I may have disliked how they separated them in this issue, but I absolutely understand Mary Jane for leaving. I mean, the writing for her here isn't even that good because all she did was be a doormat of angst for Peter's shitty decisions so her leaving him to put her needs first was the salvageable agency she's been given at least.
Peter's clearly a very flawed person here and I appreciate the nuance put but he's too much of a prick here for me to sympathize. I'm sorry but forcing your wife who's already in a lot of stress looking over your newborn twins you're hardly there for, to fully take care of your senile aunt suffering in dementia even though you have the resources to put her in proper senior care facility is abusive. It's emotionally taxing and overwhelming. Maybe it's just too personal for me, but the way Peter handled the whole thing actually kind of made me relieved that MJ left him.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Erm...Peter having to try and keep the plates spinning between his personal life and life as Spider-Man is...kind of a key point of his characterisation since the beginning?
I think in this specific case, the dark tone is deliberately evoking the tone of those stories. Hell, there's even a Rorschach incognito cameo in this story!
And we're only halfway through, jeez. MJ's on the variant cover for next issue, I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of their story. MJ left in 616 after that whole mess with her stalker, but then she came back (and we got Doomed Affairs out of it, to boot). She left due to OMD - and she finally came back with Spencer's run. She's left before, but she always comes back. You're reading way too much into this. I'm a pretty big Peter/MJ shipper, but I can see how in the context of this story, her making the decisions she has makes sense.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Not for every Peter who has grown up. I stand more by their examples because they have been allowed to evolve. not to remain mentally 17
Or it could be a case of love conquering all in their golden years. As I said, Chip is on public record as thinking MJ is like his ex-wife, who's his best friend despite the fact they couldn't make it work together. It might be the case here
There have been real life instances of couples getting back together decades down the line, sometimes remarrying. They're quite rare though.
Last edited by Miles To Go; 05-15-2019 at 01:05 PM.
I think this story is doing depressing in the right way. In comics writers are always going to want to have their stakes and drama, not just physically but especially emotionally, they want to put the characters through the wringer so that it's more satisfying when they finally come out on top in the end, or revealing a tragic tale in the end if they don't. What matters is if it makes sense in the context of the story, and I think this did.
This is Peter essentially refusing to let go and the stress of everything around him spiralling out of control. He feels he has to be Spider-Man to make a difference, so keeps the dangerous symbiote longer than he should've. He keeps Aunt May around because he feels he owes her for his life and is scared to move on, but unable to focus his priorities, dumps it all on MJ, who not only has her own life to worry about, but their twins as well. In trying to do what he thinks is right, he makes the wrong decision and ends up paying for it. And that's not to mention the whole rest of the Marvel Universe crumbling around them as the butterfly effect takes it course. We're reading to see what else could go wrong, with the hope that something will go right, and I think this is the best way to do that.
Looking back, I realized that they didn’t resolve the Vietnam plotline! Are ll the heroes just on good terms again!?
it has to work as its own timeline and arc as well. it can’t be chained to what happened decade by decade, because those 616 decades were never planned to work together with any foresight. they just unfolded under many different creative teams
this is a finite story with an overall arc and structure; so really the “80s” is nearing middle of the story , roughly “act 2”...conflict
resolution is still to come
Last edited by boots; 05-15-2019 at 06:45 PM.
troo fan or death
My impression is that Claire Parker is a reference to the famous Canadian animation pioneer of the same name. Famous for her work in pin-striped animation alongside her husband Alexandre Alexieff. They worked on Orson Welles' movie The Trial. Zdarsky is Canadian so maybe he snuck that in as a personal homage. I also think renaming the twin girl Claire was an attempt to divert from AU takes like Mayday and Annie because he didn't want to be disrespectful to the existing versions of Peter's children and his more positive role in their childhood. Zdarsky is signalling that this is his AU take and not some definitive version. Naming the kid Benjamin and him being a red-haired little cutie is about the only thing in common with Spider-Girl but on the other hand that might be a little ominous too.
Yeah. And furthermore, Zdarsky isn't doing this just to Peter. And it's not done to make Peter look good, young and so on. I mean OMD and OMIT tries to devalue and undermine MJ as a character to make Peter sympathetic. That doesn't happen here nor in ITSV, so that makes sense to me and it at the very least plays fair.
More or less, yeah.This is Peter essentially refusing to let go and the stress of everything around him spiralling out of control. He feels he has to be Spider-Man to make a difference, so keeps the dangerous symbiote longer than he should've. He keeps Aunt May around because he feels he owes her for his life and is scared to move on, but unable to focus his priorities, dumps it all on MJ, who not only has her own life to worry about, but their twins as well. In trying to do what he thinks is right, he makes the wrong decision and ends up paying for it. And that's not to mention the whole rest of the Marvel Universe crumbling around them as the butterfly effect takes it course. We're reading to see what else could go wrong, with the hope that something will go right, and I think this is the best way to do that.
I think Life Story Peter is a character who ages without actually growing up, similar to the 616 Peter of Post-OMD but he faces actual permanent consequences for not getting their act together.
And I'm happy that the phrase "Parker luck" hasn't showed up in stories yet. It's not luck when you do the most to make things worse.
SPIDER-MAN: LIFE STORY #6 (of 6)
CHIP ZDARSKY (W) • MARK BAGLEY (A) • Cover by CHIP ZDARSKY
Variant Cover by PAUL POPE
THE REAL-TIME LIFE STORY OF SPIDER-MAN CONCLUDES!
The year is 2019, and the 72-year-old web-slinger is about to embark on his final adventure! Will the end of Spider-Man’s life story mean the end of his life?
40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7RHI3bW4AAsz1K.png:large
Reaching 72 years old is already an accomplisment for Peter Parker. He's already as old as my own parents, and with his twins born in 1984, that means the new generation is as old as me. Even if Peter Parker's life is over, I'm pretty sure his legacy will continue.
I think the point going in the last issue would be "Peter Parker is dead. Long live Spider-Man" as Miles becomes his successor.
It's really cool that the last issue is going to end in 2019. For meta-points, they should make it August 2019, month and year of publication to drive home the "by the time you're reading this" of things.
Last edited by Revolutionary_Jack; 05-24-2019 at 07:32 PM.
It does not necessarily mean Pete will die, he can simply retire on top and be replaced by Miles. Here is a story: In 1960, baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams went out on top by homering in his final at bat in the Major Leagues, and was replaced by Carl Yastremski ( a future Hall of Famer), who was replaced by Jim Rice who was you guessed a future Hall of Famer. But as great as Yastremski and Rice were, today they are not on considered to be on Williams level. You could do the same for Spiders where Miles and any future Spiders are great, but do not equal Pete.
Last edited by NC_Yankee; 05-25-2019 at 06:46 AM.
I think as these past 3 issues have shown us, we shouldn't take what happened in 616 continuity as bible. It is very possible Miles could show up and get the torch passed onto him, but I would put a hard bet that it's not as simple as that is.