Would Peter make a good Dad?

[Alan2099]

Spider-girl showed him as a decent dad, but one that was overly strict and over protective, which I thought fit the character well.

Both MJ and Peter would be incredibly hesitant about having kids. Purely because of the lifestyle Peter leads. If a pregnancy does happen, I could see it being a unexpected one. MJ wrestling with whether to tell Peter on not. Some great drama could come out of such a situation. But, again, once you head down that road it is a hard one to backtrack on if editorial or writers wish to ditch it later.

Nobody would want another miscarriage situation to occur again. Nor would they welcome a termination.

That just leaves the only option being to send the kid into the future, and if they do that, you just know he's going to come back as a cyborg with lots of guns.

[WebLurker]

But he's retired.

That's a different scenario.

He wasn't retired in the RYV series (or at the very least came out of retirement). In any event, my point still stands; ASM circa Clone Saga, give or take, is canon to both Spider-Girl and RYV, so it is an "authentic" take on how 616 Spider-Man would be as a dad, since it's the same character, not a completely different counterpart (a la Ultimate Spidey).

And, as I noted before, it's ultimately up to the writers; the could write him as a good or terrible dad or change it up, depending on their intentions, the premise of the story, their own skills (not everyone is good at writing everything), etc.

[Huntsman Spider]

Spider-girl showed him as a decent dad, but one that was overly strict and over protective, which I thought fit the character well.


That just leaves the only option being to send the kid into the future, and if they do that, you just know he's going to come back as a cyborg with lots of guns.

Nice Cable reference, and there are at least a couple of cyborg Spider-Men in the Marvel Multiverse, if I recall right.

[blackspidey2099]

I think he’d be a great dad, but he’d probably retire from superheroing to focus on his family. Maybe come out of retirement every once in a while for dire situations.

[Chris0013]

I think he’d be a great dad, but he’d probably retire from superheroing to focus on his family. Maybe come out of retirement every once in a while for dire situations.

And we all know that will never happen.

[PCN24454]

And we all know that will never happen.

Which is why he'll never have children.

[Chris0013]

Which is why he'll never have children.

They could...not retire but marry and have kids...but refuse to.

[Aura Blaize]

And we all know that will never happen.

During the clone saga, that's EXACTLY what he did once Ben came into the picture and MJ got pregnant. And now there are a lot more Spiders running around than in the mid 90s.
It's entirely possible he does something that lets him change the world AND be a father. In Spider-Girl he worked with the police. His whole thing with Horizon labs showed exactly what he's capable of as Peter Parker as opposed to Spider-Man.

I mean, no, Marvel won't let it happen, but it would be well within his character to do so.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

During the clone saga, that's EXACTLY what he did once Ben came into the picture and MJ got pregnant.

That's not a good example.

The writers of the Clone Saga intended Ben Reilly to be the real Peter Parker and the Peter who got married and who readers have followed since the '70s as the clone.

So from their perspective it wasn't Peter having a kid and becoming a Dad but a clone.

When they decided to make Ben the clone and deep-six him, things changed.

The Clone Saga was about deleting the version of Peter that had existed for 20 years who had grown and changed. It wasn't a story about cloning or giving a happy ending -- maybe it was for some -- but not for the majority.

Let's assume that say they succeeded, that readers go "okay Ben is the real Peter, let's start calling him that and treating him that way"...a few years down the line you can assume they would kill off the retired "clone" Peter and MJ. Maybe the baby gets adopted by Aunt May or by some relative or becomes some kind of legacy or nonsense, but either way in a scenario where the 2nd Clone Saga succeeds in their evil heist of replacing the Peter who existed in the hearts and souls of readers with some braindead writer's room cocktail, you can be sure that eventually later writers will close the exits and kill off the "clone" Peter just to rub it in that this is the real Peter we're reading.

