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You know, I should get worked up, but the marriage has been dissolved twice before (1: MJ is dead; 2: no she isn't she's alive but living in LA) and it came back. If it's done this time, it'll be undone some other time, even if it's a few years down the line.

My number one rule of superhero comics: "There is no story than cannot be undone."

Those covers look like action figure preproduction art. Really gloomy action figures, but...

I say I have a good urge to smack Joe Quesada upside the head.

I say not divorced, but "separated" and living out of NY, but close enough.

Or, just go balls out & reveal that MJ is a Skrull.

At this point, I'm almost certain this is going to end with some kind of bizarre continuity reboot, getting rid of the marriage without ever having to actually break it up and as a bonus, de-aging Peter.

Between Slott's description of Spider-Man's "old fashioned" characterization in Brand New day and the fact that the sole piece of preview art released for Guggenheim and Larocca's run shows Spider-Man talking to a costumed woman that is pretty obviously Jackpot (aka Super-hero MJ) from the Swing Shift FBCD one-shot, it's not looking good for the marriage at all.

You know, I typed my hypothesis, but I realized at that moment that I'd hit my "No Longer Gives A ****" limit on preposterous Marvel plot developments designed to just hook the disenchanted readerbase for one more issue to see what shock will come next. I have officially folded up my tent and gone home, call me when Joe Quesada comes to his senses or is replaced.

Wow. That was rude. Is that who I am now? Rude, and not ginger?

I wish it didn't have to come to this point. I can only hope that whatever Quesada does, it'll at least stick around for a decade. It's very irritating when crucial points of a story come and go. Besides the likely separation, they're also taking the organic webbing. Doesn't matter much, and most people prefer web shooters, but it means we're gonna have some stupid explanation getting rid of this "wicked new" change to Pete's life.

Uh, anyway, Djurdjevic does no wrong, even if the Pee and MJ covers are a little bland. I think I'll still take these covers over the Quesada ones.

it wouldn't bother me to have the marriage broken up. spider-man was fine for 25 years or so before the marriage debuted, i'm sure it'll be fine again once it's gone. i thought the return of aunt may would be unforgiveable, and within two years everyone was cool about it again.

Didn't we see a lot of "the marriage is strong" issues during Civil War?

Not saying that means anything, it would just make it a whole lot worse.

3 words:
"No more marriages."

You know, I typed my hypothesis, but I realized at that moment that I’d hit my “No Longer Gives A ****” limit on preposterous Marvel plot developments designed to just hook the disenchanted readerbase for one more issue to see what shock will come next. I have officially folded up my tent and gone home, call me when Joe Quesada comes to his senses or is replaced.

Wow. That was rude. Is that who I am now? Rude, and not ginger?

I don't know what impresses me more: that you pretty much summed up what has me fed up as well, or that you used a Doctor Who quote to great effect!

Meh, whatever. Call me when Spidey's stories are fun and clever and genuinely dramatic again.

Man, Brian, I was thinking of a snappy reply to your bending over comment, but sheesh I am slow as a fucking snail on weed today. Too much work make Marko's brain bland. :O
But anyway, all the negative space leaves enough room for me to spell my surename in BIG LETTERS for everbody to learn as homework.

Cheers mate

M

Not that I particularly like JMS' Spider-Man or am looking forward to One More Day, but what the frick is so great about the Spider-marriage? Aside from some vague idea of " character growth and progression ", I can't think of anything Peter being married adds to the stories, and a lot of things it takes away from them ( most notably, any sense of urgency to Peter's love life, if he's always going to be married without threat of divorce or death ). Is there any good reason for Peter to be married, aside from some fans wanting to live vicariously through Spidey's marriage to a beautiful and understanding supermodel?

Joey Q said at Wizard World Chicago last year that he wants nothing more than to dissolve the Pete & MJ's marriage. He also said that divorce wouldn't do it the right way and neither would killing her off, as that would 'age' Spider-Man even further.

I agree that it will likely be some whacked out retcon break in the space/time continuum that does the trick, all without 'aging' Spidey even a day.

What's great about the marriage? I've always liked that Pete had one good thing going for him, that, for all the crap that he's continually going through, at least one thing went right.

As far as the covers go, I think the Djurdjevic covers beat the socks of Quesada's - Q's have something weird going on with their heads these days, reminds me of Glen Fabry on a bad day.

Wait a minute - are all three of these covers variants for JUST ASM 544 or are they variants for Spectacular and Friendly respectively instead?

One more day will be about May, most likely her death. This MJ stuff is just a screen. They've done it before.

Wait a minute - are all three of these covers variants for JUST ASM 544 or are they variants for Spectacular and Friendly respectively instead?

Oops, sorry. Yeah, I was way unclear.

They are the variant covers for the first three parts of One More Day. So yeah, they are for Sensational and Friendly Neighborhood, as well.

Man, Brian, I was thinking of a snappy reply to your bending over comment, but sheesh I am slow as a fucking snail on weed today. Too much work make Marko’s brain bland. :O
But anyway, all the negative space leaves enough room for me to spell my surename in BIG LETTERS for everbody to learn as homework.

Cheers mate

M

Just as long as your reply wasn't, "My next cover is going to have MJ scrubbing Peter's costume."

Wow. That was rude. Is that who I am now? Rude, and not ginger?

Man, if that's you rude, I'd bet you're the kind of guy who apologizes for getting cut off.

I can’t think of anything Peter being married adds to the stories

When did you start reading Spider-Man? Because I, for one, can't think of anything having Peter single would add...

