One Less Wife

So Spider-Man being married makes youthful readers less inclined to relate to him? Never mind the fact that he can shoot web goo from his wrists and that he has superhuman strength and dexterity. It’s the whole married thing youngsters can’t relate too.

With all this attempt to invoke a little bitter realism into superhero comics I’m wondering why he chose the old woman who has already lead a full life over a future with a super-model? Maybe that’s just my own morbid inner-fanboy or something.

I think officially that Joe Quesada has jumped the shark at Marvel.

“And as observers have pointed out, entire GENERATIONS of Spider-man fans have grown up knowing him only as a young married, harried guy, trying to make things work with MJ.”

I love how everybody online insists that nobody but a declining base of 40-year-old fanboys reads comics anymore, but when something happens that they don’t like, all of a sudden there are huge numbers of younger adults and kids reading them that we have to worry about.

Is Marvel Comics interested connecting with their movie franchises at all? Spider-man movies 1-3: all about Spidey and MJ, Spidey comics: retconning the marriage; Iron Man movie: Iron Man=hero, Iron Man comics: Iron Man=asswipe; Captain America movie (it’s still planned, right)Cap is alive, Captain America comics: Cap is dead.

JonCormier:” I’m wondering why he chose the old woman who has already lead a full life over a future with a super-model? Maybe that’s just my own morbid inner-fanboy or something.”

Well turn it around. Would you let your grandma die so you could marry Heidi Klum?

Personally, I’ve always thought the marriage to MJ diminished the character of Peter Parker, particularly the fact that she’s a super model.
I prefer Pete as the lovable loser who only occasionally catches a break, who may get a girlfriend fairly often but who struggles to balance his personal life with the responsibility of being Spider-Man. So marriage to a top super model has always rang false to me.

But I don’t particularly care for how they’re doing this. Especially if MJ is gonna still be around as this “Jackpot” heroine. Ugh.

I would not push that button.

If Joe Quesada wanted a character that the youthful readers can relate to, why not just create a new character that fits that criteria? That’s what comic book publishers used to do. They used to create new characters.

I’m willing to bet the TV in Joe Quesada’s bathroom that this has less to do with appealing to youthful readers and more about getting publicity in the mainstream press.

I think Quesada is addicted to seeing his name in the USA TODAY.

Ugh, I am so tired of the supermodel argument. When was the last time MJ even was a supermodel in the comics? In the past 7 years or so she has been a struggling New York actress.
She’s just the really pretty girl next door. And Peter, while nerdy, has always been portrayed as adorable and has that totally hot spider body So why exactly would she not like him? They have known each other for a long time and been through many many things together. Love is not about looks or what job you have.
It’s the worst argument ever and I also would not push that button. I love who I am married to even though they might be called nerdy and I am super hot.

“I love how everybody online insists that nobody but a declining base of 40-year-old fanboys reads comics anymore, but when something happens that they don’t like, all of a sudden there are huge numbers of younger adults and kids reading them that we have to worry about.”

Well, I’m closing in on 30 and Spider-Man’s been married almost the entire time I’ve been reading him. The best selling Spider-Man comics of all time—the McFarlane era—feature a married Spider-Man, and those sold by the fistful to teenagers. So I really don’t see the problem that Joey Q. sees.

“Personally, I’ve always thought the marriage to MJ diminished the character of Peter Parker, particularly the fact that she’s a super model.

The supermodel part of it always rung hollow to me, too, but that part has been completely done away with in recent years. The thing that boggles my mind about this whole thing is that they’re writing the marriage out right after JMS’s run, which was the only run that I thought really nailed what can make a married Spider-Man work. Basically, JMS ran Peter through the ringer every single issue, and Mary Jane was the one oasis in a life that’s otherwise falling apart. It just really worked for me, and the idea of seeing it written out now just…GUH. It really doesn’t work for me.

What I’m *really* hoping for is that this is all a big misdirection, and that the only real change that comes out of OMD is that Spidey’s secret identity is no longer public knowledge. But I won’t hold my breath. I’m willing to give the “Brand New Day” creative teams a bit of a time because it’s a lot of great creators, but given how much I disagree with the story line and that it’ll be flying at me 3 times a month, it probably won’t be much time.

