Bringing Back a Married Spider-Man - The Official Appeal - The Discord is Live!

[WebLurker]

Marvel is planning to keep the series going indefinitely, so it would behoove anyone trying to convince Marvel to restore the marriage that this is a status quo that works in the long term.

I'm not sure what's objectionable with that interpretation.

It worked for two decades and was only scrapped because the Powers That Be at the time didn't like it (and has stayed in effect because all subsequent Powers That Be also don't like it). Revivals of it have done really well and been well-received by fans and critics alike. It's wormed its way in one form or another in some of the most influential adaptations (e.g. the stuff that people outside the small comics-reading demographic consume). No one needs to "prove" that the marriage works long-term; that's been established for years and not up for debate. From where I'm standing, it's all a question of preferences of content creators vs. fans and where the balance lies.

Some fans don't care about the long-term, but the stewards of the characters are different.

As the stewards at Marvel have been consistently telling us since 2007, it was never about the "long-term," but their creative preferences.

For getting back on topic a bit, I think getting a website for movement resources (codified "what we stand for," info on how to write to the editors and spread the word on social media, lists of franchise installments of interest to our demographic, etc.) should be a goal. It'll make it easier to get our name out and network.

[Garlador]

A big update.

The Community is growing fast, but we're reaching the threshold for word-of-mouth sign-ups. We're discussing next steps for outreach and messaging, such as a dedicated website for information and history, charity campaigns, etc.

For my part, this is including an active video channel for messaging, info, analysis, and engagement. Preliminary work is underway and I'm trying not to be a dinosaur regarding technology and learn how to go about making proper videos. It's daunting, but it'll vastly increase our net and spread the sphere of influence.


That said, I'm asking for content ideas. Topics, discussions, maybe even interviews or retrospectives. There's no shortage of material to cover, but prioritizing what type of content to put out is important. Open to suggestions.

[godisawesome]

A big update.

The Community is growing fast, but we're reaching the threshold for word-of-mouth sign-ups. We're discussing next steps for outreach and messaging, such as a dedicated website for information and history, charity campaigns, etc.

For my part, this is including an active video channel for messaging, info, analysis, and engagement. Preliminary work is underway and I'm trying not to be a dinosaur regarding technology and learn how to go about making proper videos. It's daunting, but it'll vastly increase our net and spread the sphere of influence.


That said, I'm asking for content ideas. Topics, discussions, maybe even interviews or retrospectives. There's no shortage of material to cover, but prioritizing what type of content to put out is important. Open to suggestions.

A general discussion of how serialized storytelling doesn’t actually impede episodic adventure-of-the-week storytelling, and how that played out during the marriage years (especially regarding something monumental like Kraven’s Last Hunt and Venom’s arrival) on a core level.

An analysis of how the industry imitated Peter’s growth and MJ’s solidification as his true love into its strongest years, and how the embarked collapse is documented to have little to do with that. (Bonus: Make a joke about the number of red headed love interests marrying pop culture icons in the 80’s and 90’s that then had someone elsewhere declare all of them mistakes in various ways.)

Breakdown of how the greater appeal of serialization in other media (Movies, TV, etc.) likely encouraged the pop culture prominence of MJ as “the” love interest.

A general breakdown of marriage Spidey-material, with an emphasis of how it plays both in a “vacuum” and how it plays with history behind it - especially using something like how Spiderverse Peter B. broadly referenced the Raimi films for the character’s background, but didn’t need a serious background to still make a “definitive” Spidey.

[Blanks]

We’ll probably see Miles married first before Peter and MJ again, lol.

[Majesty]

We’ll probably see Miles married first before Peter and MJ again, lol.

I always keep in mind that Peter and MJ was the result of the same thing that caused Sins Past to happen.

Remember the kids were originally going to be Peter's, but MARVEL stepped in and said that'd 'age' him too much... so decided to make it Norman's while giving no care to the character of Gwen Stacy and just "wanted to make the fans freak"...

That was back in 2004, and they destroyed Gwen's character for the sake of 'not aging' Peter.. just with the idea of him having a child.

It took nearly 20 years for them to retcon that.. and they still didn't make the children Peter, they just saved Gwen's character.

4 years later it was OMD and they did it for the same reasons they did Sin's Past.

Even then, they don't retcon the kids to being Peter's, but they did save Gwen's character. That is how they likely will just approach this 'marriage' situation. They won't allow them to get married again but they'll keep them in a constant circle of apart and close and apart and close so they can always put them back together or put them apart at will and thats essentially where MARVEL's comfort zone is.

They got a whole comic dedicated to their marriage now and if THAT continues to do well, that's where the focus of those stories will go.

[Garlador]

They got a whole comic dedicated to their marriage now and if THAT continues to do well, that's where the focus of those stories will go.

Something I want to clarify is that Ultimate Spider-Man is ostensible not “a whole comic dedicated to the marriage”. Mary Jane hasn’t really had a strong presence in most issues, and outside of issue #4, other characters like Harry and Uncle Ben have more page presence. While I’m very happy they’re married in this universe, it’s not a comparable replacement for the decades of marital superhero struggles they endured in the core book. Hence why we aren’t remotely ceasing our calls for its restoration in the 616.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

how to go about making proper videos.

