Man Child?

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

Post OMD Peter is considered to be a man child, I saw people say that here and on different forums
Is he a man child? What is a man child? If people should relate to Peter, doesn't that include his moment as being a man child? I know plenty who have their moments being adult children (me included).

Dude looks pretty mature to me, starting with Big Time you can see him obviously having more responsibilities, he sure doesn't shrug them or try to escape any of them, that is maturity, and he knows of situations he's in, and tries to work them (Gypsey Moth incident aside).
He even worked with Carlie after she dumped him, he could have told her to f*** herself and go away.

[Tendrin]

Post OMD Peter is considered to be a man child, I saw people say that here and on different forums
Is he a man child? What is a man child? If people should relate to Peter, doesn't that include his moment as being a man child? I know plenty who have their moments being adult children (me included).

Dude looks pretty mature to me, starting with Big Time you can see him obviously having more responsibilities, he sure doesn't shrug them or try to escape any of them, that is maturity, and he knows of situations he's in, and tries to work them (Gypsey Moth incident aside).
He even worked with Carlie after she dumped him, he could have told her to f*** herself and go away.

People say 'man-child' when what they really mean is 'he's not married to MJ'.

[Scorponok]

Not to mention that when Peter saw how happy MJ was with Ollie. He felt that she deserves a life without the superhero drama. To be able to finally let her go was very mature of him. Not to mention that now he runs his own company, he has more responsibilities. Especially when the Avengers needed him, he didn't wanted to go until Anna insisted it. Since she felt that he needs to also repair the damage that was done to his reputation.

[Sardorim]

He is a man-child who didn't have his life together after OMD. Heck, Spock managed to turn his life around and make Peter a highly successful and potentially rich man in the short time he was controlling Peter's body. Says a lot about Peter considering that he's supposed to be better and smarter than Doc Ock.

[Scorponok]

He is a man-child who didn't have his life together after OMD. Heck, Spock managed to turn his life around and make Peter a highly successful and potentially rich man in the short time he was controlling Peter's body. Says a lot about Peter considering that he's supposed to be better and smarter than Doc Ock.

While it's true that Peter's life is a juggling act. That doesn't make him a bad person, just human.

[Confuzzled]

The biggest example of manchildness was OMD where he refused to let his elderly aunt go despite her wishes. And guilt tripped his wife to agree on sacrificing their marriage. This entire "new reality" has been created from Peter Parker's most immature decision in life (yes, even more immature than letting the burglar escape). That's why things won't ever sit perfectly with folks even when he is being a bigger person.

That's not to say he hasn't ever been a manchild post-OMD. "No One Dies" was, as MJ correctly put it, monumentally stupid. Then there was the fact that he wilfully endangered a whole bunch of high schoolers in "Alpha" because he wanted to show off to the "Flash Thompsons" and "Liz Allans" of the world. His massive guilt complex was also a form of manchildness that allowed Ock to annihilate his spirit in SSM #9 (Slott needs to address that in the book now that Peter is back).

[normanosborn]

"No One Dies" was, as MJ correctly put it, monumentally stupid.

Wat? No it wasn't, it was a memorable story bro. I loved the fact that Slott referenced that obscure incident where Peter accidentally killed a friend of Wolverine. No writers ever mentioned that before if I'm right.

[Confuzzled]

Wat? No it wasn't, it was a memorable story bro. I loved the fact that Slott referenced that obscure incident where Peter accidentally killed a friend of Wolverine. No writers ever mentioned that before if I'm right.

The story was great, but Peter's "No One Dies" resolution is a perfect example of impractical and nonsensical manchildness.

[Cameron Samurai]

Not to mention that when Peter saw how happy MJ was with Ollie.

I don't think MJ is truly happy with Pedro at all, she's just making due, I think Peter ought to be smart enough to figure out that someone he identified as his soul mate is just using Pedro as a replacement goldfish. Someone who reminds her of Peter, both in name and a similar hazardos occupation and should convince her not to hurt herself or Pedro by living a lie. That's what I loved about Peter in the 90s animated series, when he noticed MJ was making due with Harry, he challenged her on it and asked her if he truly loved him, and ultimately it helped convince MJ to leave Harry.

