Amazing Spider-man 25 Preview

[Knightsilver]

Wait. You don’t like a Paul?

Controversial I know.

[Venomsaurus]

Controversial I know.

B-But Paul is so cool! So nice! He's got...and uh...and there was that time...Yeah! He's the best. Even MJ said he's a better boyfriend, so he's GOTTA be! There, he's a good character, it's settled.

[Knightsilver]

B-But Paul is so cool! So nice! He's got...and uh...and there was that time...Yeah! He's the best. Even MJ said he's a better boyfriend, so he's GOTTA be! There, he's a good character, it's settled.

Poochie...uh...I mean "Paul" forever!

[Johnny]

What gets me is that she's standing there helplessly waiting for Peter when she should be the one ordering Paul around and being active.

Goes back to the deliberately out of character writing. The only way a story like this can be told is if the characters don't feel like themselves. If you wish to force a narrative in which you get from point A where MJ is oddly depicted as the helpless damsel waiting for Peter to point B where she's suddenly the shotgun packing fearless mom who couldn't care less about Peter or his help, you get things like this. I get that sometimes this happens even if not intentionally, but it's so blatantly deliberate in this run and they never even try to hide it at all with any of the characters. And it just keeps going on and on issue after issue to the point where it feels like the norm now. Nothing about this run feels earned or consistent, except for the character assassinations that have been very consistent and this issue will be the single worst example of that yet.

[Venomsaurus]

Goes back to the deliberately out of character writing. The only way a story like this can be told is if the characters don't feel like themselves. If you wish to force a narrative in which you get from point A where MJ is oddly depicted as the helpless damsel waiting for Peter to point B where she's suddenly the shotgun packing fearless mom who couldn't care less about Peter or his help, you get things like this. I get that sometimes this happens even if not intentionally, but it's so blatantly deliberate in this run and they never even try to hide it at all with any of the characters. And it just keeps going on and on issue after issue to the point where it feels like the norm now. Nothing about this run feels earned or consistent, except for the character assassinations that have been very consistent and this issue will be the single worst example of that yet.

This is mostly where I'm at as well with this run. I wasn't upset when I first heard Pete and MJ split. It's comics. I know the game and I've played it enough to know these crazy kids will get back together. But that doesn't change that it feelsl like Marvel is trying to put the final nail in the Pete/MJ coffin for the time being by destroying what we love about them. It's such a cruel, forced way to go about this.

[Johnny]

If that's the case, I'm gonna be furious because of course MJ would understand, even if it's been years, that he's doing everything he can to get back to her. She's a compassionate, empathetic person who understands Peter better than he understandsh himself half the time. If Wells seriously thinks "Well it was YEARS!" will cover his ass about ruining MJ's character, he's sorely wrong. Like I said earlier, I know it's unrealistic, but I feel MJ would wait however long it takes for him. Maybe they could explain she's "changed" all those years but it won't work on us. For one, it will always feel like cheating if she feels betrayed and and forgotten by Peter. You can frame it in every single way that makes MJ look like an angel and Peter the devil, but it doesn't change the emotion that comes with her moving on and being with another man while Peter is doing everything in his power to save her.

Then there's Peter's perspective on all this. While I'm not trying to say his POV matters more, at the end of the day MJ is the one who had to suffer in Monster Hell, he's got every right to feel betrayed in his own right. And as far as I'm concerned, any version of MJ, no matter how hardened, would understand where Peter is coming from even if he lashes out. Ands if she's really bitter he didn't save her earlier, then it's Nega-MJ for sure.

Plus as I've stated earlier, when it comes to lashing out in anger, MJ has no legs to stand on.

Very well said. I'm guessing they could just pin it all on the "she accepted her chains" curse or whatever Rabin did there, which would be just another way to excuse her from any wrongdoing. This is what I meant before about the real target in all of this not being MJ, but Peter. MJ is merely a vehicle they keep using against him. But it's clearly all about shaming and humiliating Peter again and again, by using every excuse to do so, particularly the disgracing of his relationship with the love of his life.

[Venomsaurus]

Very well said. I'm guessing they could just pin it all on the "she accepted her chains" curse or whatever Rabin did there, which would be just another way to excuse her from any wrongdoing. This is what I meant before about the real target in all of this not being MJ, but Peter. MJ is merely a vehicle they keep using against him. But it's clearly all about shaming and humiliating Peter again and again, by using every excuse to do so, particularly the disgracing of his relationship with the love of his life.

You're absolutely right, at the end of the day this is about just putting Peter lower than ever and rubbing his face in the dirt. Even if the kids are fake, the relationship fake, the "What Peter Did" not being that big a deal, it won't change the emotional connotation of destroying who both Peter and MJ are by doing this to them. It won't mean that any writer after this isn't going to have to put in triple the work to walk this crap back and rehabilitate both their characters from this.

[ARkadelphia]

Paul has MoJo.

Wait. No.

Paul has MJ.

[Dasklein83]

Poochie...uh...I mean "Paul" forever!

When Paul isn’t on panel, all the other characters should be asking, “Where is Paul?”

[CaptainUniverse]

When Paul isn’t on panel, all the other characters should be asking, “Where is Paul?”

"Paul is the most important character in the series. If we can make Paul work, everything else will fall into place." - Zeb Wells, probably.

Holy crap...Paul is Jar Jar Binks! It all makes sense!

[Venomsaurus]

"Paul is the most important character in the series. If we can make Paul work, everything else will fall into place." - Zeb Wells, probably.

Holy crap...Paul is Jar Jar Binks! It all makes sense!

He did write for the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials. It's all coming together. All the pieces are falling into place.

[CaptainUniverse]

He did write for the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials. It's all coming together. All the pieces are falling into place.

He also got ran out the writers room by George Lucas after bringing up Mara Jade! We did it. We cracked the code. Wells is making a character designed to be as hated and as infamous as Jar Jar Binks was! Which is how he'll be remembered for all time! HOLY $#*&! We all got played like a goddamn fiddle!

[Venomsaurus]

He also got ran out the writers room by George Lucas after bringing up Mara Jade! We did it. We cracked the code. Wells is making a character designed to be as hated and as infamous as Jar Jar Binks was! Which is how he'll be remembered for all time! HOLY $#*&! We all got played like a goddamn fiddle!

My God. It's full of Stars...Wars.

Seriously though I did not know that, and that's the funniest thing ever now. Fingers crossed he gets run outta the Spidey office in similar fashion.

[Knightsilver]

He also got ran out the writers room by George Lucas after bringing up Mara Jade! We did it. We cracked the code. Wells is making a character designed to be as hated and as infamous as Jar Jar Binks was! Which is how he'll be remembered for all time! HOLY $#*&! We all got played like a goddamn fiddle!

But...but...Paul was meant to be "likable".

[CaptainUniverse]

My God. It's full of Stars...Wars.

Seriously though I did not know that, and that's the funniest thing ever now. Fingers crossed he gets run outta the Spidey office in similar fashion.

But...but...Paul was meant to be "likable".

Yeah...likeable to Editorial!