It took 3 years to tell this one page. 3YEARS! What I’m talking about is the first 2 pages in the Amazing Spider-Man issue 638. After 3 years of waiting for what was said to Mephesto by Mary Jane Waston when she was still Mary Jane Waston-Parker and there was still a Peter and MJ that was married, I got the answer. An answer that I still don’t like and just reminds me even more so of how much I hate that Marvel changed Spider-Man so much.
It was said that the change for Spider-Man was because the character wasn’t connecting with the readers of today being a married man with adult problems and because of that the younger generation wasn’t reading. So the change that came was taking everything that happened in every Spider-Man comic wrote for nearly 24 years and erased it away like it never happened. First off, why make this change? The younger generation is not reading it or connecting with the character? Wasn’t that the reason for Ultimate Spider-Man title being put out? Oh and what about Marvel Adventures Spider-Man? Both titles are about a teenage Peter Parker that just gets his powers, learning to deal with them, while still being in high school and fumbling around as the nerdy outcast, but all with a modern day atmosphere to them.
So, just exactly tell me why when there are 2 titles out already that are specifically published with the content being geared for the younger generation and made with a more up to date story lines that the one title that is the backbone, the heart, the reason there are the other 2 titles needing to be published for this new younger generation, is taken away? Does the older generation, the ones that’s no longer a teenager, the ones that spend the most money on these titles, no longer count any more? The answer to that is yes because it was done. The character of Spider-Man that I grew up knowing and knew was taken away, everything that happened that I had been following for years just taken away like it was nothing. This could be considered a slap in the face, spit in the eye, down right stupid and the worst thing that I’ve ever seen happen in comics.
Back to what took 3 years to answer with the one page that stirs up the anger again. This page takes place when the change happened with Spider-Man where the deal with Mephesto to save Aunt Mays life happens. At the very last moment when Peter and MJ agree to the deal of having Mephesto take away their marriage, MJ leans in to whisper something to Mephesto but what she said was not shown in the comic. Until now, 3 years later.
Even though what is said by MJ kind of cancels out the idea that Peter Parker would make a deal with Mephesto (the devil), the deal was made and he agreed to it. Which makes it that he made the deal. If it wasn’t made then the past 3 years wouldn’t have happened, the marriage would still be there, and One Moment in Time would not be wrote right now.
I stay with the comic because I am a fan, regardless of the past 3 years, but mainly because with each passing issue I’m hoping that these years of the title will be taken away and it will go back to normal. For the past 3 years there has been no Peter and MJ, hell there has hardly even been a MJ at all. But worse still, from the way issue 638 read, the relationship between Peter and MJ will never be the same. There can’t be a Peter Parker without a Mary Jane and I don’t mean just by having the characters around but by having the two characters in a relationship. That could be just dating or how they were married, it don’t matter because they are together. Take that away and all that happens is part of the substance that makes the character of Spider-Man so good is taken away, and that is what has happened, and until this is changed I will continue to hate that it has happened. Right now all I see the comic as being is a filler comic, the one comic that don’t go along with continuity but involves the character. Spider-Man is no longer the great title and character it used to be but maybe one day that will change.
Now I’m done with my triad.
Marvel Official Site: marvel.com/