Let's not fool ourselves. Peter will never let MJ go, just as MJ will never truly let Peter go as evident by her dating choices that will ultimately come back to bite her. They will get back together under some new writer or another. Everything is temporary. MJ loves Peter "more than life itself" (her words in Civil War) and that "nothing could tear them apart" (her words in OMD) so it's obvious the carrot will continue to dangle

[Mister Mets]

I think it's the result of a variety of factors. The most obvious being the dissolution of the marriage. Another is that for about 35 years the Spider-Man writers were dominated by Americans born between 1946 and 1958 (Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, Tom Defalco, Peter David, Howard Mackie, JMS.) The most notables exceptions were Brits (Jenkins, Millar.) A shift to a different generation of writers at the same time as there's a shift to a new status quo is going to be result in a different sensibility.

He is a man-child who didn't have his life together after OMD. Heck, Spock managed to turn his life around and make Peter a highly successful and potentially rich man in the short time he was controlling Peter's body. Says a lot about Peter considering that he's supposed to be better and smarter than Doc Ock.

When a character has his life together, that tends to be the end of the story.

[Cameron Samurai]

When a character has his life together, that tends to be the end of the story.

Peter's had his life together for a long while in the newspaper strip, and it's still ongoing...and pretty refreshing to read.

[normanosborn]

The story was great, but Peter's "No One Dies" resolution is a perfect example of impractical and nonsensical manchildness.

It's perfectly in character. Peter has always been one of those heroes who tries to save even his worst enemies, if possible at all. It might be idealistic, but that's how he is.

[Mister Mets]

It's perfectly in character. Peter has always been one of those heroes who tries to save even his worst enemies, if possible at all. It might be idealistic, but that's how he is.

The way I saw it was Peter trying to raise his game.

[Phantom Roxas]

People say 'man-child' when what they really mean is 'he's not married to MJ'.

That's only part of the reason. The idea behind getting rid of the marriage was that it "aged" Peter too much. And yet, it really just seems to amount to that writers didn't like that there was an expectation of Peter to actually act mature. It's once again an example of Marvel getting rid of marriage because it prevented them from doing things that, in practice, were done very badly.

Not to mention that when Peter saw how happy MJ was with Ollie. He felt that she deserves a life without the superhero drama. To be able to finally let her go was very mature of him. Not to mention that now he runs his own company, he has more responsibilities. Especially when the Avengers needed him, he didn't wanted to go until Anna insisted it. Since she felt that he needs to also repair the damage that was done to his reputation.

Except Pedro charged in just to show off, and MJ was worried about MJ, so her relationship with Pedro isn't that much of an improvement. Besides, Superior Spider-Man #2 contributed to the idea that Otto was written to be better than Peter in as many things as possible, with Peter bragging about how MJ would never love Otto, and yet when Otto realizes that MJ can't be a part of his life, Peter praises Otto for doing something Peter would have never done. He's also generally screwing up when it comes to his company, and why does he need Anna Maria's "permission" to help the Avengers? I would think that helping the Avengers in the first place would be a good place to start clearing up his reputation.

I think it's the result of a variety of factors. The most obvious being the dissolution of the marriage. Another is that for about 35 years the Spider-Man writers were dominated by Americans born between 1946 and 1958 (Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, Tom Defalco, Peter David, Howard Mackie, JMS.) The most notables exceptions were Brits (Jenkins, Millar.) A shift to a different generation of writers at the same time as there's a shift to a new status quo is going to be result in a different sensibility.

That doesn't mean we can't say that the status quos resulting from those sensibilities are bad.

When a character has his life together, that tends to be the end of the story.

It could be either the end of an arc, or the end of a season. There could always just be some new threat that shows up and throws everything out of whack all over again.

[normanosborn]

The way I saw it was Peter trying to raise his game.

Yeah, in the way that he sort of formed a concrete mission statement and started following it rigorously. He never was one to let people die before, but No One Dies was about making that a vital point in his actions. Which is, yeah, stepping up his game.

Sort of weird that he stated he could not be Spidey after trying to kill Ock in #700 due to breaking his vow, but ah well.