Who is Peter's best love interest?

[Darthfury78]

Dude, you just totally channeled Steve Wacker. I sort of miss that guy around here.

Wacker wanted to go on to bigger and better things. Although, I wished that he had stayed on long enough to sort out the ending of Superior Spider-Man and the early issues of ASM involving Silk, as well as the Spider-verse.

[Vortex85]

MJ's developement from just a party girl into the wife and companion of Peter Parker was so great,so vivid,it was like watching a real world couple and their journey of their lives.I dare to say,it's probably the best comic book couple in the industry.They didn't start from day one,but they ended up together and they became so classic as Lois and Clark.

Agreed, 100%, WELL SAID. What Marvel had was irreplacable. You can't beat it honestly.

Not only that, but Stan "The Man" Lee himself wanted to marry them!

I don't know how some could want to detach themselves from that and move on to something else. It's just too good.

[Darthfury78]

Agreed, 100%, WELL SAID. What Marvel had was irreplacable. You can't beat it honestly.

Not only that, but Stan "The Man" Lee himself wanted to marry them!

I don't know how some could want to detach themselves from that and move on to something else. It's just too good.

Only if the alternates were done a whole lot better. then we might get a fair comparison.

[Vortex85]

Only if the alternates were done a whole lot better. then we might get a fair comparison.

It's an long uphill battle to try to out-do a love interest Stan created and has been so intergral to Peter's life over the last 50 years. And honestly, what's the point? Why do it? Why not just expand on what you have and try to make it even better?

[Darthfury78]

It's an long uphill battle to try to out-do a love interest Stan created and has been so intergral to Peter's life over the last 50 years. And honestly, what's the point? Why do it? Why not just expand on what you have and try to make it even better?

Its not about the idea to outdo Mary Jane's relationship with Peter Parker. It's about establishing and flushing out the Peter's existing relationships first and foremost, which doesn't take anything away from Mary Jane. The problem is that most writers want to use their own creations(as a love interest) rather than to use existing characters like:

1. Jennifer Walters
2. Betty Brant
3. Felicia Hardy(Pre-OMD)
4. Greer Grant(Tigra)
5. Black Widow
6. Carol Danvers
7. Jessica Drew
8. Psylocke

It might be better served for those friendships to be developed first respectively because they have an interesting partnerships(and I do not mean sexual relationships whereby they are making out all the time) with Spider-Man/Peter Parker that could be expanded into the kinds of stories that could turn some of them from Bland to interesting. This was why I miss Avenging Spider-Man as that series could have explored those relationships in a friendship type manner as we had seen with the Black Cat and Mary Jane.

[emac1790]

Pete's best love interest is JJJ.

[deadboy80]

Gwen. Never was a big fan of M.J.. The rest are pretty much fly by night.

[Celgress]

Mary Jane, imo

[Darthfury78]

Gwen. Never was a big fan of M.J.. The rest are pretty much fly by night.

To be fair, MJ had the longest time to develop where as if Felicia Hardy(of Betty Brant) and Peter resumed their relationship(Post-BND), it might have evolved in a similar manner to MJ as well.

[Coal Tiger]

Thats if your definition of relationship drama is reduced down to will they, wont they. I thought the drama was never better than when they were.married.

I never thought of it that way. They are each other's other half, they are cosmically meant to be together, but that doesn't mean they have to be married. I realize that marriage is for all intents and purposes, just another step in a relationship. In real life that is true, and I'm sure that every real world couple you'd ask would say that marriage was in no way the end of their story. I realize that. Peter and MJ aren't a real couple. They aren't governed by the laws of reality, they are governed by the laws of fiction and drama. In drama, marriage is more symbolic than anything else. Narratively, it is everything the story is leading up to. Most romantic stories end with a marriage and Peter and MJ exist in a world where their story can never have an ending.

Don't get me wrong, I love them as a couple, but I think in terms of drama, they can never make that step to be married. Just like I think Peter can never be 30. In a sense, he needs to stay frozen in time to be viable for all generations of readers. He doesn't need to be this bumbling incapable goofball like Slott writes him, but he needs to stay young. I guess that's another debate though.

[Vortex85]

Don't get me wrong, I love them as a couple, but I think in terms of drama, they can never make that step to be married. Just like I think Peter can never be 30. In a sense, he needs to stay frozen in time to be viable for all generations of readers. He doesn't need to be this bumbling incapable goofball like Slott writes him, but he needs to stay young. I guess that's another debate though.

