Comic Book Resources

Thing is…
Quesada is similar to Stan Lee in the way that he hypes the hell out of the product to get the fan-base into a frenzy, but he also uses the internet (and the rabid fans on the “fret”) to throw some blood in the water (so to speak).

However, thus far, MOST of his most vehement statements (which caused the net to “split”) were really fake-outs designed to GET placid readers’ interest.

Then, what hits the stands is usually the opposite of what he led them to believe.
But he DID get them interested and involved, in what might have been a “zero” property.

I’m still amazed that people think that he wants continuity to be “killed”, when if you read a good chunk of the comics that have been coming out for the last year or so, they are SO continuity heavy it’s just like old times.

A good chunk of this might be due to Bendis’ love for the old stuff, and Joe Q was swayed to his side of thinking.

Either way, I don’t know WHAT to expect from the “I hate the Peter Parker / Mary Jane marriage” statements.

He COULD very well, have them be separated.
I can see that, but I can also see a switcheroo about to happen too.

I’ll be happy to wait and see.

~P~
P-TOR

It looks very like Peter is putting the piece BACK into place though, doesn’t it?

That doesn’t look like Spiderman’s glove to me… my first thought was “Why does Daredevil care about the marriage?”

It’s Mephisto’s hand. Pete will make a deal with the devil to erase everything that’s happened but Mephisto will twist his words and erase MJ from his life. She won’t remember him.

It’s so obvious people!!!

Since when does Mephisto wear leather gloves?

Also, since when is Peter a moron?

I’d consider being freaked out if I knew what the hell that was supposed to be.

Is it a mirror or a photo frame?

If it’s a mirror, the hand holding the shard should be refected, but isn’t.

If it’s a photo frame, there should be no image on the shard.

The only thing I can think of that works is that Peter and MJ had their photo printed onto a sheet of glass. But who does that?

@ Steven Flanagan:

It’s comics. Common sense has no place.

@Dave:

I had the same thought, except I was thinking “and why would Daredevil be using photographs??”

Also, since when is Peter a moron?

“I think revealing my secret id to the world would be a good idea!”

It looks to me like one of those crystal walls…you know the one’s Superboy Prime liked to punch?

Oh God, no…that’s Ben Reilly’s glove (minus the webshooters). I’ll call it right now: Mary Jane is a clone. Of Gwen Stacy. The Clone Gwen Stacy. Who it turns out was the one who slept with Norman (Skrull Norman, of course). Who secretly became Ben Reilly’s girlfriend during the Clone Saga. Who fell for the “Ben was the original, Peter was the clone” thing and had the Jackal turn her into an MJ clone. Who took MJ’s place during the break-up. And now Ben’s coming back to set the record straight and reclaim his girl. Why now? Because he needs someone to do his laundry!

But wait! Turns out the real MJ is still out there, living a life of anonymity. But when Clone MJ went fugitive with Peter, SHIELD tracked her down and gets her to convince Peter to turn himself in. She arrives just as Ben, Peter, and Clone MJ are having their confrontation. In the confusion, MJ falls out the window and Ben tries to grab her with a webline, accidentally snapping her neck. But when he pulls her up, they find instead the body of…a Skrull! As Peter and Ben mourn, Clone MJ sneaks out and goes to Skrull Norman’s. The Spiders follow her. Skrull Norman reveals himself and his and Clone Gwen’s plan against the Spider-Men.

But that’s not all!! As the Spiders defeat the Skrull Green Goblin, Clone MJ undergoes her own transformation, not back into Clone Gwen but into…Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen! Turns out the REAL Real MJ was the timelost amnesiac daughter of Peter and Jean Grey, who Maddie killed during Inferno and planted the body as her own when it appeared Jean had won. Suddenly, Cyclops, Cable, X-Man, and Rachel Grey burst in. Even Spider-Man doesn’t have a quip witty enough for this! The good guys have Maddie on the ropes, but then…because you demanded it!…Stryfe and Carnage! Now the good guys are in trouble (even with the added lethal protection of Venom), only to be rescued by the dramatic return of — yeah, you knew this was coming — Phoenix! Jean (or whoever, it doesn’t really matter at this point) says to hell with it, eats the M’Kraan Crystal, everything goes white…

Peter Parker wakes up from a horrible, horrible dream where he was married to Mary Jane Watson. He sighs, then turns over to kiss his real wife, Suzanne Pleshette. And somewhere, the Jackal is laughing. “I finally got the Spider-Totem out of the way. Now my true enemy…the Dog/Cat/Gerbil-Totem! Wolverine, you are mine!”

