Potential clues about the future of Spider-Man?

[Somecrazyaussie]

Gwen wasn't Peter's first love interest.
Betty was his first love interest.

Peter was in a relationship with Betty before he met Gwen.
May tried to set Peter up with Mary Jane, and Peter told May that he already had a girlfriend which was Betty.
May dismissed his telling that he already has a girlfriend and made the point that Peter is not married to Betty.
May was so intent on setting Peter up with Mary Jane so badly that she actually ignored that he was already in a relationship with another girl.
He didn't know Gwen at the time.
This was in high school.
He didn't meet Gwen until he started college.

Yes. I realized that when I viewed my post this morning without the fog of sleep looming over me lol.

Still, the matter stands that the bulk of the readership prefer MJ. Marvel absolutely tried new love interests after OMD and they just never took. Same way they tried to do other relationships for the DC heroes when the New 52 hit. In the end, most of them just reverted back to being with the same person - Barry/Iris, Arthur/Mera, Clark/Lois, Wally/Linda, Dick/Barbara (Which they've been teasing again).

I think having them engaged is likely the best outcome for them. Readers get them together again, but Marvel isn't locked into having a married Peter again. I might be surprised and they DO actually end up having them remarry again. But I don't see it happening at the moment.

[Somecrazyaussie]

In fairness Mutants WERE an over-used idea. But... HoM didn't fix that and actually made it worse. They went from being over-used due to sheer numbers, to super-important and overused due to perceived novelty. Some of the Xmen stories had the premise that there are literally MILLIONS of mutants. Thus these stories would have cannon-fodder mutants seemingly everywhere. That was not a good thing.

HoM didn't really make things better though.

I agree.

At the time his reasoning at the time was that mutants work best when they are a minority and that the then current 616 had "millions" therefore it was hard to see/sell them as a marginalized people. That the X-men were better when they were fighting for survival against extinction. So you had HoM which undid some mutants powers/prevented new ones being born, then the run of beginning with Decimation. For 4 - 5 years you had storylines where their numbers were continually thinned.

Then AvX occurs and now new mutants were able to be born again.

This all happened under his tenure as EiC. It was one of his 3 "genies" that he wanted back in the bottle (Avengers being the premier franchise team again and Peter becoming single again were the other 2). So it proves he can reverse his decisions. Not sure where he stands on the marriage now though.

[Spidey5640]

Peter was planning to propose earlier in the run, and mentioned it again in Sinister War #1, so I wouldn't be surprised if they split the difference that way.

Peter & MJ engaged can work as a status quo for several years of comics. What happens after would probably be based on Marvel's long-term plans.

I don't see the marriage coming back. I think that Strange will arrange for Pete and MJ to have the choice of restoring the marriage but they will decide not to. Pete may have been planning on an engagement but that was before MJ revealed her contact with Mysterio in Sinister Wars#1 and the fact that she chose to hide it from Pete. That will be a major issue between Pete and MJ going forward.

[Starrius]

Yes. I realized that when I viewed my post this morning without the fog of sleep looming over me lol.

Still, the matter stands that the bulk of the readership prefer MJ. Marvel absolutely tried new love interests after OMD and they just never took. Same way they tried to do other relationships for the DC heroes when the New 52 hit. In the end, most of them just reverted back to being with the same person - Barry/Iris, Arthur/Mera, Clark/Lois, Wally/Linda, Dick/Barbara (Which they've been teasing again).

I think having them engaged is likely the best outcome for them. Readers get them together again, but Marvel isn't locked into having a married Peter again. I might be surprised and they DO actually end up having them remarry again. But I don't see it happening at the moment.

I am Peter/Mary Jane fan all the way.

I am no Dick/Barbara fan. I prefer Dick/Kory since first reading Wolfman run Titans stuff back in 2018.
I actually strongly dislike Dick/Barbara after reading and learning about the retcons that degraded Dick/Kory to prop up Dick/Barbara.

[Starrius]

I don't see the marriage coming back. I think that Strange will arrange for Pete and MJ to have the choice of restoring the marriage but they will decide not to. Pete may have been planning on an engagement but that was before MJ revealed her contact with Mysterio in Sinister Wars#1 and the fact that she chose to hide it from Pete. That will be a major issue between Pete and MJ going forward.

Peter and Mary Jane will be fine.

Peter will get over it.


I don't take comic books very seriously.
It's fictional stuff.

Characters only do what the writers make them do.

Mysterio stuff was for The Amazing Mary Jane series.


I don't think Peter and Mary Jane will be married as long as Quesada still works for Marvel.

[Dasklein83]

Here is my prediction for how Spencer's run ends:

OMD is not undone. In fact, I think it's more likely than not that Peter and MJ will continue to not remember OMD, except on a subconscious level. However, I do think Strange will prevent Mephisto from continuing to obstruct their romance. Spencer seems to be hinting pretty strongly that Mephisto is actively preventing them from getting engaged again, because he enjoys their suffering at being apart. In fact, Mephisto likely released Harry from hell for the sole (pun intended) purpose of preventing them from getting back to together.

I think it's revealed that the current, BND Harry is a clone that Norman made because he missed his son (ugh) which explains why Norman is so willing to accept that Kindred is the real Harry (which he is). I think Peter will be so badly beaten and broken by the Sinister War and Kindred, that he and MJ will leave NYC and take some time to find themselves again as a couple and focus on MJ's revived movie career. They may or may not be engaged, but I don't foresee Marvel letting them get married in the long run. Ben will return to help Peter in the final battle, and then offer to fill-in as Spider-Man so that he and MJ can have a much needed break.