"Has Sariel summoned you here, Azrael? Have you come to witness the miracle of your brethren arriving on Earth?"
"I WILL MIX THE ASHES OF YOUR BONES WITH SALT AND USE THEM TO ENSURE THE EARTH THE TEMPLARS TILLED NEVER BEARS FRUIT AGAIN!"
"*sigh* I hoped it was for the miracle."
Dan Watters' Azrael was incredible, a constant delight and perhaps too good for this world (but not the Forth). For the love of St. Dumas, DC, give us more!!!
IDK if I read it as jealousy tbh. They’ve been repeatedly telling us how Peter and MJ will always be friends no matter what (which given the things that have transpired in the run seems awkward AF but whatever). I’m pretty sure the intention is for them to be conversing like BFFs, not to have MJ come off as the jealous ex.
Then I remember before Big Time when Peter and MJ had their conversation about Carlie and MJ implored him to go for it, only for her to be depicted as jealous and resentful of the pair not long after. So maybe your reading right lol
The book asks you to ignore MJ’s entire character and history for anything involving her to currently make sense.
So flip a coin on this. It could go either way. But I’ve given up on them understanding Mary Jane or respecting prior characterization at this point, even from the BND era.
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If anything it seems we are in a weird pivot mode. MJ has been the book in 4 consecutive issues not and not tied to an event. Plus Wells can't write Peter being able to face off against the 3 characters on page that he's against. So either we get MJ or Kaine showing up or Kafka or Janine turns on the others.
I didn't mind Shay. There's an actual hook to why Peter would empathize with her and whatnot, while the forced 'opposites attract' with Michele 2.0 (Courtesy of Maybe a Double L?) always made it a tough sell. Yeah, yeah, we all know it's another shiny object in a clickbait run, but that's a concept that seems fairly harmless and actually endearing considering the barrages we've had thrown at us before.
I also always love seeing me some Nauck art. Either way, not much happened in the issue proper, but I'm not gonna lie that the I like seeing the whole rumormongering on Janine and Ben is unfounded so far.
Discovering/CONFESSING! the nature of evil... one retcon at a time.
Shay, like Peter, is socially awkward and focused on helping people. While Michelle is moraly ambiguous at best. although not as bad as Sajanti Jaffery. Either a kindhearted nurse or a slightly abrasive mob lawyer. I wonder who Peter will choose.
Last edited by rward777; 04-10-2024 at 01:55 PM.
I'm honestly surprised Wells is continuing to write Peter engaging in dates that will probably go nowhere. Like, what's the point? Actually didn't they have a similar sequence with Felicia being on the phone with Peter when he met Michelle like they did here with MJ when he met Shay?
Betty in full black investigative reporter gear was cool. Too bad she's not swinging around guns like she used to.
Hey, Spidey actually won a fight! I mean, it was with some low-level thugs, but still!
Todd Nauck's art was great (I'd take him over JRJR at this point) but he deserves better than modern ASM.
It's probably even more downhill for Ben and Janine from here, huh? But maybe Wells is finally wrapping some plots up.
Probably my worst-case scenario is Wells tries to wrap up the run with some message about moving on and letting go, with Peter hooking up with someone else under MJ/Felicia/Anna’s prompting as if this is some sign of growth and not a catastrophic convoluted mess that was entirely driven by malevolent forces that just perpetuates “the cycle” yet again.
I’ve been legit rooting for the run to strongly pivot and I’m sort of losing my optimism that it’ll happen. Not after all this time and this many issues.
I welcome being wrong and hoping it’s not the lazy alternative outcome above.
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I've seen some people have a misogynistic reading into this run, and it honestly feels like a valid reading of the story being told. We're nearly 50 issues into this run, and I still don't know why MJ is actually with Paul and what their relationship is like other than it makes Peter sad that he can't be with MJ. It doesn't help that Editorial brushes it off whenever anyone asks for them to address their concerns about what's going on.
(Edit: I'm not accusing anyone of actually being a misogynist, but I do have to wonder what is this story being told. Because it's been very poorly executed.)
Last edited by Kevinroc; 04-10-2024 at 05:50 PM.
So let me get this straight...Anna Watson once conspired with May Parker to set-up Anna's niece, MJ, and May's nephew, Peter. Rather successfully, I might add. And now, Anna is conspiring to set up her niece's ex-boyfriend with a different woman? And no one, in this comic, finds that the least bit odd apart from the initial suprise? Because it's basically akin to a mom setting up a blind date for their daughter's ex-husband and telling said daughter, "Sorry sweetheart, but you're just not good enough for my ex son-in-law." Unless this is all some crazy plan of Anna's to try and get Peter and MJ back together, there's no rhyme or reason Anna would realistically do this, even if she is a former insane asylum patient.
--Mike McNulty, a.k.a. Stillanerd. Contributor for Bam Smack Pow! and Viral Hare
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Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.--G.K. Chesterton
"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
Between the date in this issue and the michelle thing last chapter I think they could be trying to setup a jealousy thing. Unless I am remembering wrong they have not actually even confirmed Ben was messing with Peter for some reason with the missed date so that interaction was literally written just to give Peter and MJ an excuse to talk. I don't think it would be earned though, because basically everything between MJ and Peter this entire run hasn't been earned as it seems the run seems to focus on telling rather than showing for their progression. So they could come out with anything during their next meeting and it would be just as believable as everything else because nothing seems to have been earned in their relationship this run.