“The other biggest contextual objection is…would you REALLY give up a happy marriage so that your frail old aunt, who has been on death’s door for 40 years or so, could live a little while longer?”

I hope once this deal has been sealed and Aunt May lives, that she steps out of the hospital and dies in a hit-and-run accident involving The Lizard driving a beat up Chevey Van.

Um … isn’t it kind of immoral to make a deal with the Devil?

I’m not sure how one can possibly call Spiderman a hero if he does this.

Personally, I think it would make him an immature scumbag at best.

Best,
TimK

“I hope once this deal has been sealed and Aunt May lives, that she steps out of the hospital and dies in a hit-and-run accident involving The Lizard driving a beat up Chevey Van.”

That right there is laugh-out-loud funny.

Yes! VERY funny! Biggest laugh I’ve had in weeks, Mr. Dean.

Since there seems to be a bunch of SPIDEY books on a monthly basis, I’d have current continuity [married Spidey] continue and spark a revamp of HIGH SCHOOL SPIDEY for the new kids when puberty was a pimply hassle and the girlies were free ’cause the crack costs money.

*cough*

Sorry. I just remembered I’ve been buying my girlfriends 12 & 14 year old daughters, MARY JANE LOVES SPIDEY, and that’s been an excellent book to read for their age. Perhaps, more comix like that?

The other message Quesada should be worried about spreading is “kids, if you hit a bad patch in your life, you should make a deal with the devil”

I’ve been speculating here in the store for a while that perhaps the reason this book is so monstrously late (a full third of part 1 was in the Spider-Man FCBD issue, remember?) is because there has been a lot of negative feedback on the internet, and Marvel is changing the story to remove the marriage retcon.

That would mean that the final issue of the story, plus all of the first several storyline from the new 3-times a month ASM needed to be rewritten and redrawn.

That’s what I’m hoping, at least.

Oh, and most of my customers that read Spidey have known him to be married almost their entire lives. It’s been just over 20 years now, after all.

1. Expanding on what Tim K said, I’m not the most religious person, but I think having a Spider-Man who has made a deal with the devil would be more of a detriment to getting new readers than a married Spider-Man. (Of course, this is assuming that Peter makes the deal, MJ was in the room too. Having her make the deal for Peter could be Marvel’s out). And all we need is a slow news day and Pat Robertson and his ilk getting a hold on this and were that much closer to it being 1954 again.

2. Expanding on what Dino said, is that what Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man were created for? To appeal to the younger market? And to persue Joe Q’s logic, does this mean that the FF is hard for young readers to identify with because Reed and Sue are married? Will Willy Lumpkin be getting sick and Mephisto come a calling?

3. JMS’s comment shed an interesting light on the creative process at Marvel. It seems that as much as they like to say that they have the creator of Babylon 5 working for them, his opinion doesn’t count for much when it comes to Joe Q’s vendetta. I wonder how much of what we read is editorial mandate and how much is for the creators themselves.

4. I also, would not press that button.

I’m a little shocked that Marvel has the main superhero character making a deal with DEVIL!!! It’s the first step on a slippery slope that leads to Satan worship, human sacrifice and the end of the world!!!

Again, maybe not. But do deals with the devils usually ever work. They should have used some cosmic character like The Beyonder or The Stranger.

“The other message Quesada should be worried about spreading is “kids, if you hit a bad patch in your life, you should make a deal with the devil””

I don’t think he’s worried about that. It’s drama. Take it a step further. “I’m worried that kids will solve their problems by fighting, like super-heroes.” “I’m worried that kids will put on a mask and take the law into their own hands.”

Parker shouldn’t make a deal with the devil, and if he does … then I suspect the plot-twist will be that the marriage is retconned and Aunt May dies shortly thereafter anyway. Then, we’ll get a spectacular full-page Romita Jr illustration of Spider-Man/Parker screaming “Noooooooooooo!!” on a rooftop in the rain with a big peal of lightning.