That makes no sense because they were married for 20 years, it was VERY DRAMATIC, it worked, fans kept reading and enjoying, sales were great before OMD, I and many others STARTED reading the character as a married man. For 20 years, new readers joined in on the action and didn't turn away because of a married Peter. He was completely viable, and I would have PREFERED he stayed married. Even after going back and reading all his history, I still felt I enjoyed reading the marriage of the characters more than the times Peter was single because I became so invested in it.

I was there when they had marriage problems, when they announced MJ's pregancy, when they watched Aunt May die together, when lost their baby together, when they were seperated after MJ's kidnapping, when they got together again at the airport, when they slept together, and I was there when they laughed and cried. It's not something I take for granted, it's something that deeply involved with and emotionally attached to. I don't know why people can't see that a marriage between two characters can last and endure forever, and can be much more powerful than a life of an on again and off again relationship.

There is no reason a married Peter can't be just as viable and "frozen in time" as a single Peter.

[Tupiaz]

In your opinion, who's been the best love interest for Peter Parker? Gwen? MJ Watson? Felicia Hardy?

What do you mean best?

Best story wise? MJ
Best relationship? MJ
However who PP loved the most? I would Say Gwen.
Who loved PP the most? I probably have to give that to Gwen as well.
What is my personal favorite relationship? That is PP and MJ as well.

So it really comes down to what you mean by best.

[SickAlice]

I voted Other: Sales projection and staying relevant. Just ask any of his lovers who have been dumped in favor of it.


Jk. I voted MJ.

[Coal Tiger]

That makes no sense because they were married for 20 years, it was VERY DRAMATIC, it worked, fans kept reading and enjoying, sales were great before OMD, I and many others STARTED reading the character as a married man. For 20 years, new readers joined in on the action and didn't turn away because of a married Peter. He was completely viable, and I would have PREFERED he stayed married. Even after going back and reading all his history, I still felt I enjoyed reading the marriage of the characters more than the times Peter was single because I became so invested in it.

I was there when they had marriage problems, when they announced MJ's pregancy, when they watched Aunt May die together, when lost their baby together, when they were seperated after MJ's kidnapping, when they got together again at the airport, when they slept together, and I was there when they laughed and cried. It's not something I take for granted, it's something that deeply involved with and emotionally attached to. I don't know why people can't see that a marriage between two characters can last and endure forever, and can be much more powerful than a life of an on again and off again relationship.

There is no reason a married Peter can't be just as viable and "frozen in time" as a single Peter.

Eh, I disagree. Even when I started reading in 1991, 9 year old me never bought the happy domestic life that Peter had. I remember thinking, "why does Peter Parker do grown up things, like get married, when the real grown up characters like Iron Man and Captain America stay single?" It never felt right to me.

This is becoming a debate for another thread though. I still think he should be with MJ, and not just in an on-again-off-again relationship.

[Phantom Roxas]

I don't think it's fair to say whose Peter's best love interest when all of the previous ones never had the chance to develop. Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane had the longest time to develop their respective relationship with Peter. Felicia Hardy and Betty Brant, or single parents Liz Allan and Julia Carpenter never had that opportunity.

Of course MJ will get the biggest votes as opposed to the others because she's been in Peter's life for more than 20 years as a married couple. It would have been a fair assessment if the relationship between Peter and the others were flushed out in a manner where others writers would continue to use them. But we seen that opportunity happen. Even Carol and Jessica, Silver Sable and The Black Widow if the writers had considered using them in the same manner as the Black Cat.

Just because a female character exists doesn't mean that they automatically be considered an equally potential love interest for Peter. Suggesting them for the sake of contrarianism isn't a good argument unto itself, especially since it fails to consider that characters like Carol, Jessica, and Natasha should be allowed to grow as their own characters, and not be beholden to Peter. Liz is the mother to Harry's son, so just because because Harry got taken out of the picture doesn't mean that she suddenly becomes available for Peter, and similarly, it doesn't make it a "mistake" to hook a woman up with someone just because that someone isn't Peter. Peter is not, and never will be the center of every character in the Marvel Universe. He's my Marvel hero, sure, but just because he is doesn't mean that I want to play roulette using every woman I deem viable because they fulfill some wide criteria, by which I just mean that they're neither Gwen or MJ, and existed prior to Brand New Day.