ASM 76 preview

[Jman27]

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.

seems so. Aunt May knows him the best since she raised him. Guess Ben experiences change his dialect

[Spidey_62]

Some good drama in these preview pages! I'm glad Peter isn't comatose and we are still experiencing his thoughts as he's fighting for his life here.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

Going from Spencer's we are deeply and madly in love to this is a downgrade.

From "madly in love", it seems like it means that they are in absolute synchrony and no thing can happen from one without the other knowing it or at least suspecting it and that it's uncounscionable the opposite happens. If that's the case, okay, but didn't in Spencer's run itself MJ keep from Peter she was working with Mysterio?

I'd about place these two perceived slights at the same spot, and I don't see either of them as that. She wasn't being callous keeping it a secret, she just knew Peter'd worry himself sick and lose countless nights of sleep if he were to let things stand - if he didn't jump on a plane and storm the film set all by himself.

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.

It's not a stretch, but I'd call Occam's Razor in this case - if we do see it that they're trying to paint it as MJ being rather oblivious, sure, I'll agree with it. But right now, I would give it the benefit of the doubt.

Otherwise, who the $&#* cares how May and MJ find out Peter is injured?

I might be completely off on this, but I think it may do have a storytelling purpose. Ben did keep tabs on May from afar, and if that much, we'll guess he did introduce himself as Ben Reilly (which might have helped her notice besides the flub, which, to me, is the biggest reason she realized it).

But she never knew "Ben Reilly" is the spitting image of her nephew.

And I doubt they're going to have May discover Peter's ID again in this arc, but given how there's no getting around the hospitalization, this might just be the first time Ben and May ACTUALLY meet, and his appearance will rise a great many questions. So the phone call may have been a way to set that up.

Of course, this is just my guess.

And the BND stuff does not help, we've been messed w/ to many times.

So yeah, the juxtaposition does smack of BND and Slott

I guess it's punch-drunk syndrome. I'm not sure if that's the actual syndrome, but someone once described it to me as someone always expecting another hit to come because they're THAT used in boxing for punches to be flung their way. And I don't use this term as a slight on anyone fearing it may just happen, it's more that Marvel just had this rocket idea of actively antagonizing readers that it's easy to see how anyone could get it alright (and what an absolute Hall of Fame Galaxy Take Marvel had to keep antagonizing people, saying it out loud, and thinking it's a viable business model).

I, personally, think they invested too much time and effort reestablishing Peter and MJ to do that, at least consciously - I agree with "maybe Wells didn't think people could take it that way", provided it does end up the way you guys fear it will, especially because Wells' stories seemed to focus more on overt humor and action scenes more than anything (Shed seemed to try to run away from that and it's definitely the least favorite thing he ever wrote for me, so I'd like it if he stuck to his strengths).

Of course, I do have a nagging feeling that plate of crow nearby might have my name on it, so if push comes to shove I'll spoilers:

say it's not the right name out of my three names, be a Kindred that way.

end of spoilers

In all seriousness though, yeah, I'll get to the plate if I'm soundly wrong.

[boots]

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.

i don't know if it helps your peeve at all, but as far as people are aware peter's cousin is dead.

there's no reason he couldn't be another cousin, of course. or for the hospital staff to know or care. it might even have been a nice way for him to hint to MJ who he was, but they seem to want to keep these two characters at a distance.

without more context, i'll just chalk it up to post resurrection ben is weird and awkward.

[Pav]

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.

This is the continuity that causes me to believe that May could tell the difference on the phone when perhaps MJ couldn't.

One other thing I noticed: Ben presented himself to the hospital as Peter's BROTHER!!!!!!

I can't help but wonder whether, on the phone with May, he was going to say "Peter's clone" or "Peter's brother" accidentally.

My point is this: it's clear that, despite the conflicts being introduced, I do see a story in which Ben is trying to patch things up with Peter, or, if you prefer, a story in which the writers are hoping reestablish their brotherly relationship. It seems that, even while he's trying to rebuild a life for himself (including being Spider-Man again), Ben's also hoping that he and Peter can be on friendly terms again. In fact, wouldn't that be PART of rebuilding his life? Ben's family is Peter, MJ, and May.

And Kaine

-Pav, who can't help but wonder when he shows up...

EDIT:

don't know if it helps your peeve at all, but as far as people are aware peter's cousin is dead.

there's no reason he couldn't be another cousin, of course. or for the hospital staff to know or care. it might even have been a nice way for him to hint to MJ who he was, but they seem to want to keep these two characters at a distance.

without more context, i'll just chalk it up to post resurrection ben is weird and awkward.