God, maybe I have been reading comics for too long …

“3. JMS’s comment shed an interesting light on the creative process at Marvel. It seems that as much as they like to say that they have the creator of Babylon 5 working for them, his opinion doesn’t count for much when it comes to Joe Q’s vendetta. I wonder how much of what we read is editorial mandate and how much is for the creators themselves.”

At Philcon (the annual science fiction convention in Philadelphia), there was a panel on the “Women in the Refrigerator” aspect of comics. To whit, do women get the short end of the stick in comics? One creator brought up that often, characters will die NOT because of a carefully planned story-arc, or for character development — but because the editors sit down and decide “What big events will take place this year?” Sometimes the decision will be made, for example, “Let’s kill Mary Jane! That’ll generate sales and publicity!” A story-arc will then be crafted just to build up to said event.

That may or may not be true all the time … but Joe Q. has been publicly (and loudly) griping about a married Spider-Man for at least a year and a half. Convince me that he didn’t have this rather pointless story-arc in mind all along.

What is this desire to go back to things as they once were!? And why is the only possible solution for this inherent ‘problem’ a dumb retcon. Not making MJ fun or a superhero friend, like Elongated Man’s wife (apparently that’s going to happen or something according to the FCBD comic), but actually getting Satan to undo it. I hate the Aunt May character! Her death would be a realistic necessity in Spiderman’s world. Ahh, its just superhero comics. To me the Strazinksy declaration is the most interesting part. From Dini on Countdown, to Millar on Civil War, to Whedon running away from all of the X-Events in his X-Men books, it’d be nice to let the events have a break and let comics sell on the quality of thier creators. In the long run, I feel like it’d sell more anyway.

I think they’re gearing up for Spidy to become the next Ghost Rider.

So based on this ridiculous storyline, I guess we have to conclude that ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is being cancelled, right? I mean, USM was created to be a “broke and single” Spider-Man series, so if AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is going to feature a “broke and single” Spider-Man, doesn’t USM become redundant?

Oh, wait…In AMAZING, he’s not in high school and he can legally drink. There’s the difference.

Peter and MJ belong together. End of debate.

Also, retconning sucks, and does anyone else smell the horrid stench of the Clone Saga at this point?

I’d press that button. Maybe Joe Q. just wants to press it, too, for Spider-Man.

He’s the man in charge. What he wants is what happens. If you are writer, you write what you are told or you work for a different company.

Ick.

This doesn’t say much for Marvel editorial’s conception of marriage and commitment. Blech.

Here’s hoping the Silver Surfer fixes Mephisto’s clock and undoes this! Or even better… the Scarlet Witch! Plus as events in “Young Avengers” seem to point out (with the possible return of Vision and Scarlet Witch’s kids) Mephisto’s mojo doesn’t seem to stick as well as he’d like readers to think it does…

If Marvel is worried about making any character accessible to anyone, anywhere, of any age they need to stop retconning the crap out of them. Seriously. Why should I ever read one more Marvel comic when nothing that happens in them will have any consequence? They’ll just retcon everything away. They really don’t understand that they are bleeding the drama out of their stories by doing this ALL THE TIME!!! How does the “death” of Captain America have any impact when you know he’ll be back? And the sad part is 10 years from now some geek turned hot Marvel writer who grew up with Pete and MJ married will retcon away the retcon. The world will change. Mephisto will die and suddenly Pete and MJ will be together again.

Isn’t (quote) “Ultimate” (unquote) Spiderman in existence so you can have both the young unmarried Spiderman and the older “we grew up with this guy” Spiderman? Of course the other shoe waiting to drop will be Ultimate Spiderman marrying MJ.

Someday in the future the past few years, starting about the time of the Daredevil unmasking and Identity Crisis, will be known as the age when Editors in Chief had no respect for the characters they had custody of. Of course some one needs to come up with a better phrase. Something catchy like the “Grim and Gritty” era.

Best,
TimK

Rich:

Parker shouldn’t make a deal with the devil, and if he does … then I suspect the plot-twist will be that the marriage is retconned and Aunt May dies shortly thereafter anyway. Then, we’ll get a spectacular full-page Romita Jr illustration of Spider-Man/Parker screaming “Noooooooooooo!!” on a rooftop in the rain with a big peal of lightning.