It's really not hard - most video editors these days are very WYSIWYG, and format-wise, you're already dealing with comics editorialism. You'll want to pick pages and panels of interest, zoom in or at the most pan horizontally/vertically. Once you figure all that out (it changes on editor through editor, but it's just figuring where on the menu you add the frames to slide through the images you will zoon and panthrough) it'll be second nature, and you'll be churning things out with ease. People'll want to tune in for the commentary, so good reading and nice points will be key.

That said, I'm asking for content ideas. Topics, discussions, maybe even interviews or retrospectives. There's no shortage of material to cover, but prioritizing what type of content to put out is important. Open to suggestions.

I think you'd probably want to start with "Current Spider-Man is on Pause by Marvel's Admission" what with Mephisto enjoying Peter's soul screaming for eternity (and the best recourse so far to address it so far seems to be "don't think about it and Peter will seem just fine to you"), and Spencer's run alluding to One More Day having more behind it than Mephisto just seemingly 'doing it for the lulz' as well as it seemed back in the day, but they don't want to follow up on that (for the time being, if anything). Maybe also point out how for as maligned as it is (was?), Clone Saga literally shot down bringing Mephisto into the fold, yet they embraced it as a way to make Spidey single, and if you're anything like me, you can humor wanting to get the guy able to date whoever he wants - but making a literal deal with the devil is, as it was very trendy to say some years back, "not a good look". Also maybe, how by Wells' own admission, "if Peter marries Mary Jane, the story is over" - take that sentence wherever you may prefer.

Also:

such as a dedicated website for information and history, charity campaigns, etc.

This interests me. I'm in a country where a state is literally flooded to its half with water because climate emergencies got to where they are, and I myself just usually think that before getting involved heavily in anything, if I maybe could better spend my time elsewhere. I'm not trying to pontificate, but I guess in my old age I'm just always getting concerned with this kind of thing first and foremost and as much as I still like to spend time in pop culture, it definitely takes less precedence. But that's enough of me blathering on about myself.

[Mister Mets]

A big update.

The Community is growing fast, but we're reaching the threshold for word-of-mouth sign-ups. We're discussing next steps for outreach and messaging, such as a dedicated website for information and history, charity campaigns, etc.

For my part, this is including an active video channel for messaging, info, analysis, and engagement. Preliminary work is underway and I'm trying not to be a dinosaur regarding technology and learn how to go about making proper videos. It's daunting, but it'll vastly increase our net and spread the sphere of influence.


That said, I'm asking for content ideas. Topics, discussions, maybe even interviews or retrospectives. There's no shortage of material to cover, but prioritizing what type of content to put out is important. Open to suggestions.

I would recommend focusing on other Ultimate books as well. Obviously some fans will only be into Spider-Man, but it is useful to send a message that people picking up Ultimate Spider-Man might also check out Ultimate Black Panther.

Ultimates writer Deniz Camp and Nick Spencer are involved in Hickman's Substack project, so that may be worth checking out and discussing.

A last thing would be to make short videos or Tumblr posts about insights into the series. It could be a small moment, like something you realized about a scene that other people haven't noticed (especially if it turns out that something was foreshadowed.) Hickman's writing allows for that kind of exploration. It could be something deeper. I think you made a point a while back that Peter getting his costume years after he was supposed to really speaks to young people who feel that they lost pivotal experiences due to Covid lockdowns.

I would recommend keeping things positive. Talk about why Ultimate Spider-Man is good (or why some other comic book you think is on the same wavelength is good) rather than why something else is bad. Otherwise you'll turn off fans of the something else.

[Garlador]

I would recommend focusing on other Ultimate books as well. Obviously some fans will only be into Spider-Man, but it is useful to send a message that people picking up Ultimate Spider-Man might also check out Ultimate Black Panther.

Ultimates writer Deniz Camp and Nick Spencer are involved in Hickman's Substack project, so that may be worth checking out and discussing.

A last thing would be to make short videos or Tumblr posts about insights into the series. It could be a small moment, like something you realized about a scene that other people haven't noticed (especially if it turns out that something was foreshadowed.) Hickman's writing allows for that kind of exploration. It could be something deeper. I think you made a point a while back that Peter getting his costume years after he was supposed to really speaks to young people who feel that they lost pivotal experiences due to Covid lockdowns.

I would recommend keeping things positive. Talk about why Ultimate Spider-Man is good (or why some other comic book you think is on the same wavelength is good) rather than why something else is bad. Otherwise you'll turn off fans of the something else.

Honestly, I was going to drop in and mention some of these very suggestions.

I want this to be positive and informative, so I’m leaning towards videos that include a comic story or issue recommendation, as well as shoutouts to important charities or events fans can contribute towards (such as Peter David’s GoFundMe).

If I fail to make a more positive impact in the fanbase with our content, I’d consider that a failure. You can’t promote a status quo shift based on the strength of love and not put it into practice as well.