Can MJ and Ben Reilly be fixed?

[Malachi]

I gotta disagree. Hallow’s Eve is literally just about the only interesting thing going on in Spider-Land right now. I’d like to see the path she’s on continue. YMMV.

Oh this is just me using what i consider to be "marvel-logic". In marvel-logic you can't have two good things. So if Janine is good then Ben can't. If Janine stars as a protagonist then Ben can't. It makes no sense to me but this is the way I percieve marvel to think. If there is a choice between Ben and Janine I will pick Ben.

[Sr. Bungle]

Oh this is just me using what i consider to be "marvel-logic". In marvel-logic you can't have two good things. So if Janine is good then Ben can't. If Janine stars as a protagonist then Ben can't. It makes no sense to me but this is the way I percieve marvel to think. If there is a choice between Ben and Janine I will pick Ben.

They can be like Rogue and Gambit.

[Garlador]

QFT. What's more, if they'd even half thought about it they'd have realised that mask powers fit MJ's backstory and career so much better than gambling powers. MJ's entire life is about being someone else.

It’s so gosh-darn frustrating, because you’re absolutely right, and it’s clear as day to anyone who ever read any of the defining MJ stories of her character.



They read this, right?

[MisterTorgo]

It depends on who's doing it. If it's Wells and Lowe, they'll just "sweep it under the rug" like nothing happened, without making any attempts to put actual thoughts into it (the same way they seperated them). If it's someone else, like the next writer, then yeah - I can see that happening (if the Editorial doesn't butt-in, like they always do).

If it's Wells, he will absolutely sweep all the problems under the rug and move on. He seems very good at whiffing on opportunities for good storytelling.

For instance, that climactic "confrontation" just before Pete lost Norman's sins seemed like it was custom made for some good character moments and truth telling between he, MJ, and Paul, for good or ill, but instead it fizzled so hard, it felt as though pages were missing.

No reason to think he'd be any better when closing out the run than when he was in the middle.

[9AlphaOmega1]

After NYCC 2023, there were some news that came out about MJ and Ben, which made it seem that the current story lines written by Wells was set up for those characters.

Ben, they wanted to see if a Peter Parker without Uncle Ben's influence and Aunt May's love, isn't that when Kaine was.

MJ, they excited on how how her powers going to work, so yea.

Which I find it strange since those were plans for Ben why are we getting the information now since Dark Web was about year ago and when is that series coming out. As for MJ they wanted to give her powers, that have something to her known catchphrase. She already proving she didn't need powers, she was her wits and ingenuity, unfortunately her book the Amazing Mary-Jane got cancel during covid which going to showcase that, I really love that book. Also what about her Jackpot book, aren't they moving too slowly to get out, the interest, if any, is going to be long gone.

I also wanted to comment about "Dan Slott's put the toys back in the box strategy" it really his, he mention it in one of his interviews, many creators do that for the next creators could play with the character with no changes, sometime I think it called as returning to the status quo.

[t-spider]

Powered Janine is much more interesting than powered MJ

I totally agree, a super-powered Janine who straddles the line between good and bad with a unique powerset and good backstory is much more interesting than a powered MJ with a 'too on the nose' id.

[Daibhidh]

Post deleted because I can't the link to an image to work. (It was meant to be the cover of Invincible Iron Man 4, with MJ holding Tony's mask.)

[Garlador]

Post deleted because I can't the link to an image to work. (It was meant to be the cover of Invincible Iron Man 4, with MJ holding Tony's mask.)

Assuming this one.

[Jman27]

Assuming this one.

too this day i still don't understand the purpose of her being in that book

[Garlador]

too this day i still don't understand the purpose of her being in that book

By 2015, Mary Jane was basically being written out of the book. Slott had no intentions of using her, let alone bringing her and Peter back together, so Bendis didn’t want her to be discarded or neglected.

We were at one of our glorious Marvel publishing retreats and certain characters got brought up, sometimes almost accidentally, and I found out that nobody had anything going on with Mary Jane. Someone might as well use the character.”

[Agent Z]

The problem with MJ for me has less to do with whether MJ would get back together with Peter and more to do with why Peter would get back together with someone who treated him this way. IMO he would look pretty bad if he welcomed her back with open arms after being left like that.

Just retcon Ben into Spidercide pretending to be Ben. Even if this means the real Ben is still dead it would be an improvement.

Peter has forgiven Felicia for worse.

[Digifiend]

Slott wasn't using her (she was only used in that story involving Regent, which used the Iron Man status quo to have her as a one-shot Iron Spider), so Bendis asked for her and the spider office let him have her. Hence her being in the supporting cast of Iron Man for most of Bendis's run, even after Riri became it's lead. When Bendis left for DC, Slott took over Iron Man, and MJ left her Stark Industries job, as explained in the beginning of Spencer's ASM run which launched at about the same time.

[Tuck]

Peter has forgiven Felicia for worse.

Peter wiped her memory, and then chose not to restore them for an extended period of time. Felicia's heel turn is at least partly on him (and Silver-Age level goofy motivation).

[Jman27]

Slott wasn't using her (she was only used in that story involving Regent, which used the Iron Man status quo to have her as a one-shot Iron Spider), so Bendis asked for her and the spider office let him have her. Hence her being in the supporting cast of Iron Man for most of Bendis's run, even after Riri became it's lead. When Bendis left for DC, Slott took over Iron Man, and MJ left her Stark Industries job, as explained in the beginning of Spencer's ASM run which launched at about the same time.

i don't remember anything memorable that Bendis did with her while she was on the Iron Man book.

[Moxxi517]

i don't remember anything memorable that Bendis did with her while she was on the Iron Man book.

Well I mean it sounds pretty similar to the rational editorial gave for why they put Kamala into ASM. And Bendis at least had the decency to have her be vaguely around and not to fridge her, you know.