If Marvel actually had the balls to do that, that would totally renew my faith in this storyline.

I don’t know why I gnash my teeth over this. I wasn’t buying Spiderman. Haven’t bought it for YEARS. And I love Spiderman. I love Iron man. I don’t buy that book either.(I buy Green Arrow but not Spiderman. How did that ever happen?) And I don’t care what the final outcome of this story I doubt I’ll ever read Spiderman again.

[b]Dick Hyacinth sums it up

Assuming this isn’t part of Joe Quesada’s carnival of misinformation, I think JMS’s declaration marks a turning point in the post-Jemas era. When I read interviews with Marvel’s top tier writers (Millar, Bendis, Loeb, Straczynski, and Brubaker, more or less), it’s hard to find hidden messages suggesting strife between creators and editorial. And believe me, I look. Mostly what I see are a bunch of statements intended to make you think of Marvel’s most prominent writers as a bunch of swell raconteurs, kind of a nerd version of the Rat Pack with Quesada in Sinatra’s position as enlightened despot.[/b]

JMS doesn’t screw around with his fans, as those who follow his comments either on Usenet or through email digests of his Usenet postings have known for over a decade. WHile he may fumble the ball with a storyline here or there (Uh, Sins Past), he’s never been a part of any disinformation campaign — it, like, sort of goes against his philosophy as embodied by his slamming of disinformation campaigns through the Nightwatch subplot on Babylon 5.

IOW, Quesada is off the rails. OTOH, as with the last time Aunt May died, this storyline can be retconned away at any time, especially since Mephisto is the source of it and, well, anything of a supernatural source can be retconned at any time.

So, okay, Peter and MJ won’t be married until either Joe Quesada steps down as Eeeck of Marvel or Spider-Man 4 hits the screens, whichever comes first, but this, too, will pass.

— Rob

I’m a guy in my late 20’s. I only started reading Spider-Man when JMS jumped on board, most of my experience with comics before that were books like Cerebus and Love and Rockets. But Joe writes a hell of a yarn and I was really curious to see what he’d do.

I think what he did was make Peter and Mary Jane as interesting as Spider-Man. Some of my favorite scenes in the book were ones where the characters were just talking to each other. No need for vroom-socko, just a couple with a very strange life being funny, or sweet or interesting. Mary-Jane was trying to be an actress, and not succeeding all the time and she was also an old hand at the whole superhero rescue game. I remember one instance of her leading people out of a building calmly while her husband battled some beastie. She was worried, but she also knew how to handle herself. In short, she wasn’t just “the wife”, she was a fully-realized character in her own right.

When the whole Civil War nonsense started I stopped picking up the book. I really could care less about whatever sales stunt marvel is pulling this month. I think it crapped all over several years of much better writing by JMS and led to this silliness we see now.

Erasing Mary-Jane from existence via a deal with the devil? This makes the characters so much more relatable than having them deal with grief, loss and death how exactly?

I don’t think this is about making Spider-Man someone teens can relate to at all. I think it’s about giving older men (the 40 year old superhero fan of much ballyhoo) some kind of thrill in imagining that they’re not only a a hero, but also young and single and carefree. Double your vicarious thrills! Something that only makes the books that much more unappealing to me.

Regarding Brian Jacoby’s speculation that the lateness of the book may be due in part to negative feedback on the internet, I don’t believe that is very likely. I believe that Joe Quesada (and Jemas, when he was there) thinks that posting on the internet is done by about 50 guys using a bunch of different screen names to incessantly bitch about almost everything and that “internet” feedback can be almost completely discounted. I think Marvel simply ignores internet criticism. If large account retailers expressed grave concerns about the direction of some story line, I think Marvel would at least consider the concerns, but they do not believe that internet posting has any validity. Just my two cents.

I really enjoyed JMS’s run on Spiderman, it brought me back to Marvel after being away for many years. It is interesting that he disagreed so strongly with the new direction the character is taking. I don’t think I’ll be picking up the “Brand New Day” run of Spiderman, but at least I can still enjoy Ultimate Spiderman (which has been better than the 616 Spiderman, IMHO).

The most shocking thing about all this news: JMS quotes a funny line from Dave Sim. That floored me for some reason.

