The Unmasking Thing Just Can't Stop Nagging At Me

I have to admit, I expected a bit more confusion with regards to yesterday's post. That was actually part of the reason I presented it with no lead-in or explanation, I was curious to see how you'd respond. Perhaps you've become inured to my lunacy. Ah well, 'tis a trifling. It was still a lot of fun to write.

On the subject of things that aren't fun to write about, it seems that my considering buying an issue of Amazing Spider-Man has dredged up some of those old feelings of frustration with the book in the months leading up to the establishment of the old status quo. So I might as well ramble about it awhile and see if this gets it out of my system once and for all. We can only hope, right?

For starters, I don't know if the marriage was actually hurting Spider-Man's storytelling engine (as John Seavey might describe it). The majority of my comic-reading lifetime, Peter and MJ were married, so I'm accustomed to it. I think my issue with claims that it made it harder to write good stories is, well, I read Spider-Man during the '90s. I read a lot of bad stories during that time, and I don't think it would be valid to blame them being bad on the title character being married. Was that what went wrong with the Return of Peter's Parents? Or Maximum Carnage, or the latter stages of the Clone Saga*? Or the Mackie/Byrne reboot, or The Other, or Sins Past? I don't happen to think so, but maybe the marriage was hampering the writers, dragging them down to the point they resorted to stories like that. I don't tend to believe that either, but it could be. Personally, I think it's good that when he's out there as Spider-Man, there's someone who knows it and is worried about him. Somehow, the idea of Peter out there, risking his neck, and nobody realizes it depresses me. I think it makes him seem too alone. Maybe he's supposed to be alone, though.

But OK, let's say the marriage was a problem. Why remove it by making deals with Mephisto? I mean, that's really not a good example to have your hero setting, is it? Daredevil has experienced at least as much tragedy as Spider-Man, and he went to Hell once, and completely told Mephisto off. Sure, he was pretty messed up in the head for awhile afterwards, but that's understandable, he'd been in Hell! That's gonna mess a person up! If Murdock won't give in, I think Parker ought to be able to resist as well**.

Of course, the Mephisto thing starts with Peter revealing his identity to the world, thus setting the whole chain of events in motion. I still think he'd have been better off going with that instinct to run he originally had. Sure, it's not very responsible to abandon your wife and mother figure, but I'm not sure it's responsible to slap a giant bullseye on them by telling everyone who hates you who you really are. Like I said, i read Spider-Man during the early '90s, when the only villains who knew who he was were Harry Osborn, Venom, and the Puma, and they used to cause him all sorts of grief. You really want afford the other dozens of enemies you've made that opportunity?

If Peter runs, and tries to set up a (what he would hope is temporary) life in a new town, you can probably come up with a way to remove the marriage based on that. It might have an odd bit of symmetry, since Mary Jane, her sister and mother once walked out on their father, who was a frustrated and angry man, and got looked at unfavorably by the courts for that. They had the best of reasons, but that didn't matter to Johnny Law. So turn it around, MJ gets ditched this time, and doesn't appreciate it (especially since Peter gave every indication in their last conversation that he was going to go ahead and reveal his identity). Pete means well (figuring Stark wouldn't lock up his wife and aunt if it was clear he'd ditched them, and I think as long as you don't let JMS make that decision, Stark wouldn't) but it could still haunt him. Isn't that what happens to Spider-Man? He makes what seems to be the right decision, and it backfires on him?

In the meantime, you can have Peter set up a life in a new location, build a supporting cast there (this assumes that even though Iron Man has surely told SHIELD his I.D., Peter is able to stay under the radar, and that Iron Man didn't go public with that information), maybe fight a few villains fleeing the new super-hero armies Stark has, or local oddities (these could even be mystical, just to get JMS on board). It's a Ben Reilly sort of existence. I suppose you could play Peter as the Fugitive, not staying in one place too long, though that sorts of wrecks any chance for a consistent supporting cast***. Except I don't that's probably viable long-term. People would want Spider-Man in New York, and then what do you do? I don't know, but it seems there had to be better options.

These issues don't crop up when I look at a current issue of Amazing Spider-Man, oddly enough. It's the other times when I start thinking about Spider-Man that it bothers me. I guess that means the stories are at least temporarily engaging.

* The Clone Saga, as originally planned, where it would be about six months long, sounds like it could have been good. I think the problem came when it sold really well, and they decided to drag it out for like two years.

** Maybe that Catholic guilt they saddle Murdock with makes all the difference.

*** I'd suggest you have him drift from place to place because he doesn't feel comfortable anywhere, but that raises the question of where he would feel comfortable, and that would almost inevitably point towards May and MJ, and you're right back to the situation the decision makers at marvel apparently considered untenable.