FRIENDS! Let us not miss the forest for the trees!

Ben tells the hospital he's Peter's brother because that's who he feels he is! The brotherly love lives within Ben!

[boots]

FRIENDS! Let us not miss the forest for the trees!

Ben tells the hospital he's Peter's brother because that's who he feels he is! The brotherly love lives within Ben!

ha, i dig your subtext. or even just the text as it reads.

my first read was that he was fumbling with a way to explain their identical voices, intonations and speech patterns and also that he just hadn't thought his reinsertion into their lives through but i can see that in the mix.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

FRIENDS! Let us not miss the forest for the trees!

Ben tells the hospital he's Peter's brother because that's who he feels he is!

That might just be me, but even for PAD's run I didn't get the impression he thought otherwise. Just that it had a whole lot more of begrudgingly accepting tone to it than otherwise.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Did Brand New Day really make people so hypersensitive to MJ being anything less that 100% perfect?

It made us hypersenstive whenever BNDistas and their ilk write the character, lol.

Unless Wells is able to go against the grain and change his viewpoints he keeps showing tendencies of falling back to the BND-era groupthink one way or another.

[Starrius]

OMD removed the closeness they obtained through the marriage I thought. No history of living together like Aunt May retained after the deal. Wouldn't MJ lose that sensitivity since she wouldn't be used to Pete's speech patterns on a daily basis?

How do you know there was no history of living together?
I understand that there was no history of marriage post-OMD, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were not living together.
Many couples live together without being married...........heck....my parents was one of them..........My parents were never married.
I am going to be 50 near the end of this month

[Starrius]

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.

I am a MJ fan, but I am not nearly as self-conscious as them
I am not stressing, worried about how she's being portrayed

[Starrius]

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.

Mary Jane has never been perfect
in fact, she's a bit flawed and so was her relationship/marriage with Peter
those are reasons why they're my favorite comic book couple

[Spiderfan001]

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.

You're not wrong

From "madly in love", it seems like it means that they are in absolute synchrony and no thing can happen from one without the other knowing it or at least suspecting it and that it's uncounscionable the opposite happens. If that's the case, okay, but didn't in Spencer's run itself MJ keep from Peter she was working with Mysterio?

I'd about place these two perceived slights at the same spot, and I don't see either of them as that. She wasn't being callous keeping it a secret, she just knew Peter'd worry himself sick and lose countless nights of sleep if he were to let things stand - if he didn't jump on a plane and storm the film set all by himself.

Not what I meant, I mean they at the end of Spencer's run they were happy-ish and ready to move forward.I just feel pulling this right after isn't the best choice.And that Mysterio thing was messed up but I don't get how her lying about that means she can't tell if it's Peter.What the relation b/w the 2?

This is BND/slott paranoia btw, the writing by itself is mediocre for MJ but nothing terrible yet.I'm just worried they will do something bad.

[Lukmendes]

OMD removed the closeness they obtained through the marriage I thought. No history of living together like Aunt May retained after the deal. Wouldn't MJ lose that sensitivity since she wouldn't be used to Pete's speech patterns on a daily basis?

Post OMD's story is mostly the same, only no marriage, so they would be mostly as close together as what happened before.

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?

Considering BND fucked her over, can't blame the fans for being worried.

Hell, last issue had a scene that made me raise an eyebrow with the attitude MJ had, learning one of BND's writers is here made it worse lol.

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

He sold his marriage to aunt May gets to live 5 more minutes, so yeah .

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.

Wonder how much she'll help with that.

Oh well, it's honestly, odd that aunt May can tell it's not Peter and MJ can't, also not a good sign, but we'll see.

Ben could always explain to the hospital staff that Peter was near a super villain attack, that's a half truth, dunno why he doesn't say it lol.

[fin5]

It could be Aunt may wo dies not Peter

[David Walton]

It made us hypersenstive whenever BNDistas and their ilk write the character, lol.

Unless Wells is able to go against the grain and change his viewpoints he keeps showing tendencies of falling back to the BND-era groupthink one way or another.

I haven't gotten that impression from Wells' work so far. He seems like a huge fan of the Clone Saga era and it looks as though MJ will be a big part of the books going forward, a co-partner with Peter as they deal with the hospital mystery from the solicits (and undoubtedly the Beyond Corp).