It’s a shame that the deal with the devil produces such meager returns. Why not have Peter really forced to make a flawed decision and have it be he can have Gwen back alive if the Mary Jane marriage is null and void? It could be like “Peter’s Choice” or something. I couldn’t care less about housewife Mary Jane who stopped being fun and breezy sometime during the Carter Administration. Admittedly, I haven’t read the comic since the Reagan administration.

“dipping his web-shooter into a different Black Cat every night”

Ew.

@ Marcus Lusk:

“Well turn it around. Would you let your grandma die so you could marry Heidi Klum?”

I don’t even know who Heidi Klum is, and I think that’s an obvious “yes”.

Let’s see…

Ancient aunt who’ll probably shuffle off this mortal coil all on her own within five years… or…

Lifetime of happiness with gorgeous, sexy woman who’s crazy about me.

Hmm…

I’d yank the plug on Aunt May faster than Pietro Maximoff with a bladder infection.

The problem I have with the OMD storyline (what I’ve seen of it) is that it only makes sense if you don’t actually read any of the other Marvel books. Lessee. Just off the top of my head, I’m supposed to believe that Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Henry McCoy and T’challa don’t have the medical know-how, technology or contacts to actually help Spider-Man?

Reed Richards ASSAULTED HEAVEN to bring the Thing back to life, people.

OK, so Iron Man won’t supply money. You mean to tell me that Spider-Man has forgotten that Danny Rand’s a millionaire?

Hell, if Peter’s willing to make a deal with Satan, why isn’t he willing to make a deal with Norman Osborne? Or Doctor Doom?

Or that there are HOW many cosmic-level beings who screw with the fabric of reality on a daily basis, yet are somehow forbidden or unable to interfere with one old woman in a hospital? Especially considering the number of them that actually owe him, big time?

And even on the more mundane basis, the whole “it’s just her time, you have to accept it” argument that’s being handed out doesn’t wash when Reed Richards BREAKS INTO HEAVEN to bring the Thing back to life.

When Marvel makes such a big deal out of the interconnectedness of it’s universe in crossovers like World War Hulk and Civil War, it’s silly to try to handwave all that away when it’s convenient for the plot and it ends up being conspicuous by it’s absence.

Stupid, stupid lack of an edit function…

Don’t worry about editing too much, a complete rewrite wouldn’t have saved it.

Peter and MJ will figure that they can beat the devil. They have always shown a near delusional level of optimism, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured they would be able to get back together so it would be worth it. Either that or MJ goes ahead and makes the decision for Peter.

It’s a stupid plot. Then again, each generation of readers (particularly the last two) have had them.

Forget the whole ‘Spidey’s making a deal with the devil’ schtick, Peter Parker IS a loser if he choses Aunt May over Mary Jane.

Aunt May has more lives than a black cat, owns more tombstones than a cemetary.

Parker’s response should be ‘Hey Mephy — go F*** yourself. There isn’t enough dirt in the Marvel Universe to keep my Aunt dead and buried.’

That said, is anyone really shocked about the delay on the Spidey titles? It’s Joe Q on art. He’s never shipped a book on time in his entire career.

If they make Peter pick old Aunt May over his wife, he should just go ahead and have incestuous sex with the selfish old broad and get it over with.

Is that what you want Joe, huh, is it?!?!!!???!!

I don’t necessarily have a problem with breaking up the marriage per se, but it’s the mangled execution that really drags the book into the mire. Mephisto has never played a central part in Parker’s life, and robs much of the emotional core of the story as a deus ex machina,

IF Marvel HAVE to end the marriage, it should be because of internal character motivations, not due to some external other-worldly force. And it should be predicated on a deep rooted sense of history for the character. My suggestion, that I have touted elsewhere, would go something like this:

”
The way I would have handled this marriage break-up, if Marvel absolutely had to do it? Green Goblin. Norman Osborn viciously beats and pounds on Aunt May, right in front of both Peter & MJ. Peter would snap, and react with such savagery that he absolutely explodes on Norman, and viciously rips his heart right out of his chest. This unbridled anger and unseen side inside Peter scares MJ so much that she flees, feeling her heart break at this soul-killing destruction of the man she loves. And she just vanishes into thin air. May survives, barely, but is considerably weaker than before…I guess regressing her to the helpless old widow she once was, so Peter has the responsibility of caring for her. Yet he’s so wracked with guilt, he can’t bear to face MJ, let alone look for her. And, being members of the same team in the Avengers, Dr Strange takes pity on Peter, and gently removes his love for MJ from his mind. Peter is whole again, and happy. Joe Q gets his wish that the marriage is undone, there is room for Peter to move on, and a real responsibility given back to him.”

