I really enjoy Peter as a teacher. To me it's the natural progression in his career to when he actually gets to pursue his passion in science.
Now MJ, as it stands, i actually prefer as a journalist rather than an actress. It always bugged me how in the comics it would always come down to her acting gigs either making her out to be a big fat failure or taking her away from peter's everyman life. Granted that wouldn't be a problem if writers would let Peter succeed in life and work to make it feel like they're growing up together, but having peter always be broke and job-hopping makes me prefer someone who at least seems like they'd be okay with settling down with someone like that.
I think the thing is that the acting element factored a lot into her comic personality and how she paralleled and mirrored Peter in a way, and why they understood each other so well.
Meanwhile being a reporter just makes her feel derivative of other characters and trying too hard to get her taken seriously.
I kind of took it as a fun AU inversion of roles, like ''what if MJ was a reporter'' and not a definitive pitch for the character but i get what you're saying. At this point i don't even know if most casual spidey fans would link MJ to acting as easily as Pete to News Photography(after all JJ is an icon as well). That being said i feel like the try-hard aspect of the character came down to the writing trying to make her out to be some kind of ninja lois lane, but since i've never been much of a Superman guy i guess it seemed fresher to me specifically.
I also found it fun that Peter seemed to be thriving professionally in the game and MJ seemed to be the struggling up-and-comer for once lol, guess Marvel really thinks ill of journalists in the sense they must all be miserable lol
It's a game where you spend over 90% of the time as Spider-Man (as opposed to Peter). Making her a reporter is a way to have her more involved in the game rather than just in a couple of cut scenes (like Aunt May).
Last edited by Tuck; 05-09-2023 at 09:00 AM.
I'm firmly Pro-MJ as a reporter. It's an AU! Let their version of MJ be different. Not each version has to be a one to one recreation of the original. She still has the spirit of OG MJ, that girl determined to make the impossible possible. Just now applying that to reporting. It makes perfect sense for me.
I will say I wasn't a fan of the MJ levels, except the one where she distracted guards so Spidey could take them out. That was a lot of fun! But most of her missions felt like walking simulators/lore dump areas to progress the story than actually fun/fulfilling gameplay on its own. But if the sequel has more missions of her and Peter teaming up, that would be awesome!
She felt a little lacking in the kind of zest and and vivaciousness I love about comic MJ, but that's just me.
I get for practical reasons why they did it, I just didn't think it was a very interesting creative choice (reporters are kind of a dime-a-dozen for comic book love interests).
Although I guess thanks to those stealth missions it's not a character change that's particularly won a lot of people over .
I would have preferred if they had her working as an aspiring reporter for Bugle TV as opposed to just print journalism. It's a career path that could segue into showbiz and fame. MJ's face could still be plastered on billboards and on TV screens. That imo would have felt like a better compromise: MJ would be actively involved in the action while retaining some of her classic character traits.
The problem with MJ journalist It makes her part of the Lois Lane Ripoff Club look a super hero love interest is a journalist how original
I blame Insomniac for thinking Ultimate MJ was more "modern".
It's not like the games are the only adaptations to come out in a post-Bendis world. Spectacular and ITSV were influenced by Ultimate too. They were just more perceptive as to what parts of 616 are better.
Heck, even Marc Webb was more perceptive than Insomniac on this one. From what little we know of Shailene Woodley's MJ, she was more like 616 than Ultimate. And those movies are heavily influenced by Ultimate.
During the period after Peter and MJ got back together (the 2nd time) after the Clone Saga MJ was suddenly interested in journalism and joined up with the school journalism class (run by Ultimate Jessica Jones, I think?). It was around the time Stuart Immonen started drawing the book.
Why wouldn't she work out of the main source of news in the franchise?