ASM 76 preview

[rward777]

Agree to disagree.But you are blatantly wrong that he is Peter.Are you the same person that you were 5 years ago?
Peter and Ben are that analogyx2 since they have 2 different sets of memories after their common ones.

I only said at a genetic level

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

I'd agree but Ben literally says "This is Peter's...." and then corrects himself.Doesn't take much brains to figure out it's not him him.And MJ nows he's Spider-man as well, so how is she not suspicious or careful.Not to mention she knows Ben Reilly is back and is an actress.

They arguably have the same voice and if he didn't flop the landing like he did with Aunt May he could've actually convinced MJ if he was quick about it.
Besides the "this is Peter's..." which means he likely messed up, Ben and May only ever talked through the phone at the beginning of the Clone Saga since he was keeping tabs on her from afar. Could be a long shot but besides the basic mistake it could also be adding to May knowing it's not Peter.

[Spiderfan001]

I only said at a genetic level

"Peter because at a genetic level, he is Peter, an has his personality and most of his memories"- a direct quote from your post

Being genetically same really doesn't change anything or help him btw.

They arguably have the same voice and if he didn't flop the landing like he did with Aunt May he could've actually convinced MJ if he was quick about it.
Besides the "this is Peter's..." which means he likely messed up, Ben and May only ever talked through the phone at the beginning of the Clone Saga since he was keeping tabs on her from afar. Could be a long shot but besides the basic mistake it could also be adding to May knowing it's not Peter.

We seen MJ see imposters of Peter in seconds w/ chameleon who would have the same voice.And I did mention that
1)She knows Ben Reilly is back
2)She's an actress
3)She knows he's Spider-man and how this works

More than enough stuff here IMO.

[Huntsman Spider]

Yeah, if May could notice a difference, MJ could too. Heck, I think they've both been able to tell the difference in the past.

Also Gleason makes Aunt May look really old again.

MJ and her ripped jeans!

The BND stink is strong in Wells yet.

I blame the legacy of Superior Spider-Man even more than Brand New Day for this, since it was Superior that downgraded MJ's (and May's) ability to distinguish an impostor or duplicate or body-jacker from Peter himself. That said, I do hold out some hope that maybe this whole issue will read better than the preview seems to indicate.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

We seen MJ see imposters of Peter in seconds w/ chameleon who would have the same voice.

I wouldn't say so - IIRC, she only knew it was Chameleon because A) he kissed her and B) he got stuff wrong; she literally said "Peter, we can't wake Aunt Anna up" and Peter knew she was in vacation for the weekend.

And I did mention that
1)She knows Ben Reilly is back
2)She's an actress
3)She knows he's Spider-man and how this works

MJ's also human and not infallible. We weren't shown how did Ben's phone call with her go - if he managed to keep it pretty damn quick and just say "come over, I'm hurt", that's believable enough. Even if she could suspect something is up she would have no reason not to check it out.

My particular pet peeve with the preview is that Ben's calling Peter his brother for other civilians. That's how they acted only around those who knew the truth, they ran with the cousin story MJ came up with to avoid anyone getting suspicious. And he should definitely use that since he wants to keep Beyond off Peter's trail.

[Aura Blaize]

For all the people being all "MJ Should know it's not Peter", a few points. 1) We don't know how the phone call went. 2) She got a call saying Peter's hurt. She obviously not thinking clearly due to being worried. 3) It's a preview. She's probably going to put two and two together sometime after this issue.

[Spiderfan001]

MJ's also human and not infallible. We weren't shown how did Ben's phone call with her go - if he managed to keep it pretty damn quick and just say "come over, I'm hurt", that's believable enough. Even if she could suspect something is up she would have no reason not to check it out.

My particular pet peeve with the preview is that Ben's calling Peter his brother for other civilians. That's how they acted only around those who knew the truth, they ran with the cousin story MJ came up with to avoid anyone getting suspicious. And he should definitely use that since he wants to keep Beyond off Peter's trail.

Again you can make (valid)excuses for the writing and I'm not going to argue.My point is he should write her better, we can keep saying that circumstances mean this and that but it's not real.The writer can portray MJ better if he wanted to, and he didn't PERIOD.He choose to give May that moment, we could have gotten a split w/ the phone calls and both knowing it's not Peter but they didn't.

Good writing is highlighting a character's traits:-
1)She knows Ben is back in town
2)She's an actress, she could easily be written to tell that the person on the phone was lying
3)She knows he's Spider-man, this is a perfect ambush set up.Atleast show suspicion.

It's below avg. writing at best and we just got an entire run cementing there love w/ a great written Peter and MJ and their relationship.This is a downgrade

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

Again you can make (valid)excuses for the writing and I'm not going to argue.

I wouldn't look at it as excuses, soon as I see something that rubs me the wrong way I'll be the first to point all the same. Like, if they show the phone call and he also flubs badly and MJ is clueless, yeah, I agree fullstop. But I don't think anything in this is egregious at all.

