If you intend to move Spider-man back to the flagship idea, to the mainstream, there is no marriage.
Do you seriously beleive what you post?
Most casual fans and readers arent as dumb as you're assuming. They DO read reprints and/or back-issues or "Essential" TPBs or the ASM CD-ROM, they'll KNOW Peter and MJ's story leads to marraige...hell, most "casuals" consider the deal with Mephisto to be the dumbest thing Marvel ever did and, even if they don't complain, they get a good chuckle out of how desperate and irrelevant the franchise has become.
Spider-Man is a complete story these days...anyone with a brain knows that. He got married, had a kid, he's a parent. Simple equation, anything else is a just a menegerie of what ifs and could bes.
The marraige is still actively promoted by Stan in the Newspaper strip and
Spider-Girl by Marvel. Despite Quesada's insane ideas....It's effectivly never left
Peter married a clone of MJ in the FOX series while the real one was trapped in limbo, but the marraige still legally counted seeing as nobody saw the clone MJ die and Peter recovered the genuine article off-screen in time for
Spider-Man Unlimited (said to be canon with the FOX series). That marks TWO series which feature a married Spidey
Peter was going to propose to MJ in
Spider-Man 3, promoting the idea of a marraige for future movies (and a perfect oppertunity to marry the characters in the comics again, earning a major boost in circulation)
The Spectacular Spider-Man features the "iconic" high school Peter, where you pretty much know Peter and MJ will become a couple and it's hinted quite delicatly. Howver, since we know that won't happen for a while, it allows a less angsty, mature Gwen to shine as Peter's current interest.
It's version of MJ is the best one we've had next to the MTV Spider-Man version, she sticks to the background as an anchor and isnt entirely in the midst of the action.
If anything, were I to constantly promote a definitive Spidey, I'd vouch for the iconic Lee/Ditko ideal...anything outside of High School should be a small play on the DeFalco ideal...marraige, or "getting there with hiccups", but overall, the
Spider-Man movies arent a very faithful representation of the mythos anyway, and I've longed for a reboot that goes back to the high school element or does something outside of it properly.
And no, we are not holding on to the restoration of the marraige "stubborningly" like MJ fans. We are holding on to the TRUE spirit of Spider-Man like...oh...
Spider-Man fans.
Rest assured though, when people think "Peter and MJ beyond High School" in any medium, they think of the marraige, or are waiting for the marraige. It's a forgone conclusion.
The stories they're telling are great.
There not true to the characters, so there not great.
If sales drop too much, BAM, the marriage is back. Or Ben Reilly. Or Eddie Brock as Spider-man. You never know with comic companies.
Tom Brevoot's already confirmed there's a new Clone Saga on the way
Mac Gargan's currently the "Dark Reign" Spidey....he's getting his own mini-series. Unfortuatly, it's written by a noted hack rather than a big-leauge guy
Actually, Stan signed off on and blessed the weird annulment. He only changed because his readership, which stands alone from those who read the floppies, asked him to bring it back.
The plan was ALWAYS to go back to the marraige in the newspaper strip...there's practically a signed confession from Stan's editor confirming this in JANUARY to certain publishers and readers.
Stan kept the marraige in the newspaper strip THROUGHOUT 2008.
Jesus Christ, get your facts straight.
Stan is a well-known spinster and a consumate professional "yes man" whenever he's on Marvel's good side (or have you forgotten his multiple lawsuits?). Do you honestly think that if he refused to support Marvel throughout this mess, that he would be writing back-up strips for almost every 600th issue there peddling in the next few months? Stan's the anti-Alan Moore.
Stan also came to endorse Aunt May's death during The Clone Saga after being initially pissed off with it..the man bends in the wind, his opinion means a lot, but it's fuelled mainly by his moods or his own agendas.
BND was still an untested idea at the time...to practically disown Marvel's big push for the ASM title in a bi-monthly format with a piss-poor status quoe no fan was supporting would have made things worse. Marvel craved publicity with this stunt.
As it stands, the publicity came and went, BND is not the success that it was supposed to be, the marraige is back in the newspaper strip as always intended...and it won't be long before, as you say, the marraige, Ben Reily, lions, tigers, and bears oh my come sweeping in to recover the missing portions of the fanbase.
I'm expecting it to go monthly again in a year or two as well....as that can also be excused as contributing to the sales bleed
I'd argue on the better writing. Mary Jane has been a szchiophrenic character for a long, long time. Go back and actually read those old issues.
I
did. There's nothing there that doesnt define the MJ I know. She was always the non-judgemental fun-loving pillar of support for everyone who wasnt part of anything dramatic and was thus a breath of fresh air to readers to the point they chose her over Gwen
Harry would have went off the deep end anyway, MJ knew about his drug use and sensibly cut herself off from him. She later regretted leaving Harry in the lurch (and she also started making a play for Peter, some suspect she'd been encouraged by Aunt May at this point to pursue him harder as his relationship with Gwen began to disintergrate prior to her death)
Prior to getting married, she's left, dated Harry, declined Peter's proposal
She declined because she wasnt ready. She left because Dennis O'Neil had mandated that she be removed from the equation because Gerry wanted her to take over Aunt May's role, and to hit this home, he killed off Aunt May for the very first time. O'Neil brought back May in ASM Issue 200 and MJ didnt return for several years until Roger Stern took over
Weak argument. He didnt know it was her, and she forgave him afterwards
she's had part of an affair
That was against her will (I'm assuming you're talking about Johnathan Ceaser), and Peter forgave her....there was that incident with Miguel O'Hara switching bodies with Peter, but that doesnt count.
As for Felicia...the only reason she stopped being interesting was because a mandate kiboshed her relationship with Flash Thompson. In the MC2 canon, she married him, had kids, but then realized she was gay.
The best Mary Jane has been in two titles: Ultimate Spider-Man and Mary Jane Love Spider-Man.
Pretty much the same MJ I've always read then.
The best MJ is the MC2 version from Spider-Girl...which is, pretty much, the MJ I was raised on up until 1998...a succesful buisnesswoman and mother with the psychological advantage that Tom was developing when he was kicked off the title.
