I went with "other" since my answer is ultimately around ASM 149/150 (I'm not the only one with this perspective.)
Afterwards, the title went on some meanders. Good stuff was introduced, but not as regularly.
Later runs start presenting different versions of Spider-Man. Many of the stories are good, but it's no longer as definitive.
Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
One Moment In Time is canon. All of the other stories are still in continuity, but Peter and MJ were boyfriend and girlfriend, not married.
I don't think any of the writers have been confused by this. On any occasion they've needed to reference a story from 1987-2007, they've referenced it.
When Harry became American Son. It was probably the last good story arc the mainline comics had.
Their child and Mary Jane’s pregnancy is still a mess in terms of confirmation.
Quesada was on record saying it didn’t happen. Others chimed in that Mary Jane in particular was strongly opposed to having kids before she was ready for marriage and a family. A huge ordeal for their marriage in the first place was talking over whether they were ready for children or not.
And it’s just weird, because Mayday was never confirmed dead either, but even if she was presumed dead, I don’t think Peter could ever work alongside the murderer of his child like he is currently. It’s never even mentioned between them.
Edit: with JRSR’s passing, rereading stories he worked on, and suggestions from DeMatteis, I’m more convinced than ever that current Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and so many others are just no longer written as the characters they once were. I don’t recognize them. These older stories aren’t just rose-tinted; there’s such amazing character work here and I really don’t see it now. I think it almost helps make the mental break; the characters I loved really did get “erased” and never truly came back.
Last edited by Garlador; 06-14-2023 at 02:58 PM.
To me nothing even comes close to # 500. This is as perfect of an ending that you could get.
Not going to pretend that I've read every single Spider-Man comic in existence, but this one is a winner for me.
Second place may go to the final issue of Paul Jenkins' run.
An interesting question, not one I've really thought on. I guess for me, I loved that first half of Nick Spencer's run so much I'm gonna say my own personal headcannon ends with those two crazy kids being unbreakable.
Maybe an altered version of Beyond that doesn't end with Rabin showing up, Peter and MJ getting to move in together. It's never perfect, they struggle and fight, they raise a kid together, but they make it work and get the closest thing to a happily ever after that continues on and on.
Clone saga for me was great jumping off point the JMS isn’t for me the Slott stuff was ok
That's not what he said. He said that he personally felt that it didn't happen in the new timeline. He didn't say it canonically didn't happen.
https://www.cbr.com/the-one-more-day...sada-the-fans/
The baby is something that was rarely ever referenced before One More Day, so it's all moot. It doesn't affect the current stories one way or the other.The question sort of answers itself when you quoted my saying that "almost" everything happened. The funny thing about the pregnancy issue is that Marvel at the time scrambled to derail the story as quickly as possible. I don't know exactly how that story got as far as it did, but they ultimately realized it was a huge mistake. So, taking that into consideration, I personally feel that that's one that didn't happen, chiefly because Peter and MJ now not having been married, would have taken proper precaution to avoid getting in the family way in the first place.
The truth of the matter is that we're committed to preserving as much of these stories as is humanly possible, but because the marriage is no more and now never was, there are going to be elements that have changed. It's inevitable. But we're striving to keep those ripple effects minor, and you can suss them out in most older stories if you just give it a moment's thought. So Jonathan Caeser stalked a single Mary Jane rather than a married Mary Jane, Norman Osborn and Venom once knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man but forgot along with the rest of the world, and so on.
Look at it this way: Norman Osborn was dead for twenty years, and then was suddenly revealed to be alive. And that changed elements of all sorts of Spidey stories that had come before it, the entire Harry cycle, the stories where Harry's shrink becomes the Green Goblin, and the whole Hobgoblin cycle. But the details of how this could all work eventually got revealed, for good or ill, and today, nobody much questions the fact that Norman is back and never really died. What we're talking about here is the same kind of thing.
In the case of MJ's pregnancy, that storyline was itself created to end the marriage -- the creators involved only made MJ pregnant because they were planning to reveal that Ben Reilly was the real Peter Parker, and then have MJ and her clone-Pete ride off into the sunset and out of the series together. And it's an element that hasn't even been mentioned in "Amazing Spider-Man" in close to ten years, so it's not an omnipresent element that's suddenly being taken away. It was a turn down a bad road, and some of the creators even realized it at the time (which is why Mary Jane was pregnant for something like two years, as the creative teams struggled to figure out how to write themselves out of the corner they were suddenly in.) So that's an area where we maybe need to squint a little bit more in terms of overlooking it. Or, hey, you can chalk it all up to Mephisto's motivation of preventing Peter and Mary Jane's child from coming into the world.
My Spidey continuity ends with Kraven's Last Hunt. For me this was the last genuinely great Spider-Man story and is the perfect ending to Peter's saga. He's recently married Mary Jane and has shaken off his lovable loser persona by marrying the love of his life. He experiences the trauma of being "killed" and reborn, and is driven by his love for her throughout the story while overcoming his fears and doubts. He comes to terms with who he is and is ready to build a new life with Mary Jane.
When the story ends, I am more than happy to draw a line here and say "Peter and Mary Jane lived happily ever after".
For me, Spidey stopped being Spidey at ASM 508. Sins Past was grossly offensive and I can’t believe some of y’all are willing to include that as part of your canon.
I feel like there’s a brilliant 10 or 12 issue run some GOAT writer could pull off where Peter ends up “facing his own demons” and maybe Mephisto has turned out to be an extension of Peter’s own deteriorating mental health all along, plaguing him with those doubts that you mention, and the victory isn’t truly decisive but an acceptance of those demons, finally “remembering” and “knowing” they are always going to be there. Perhaps the memory loss is a symbol/metaphor for denial regarding his years of grief for everything he’s ever experienced, including the impending death of May, and before that the loss of his daughter, Gwen, Uncle Ben, Harry, his secret identity. Forgiving himself for the decisions he made, including being willing to make a deal with his demons to forget…
Last edited by Green Symbiote; 06-15-2023 at 05:09 AM.