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Joe Quesada, What Did I Just Tell You?
Jan. 12th, 2007 08:08 am(Writing about comics is easier than explaining my downward spiral into the seedy twilight realm of online gaming. I'm weak.)
In a bid to torpedo my employment prospects at a place where I would dearly love to work, I will now condescend to whichever genius at Marvel is pushing the idea of killing off Mary Jane Watson-Parker- assuming there is such a person. I really hope this rumor is just that. Anyway...
This is not going to work. If his wife dies, Spider-Man can go in one of three ways.
First of all, he spends the rest of his life with a part of him dead inside. Although perhaps a valid artistic choice, this is out of character for a guy who has always spent his fight scenes cracking jokes. A life of perpetual mourning does not work for Spider-Man. Having him mourn Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy does not change that.
Second, after a decent period of mourning, he meets someone else. With a certain amount of mixed feelings, he enters into a new relationship. If the new woman in Peter's life is worth having around as a person, there will have to be occasional moments where the new relationship is depicted in a positive light. As soon as Peter's relationship becomes a source of comfort and stability in his life, you are right back to having to kill off the new girl too, because New Girl is to Mary Jane as Mary Jane is to Gwen Stacy. I hope you guys bought a roomy refrigerator.
Third, Peter tries and tries and tries to have an adult relationship but can never make it work because of contingent, accidental things or because the women he picks are all wrong for him. The lesson here is that Peter Parker, a smart guy with a heart as big as all outdoors, just can't make life work, because Peter has always been portrayed as a marrying kind of guy. Personally, I didn't like this as a kid in the 70s and I sure as hell won't like it now. If the secret to reader identification is to make Peter Parker an ineffectual shell compared to Spider-Man, you can keep it.
Mary Jane Watson is the female lead in the Spider-Man feature. She took up that role in Amazing Spider-Man #122, which came out thirty-some-odd years ago. Killing her off last time didn't take. You cannot permanently write her out, any more than the folks doing Superman could get rid of Lois Lane.
Please don't make me go over this again.
In a bid to torpedo my employment prospects at a place where I would dearly love to work, I will now condescend to whichever genius at Marvel is pushing the idea of killing off Mary Jane Watson-Parker- assuming there is such a person. I really hope this rumor is just that. Anyway...
This is not going to work. If his wife dies, Spider-Man can go in one of three ways.
First of all, he spends the rest of his life with a part of him dead inside. Although perhaps a valid artistic choice, this is out of character for a guy who has always spent his fight scenes cracking jokes. A life of perpetual mourning does not work for Spider-Man. Having him mourn Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy does not change that.
Second, after a decent period of mourning, he meets someone else. With a certain amount of mixed feelings, he enters into a new relationship. If the new woman in Peter's life is worth having around as a person, there will have to be occasional moments where the new relationship is depicted in a positive light. As soon as Peter's relationship becomes a source of comfort and stability in his life, you are right back to having to kill off the new girl too, because New Girl is to Mary Jane as Mary Jane is to Gwen Stacy. I hope you guys bought a roomy refrigerator.
Third, Peter tries and tries and tries to have an adult relationship but can never make it work because of contingent, accidental things or because the women he picks are all wrong for him. The lesson here is that Peter Parker, a smart guy with a heart as big as all outdoors, just can't make life work, because Peter has always been portrayed as a marrying kind of guy. Personally, I didn't like this as a kid in the 70s and I sure as hell won't like it now. If the secret to reader identification is to make Peter Parker an ineffectual shell compared to Spider-Man, you can keep it.
Mary Jane Watson is the female lead in the Spider-Man feature. She took up that role in Amazing Spider-Man #122, which came out thirty-some-odd years ago. Killing her off last time didn't take. You cannot permanently write her out, any more than the folks doing Superman could get rid of Lois Lane.
Please don't make me go over this again.
