Why can't Marvel make Betty Brant Peter's Love Interest Once Again?

[Jman27]

So did Peter and Betty ever go all the way?

Yes go to page 4 of this thread

[Prime]

https://www.cbr.com/did-spider-man-s...married-woman/

I'm going to assume the writer implied that they did

You mean this ?

[comictimes]

As a reader, I decide they did, same thing for Gwen at the onset of that decade.

[Hypestyle]

yipes. is it that deep as to who was Peter's "first"?

[comictimes]

Growing up, I thought that was Betty. She seemed older and independent, but later on, it was established she was also a teen (!?).

[Hypestyle]

Growing up, I thought that was Betty. She seemed older and independent, but later on, it was established she was also a teen (!?).

in the 1990s retcon Spider-Man adventures mostly written by Kurt Busiek, Betty was revealed as having dropped out of high school at some point (her older brother Mark was the Molten Man/a racketeer), then got the job at the Bugle.

Evolving creative sensibilities made it 'creepy' that Betty would flirt/date a high schooler. and of course during the original publishing era of the strips, it wasn't out of bounds for somebody high school age to be working in certain "adult" environments, diploma or not.

[comictimes]

Somehow, I don't see how anyone's going to get first crack at a job starting at the top (publisher and editor of an important NY newspaper). I would imagine that there's a number of positions for a secretary that she would have to go trough before getting there.

[Daibhidh]

Somehow, I don't see how anyone's going to get first crack at a job starting at the top (publisher and editor of an important NY newspaper). I would imagine that there's a number of positions for a secretary that she would have to go trough before getting there.

Working on the assumption that readers in the sixties would assume that the female love interest would be in the peer group of the male protagonist...
It's possible that she had contacts through family or through teachers or something like that. More importantly, I would suppose that, since women often retired to become full-time homemakers back in the sixties, it must have been much easier for a young woman to get a job in a traditionally female area.

[The Negative Zone]

I don't see anyone mentioning the Clone Saga that seemed to imply Ben and Betty could be a thing.. all part of the effort to remake classic Spider-Man..

I don't remember what issue but it was during the Scarlet Spider era, before Peter accepted Ben was still alive.

[Jman27]

You mean this ?

yeah clear as day after reading that issue

[Jman27]

I don't see anyone mentioning the Clone Saga that seemed to imply Ben and Betty could be a thing.. all part of the effort to remake classic Spider-Man..

I don't remember what issue but it was during the Scarlet Spider era, before Peter accepted Ben was still alive.

during the web of life arc when Ben had to fight Grim Hunter the first of many attempts to bring back Kraven into the franchise

[comictimes]

Working on the assumption that readers in the sixties would assume that the female love interest would be in the peer group of the male protagonist...
It's possible that she had contacts through family or through teachers or something like that. More importantly, I would suppose that, since women often retired to become full-time homemakers back in the sixties, it must have been much easier for a young woman to get a job in a traditionally female area.

At the bottom, yes, but at the top you'd expect the few women who didn't "retire" to hold those positions. Not teenage girls.

[witchboy]

in the 1990s retcon Spider-Man adventures mostly written by Kurt Busiek, Betty was revealed as having dropped out of high school at some point (her older brother Mark was the Molten Man/a racketeer), then got the job at the Bugle.

Evolving creative sensibilities made it 'creepy' that Betty would flirt/date a high schooler. and of course during the original publishing era of the strips, it wasn't out of bounds for somebody high school age to be working in certain "adult" environments, diploma or not.

That was established back in the sixties, but only in the letter's column, addressing the seeming age difference by explaining that Betty dropped out of high school and was actually a few months younger than Peter.

[witchboy]

I don't see anyone mentioning the Clone Saga that seemed to imply Ben and Betty could be a thing.. all part of the effort to remake classic Spider-Man..

I don't remember what issue but it was during the Scarlet Spider era, before Peter accepted Ben was still alive.

I came here to say that. Betty and Ben could make an interesting pairing, he has the memories of their history. It's that kind of weirdness that makes comics fun.

[Daibhidh]

At the bottom, yes, but at the top you'd expect the few women who didn't "retire" to hold those positions. Not teenage girls.

I would expect that, but I wasn't even born in the sixties. What matters is what Lee and Ditko would have expected. (Or rather, what the implied authors "Lee" and "Ditko" and the implied readers would have expected.)