Reasons To Keep Peter Parker Single

[Mister Mets]

Whatever your opinion on the direction Marvel should take the Spider-Man comics, we should be able to agree that there will be reasons for differing courses of action. There are reasons to bring back the Spider-Man marriage, and there are reasons not to do so.

There is another discussion about reasons to bring back the Spider-marriage. Let's focus on the advantages of Peter Parker single, even if you don't believe these particular gains are worthwhile.

The main argument is that there are more stories that Marvel can tell with a single Peter Parker than one who is married to Mary Jane. The majority of stories you can do with a married Peter Parker and Mary Jane can also be done with an unmarried Peter Parker and Mary Jane in a stable relationship. The exception is the stories that explicitly require the two to be married, which are quite rare. But with a single Spider-Man, writers have access to other material including but by no means limited to the stories you can only do when Peter Parker is in a stable relationship with someone else (e.g. Black Cat, Sabra, Norah Winters, an entirely new character, etc.), the stories Marvel can only do when Peter Parker is in a unstable relationship with someone else (e.g. Black Cat, Sabra, Norah Winters, an entirely new character, etc.), the stories Marvel can only do when Peter Parker doesn’t have the love of a beautiful, supportive and good woman, the stories Marvel can only do when Mary Jane is in a stable relationship with someone else, etc.

Marriage removed tension from the series, because readers knew that the relationship will survive conflicts. It also produced stability, as it was difficult to repeatedly convince readers that Peter may not have a loving supportive wife to go home to. Even if a particular story ended with Peter and MJ apart, as long as they were married, it was pretty that they would eventually get back together.

[KurtW95]

Because Peter and Mary Jane are not compatible.

[THE DANGER965]

Peter parker is better single as he's more relatable and human and More stories can be told. I hated OMD as much as the next person, but I only hated it because Spiderman pretty much made a deal with the devil. But it did restore Spiderman's relatable character again.

[Vanguard-01]

If Marvel EVER wants me to buy another Spider-Man comic, they'll bring back the marriage. Full-stop. Non-negotiable.

Excuses be damned. Explanations of how destroying my favorite part about Spider-Man somehow improves him as a character be damned.

[Randumbz]

If Marvel EVER wants me to buy another Spider-Man comic, they'll bring back the marriage. Full-stop. Non-negotiable.

Excuses be damned. Explanations of how destroying my favorite part about Spider-Man somehow improves him as a character be damned.

You've missed out on a lot of awesome stuff.

[Vanguard-01]

You've missed out on a lot of awesome stuff.

Like Doctor Octopus crapping all over Peter's good name?

I'll pass, thanks.

[Agent Z]

Peter parker is better single as he's more relatable and human and More stories can be told. I hated OMD as much as the next person, but I only hated it because Spiderman pretty much made a deal with the devil. But it did restore Spiderman's relatable character again.

Because people don't actually grow old and get married.

[THE DANGER965]

Because people don't actually grow old and get married.

Oh, I know that!
When I speak of peter being relatable, in my mind I think of the teenage Peter parker, not the married one. That's just the way I find it being a teenager myself. Was kinda inside my own head there!

But I certainly wasn't implying that older married men won't relate to Peter as much.

[Aruran.]

See if someone asks the question which one is better, Adult or Teenage Peter Parker, I would always go with the teenage one.

If the argument was that Peter's a teenager, then obviously you keep him single cause it's stupid to have a kid get married cause that actually ages him.

But when he's an adult, he's already old. So it doesn't really matter what you do, but it's a still point to say having Peter being an adult is ok, but him being married ages him to much.

(Coming for someone who is still not a legal adult)

[Sardorim]

The only reason to keep him single is so he can date other characters or have romances teased at which will ultimately fail. After all, the only long running relationship he's ever had, that worked, was when he was married to Mary and we all know how that ended - Demonic Deal.

So don't expect any of his flings, now that he's single, to last all that long.

[Mister Mets]

The only reason to keep him single is so he can date other characters or have romances teased at which will ultimately fail. After all, the only long running relationship he's ever had, that worked, was when he was married to Mary and we all know how that ended - Demonic Deal.

So don't expect any of his flings, now that he's single, to last all that long.

There are also stories you can only get when Peter isn't romantically involved with anybody. There's also a different energy with Mary Jane's absence.

[spiderthan]

The only reason to write a single Peter is that is "easier" from the point of view of predominantly single writers. Also it is possible to write off the wall unrealistic stories like Superior.

[RobertMacQuarrie1]

The only reason to write a single Peter is that is "easier" from the point of view of predominantly single writers. Also it is possible to write off the wall unrealistic stories like Superior.

I don't necessarily agree with that. I do agree that the desire to have an easier time writing the character is sometimes too much of a driving force behind these sort of decisions. But I don't think it's because it's single writers think it's easier to write a single character. Many of the proponents of a single Spider-Man are married themselves.

Rather, I think it's from a belief that having an easier time writing the character means that the story will automatically be better, which isn't always the case. A good story isn't always easy to write. And creators often feel that the easiest thing to do is simply redo the types of stories that came before. Only this time, they will be able to tell the story they want with their characters. This isn't about telling new stories with new characters. It's about telling the same story that came before, with the protagonist meeting and falling in love with someone, and his dual identity coming in between him and his love interest. They want to tell the same arc that Peter went through with Gwen or Betty, but this time do so with their personal creation or their preferred love interest, under the belief that because it'd be easy for them to tell that arc, it'd therefore be entertaining for the reader.

It's very understandable why people would come to this conclusion, but also apparent who easily this type of belief can cause things to fall apart. Because easy for the creator isn't always better for the fans. And if the focus is making things easier for the writer, then you don't focus as much on making things legitimately better for the fans.

[Chris S.]

I don't think I can read this thread. I about Hulk'd out after the first 4 or 5 posts…

[Aruran.]

Peter just doesn't seem like the guy who should have a lot of love interest. I'll be honest, him dating over 4 girls seriously really takes away from the everyman aspect more than anything else IMO. Like do you remember more than 2 relationships that were important and mattered at the end of the day for you?

Gwen works cause she's the one that died because of Spider-Man. Interesting
Black Cat works cause she's the one that loved one side more than the other. Interesting
Mary Jane works cause she's either the one that got away or the one. Interesting
Carlie works cause she's the one who didn't.....umm still trying to figure this one out

And that's really the problem when he's single. There seems to be a lot of potential with him dating a lot of people, but there really isn't. Like other than the super heroine story, there isn't one that could fit in a role. So while there could be more reasons, it doesn't mean they would lead to somewhere positive.

But at the same time it means not every story has to be a romance story. And that out weights anything when your writer can't write those sort of stories on a consistent basis.