And that's why on the seventh day the god of comic books created the retcon.
Even if this plays out as you suggest, it's gonna be swept away under the rug like so much dust by another creative regime. I can retcon it right now: that's not our 616 MJ, she was sent to yet a different dimension. MJ was under some sort of mind control to think years passed for her and she had kids, when in actuality she was being held in some VR dungeon by Paul, who also magicked up the kids. Peter travels back in time and rescues MJ before any of this happens, negating the events.
And that's just off the top of my head.
That's comic books for ya.
(Also, what "problematic" age gap? Not that people appear to age in this dimension and MJ has not been drawn as appreciably older. Do you really think an age gap of six-eight years - as again, MJ is drawn to still be in her 20s, maybe early 30s, same as Peter, is "problematic" for humans? Or even an age gap of 20 years? They're both over the age of consent, what is the issue? People fall in love and marry who they fall in love with and want to marry, putting a limit on age feels...limited)
Last edited by TinkerSpider; 04-04-2023 at 11:34 AM.
“I always figured if I were a superhero, there’s no way on God's earth that I'm gonna pal around with some teenager."
— Stan Lee
Plus Paul said he's been there a long time. So if we think about this. He was a student a Rabin and was most likely sent there before Pete fought him years ago and Paul looked young and not old in any way so it's a good sign that they you get night and day there but time doesn't actually move there
Yeah, if “Mary Jane is now 5-6 years older than Peter” is really their silver bullet to permanently end Peter and MJ as a couple, that’s really, truly, too stupid. It smacks of light misogyny (which is of course right up the spider office’s alley these days), incompatibility with reality (see my previous parenthetical), and of wasting time and effort on trying to torpedo a relationship that cannot be torpedoed rather than trying to tell stories that are worth a damn
1312
"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
MJ x Paul is a lie that MJ pushed forward for reasons. And then when the situation is resolved, ooppss, he's moving on.
Simple drama.
(Then Peter and Felicia will break-up because nobody cares about that relationship so Peter and MJ can get back together and that's the end of the run.)
"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
Yeah, if MJ is 34-38 now and Peter is still 28-30, there is literally nothing problematic about that.
That is assuming they're even ageing her, which I doubt they are. Like you said, they're drawn exactly the same.
Even if she aged years, the next writer can easily de-age her. It's 616. There are a million ways to retcon stuff like that.
Given how conservative a lot of pro-OMD writers and editors are... If they were to do something like this, it would be to bank on the taboo that a guy can't date a woman older than him.
Last edited by Kaitou D. Kid; 04-04-2023 at 11:50 AM.
Sharon Carter was literally trapped in another dimension and aged to a (presumably) 60-something year old woman.
She and Steve Rogers were still a couple during this time.
(Then Sharon's body was later de-aged because of comic shenanigans.)
Neither MJ nor Peter are under the age of consent.
But that's literally the meaning of retcon. Retroactive continutity. Meaning it changes the continuity retroactively.And sure, anything might get retconned away. Doesn't change what's on the printed page
For example, it was printed that Gwen willingly consented to adult relations with Norman and had his twins.
However, as it turns out, that was an implanted memory put into Norman's and MJ's heads and the twins are fast-aging, defective beings created by Harry; Gwen and Norman were never intimate.
So sure, Sins Past was printed and copies of those issues still exist. But the readers' interpretation of it has changed.
Or...Peter and MJ sold their marriage to the devil and gave Mephisto an easy victory, thus endangering the entire multiverse by giving a demonic supervillain exactly what he wants. Yes, those issues where Peter and MJ are married were printed and still exist. But Marvel wants us to believe the marriage didn't happen. And per Marvel continuity, it didn't happen - until OMD itself is retconned or another story comes along to change things.
The retcon giveth, and the retcon taketh away.
I am so rooting for "taketh away" when it comes to the current run LOL
Last edited by TinkerSpider; 04-04-2023 at 12:01 PM.
“I always figured if I were a superhero, there’s no way on God's earth that I'm gonna pal around with some teenager."
— Stan Lee
That the MJ chapter is done by a fill-in artist basically shows how much Lowe/Wells/Marvel even care about her story.
A done to death story by the numbers. I am sure Lowe/Wells are so impressed with themselves with this metaphor for the gap between OMD and now being represented by the the years Peter and MJ will spend apart where she moves on and shacks up with this empty husk of a character in Paul. And now it parallels that fans and Peter need to move on from her as a love interest.
I don't know whether to root for Zeb's Hollywood career so he moves on from comics or root against it so there's less awful movies and tv out there and his damage can be limited to comics.
Last edited by Coop; 04-04-2023 at 12:12 PM.