MJ as Jackpot is real

[Frontier]

The decline of the ordinary human supporting cast is a problem that's afflicted almost all super-hero comics the past couple of decades. Spider-Man could do with another Brand New Day style run that gets back to the supporting cast and human interest stories.

Not that I feel BND was well-known for good supporting cast and human interest content.

I’m legit trying to remember their names without looking it up. I know the girl had two names they mixed up and pretended was just a two-part name.

Uh… Stephanie-Ramen and Paul Jr.?

Anyway, I’m reminded of this for no particular reason…
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You can't deny she looks good in spandex but just like becoming a housewife this feels like it's going against a lot of what helped define the characters' personality and motivation.

[Kevinroc]

The decline of the ordinary human supporting cast is a problem that's afflicted almost all super-hero comics the past couple of decades. Spider-Man could do with another Brand New Day style run that gets back to the supporting cast and human interest stories.

That's what this run was supposed to be, lol. They even brought back a BND writer.

[CaptainUniverse]

That's what this run was supposed to be, lol. They even brought back a BND writer.

It even started with a rotating shift of writers during Beyond (a status quo that I wish we were still in).

[Chris0013]

Not that I feel BND was well-known for good supporting cast and human interest content.

You can't deny she looks good in spandex but just like becoming a housewife this feels like it's going against a lot of what helped define the characters' personality and motivation.

I don't think any one wants her to just be a housewife sitting around waiting for Peter to come home. Personally I want her back to modeling/acting. Keep a sub plot going of her for several months traveling for work and popping up for a few days to a couple weeks at a time between jobs. Follow that up wiht her buying a condemned townhouse and doing a renovation show. Then get her a role in a play that lasts for several months to a year followed by a regular TV role. All the while being in a relationship with Peter.

If you want to give her some drama have some sort of stalker. Not another guy who wants to possess her but a former modeling rival who tries to destroy her.

[Lee]

Not that I feel BND was well-known for good supporting cast and human interest content.

When was the last time Amazing Spider-Man had a big, robust and prominent supporting cast, prior to Brand New Day?

That's what this run was supposed to be, lol.

Where was it said that re-focusing on the supporting cast was this run's mission statement?

[CaptainUniverse]

When was the last time Amazing Spider-Man had a big, robust and prominent supporting cast, prior to Brand New Day?

The Clone Saga?

[JustLuke]

The Clone Saga?

Jesus Christ, that's depressing.

[Frontier]

The Clone Saga?

So I guess basically the 90's.

Although I guess it was somewhat better between all the satellites during the late 2000's circa Civil War.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

I loathe all the attempts in recent years to turns civilian supporting chafacters into superheroes.

That said, this one is especially bad. Look, even if you can convince me of MJ being one... tying her to Paul and the kids is a terrible idea. No one is interested in this, and their relationship is unsalvageable.

The comics need to move MJ away from Paul and the kids asap. There is nothing but toxicity there.

Stuff like this shows they haven't learned anything from the backlash, but are instead tripling and quadrupling down.

But I'm not surprised. Writing Peter and MJ together, even as superheroes, is a no-no for Wells. He made that very clear. And that's another reason why this comes off in poor taste. It feels like another excuse for Wells to not write them together.

[Man With No Name]

This is going to be temp, so I don't see the harm to be honest. Yeah it's bad (luck based slot machine power? rofl), but it's no different than Betty becoming the Harpy or the Red She Hulk imo.

[Astroman]

I know others, in earlier threads, made similar points, I just find it so stupid and lazy that they took her "signature line" and made that her codename. It's just so... twee.

[Xenon]

Since she appears in a BACKUP in 31 and not the main story as far as we know, I'm going to count this as a "called it" as far as timing. Gone for Ock arc and wedding arc, back to tease us in the next arc with no real resolution.

On the one hand, this is stupid as hell. On the other, Mary Jane gets a limited series that hopefully isn’t written by Wells. So there’s a possible bright side

It doesn't matter who writes her if she's tied to the Wells Status Quo.

I feel like there just aren't enough pages to have compelling civilian stuff and superhero stuff in one issue.

I don't agree with it, but look at how little has been done with MJ and her family during this run and its one of the pillars.

THere absolutely are enough pages, you just have to write in a way that isn't so decompressed. Like we're mostly mad about MJ being assassinated with good reason, but the decompressed nature of this entire run is another huge problem. I recently re-read the proposal issues (290-292) and so much happens in each one. They can do it...they just don't.