I guess we’ll always have Spidergirl.

I’ve skimmed these books in the store, and what doesn’t square about the newest ish that Peter is presented with two (some would say up to four) alternative versions of his life had he not become Spidey, and while they have their advantages, they still kinda SUCK. I know he’s wracked with guilt as usual, but really, he’s gone through the trauma of losing May (albeit her clone, GACK) once already, so this isn’t covering any new turf. Sack up and cut the umbilical cord.

BTW, the exterior shots for How To Murder Your Wife were filmed on the block on which I grew up, albeit ten years before I was born. I just saw a bit of it on TV a couple weeks ago and it’s a scream. From what I gather from its IMDB entry it’s a remake of an Italian film which also starred Lisi, though in that version her character was meant to be Greek.

I completely agree with Joe. Spidey is more fun and kids can relate to him better when he’s single. You say that whole generations of kids grew up with him as a married guy. I say that most kids in this country know Spider-man from the movies (where he’s not married) or from Ultimate Spider-man or the Spidey books for kids, where he’s not married. Sam Raimi and Brian Michael Bendis both knew that it was better for Spidey to be young, single, and full of problems. Once he married a supermodel, got famous as a photographer, etc, who could relate to him? I seriously lost interest after he got married, and I always loved the character.

Good for Joe, I’m all for it. Now if they can just get him back in high school…

This is all just one elaborate issue of “What If”, right?

Well…….there goes Spider-Girl……

you’d think with all the social, political, and religious rhetoric being tossed about these days about marriage. Perhaps Joe Q should not have done a story where Spider-Man makes a deal with the devil to erase the bonds of his vows?

For Marvel’s sake, I hope the last issue of One More Day does not hit on a slow news day or hit the radar conservative pundit shows.

“I don’t think this is about making Spider-Man someone teens can relate to at all. I think it’s about giving older men (the 40 year old superhero fan of much ballyhoo) some kind of thrill in imagining that they’re not only a a hero, but also young and single and carefree. Double your vicarious thrills! Something that only makes the books that much more unappealing to me.”

If by “older men,” you mean Joe. Q, I’ll go along with that. Otherwise, the “aging fanboy” argument is just as stupid and shallow today as it was when it became “cool” a few years ago.

As a 39-yr old, I stopped reading all the SPIDER-MAN titles 15+ years ago because they didn’t interest me any longer. I thumb through them occasionally, or purchase one issue per year, just to see what they’re doing. Kinda like the annual phone call to an old dear friend with whom you no longer have anything in common.

Retconning the marriage away won’t get me to start buying them again.

“It’s a shame that the deal with the devil produces such meager returns. Why not have Peter really forced to make a flawed decision and have it be he can have Gwen back alive if the Mary Jane marriage is null and void? It could be like “Peter’s Choice” or something. I couldn’t care less about housewife Mary Jane who stopped being fun and breezy sometime during the Carter Administration. Admittedly, I haven’t read the comic since the Reagan administration.”

I don’t know how they could have worked this in … but Aunt May dying is inevitable. The death of Gwen, however, is something of which Peter never really forgave himself. Peter loves Mary Jane … but I gotta believe that at least once a month, something reminds him of Gwen. And at least once a year, there must be some quiet, wistful moment where he wonders what might have been. If Mephisto proposed this, it would REALLY have had drama …

Although I like the suggestion, “Hey, Mephy, go F*** yourself!” Telling Mephisto off would instantly make him THE coolest character of all time.

As for waking up from a black-out threeway with the Black Cat and the Gwen Clone … I shudder at this thought … I feel guilty for even being amused and a little intrigued at the thought.

