Down Came The Rain
Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-man, and Mary Jane Watson are no longer together. And it’s not just divorce or death - their relationship never happened.
J. Michael Straczynski is best known as the creator of the sci-fi show Babylon 5. But as on the beginning of the 2000s, Straczynski took up writing one of Marvel’s flagship titles, The Amazing Spider-man.
And when a writer has spent over 5 years on a title, they tend to leave their mark. It is not uncommon for writers to leave the characters in a difficult situation, a swan song that the new writer needs to write themselves out of. Brian Michael Bendis did it with Daredevil, exposing Matt Murdock’s identity to the world and locking the blind lawyer in Ryker’s.
Straczynski brought Mary Jane and Peter Parker back together after their relationship was strained, he exposed Spider-man’s identity to the world in the events of Civil War, and allowed an assassin’s bullet to put Aunt May into a coma. His final issue, Amazing Spider-man #545, left Peter and MJ to fight for Aunt May’s survival.
Peter killed to avenge Aunt May, but the greatest murder of them all was the sacrifice of his love with Mary Jane, his high school sweetheart. Mephisto, a devil, offered to heal Aunt May, but only in exchange for Peter and MJ’s love. Every memory they’ve had of their marriage, and the events themselves, forever lost.
Mephisto explains:
“Have you thought for a second to ask yourselves why? Why I chose you two out of all people? It’s because yours is the rarest love of all. Pure, unconditional and made holy in the eyes of He [God] I hate most. A love like yours comes about once in a millennia and to take that away from Him, to deny Him, is a victory like none other imaginable.”
And they did the stupid thing. Peter and MJ accepted Mephisto’s offer. They were never married, never fell in love after high school. Peter’s whole life is rewritten and new writer, Dan Slott (She-Hulk, Avengers: Initiative) will release three issues a month to show this new chapter in Spider-man’s life.
I don’t like it. In fact, I hate it. Teary-eyed, I’m not ashamed to say, the proof that a geek can get the girl was ripped to shreds. But I can say I understand it. After nearly 50 years of Spider-man, what else are they going to do?
And if Mary Jane and Peter are meant to be together, I’m sure they will find each other again a little down the road.
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Images courtesy Marvel Comics
Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Comments
Matt Knicl (Matt Knicl) says:
(Posted January 4th, 2008 at 12:49 am)
It is so wrong it’s not funny. They’ve effectively erased 30 some years of history, BUT, like other comic writers attest when they make big changes - we need to wait and see what is going to happen. I’m not angry because I think this alteration won’t hold. The series is now being written by Dan Slott, the king of continuity, and if the series were in any other writers’ hands I’d freak, but Slott is the janitor of Marvel. He’s constantly cleaning up other writers’ mistakes and making random chaos into something that seems planned. I think this “Brand New Day” will be a great chapter in Peter’s life.
Sheila (Sheila) says:
(Posted January 4th, 2008 at 3:33 pm)
At the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, about two years ago, Joe Quesada mentioned that Spider-man’s character should never have married because it alienates readers. Although I haven’t been able to keep up with my pull list as I would like and have dropped many Marvel titles due to their massive events which occur twice a year, I still disagree with this decision and story end. Also, I don’t see how waiting to see what will happen can fix this storyline. This story won’t be fixed unless they wake Peter Parker up from a Dallas like dream sequence.
Without the the complete cancelation of a series and the announced relaunch of a character, it is wrong to re-write the character’s entire history. Making a major life change for a character like Spider-man and then just re-writing his life robs that character of the history and identity that has been created over a thirty year time span. Now, the only thing left of Spider-man/Peter Parker is a grown man living with his old aunt…who’s going to kick the bucket eventually anyway.
There is no good reason to erase Spider-man’s past and relationship with Mary Jane. Comic book readers were not alienated from Spider-man’s character. Before this event, three different comic book versions of Spider-man were already avaliable to comic fans. Fans could read about the original, and married, Spider-man in the regular Marvel universe; an unmarried Spider-man in the Ultimate Marvel universe; and a kid friendly Spider-man in the Marvel Age universe. With that many options for one character, surely every comic reader could relate to at least one of the different versions of Spider-man avaliable. Yes, comic book characters do to go through change eventually, but readers, especially comic book fans, will not relate to a character without continuity.
Matt Knicl (Matt Knicl) says:
(Posted January 5th, 2008 at 12:15 am)
I totally agree, Shelia! But, I want to trust that Slott will at least give us some good stories before he wakes us up. It may be a huge House of M type thing, but in the end I think it will shake things up. It would be cool I think to have them remember but then need to choose. Harry is back too, so I think the alterations to Spidey’s life are more than just Aunt May’s survival. Peter’s outting has been erased, so other important good and bad events are bound to be different, which can let Peter decide if marrying MJ was worth it.
Capes & Cowls » Blog Archive » Stand-up Comics for Jan. 9, 2008 (Capes & Cowls » Blog Archive » Stand-up Comics for Jan. 9, 2008) says:
(Posted January 7th, 2008 at 6:46 am)
[…] (Marvel) - There will more on this title in my column this week in The Buzz, but the basic idea is Mary Jane and Peter Parker never hooked up and Spider-man has to figure out what to do in “Brand New Day.” Dan Slott (She-Hulk) […]
Capes & Cowls » Blog Archive » Stand-up Comics for Mar. 19, 2008 (Capes & Cowls » Blog Archive » Stand-up Comics for Mar. 19, 2008) says:
(Posted March 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am)
[…] His run on Amazing Spider-man lacked direction and ended (probably by editorial mandate) with the erasing of about half of Spider-man’s continuity. The Twelve was a dozen new faces I didn’t care about. His run on Thor so far has been […]
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Matt Knicl
My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Harry (Harry) says:
(Posted January 1st, 2008 at 4:41 pm)
i hope they do find each other again. or it will never be the same and even though i am (maybe) a fan of spider-man still i think that this whole thing is just so wrong it’s not funny