[I think I may be pulling to many comments now, but I really like the one the way this one is worded. Also it is the weekend, so i get to be lazy. This comment is from the Comics Out post on Wednesday.]
Thacher wrote:
On Newsarama, when they posted preview pages of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, one person posted commented that the brown pigeon that is seen on the first page is similar to the brown pigeon that was in the first issue, and then surmised that the brown pigeon was in fact Mephisto, and he would attempt to offer Peter a deal. I found it to be the most totally ridiculous, out-there theories anyone pulled out of their asses. Then I read the issue today.
That pigeon was totally Mephisto.
After knocking around time and space with Dr. Strange, begging everyone good or bad on earth to save his aunt, but no one can (not even, I guess, the X-Men kid who can heal people with his touch). Despondent, he leaves, and the pigeon morphs into a little girl, who makes a menacing offer of help.
Is it wrong to think that a hero who makes a deal with Satan becomes extraordinarily irredeemable? I mean, I know a spider-marriage is unacceptable, but is a spider-faustian deal?
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13 comments:
Well thank you. I dunno, the Mephisto erasing the marriage thing may just be a huge red herring (or brown pigeon, in this case), but if it is, I feel like it really and truly damages the character. Happy-go-lucky laugh in the face danger Spider-Man is gone, and replaced with someone that will always have this weight attached to him. I feel like I'm investing too much in this, but the other day at the store I was sorting through comics to go out in the quarter bins, and I found the issue of Spectacular Spider-Man where he first comes face to face with the clone, and they tout this as the beginning of an all-new, earth shaking storyline, and nothing will ever be the same. I look at that, and I look at the One More Day hype, and it's indistinguishable (hell, they even threw in the mock retro covers, complete with "Still only $3.99," which is just mean because they were $2.99 before they decided to throw in worthless back-matter, like a bunch of stuff about Mary Jane in a issue where she doesn't appear at all).
They're screwing with us, I know, but I'm really beginning to sense a tipping point among my customers. They're tired of being screwed with for marginal returns.
The mock retro covers are especially ridiculous given that what lies beneath is so utterly dreary and dour. Even if he doesn't make a deal with Mephisto to reboot his comic (he will), the Peter Parker in this story is the most unlikable he's been since Spider-Man 3.
I'm of two minds on this one: I'd like to see if they have the balls to reboot the whole damn mythos but I also think people should take Marvel at their word - "If you should read but one comic this DECADE, this one's it!" (hyperbolic hyperbole if I ever heard any) and not buy any more Marvel comics. I mean, wouldn't you save that for the fourth part?
I can't wait for the tell-all book that comes out some day that exposes the real reasons why Marvel, DC, et. al. made some of the wacky editorial decisions that they have. This one'll probably go right to the top of the heap.
I think I'd find the fact that a reader guess the brown pigeon is Mephisto totally heartwarming--sort of thing I'd have done when I was twelve and written up in a letter hoping for a no-prize, except I don't think twelve-year-olds read Spider-Man comics anymore. At least not this sort.
My ever-lowering level of expectation says that Parker would never make the deal, but perhaps more importantly, JMS's obsession with moralist tales in mythic suggests to me even he wouldn't like it. I haven't read a thing, so this is coming out of my ass. Peter refuses, Mary Jane accepts and gives herself up.
oh, so so sorry but i thought you were writing on Margaret Thatcher on Spiderman.
that was weird.
JMS pulls off the hat trick:
1. saves May
2. gets the secret identity back
3. loopholes around the marriage -no divorce, no death
616 gets a Spider-Man that's fun to read again, taking the cue from 120 issues of Ultimate S-M (10 years in real-time, 6 years in Bendis/Bagley time)
I actually can't wait to get on board with the "Brand New Day" revamp/retcon/rookjob.
I might have said this before, but whatev: Here's a novel thought; Just let the old hag die. Fuck Aunt May. She's just as good dead as she is alive for the mythos.
If people can't write the marriage right, get someone who can; like Matt Fraction. Look at his Spidey annual.
Roger: "oh, so so sorry but i thought you were writing on Margaret Thatcher on Spiderman.
that was weird."
Heh. I often throw off people with the non-Margaret Thatcher spelling of my name.
I'm really excited for thrice-monthly Amazing, mainly because they seem to be suggesting that it'll be a return to the good ol days, where he'd swing around an d worry about money and taking pictures and maybe even teaching. Of course, I also see the good old days as Peter and MJ trying to find and keep a place to live ("Hey! It's got a skylight in the bathroom!"), MJ finding work and worrying about him, and the book actually having a supporting cast.
I think that last one is the most important to me. For a while now the book has just been Pete and MJ and Aunt May, and then random people like Jarvis and Iron Man and Wolverine. Peter David's "Friendly" was good only because it kept us in touch with the Bugle, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson. Hell, I'd like to see Liz Allen and little Normie Osborn again.
It's how we're going to get there that worries me. I love Spider-Man, he's always been the character in comics that I've most identified with and that as a child (and sometimes as an adult) I wanted to be. As much as I enjoyed the different take the JMS run has shwon us, I want something that's kinda like how I remember it, and I realize that from a story-telling perspective they've painted themselves into a corner. Magic, Mephisto and wishes probably seem like the only way out, and I feel like I'll accept a sub-par resolution to this whole mess (well, one that doesn't involve a hero going, "Y'know, Satan, that's a pretty good deal. Where do I sign?") to get back to that. I just hope that the marriage comes with them, and that there's some kind of interesting explanation as to why/how MJ becomes "Jackpot."
And alas, I feel like I've said to much...
"Is it wrong to think that a hero who makes a deal with Satan becomes extraordinarily irredeemable?"
Not at all! In fact, I do not believe for a moment that Spider-Man will take the deal. However, I would bet any number of my comic books that at the end of the day, Mary Jane will make a deal for him. And they'll get "one more day" before she's taken away and this new asinine status quo takes effect.
What confuses me is this: What is the point of all of this, other than to just allow Quesada to get rid of the marriage that's been bothering him? Mary Jane Watson has become a prominent, and arguably important, part of the Spider-Man universe! She's featured in the films (which are the general public's main source of exposure to the character), the main love interest in Ultimate Spider-Man for over 100 issues, and has her own title called "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane!"
Isn't the comic book industry beyond needless changes at the whims of the editor? Shouldn't it be? And how long until someone realizes this was a terrible idea and puts her back into her rightful visible place in the Spidey Universe?
I think I'll keep re-reading Matt Fraction's Sensational Spider Man annual and wait for you all to tell me if this storyline is worth reading.
Did I ever tell anyone about my idea of how to save the Spider Marriage? Give Mary Jane spider powers too.
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