Joe DaQ is a freakin’ moron. There…I said it.

“Hell is paved with good intentions.”
If Peter Parker makes a deal with the devil, he loses morally, and he sacrifices what is quite possibly the greatest marriage in the Marvel Universe.
Two retcons are possible. 1. The Flash Gambit. Wally West made a deal with the devil, sacrificing his love for his girlfriend. Their love for each other causes the devil to nullify the contract, as Evil cannot abide Love. 2. The Universe splits (2081?), we get some interesting stories, and then we get One More Retcon and everything returns to normal.
One more point: Spider-Man accidentally killed Gwen Stacy. And the next movie should have Gwen sell her soul to become the Black Cat, thereby creating a triangle. Does Peter pick the hottie with superpowers who compliments his secret identity, or the hottie who loves him as Peter?
And what about Betty Brant? Liz Allen? And the many others? What if May Parker was really Madame Web? And does this mean Peter will be wearing glasses again?

A few quick points.

1. Spidey should NEVER had been married to begin with. IMO, the marriage ruined the character. So I’m all for the marriage ending.

2. The decision to marry him in the comic was and EDITORIAL one.

3. Using Mephisto to get rid of the marriage is a DUMB idea.

4. From the rumors I heard about OMD, JMS’s original idea wasn’t much better then Quesada’s idea. Hell, I think both their ideas SUCK.

5. I pretty much figured out how OMD will end and what the end results will be for Spidey. In fact, I knew for about a year. And from the rumors I heard, I was pretty much dead on.

Brian…

Spidey’s a whole lot more fun and easy for kids to relate to when he’s single? How so? When was the last time a kid bought Spider-Man, or any comic for that matter? Comics are not priced or aimed at kids anymore.
Just look at the young reader line circ figures, you’ll see what I mean. Even the Spider-Man movie couldn’t get them into the shops.

Rich,

I truly wish Aunt May’s death ‘was’ inevitable.

If that were the case, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion because the One More Day storyline wouldn’t exist. Aunt May would have stayed dead in Amazing Spider-Man # 195 (or thereabouts). Or in Spider-Man # 400. That’s what makes this whole storyline so silly. How many times does Peter Parker have to watch this old hag die and come back? That’s also why he’d be an idiot if he accepted Mephisto’s offer.

1) It’s common knowledge that anyone who deals with the devil, loses. The devil is the great deceiver, a liar so why would he make a deal with him? It’s an insult to the character’s intelligence and the reader’s intelligence if he does. It’s also anti-heroic.

2) As an editor, I’d be more worried about making Spider Man look dumb to accept a deal with the devil than having him be fun and single. If Peter Parker is a loser, he can’t have fun so that too is an oxymoron statement. Being a loser isn’t exactly fun.

3) Getting back to Peter’s response to Mephisto, really, he should tell Mephisto to fuck off.

‘Go ahead Mephy, TRY and kill her. Greater editors than you have tried. Aunt May, she’s like The Terminator.

‘She’ll be back.’

But really, this whole yarn is an example of why stories in comics have become less and less readable. They have ZERO credibility. What’s written today will be undone tomorrow. So why bother reading them to begin with? Joe Q undoes the Spidey Marriage, Dan Didio undoes Crisis and unleashes 52 earths in the DCU.

What a mess. This a sign of creative bankrupcy upstairs. Forget changing or retconing the characters. Change the company leaders.

i thought the Ultimate line was supposed to be the starter books for the new generations?

i seriously don’t know. on the one hand, it *is* a book meant for young adults . that’s their demographic. that’s what they should be working with.

on the other, the entire plot device is beyond stupidity. of all the retconning devices in the literate world, that’s the best one they could come up with.

sad.

stuff like this makes me happy i moved away from the pervert spandex books.

except for Whedon’s X-Men, of course.

heh.

I like Simmo’s idea for writing out Mary Jane is far better than this Mephisto silliness.

That said, I haven’t bought a Spider-Man comic in 15 years, and don’t intend to start, so for me this is rather like getting news that an old friend I’d lost interest in keeping up with has come down with Alzheimer’s.