I don't know, it feels like sometimes MJ is getting deified when the entire point on her is that she's human and she manages to make room for Peter's double life. I think it's gotten bad enough that at other places I saw people giving flack to JMS' run (the unmitigated gall!) in comment sections when she's being evasive of Peter saying it's out of character. She's allowed her own time and to mess up here and there, just don't make her a prick about it *cough cough* Kwzda *cough cough* sorry, got a bad case of the flu.

So now I can say it with a clear throat, "Quesada".

[Jman27]

Yes...we need younger Aunt May...

one of the other you guys old or young make up your minds

[boots]

i'm not sure it's big deal either way? ben may have been more convincing with mj than may (seeing as he's spent time with her and the last time he spoke to "may" she was dying), he might have got nervous speaking to his aunt.

if there's one person in the MU that could fool peter's loved ones, it would be ben.

otherwise, not a lot to these first few pages. art is nice.

[TheCape]

She not regconizing Ben is whatever, who knows maybe he just didn't give her a chance to respond. I'm more worried that her role in the story is gonna be making Ben feel bad for coming back to Peter's life, i'm probably just assuming the worst, but is Wells so..

[Spiderfan001]

I wouldn't look at it as excuses, soon as I see something that rubs me the wrong way I'll be the first to point all the same. Like, if they show the phone call and he also flubs badly and MJ is clueless, yeah, I agree fullstop. But I don't think anything in this is egregious at all.

I don't know, it feels like sometimes MJ is getting deified when the entire point on her is that she's human and she manages to make room for Peter's double life. I think it's gotten bad enough that at other places I saw people giving flack to JMS' run (the unmitigated gall!) in comment sections when she's being evasive of Peter saying it's out of character. She's allowed her own time and to mess up here and there, just don't make her a prick about it *cough cough* Kwzda *cough cough* sorry, got a bad case of the flu.

So now I can say it with a clear throat, "Quesada".

No, I mean there are ways to justify writing which are valid but the writer should write characters shining there character traits.Going from Spencer's we are deeply and madly in love to this is a downgrade.

And the BND stuff does not help, we've been messed w/ to many times.I do agree it's just a preview and i may get better

[Chris0013]

Taking the other side for a moment here...he could have held it together for the MJ call and just said "MJ...it's Peter...I'm in the hospital" then broke down a little calling May.

[TinkerSpider]

I wouldn't look at it as excuses, soon as I see something that rubs me the wrong way I'll be the first to point all the same. Like, if they show the phone call and he also flubs badly and MJ is clueless, yeah, I agree fullstop. But I don't think anything in this is egregious at all.

I don't know, it feels like sometimes MJ is getting deified when the entire point on her is that she's human and she manages to make room for Peter's double life. I think it's gotten bad enough that at other places I saw people giving flack to JMS' run (the unmitigated gall!) in comment sections when she's being evasive of Peter saying it's out of character. She's allowed her own time and to mess up here and there, just don't make her a prick about it *cough cough* Kwzda *cough cough* sorry, got a bad case of the flu.

So now I can say it with a clear throat, "Quesada".

Comics only have so much space. Each panel needs to, or at least should, if it’s at all well-written, move the story forward in some way, be it advancing the plot or leaving the reader a clue/foreshadowing or adding to the reader’s understanding of the characters.

Wells uses panels to show Aunt May instantly realizing it’s not Peter on the phone.

Then Wells uses panels to show that MJ did not know it was Peter on the phone.

So why juxtapose those scenes? It’s not a stretch to assume it’s to show the reader that MJ isn’t as attuned to Peter/Ben differences and therefore not as close to Peter as May. Otherwise, who the $&#* cares how May and MJ find out Peter is injured? Can’t one presume Peter has been in the hospital so much his emergency contacts are on record? In real life people don’t have clones pretending to be them to call their contacts yet medical personnel are still able to figure it out.

So yeah, the juxtaposition does smack of BND and Slott, writing MJ and other female characters as rather clueless two-dimensional props. But we’ll see. It’s just a preview. It could be Wells is just not a thoughtful writer and he put in the panels to kill space without a greater story purpose.

[Frontier]

I think people are overacting to Aunt May knowing but MJ not. Did Brand New Day really make people so hypersensitive to MJ being anything less that 100% perfect?

I mean, come on people. Clearly Aunt May knows because she is Peter's one true love.

I wouldn't look at it as excuses, soon as I see something that rubs me the wrong way I'll be the first to point all the same. Like, if they show the phone call and he also flubs badly and MJ is clueless, yeah, I agree fullstop. But I don't think anything in this is egregious at all.

I don't know, it feels like sometimes MJ is getting deified when the entire point on her is that she's human and she manages to make room for Peter's double life. I think it's gotten bad enough that at other places I saw people giving flack to JMS' run (the unmitigated gall!) in comment sections when she's being evasive of Peter saying it's out of character. She's allowed her own time and to mess up here and there, just don't make her a prick about it *cough cough* Kwzda *cough cough* sorry, got a bad case of the flu.

So now I can say it with a clear throat, "Quesada".

I think to a degree fans of MJ are just overly self-conscious of her portrayal in light of her treatment in the pre-Spencer era and might be just a little bit worried now that we're in a transition era and we don't know where it's going or what the endgame is.

At the same time we know MJ is getting a focus issue in this run of her helping stop a killer so there's that at least.