The Clone Saga was a victim of its colossal incompetence and editorial mismanagement, and to be frank to the incapacity of the people who came up with the idea to understand their own story. They made Peter a Dad because they were confident that readers would just accept the trade of Ben for Peter which meant that they didn't have a backdoor for that creating a terrible demoralizing mess at the end of it all. They believed Ben was the real Peter but they published too many issues with the character being called Ben Reilly, with his blonde hair, with his sidekick-like banter with Peter...for readers to accept him as OG!Peter. Making Ben Reilly into the Spider-Nightwing prevented him from actually being Spider-Man as they intended.

[Chris0013]

During the clone saga, that's EXACTLY what he did once Ben came into the picture and MJ got pregnant. And now there are a lot more Spiders running around than in the mid 90s.
It's entirely possible he does something that lets him change the world AND be a father. In Spider-Girl he worked with the police. His whole thing with Horizon labs showed exactly what he's capable of as Peter Parker as opposed to Spider-Man.

I mean, no, Marvel won't let it happen, but it would be well within his character to do so.

This is what I meant by it.

But I do think that Peter can have it all. Married to MJ, kids, a good job, time for family and friends (come on...he didn't check his emails and ignored his New Avengers friends?), and be Spider-Man. There are enough other heroes running around NYC that he does not need to be out there every night.

[hairys]

He'd be too busy, and moreover, he'd be too soft to discipline when necessary, imo. His kids would grow up to be nightmare children.

[marhawkman]

I think he’d be a great dad, but he’d probably retire from superheroing to focus on his family. Maybe come out of retirement every once in a while for dire situations.

In MC2 he didn't retire from heroing to raise a family. He retired because he lost a leg. Although Reed Richards eventually came up with a prosthetic that was a decent replacement, that took a while.

[Aura Blaize]

That's not a good example.

The writers of the Clone Saga intended Ben Reilly to be the real Peter Parker and the Peter who got married and who readers have followed since the '70s as the clone.

So from their perspective it wasn't Peter having a kid and becoming a Dad but a clone.

When they decided to make Ben the clone and deep-six him, things changed.

The Clone Saga was about deleting the version of Peter that had existed for 20 years who had grown and changed. It wasn't a story about cloning or giving a happy ending -- maybe it was for some -- but not for the majority.

Let's assume that say they succeeded, that readers go "okay Ben is the real Peter, let's start calling him that and treating him that way"...a few years down the line you can assume they would kill off the retired "clone" Peter and MJ. Maybe the baby gets adopted by Aunt May or by some relative or becomes some kind of legacy or nonsense, but either way in a scenario where the 2nd Clone Saga succeeds in their evil heist of replacing the Peter who existed in the hearts and souls of readers with some braindead writer's room cocktail, you can be sure that eventually later writers will close the exits and kill off the "clone" Peter just to rub it in that this is the real Peter we're reading.

The Clone Saga was a victim of its colossal incompetence and editorial mismanagement, and to be frank to the incapacity of the people who came up with the idea to understand their own story. They made Peter a Dad because they were confident that readers would just accept the trade of Ben for Peter which meant that they didn't have a backdoor for that creating a terrible demoralizing mess at the end of it all. They believed Ben was the real Peter but they published too many issues with the character being called Ben Reilly, with his blonde hair, with his sidekick-like banter with Peter...for readers to accept him as OG!Peter. Making Ben Reilly into the Spider-Nightwing prevented him from actually being Spider-Man as they intended.

Oh I totally get that from an editorial perspective. I'm just saying that it's still well within his character to prioritize his child, especially if there's someone out there picking up the slack. Miles, Cindy, Gwen, etc.

Though honestly, a well written Spider-Man could still be a dad AND a hero. But that's just me.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Recent events in Spider-Woman have set up a way they could explore it. Jessica Drew needs a babysitter - usually her boyfriend Roger would've done it, but they've just broken up. Maybe Peter and MJ could see how Jess copes with that, and it'd influence their own decision to have a baby or not?

Good point. Same deal with Luke and Jessica Jones when they needed a sitter for Danielle.

[blackspidey2099]

And we all know that will never happen.

Yeah, of course. If Peter were truly allowed to grow, I could def see him settling down with MJ, retiring as Spider-Man and focusing on changing the world through science (kinda similar to Life Story in a way). Obviously, that would mean no more Spider-Man comics, though, so we’re never going to see that happen.