So MJ and Peter are gonna "grow close" over superheroing and she'll gain a new understanding for why Peter is a hero and then they will cheat on their respective partners with each other and the drama/fallout from that will be the latest obstacle to them just being together right?

I mean ideally MJ has no one to "cheat' on because it will be revealed they were always just co-parents but yes, that.

Is anyone really invested in MJ becoming a Superhero over her grief over some fake kids? Like that is totally a great reason to go out and fight crime.

It's a huge problem. Like MJ should be mad she wasted the last five years of her life, sure. But they were never real people. So any grief over losing them past a certain point is ....forced? I dunno it doesn't feel significant enough.

Finally.

Not that I wanted this, I prefer "normal" supporting characters to remain normal average people, but Marvel has been picking at this scab for years now. What with "Renew Your Vows" Spinneret and the modern depiction of MJ running around beating up supervillains with a baseball bat. (Villains that used to give our "proportionate strength of a spider" lead a difficult time.)

Just get it over with, it'll probably flop (provided they don't put J. Scott Campbell on covers or offer any Artgerm variants) and she'll go back to being normal and this will just be an embarrassing phase we will all roll our eyes at while reminiscing.

I hate the shades most of all, the rest of the costume is... fine, but rather dull and uninspired. Hell, the original "Jackpot" costume looked a lot better.

They will 100% put JSC on the covers but it will still flop.

I feel like they've sabotaged this idea from the get-go with the negativity surrounding the current run and the current writing of MJ, something they don't seem to be ignoring by emphasizing the loss of the "kids" is the reason she's doing this, unless it's more about Kamala but she's about to be resurrected soon anyways.

Like Amazing Mary Jane was at the height of Spencer re-emphasizing how important MJ is and what a great character she is and pushing her to be a big part of Spider-Man again while MJ as Jackpot is associated with nothing but bad writing, bad ideas, and bad characterization.

I don't envy Celeste Bronfman and Alba Glez, especially when they seem like newer names to Marvel.

This. You can't sell satellite books when the main book is toxic and the main book is absolutely toxic. This was the lesson of Mary Jane and Black Cat. The Beyond issue did well because it was beautfiul and people were happy with the main book. The mini did not sell, because people were not happy with the main book. This mini is DOA unless there's significant SQ changes pretty rapidly. I suppose the backup COULD confirm MJ and Paul were never a thing, but I feel like even if that's the case Wells is saving it for later.

The best thing this series can do is distance MJ from Paul and not mention the kids much.

The worst thing it can do is double down on them...which is what I suspect will happen.

And this is the fear. Ever MJ appearance is a possibility of confirming her and Paul's romantic relationship, which, while I'm trying to assume is the case to prevent later disappointment, still has enough deniability that it can be...well...denied, without anything more than a line of dialogue.

The kid thing isn't going to work but they're 100% going to lean heavy on the "grief" of losing those kids for her mini.

Dose this mean that crazy 4chan roumer was right ?

I hope so, as part of that rumor confirms MJ was never actually with Paul.

So I talk about and criticize this era's reliance on mystery boxes a lot. I've actually went back to re-read the BND run kind of to see how its aged and do a "hear to now" kind of overview for Amazing. To a fault the first year of BND ran on four concurrent dragged out mysteries:

1. Who is Mr. Negative?
2. Who is Menace?
3. Who is Jackpot?
4. Who is the Spider Tracer serial killer?

I think anyone of those four could've made for an interesting hook but the fact that they kept pushing all four at once, and with the writers rotating each one kept focusing on their preferred arc to the detriment of the others.

And I say all this to loop back and say Jackpot was easily the worst of the four. The entire thing was transparent bait and switch to tease fans with the possibility that Mary Jane (who was intentionally used through BND to the bare minimum) became a superhero only for the grand reveal that she was a completely random character who promptly gets killed off. And then they tried to have the "original" Jackpot get a miniseries but by that point no one cared anymore.

I don't even remember the latter two, I had to be reminded of the original Jackpot a little while ago and I still have no idea what the Spider-Tracer killer thing is.

The menace mystery was good though.

Clearly, editorial has no clue what to do with Mary Jane under the current status quo. Seems like they're hoping this will be a temporary diversion for the fanbase, but I don't expect it to last very long. To me, it's like a repeat of the Iron Man scenario.

At the very least, there's a slight possibility that she'll be written better here. Unfortunately, they're likely going to double down on the kids being the superhero origin (barf). And that costume really is another design flop. As much as I like MJ, I probably won't be picking this up either.

Also seems like many of the predictions from several months ago are coming true.

