To be fair..
You don't actually believe being married to a famous supermodel / actress that fills the status of the perfect wife (+Successful entrepreneur!) happens just as often as getting a doctorate or owning a company (!= highly successful company) do you ?
Last edited by Pako; 06-03-2014 at 08:46 PM.
About as "believable" as being in a serious relationship with a famous and respected retired police captain's beautiful daughter.
Or in a relationship with someone who is essentially Catwoman.
(That Peter ends up in relationships with beautiful women is definitely a part of the "wish fulfillment" nature of it all. And it's been a thing since before John Romita took over art duties. Betty was also supposed to be pretty but Ditko wasn't really an artist who could depict pretty people. Edit: And Liz Allan, who was supposed to be the "prettiest girl in school" was also interested in Peter during the Ditko days.)
Last edited by Kevinroc; 06-03-2014 at 08:53 PM.
I'm kinda thinking there's literally less than fifty supermodels in the world; so... (even less than the number of superheros in the MU? )
Yup.
But keep in mind, lot's of women are models and actresses. It doesn't mean that they are successful. MJ was only a supermodel for a brief story, which ended with both her and Peter being peniless, cast out into the street on Christmas Eve, forced to live with Aunt May for several months, and continued to scrape by financially for years. When MJ was with Peter, she was never a "successful entrepreneur." She was just living day by day, same as Peter. And she was never depicted as being perfect.
Describing Peter's job at Horizon as convenient doesn't come even close to how unrealistic it was. And being handed the reigns of a major company isn't exactly fitting in with the notion of him being a grounded everyman. If him being married to a "supermodel" makes him hard to relate to, then being given the reigns of his own private company makes him just as hard to relate to. Very few people starting out with their own company reach the same heights Peter has reached almost overnight.
And MJ hasn't been one of those for a long, long time. And when she was, it was due to the machinations of an obsessed fan, who essentially ruined her career after she rejected him. After that, she could only get work on a soap opera, which eventually saw her screen time get cut, causing her a lot of frustration.
I did mention Gwen. Even before I edited because I forgot about Liz Allan, I remembered Gwen. The respected retired police captain's beautiful daughter is Gwen.
It's wish-fulfillment. It absolutely is. It's no more or less ridiculous than any of the other beautiful women Peter has been in a relationship with. It's just adapting up the "most beautiful girl in school" thing that Liz and Gwen had going for them.
(People make a far bigger deal of this than it actually is.)
Last edited by Kevinroc; 06-03-2014 at 09:19 PM.
Which is why I don't think Peter works as a everyman when he's an adult. You acknowledge that when he's an adult, he's been Spider-Man for a couple of years at that point, so therefore he should've got the hang of it. When he first lived on his own, of course theres gonna be difficulties that he faces, but when ages from that, how exactly can he still have the same problems affecting him? Like his rent, if he can't afford it, he should move to one he can afford, and considering he doesn't spend a lot of time at his home and is usually out, the quality shouldn't really matter to him.
Cool thread. I had fun reading through all of your opinions.
1. Ultimate Spider-Man through Ultimatum were some of the best Spider-Man stories I've ever read. Got bored when they started recreating "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends."
2. After sitting and reading Superior Spider-Man from start to finish I really enjoyed it. Goblin Nation was one of the coolest concepts, but I would've liked it if it played out similar to TDKR. (Not Peter retiring, just him being defeated and having to fight back without the Otto stuff.)
3. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is my favorite Spider-Man film and one of my top 10 CBM. I enjoyed it more than DOFP.
4. 1610 Norman is better than 616 Norman in my opinion. He's more unhinged and chaotic like the Joker, which is how I think the Green Goblin should be. Not a complete clone of the Joker just the unpredictability of what he'll do next.
5. Bendis and Slott are my two favorite Spider-Man writers. I generally enjoy their stories more.
6. I like the Ultimate version of his origin the most. I like the idea of the Marvel Universe having an "arms race" trying to recreate the Super Soldier Serum rather than a random science experiment.
7. If Spectacular Spider-Man had the art of Young Justice it would have been perfect to me. The stories and characterization were already excellent.
8. Venom and Carnage have rarely been given a good story, but there is so much potential there.
9. Neil Patrick Harris is my favorite Spider-Man voice actor.