DUDE, HE COULD TOTALLY BONE THE BLACK CAT IT WOULD BE AWESOME

Not to play armchair psychologist(OK, I am.), but does Quesada's pathological obsession with nullifying Peter Parker's marriage indicate more about Quesada's feelings about marriage in general than it does about the storytelling "limitations" of having Peter Parker be a married man?

Jack Potts: Yes, yes it does.

As the only "limitation" Peter being married is not being able to date all those hot women who are always attracted to him like Mary Jane and....uhm...oh, and uh...Well Black Cat...but they broke up well before because she's a criminal and doesn't like Peter Parker....and ....uh..Betty...but they dated like twice and she went on to be Peter's pal....hmmm.

As for how...people, Doctor Strange is on the cover of the book.

"Gosh Doctor Strange, Mary Jane is in danger because of my ID reveal...could you make is so I didn't reveal my ID and she's not involved in my life so she'll be safe, but we'll wind up together anyway, because the cartoons and movies and licensing ties us together anyway....oh, and don't worry about fixing that mutant problem, Civil War, or Cap's death...lets' just change time for me, hmmkay?"

Sounding off in favor of Spider-Man's marriage:

1. It's done. He's married. For good or bad. I'd rather accept the limitations it arguable may create by keeping it going than deal with another ham fisted retcon.

2. There are stories that grow out of Peter being single. There are stories that grow out his being married. From 1962-1987, we read the stories that grew out of him being single. But since 1987, we have seen very few stories grow out of his marriage. I'd like to read some of those stories at some point. Instead of retconning the marriage, use it to generate some new and different stories.

3. I like that Peter has grown up. Stan Lee had him grow up-he graduated high school, went to college, left home. I would not object to Peter becoming a father. He is one of those characters that benefits from change and analagous real world growth (albeit gradual change).

4. I can read about single, angsty, romantically troubled Peter in Ultimate Spider-Man (Oh, who should I date? How can I decide?). In fact, I do read about there. Why can't we have our cake and eat it too-changing, growing Peter in Amazing, traditional, single Peter in Ultimate? Isn't that one of the points of the Ultimate line?

I'm still not hearing any compelling reason for why a married Peter Parker makes for better stories, aside from personal preference. What kinds of stories can be done with a married Peter that couldn't be done with a single Peter, and what makes those stories inherently better?

1) making Spidey single again involves another crappy forced story to reset everything. that's one strike against dissolving the marriage.

2) let's play devil's advocate and argue the flip side, how does making Peter single again make the stories inherently better?

3) and you just know if they dissolve the marriage, they aren't going to come up with another crappy story arc to bring them back together.

" let’s play devil’s advocate and argue the flip side, how does making Peter single again make the stories inherently better? "

Because it makes Peter less happy and content with his life, to know that he doesn't have a beautiful and understanding supermodel waiting at home. It's already really hard to make franchise superhero stories dramatic, knowing that the character is never going to age or die and the story is never going to end. Giving them a fixed, safe constant in their personal life just exacerbates the problem.

Plus, I don't particularly like MJ's transformation as a character, going from the wild and crazy Veronica to Gwen's Betty, to a near-clone of safe, boring Gwen herself ( with the wild and crazy stuff being retconned as deep unhappiness from a dysfunctional childhood ). If Peter has to be married, can't he be with someone more challenging?

That's why I don't like the marriage; it makes the books too safe.

Because it makes Peter less happy and content with his life, to know that he doesn’t have a beautiful and understanding supermodel waiting at home.

That's an easy fix - just make her a catalouge model or a struggling actress - good looking, but not on an international level.
There's nothing that odd about a nerdy/geeky guy with a good looking girl - I've got one, and I know plenty of others who do to.

As for keeping the marriage - it's how the books been since I've been reading it - for me, it's an integral part of the book!
Heck, even in Ultimate Spiderman, where it is a single Peter Parker, he's spent the vast majority of the title dating MJ.
To a whole generation of readers (or TV show watchers) MJ is a big part of the Spiderman myth - up there with Aunt May and well ahead of Gwen Stacy.

Nitz the Bloody said …

"I’m still not hearing any compelling reason for why a married Peter Parker makes for better stories, aside from personal preference. What kinds of stories can be done with a married Peter that couldn’t be done with a single Peter, and what makes those stories inherently better?"

Not necessarily better, but different. Peter as a single guy, having to run off from a hot date to battle Electro, the quasi love triangle between Peter-Spider-Man-Girlfriend of the moment those situations created, has been done. Again and again. I'd like to see something different. They married off Peter, then basically told the same kind of stories for the next twenty years, susbstituting the word "wife" for the word "girlfriend" and the word "divorce" for "break-up."

So before they throw out the whole thing, I would have liked to see something different done with the marriage. Would those stories have been "better" than single Peter ones? I dunno. Suppose, as in most stories, it depends on who told them. But they would have been something different, and that's worth something.

In the meantime, to read about "classic" single Peter, read Ultimate Spider-Man. I do, because those stories are still enjoyable. I just also want to see some real "married" stories, too.

first of all, it seems from the replies that the problem is with the marriage being too boring and writers using it as a safety net. i can see that as a valid argument and maybe they need to ask tougher questions about the marriage. i mean c'mon MJ is by herself most of the time, Peter has a day job and he's out saving the world when he's not working. but that doesn't mean the marriage has to be dissolved.

and i also disagree with the implied notion that an unhappy, angry Peter makes for better storytelling (although the potential is definitely there). good storytelling is good storytelling, it can be but it's not required to have a dark edge to it.

again, where's the compelling argument?