Its metaphorical kids. “Shattered lives”, “putting the pieces back together” and all that.

[bows in I-am-so-not-worthy fashion to Cove West]

I’d consider being freaked out if I knew what the hell that was supposed to be.

Yeah, I’ll just stay over here with him.

Are you sure the glove doesn’t belong to Santa Claus?

Cove, I would SO buy that.

I find that whenever Quesada tips his hand too heavily toward one particular outcome, it’s usually a fakeout (e.g. Speedball dying). So the more info that comes out, the more doubtful I am about MJ dying. I do think the marriage is over though.

So the more info that comes out, the more doubtful I am about MJ dying. I do think the marriage is over though.

I think it’s over as well, as he has been saying he dislikes it for years.
That said, a big selling point on JMS’s run early on was that they were getting back together.
Bizarre.

I’m torn. If she’s gone, I want to vote with my wallet and not pick up the book.
That said, it is a hell of a creative line up.

Cove West, I would buy that just to have Ben Reilly back.

@ #3: good point, I was a bit too punchy to recognise the glove.

Reminds me a bit of Daredevil’s movie gloves, but – naaah, couldn’t be …

Looks like Wolverine is making out with MJ

Oh heck, I’ve got it – they’re going to fix it by having Sentry(-Prime) punch a mirror until everything goes away!

What if the one behind the crimes in Hell’s Kitchen and this cover are a Skrull MJ that dresses as DD? The New Avengers 34 cover would also make more sense I guess.

Newsarama is running a poll asking people if they think Spider-Man should stay married or not. “Married” is trouncing “not married”, with other three times as many votes. In other words, this potential storyline seems to have about as much approval as the War in Iraq.

Quesada should realize that, no matter his feelings on the matter, most of his readers- his customers- disagree with him. And so he should just shut up and let well enough alone.

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to “vote with your wallet”, since this book is already a success based on Diamond’s orders. The worst thing that can happen is that piles of Spider-Man comics are sitting on retailers’ shelves, which hurts the retailer, not Marvel. In any event, comics fans never vote with their wallets. They buy things they expect to not like, then go online to bitch about them.

“Since when does Mephisto wear leather gloves?
Also, since when is Peter a moron?”

???

Since when was Tony Stark a power obsessed meglomaniac?
Since when Reed Richards an idiot? (a Negative Zone prison?)

This is Quesada’s Marvel folks, throw things against the wall and see if it sticks. It doesn’t matter if it makes NO sense at all.

So yeah, why wouldn’t Mephisto wear gloves?

To me it looks like some guy with red gloves is ripping up a picture of Peter and MJ to reveal a bigger picture of Peter and MJ. But what does that mean?

And whose glove is that?
My guess: Iron Man.

My guess is the glove shown in that picture belongs to the alternative future Spider-Man as seen in the “Happy Birthday” arc (ASM #498-500 thereabouts) that JMS did a few years ago. The gloves of future Spidey’s costume look really similar to the one holding that picture fragment.

It strikes me as something of a problem that people can’t even tell whether the glove belongs to a male or female. I’m reserving judgement of the arc until it’s over and done, but the covers are pretty goddawful.

I think it’s Daredevil, putting the pieces BACK together. I’m not reading these titles right now, but isn’t it entirely possible they TRY to get divorced and meddling lawyer Matt Murdock screws up the whole thing because he thinks Mary Jane and Peter getting a divorce is a stupid decision?

….and then MJ dies of a freak aneurism just as they make up and leave the courthouse?