QUOTE: Divorced Spidey: bad example for the kiddies

Spidey who makes deals with the Personification of Evil: Someone all the kiddies can look up to.

Joe Quesada's explanation of what was altered by the deal Sipder-Man & MJ made:

QUOTE: So, to get this straight, OMD doesn’t actually negate the previous 20 years of Spider-Man stories? Exactly, that’s precisely what we wanted to avoid. What didn’t occur was the marriage. Peter and MJ were together, they loved each other -- they just didn’t pull the trigger on the wedding day. All the books count, all the stories count -- except in the minds of the people within the Marvel U, Peter and MJ were a couple, not a married couple. To me, that’s a much fairer thing to do to those of us who have been reading Spider-Man for all these years. Like I said, is it perfect? No. As far as we investigated, short of divorcing Peter, nothing really is.

<<So you really see no difference between a divorced Spider-Man, a widower Spider-Man, or a single Spider-Man? >>

I see plenty of differences, but the question remains..what is the end goal? We argued these points ad nauseum while I was on the books. We went through each and every scenario, and The Powers That Were decided it best to leave the status quo...in an effort to piss off or alienate the least number of readers. It always comes back tot he aging thing. It was beleived that having Spider-Man get married aged him instantly, but a divorce REALLY aged him. I beleive Glenn argued(and some of us supported) that a divorce ONLY ages a character IF the stories are about the character being divorced. Otherwise, he is single. I don't remember ANYONE seriously suggesting MJ die. Then there is the reboot...Cosmic Cube... Shaper of Worlds... Mephisto... IF you are going to do it, do it ALL.

Now I have to say that the end goal just might be to upset the apple cart, stir the pot, create a controversy, and bring some attention to the books. In which case...well played.

Howard

I guess I am still having trouble understanding exactly how this works--and short of reading the issues(which will not happen) I don't know that I can. WHAT does Mephisto get out of this deal that gives Marvel exactly what it seems to want? How is it that Peter excepts that Mephisto IS who he says he is, and can do what he says he can? And IF Peter excepts Mephisto as the MU version of the Devil, wouldn't he know that he NEVER does what he says he will? Mephisto will NEVER let anyone get away witht he upper hand--Johnny Blaze anyone?

Howard

Is Harry alive? If so, Joe Q is wrong in his assesment. If the only thing was that they didn't go through with the wedding, then yeah, little to no problems - we end up with Peter and Mary Jane living together which personally I don't like but there you go. However, if Harry is back alive (As I have read happens) then the lack of marriage has had a wider impact on the universe. This puts the reader in a place wher they no longer know what has happened and what has not - again, more of a DC thing and certainly not what Joe Q has described.

It just doesn't make sense. House of M, I managed to get through, Civil War, totally bad characterisation (To the point that a large portion of the readership thought Tony Stark was eithera Skrull or under mind control - Kind of gives the writer a clue that he's way off base don't you think) but this - man I wish Strazinsky had taken his name off it then he wouldn't be getting the flack for something he didn't do (Same with Sins Past as it was published)

I recall someone saying that a divorced Peter Parker would work for the type of character he is -- one who "gets his lumps." However, this is another example of why the marriage was a disaster. Spider-Man used to lose the girl all the time. But it would be tougher for Mary Jane to leave him because he's disappointed her because he's out being Spider-Man because she *knows* his dual identity. This would cause the audience to have zero sympathy for her (back during the misguided "Mary Jane is smoking because Peter is risking his life as Spider-Man" storyline of the '90s).

I can understand why the Marvel of a simpler, better time (back when Howard and Glenn were there) would have opposed a divorce because of the messsage it would send the kids, but I think a divorce is far preferable and far more relatable than Gwen Stacy cheating on her boyfriend with her friend's father. Given where JMS and Quesada have taken the character, a divorce would have been fine.

The problem, though, and the reason that the reset was the only way to go would be that instead of pining about the lost relationship for an issue or two as Peter did when he lost Betty Brant, you would get years and years of mopey divorced Peter.

Pops,

Agreed. Of course it SHOULD be up to the Editor of the title to make sure that those stories are NOT done. I remember, back during one of the marriage debates, someone suggested that the problem witht he marriage was NOT that Peter and MJ getting married immediately aged them, but that the stories that followed were written from the perspective of writers who HAD been married themselves. So... Peter and MJ went from dating to being an OLD MARRIED COUPLE immediately.

Howard