peter Parker. You've been picked on for most of your years in high school and are basically a nerd and along comes this radioactive spider that bites you.
After the spider bites you, you gain super powers, you have a pretty exciting life post-high school (i.e. Peter Parker actually turns into a pretty popular dude in college, he bangs Gwen Stacy and he's got a pretty cool mini-bike). And then after college, you get to be a successful photographer for arguably the biggest paper in town, the Daily Bugle, and then your good friend growing up, Mary Jane Watson, somehow blossoms into a pretty hot supermodel. And then you marry her and you get to bang a supermodel!!
So given the choice between keeping his chronically sick Aunt May alive for a few more years (and honestly how much longer could Aunt May last? She constantly seemed to be at death's door in every issue in the 1960s) or remaining married to a hot supermodel where you could probably have hot sex just about every night and never get tired because - for Pete's sake, you're Spider-Man! - you choose the frail, old aunt!
Now don't get me wrong, I understand the desire of Peter to keep Aunt May around since she raised him ever since he was orphaned at an early age. Peter loves and cares for Aunt May; she's been his rock.
But, dude, sometimes you have to let go. Especially if there is a super hot supermodel waiting in the wings! Even Aunt May would support your decision!
2) For years, Marvel comics writers and editors have bitched about how difficult it has been to write Spider-Man because he is "married." (Part of me wonders though, how many Spider-Man writers have been married? How many have actually ever interacted with a girl?)
Many of these writers whined about the days when Peter Parker was dealing with girl problems and wasn't happily settled down.
Yes, writing about a married character is difficult but that is part of the challenge of writing about a character that has been around for 40+ years.
Writing a new and different and interesting Spider-Man story should be a challenge; he is a complex character that millions of people care about.
Basically, annulling Peter Parker's marriage is a copout - especially in the manner it was done. Having the marriage basically erased from existence by a demon is one of the most MacGuffiniest plot twists ever.
My point here is that writers should have embraced the Peter Parker-Mary Jane marriage and done more with it, rather than hide from it. And if they did want to go back to the status quo, they should have opted for.....
3) Peter Parker and Mary Jane getting a divorce.
Now, obviously, the powers that be that run Marvel Comics were never going to go for having its most popular character get divorced but a Mary Jane-Peter Parker split makes much more sense and is much more controversial than a demon annulment!
The news of the Peter Parker-Mary Jane demon anullment got a middling headline on today's Yahoo! But a divorce would have garnered far more new attention and would definitely have sold more comics!!
And a divorce would have been more real. Imagine a plotline where Mary Jane, after years of being threatened by villains and worrying about the danger Peter puts himself through, decides she can't remain married to Peter anymore and files for divorce. Now that would be a storyline!! (Ironically, Marvel Comics teetered close to this plotline a few years back and even had the couple separate but they eventually reconciled.)
Imagine the storylines that would unspin from a Peter-MJ divorce; you could have animosity generated back and forth between Peter and Mary Jane. You would have all of their friends wonder what caused them to split. Imagine the actual divorce proceedings where Mary Jane asks for half of Peter's possessions, including his web shooters!
But writing a divorce storyline would have been all too real - and, of course, too difficult - for the Spider-Man writers so they opted for the MacGuffin.
4) My final problem with bringing Peter Parker back to his single roots is that it's a mistaken belief by writers that Peter Parker, as a guy who has bad luck with the ladies and pretty much rotten luck all around, is a much more interesting character and becomes easier to write.
I don't think it's that easy. I think that many of the stories featuring Peter Parker in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s focused on his bad luck. From 1962 (when Spider-Man was created) to 1987, you essentially had 25 years of stories that showed Peter Parker being hapless with the ladies.
For whatever reason, there is some kind of wishful thinking that those stories were better. At the time, they were better; DC Comics had no sense of continuity and would publish imaginary tales of Superman.
There was no competition for Marvel in the 1960s and 1970s as far as character-driven storytelling went and Peter Parker, as the most relatable and Everyman of all the comics heroes, was the most popular.
And today's comics writers remember those days fondly and wish for a return when Peter Parker was a bumbling nerd and had women problems.
But now that they have their wish, I think they will find that the comic marketplace is a far more competitive place. The stories from the 1960s are not the stories from the 2000s.
Comics publishers have found that they can sell more comics by publishing character-driven comics (influenced of course by heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men).
So where Peter Parker/Spider-Man was once a unique character plagued by the problems that everyday male teenagers faced, he is now surrounded by dozens of characters who also have similar problems or face "everyday problems." There are at least 10 comic titles out there, if not more, that focus on teenage heroes who face everyday problems. (One such title, "Spider-Girl" is an alternate universe take on a Mary Jane-Peter Parker daughter.)
So while Peter Parker has now been returned to being single, I think it will remain just as great a challenge of coming up with new stories to write for Spider-Man as before. If not more.
Because now, not only do you have to come up with a new and original idea for the Spider-Man mythos - one that has not been written in the past 40+ years - you also have to come up with a fresh story that competes and outdraws and outsells the other 30-40 comics titles in the marketplace.
Alas, Mary Jane and Peter Parker, I am sorry it had to end this way. May you find true love in Ultimate Spider-Man. Or the movies.
I, myself, would rather go out with Kitty Pryde.
1 comment:
Amen to that piece, I agree with your sentiments on the whole cop out story. I actually think the whole MJ/Peter as a couple thing worked well in recent times. They became an unofficial team in my view especially in light of the Civil War/unmasking stuff and I liked the interplay between them.
For some reason I imagine the editorial meeting to kill the marriage was orchestrated by someone who sounds like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons :D
Adi
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