I would disagree here in that I think this is something they've been building to for a long time. I'm not saying it's a good plan, I'm just saying this appears to have been their plan from at least the point they gave her that watch, which was a long time ago.

What kids? It was just swamp gas, like the Roswell UFO.

But actually. This is the problem with using the kids as motivation. I understand her being devastated for a moment, but Rabin's explanation makes it clear they were not actually people. There's no one to grieve but herself and her wasted life. Which would be a direction, but they're not going that way.

[wleakr]

I don't think any one wants her to just be a housewife sitting around waiting for Peter to come home. Personally I want her back to modeling/acting. Keep a sub plot going of her for several months traveling for work and popping up for a few days to a couple weeks at a time between jobs. Follow that up wiht her buying a condemned townhouse and doing a renovation show. Then get her a role in a play that lasts for several months to a year followed by a regular TV role. All the while being in a relationship with Peter.

If you want to give her some drama have some sort of stalker. Not another guy who wants to possess her but a former modeling rival who tries to destroy her.

Hasn't most, if not all, of this been told in past stories?

[Garlador]

Hasn't most, if not all, of this been told in past stories?

Someone pointed out that Marvel has absolutely not had Mary Jane involved in any of the compelling, real-world actress drama that we were experiencing with the #MeToo movement, the Weinstein abuse controversies, the blacklisting drama, sexist trolls and targeted harassment campaigns, the gender wage-gap strikes, or countless other very timely, relevant, and meaningful things women were experiencing in the entertainment industry.

It's an incredibly obvious missed opportunity to have Mary Jane be apart of these kind of events, speaking out, being an advocate, and fighting back against an industry that was exposed as incredibly hostile and toxic to women.

It's RIGHT THERE. That's HER career of choice. They barely touched upon it.

[Huntsman Spider]

Since she appears in a BACKUP in 31 and not the main story as far as we know, I'm going to count this as a "called it" as far as timing. Gone for Ock arc and wedding arc, back to tease us in the next arc with no real resolution.



It doesn't matter who writes her if she's tied to the Wells Status Quo.



THere absolutely are enough pages, you just have to write in a way that isn't so decompressed. Like we're mostly mad about MJ being assassinated with good reason, but the decompressed nature of this entire run is another huge problem. I recently re-read the proposal issues (290-292) and so much happens in each one. They can do it...they just don't.



I mean ideally MJ has no one to "cheat' on because it will be revealed they were always just co-parents but yes, that.



It's a huge problem. Like MJ should be mad she wasted the last five years of her life, sure. But they were never real people. So any grief over losing them past a certain point is ....forced? I dunno it doesn't feel significant enough.




They will 100% put JSC on the covers but it will still flop.



This. You can't sell satellite books when the main book is toxic and the main book is absolutely toxic. This was the lesson of Mary Jane and Black Cat. The Beyond issue did well because it was beautfiul and people were happy with the main book. The mini did not sell, because people were not happy with the main book. This mini is DOA unless there's significant SQ changes pretty rapidly. I suppose the backup COULD confirm MJ and Paul were never a thing, but I feel like even if that's the case Wells is saving it for later.



And this is the fear. Ever MJ appearance is a possibility of confirming her and Paul's romantic relationship, which, while I'm trying to assume is the case to prevent later disappointment, still has enough deniability that it can be...well...denied, without anything more than a line of dialogue.

The kid thing isn't going to work but they're 100% going to lean heavy on the "grief" of losing those kids for her mini.



I hope so, as part of that rumor confirms MJ was never actually with Paul.



I don't even remember the latter two, I had to be reminded of the original Jackpot a little while ago and I still have no idea what the Spider-Tracer killer thing is.

The menace mystery was good though.



I would disagree here in that I think this is something they've been building to for a long time. I'm not saying it's a good plan, I'm just saying this appears to have been their plan from at least the point they gave her that watch, which was a long time ago.



But actually. This is the problem with using the kids as motivation. I understand her being devastated for a moment, but Rabin's explanation makes it clear they were not actually people. There's no one to grieve but herself and her wasted life. Which would be a direction, but they're not going that way.

Turned out to be some dirty cops putting Spider-Man's stray spider-tracers on corpses they found in the field to frame him for murder because they were sick and tired of a costumed vigilante being more appreciated by the public than them. Vin Gonzales, who was Peter's roommate and the brother of Peter's erstwhile "girlfriend" Michele Gonzales, was in on that particular scheme, and when it was exposed, he ended up in prison with the rest of the dirty cops, though it would later be revealed that he joined one of the Goblin gangs while he was locked up.