"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
Because the whole conflict of Spider-Man is that being a super-hero makes his personal life more difficult. That’s literally the secret sauce that made him different than every other hero to that point, and it changed the way comics dealt with secret identities forever after. Giving him a perfect personal life that isn’t impacted by his superhero life fundamentally changes the DNA of the character. You might as well suggest he lose his spider powers and just become a hero with super strength and flight, and instead of his current costume, give him a cape and a domino mask.
That's fair. I tend to like going halfsies in this respect for a couple reasons. One is the Bugle staff is just too good a supporting cast to just let go. Every time their missing from a tv show or movie, there just seems to be something missing. And I'll be honest, while I do consider science an important part of Pete's background, I often find myself losing interest when it becomes the primary focus because that's not necessarily what I find most appealing about him. Science being the primary focus in Reed Richards and Tony Stark's lives, cool. In Pete's I generally prefer the more grounded every man approach.
Umm, the way he's been balancing both (with varying degrees of success, of course) has been the primary focus of the character's life since, well, forever. For the very same reason you're resistant about him having any sort of connection to the Bugle I'm resistant to have his entire life dedicated to science. I just feel that would take away from the every man aspect of the character and have his entire life engulfed in science-based bad guys that in some way, shape, or form, be connected to his science career (they often did this on the '90s cartoon, which I often found implausible at best). As lazy as you claim his connection to the Bugle would be in relation to his life as Spider-Man, I feel the same way if his entire life was about science.
Last edited by phonogram12; 01-15-2022 at 02:52 PM.
Keep in mind that you have about as much chance of changing my mind as I do of changing yours.
"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
It seems you don't fundamentally understand the character. Peter Parker's life would be infinitely easier if he stopped being Spider-Man. It has brought him nothing but heartache and hurt and caused people he cares about to lose their lives. But he CAN'T. He's tried to quit being Spider-Man (many times) and even a handful of times he tried to stop being Peter Parker and he CAN'T. Because with great power comes great responsibility. It's literally from his first appearance. It's a motto that I imagine even many non-comics readers connect with the character.
So making it so that both sides of his identity go smoothly (for any extended period of time) is a fundamental change to the character's DNA.
What you're talking about is the exact opposite of what I want. I want his work not intersect with his superhero life. No "co-worker secretly being the Big Man", no "Workplace opening a Black Hole", none of that!
Peter wouldn't be restricted to science villains because there's no reason why his work should have anything to do with being Spider-Man or his Rogues Gallery.
That's not being responsible; that's being childish. He's asking for more responsibility than he can actually handle. This is really a lesson in how stupid it is to put all of the pressure on one guy.
The fact that he's not really able to work with other people makes a lot of his complaints about his life feel hollow like Poseidon or The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka.
Being self-destructive is an appealing trait? Those always make my least favorite interpretations of Batman. Notably, TAS Batman still had a social life before JL.
Right? That was the score when Pete was a child but for most of his run he's actually been a stable adult able to hold down college and/or a secure job (that he loves) while also being Spider-man.
I swear, the decade and two decades since the first movie, where Marvel have constantly reverted back to the original formula, have completely warped everyone's view of how Spider-man has worked for over 4 decades as a functioning adult.
Right back at you, as long as you've only ever read the Lee/Ditko era (where he was a child), Ultimate and the the movies and cartoons.
Last edited by exile001; 01-15-2022 at 03:28 PM.
"Has Sariel summoned you here, Azrael? Have you come to witness the miracle of your brethren arriving on Earth?"
"I WILL MIX THE ASHES OF YOUR BONES WITH SALT AND USE THEM TO ENSURE THE EARTH THE TEMPLARS TILLED NEVER BEARS FRUIT AGAIN!"
"*sigh* I hoped it was for the miracle."
Dan Watters' Azrael was incredible, a constant delight and perhaps too good for this world (but not the Forth). For the love of St. Dumas, DC, give us more!!!
He was never a functioning adult; the very first issue of Amazing I ever bought was 243, where he decides that trying to balance work, superheroing, and his education is too much and he quits grad school. He always had difficulty balancing his responsibilities as a student, worker, nephew, boyfriend, and superhero. When he was in college, and Aunt May would fall ill, her doctors would chide him for not doing enough for her. His constant "ditching" of Deb Whitman (because he is needed as Spider-Man elsewhere) leads her to have a breakdown. Even when he was married to Mary Jane they had money troubles and needed to move back in with Aunt May for a while. And when he did have a stable job, like when he was hired at TriCorp at the beginning of the Mackie/Byrne run, he eventually loses the job because of his erratic attendance. When he was an Avenger and living in Avengers mansion, the events of Civil War send him on the run.
I guess you saw any moment where he attained some level of stability and then had it snatched away as the writers reverting or backtracking, when the rest of us realized it was part of the dramatic narrative. There's a terrific Kurt Vonnegut lecture about the structure of story and using Cinderella as an example--the fact that she is given the dress and the dance with the prince and then has it taken away makes the ending all the more satisfying to the audience. The problem here is that the story of Spider-Man will never end. He's never going to get a stable job that lasts for all time. He's never going to defeat Doctor Octopus in such a way that he never comes back. My advice if that bothers you is to just stop reading for a while. Maybe serialized fiction isn't your bag.
"Anyone can win a fight when the odds are easy! It's when the going's tough - when there seems to be no chance - that's when it counts!" - Spider-Man
I think the most important question is whether or not editorial will let him get his doctorate because that will mean he is successful at something and there is no way they can have that.
I really don't think Peter ever cared about getting his doctorate...but with the plagiarism due to Otto's ego needing the "Doctor" title Pete is in a position of having to prove he can earn one.