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  1. #61
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    Mary Jane should become the CEO of Amazon.
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee View Post
    Mary Jane should be a whiskey drinking hard-boiled private eye. Maybe she had a great uncle who was a detective, so she has detective genes in her DNA, which is how science works, and has secretly been honing her detective skills off panel for the past 50 years (when she wasn't busy reviewing and cataloging her favorite whiskeys, of course).
    Mary Jane should never speak in the comics. When she isn't in the bathtub, she should be thrown off a bridge. Besides, Lois Lane already speaks in other comics, and Jessica Jones already has a job in comics, so there's no other spots open. This "women's lib" thing will lead to legalizing gay marriage which will lead to everyone marrying dogs. Black and white thinking! Escalation!
    Last edited by gregpersons; 04-13-2019 at 12:05 PM.

  3. #63
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    Mary Jane should become a Space Dracula.

    If you disagree, you're sexist.

  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee View Post
    Mary Jane should become a Space Dracula.

    If you disagree, you're sexist.
    Well, this didn't take long to become Spidey's Gamergate. "It's about ethics in Marvel journalism!"

  5. #65
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    If Mary Jane is a vampire, then she will have fangs to bite Peter with. I don't think he would mind this. In fact, quite the opposite.
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  6. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    If Mary Jane is a vampire, then she will have fangs to bite Peter with. I don't think he would mind this. In fact, quite the opposite.
    Yes, he would be very fangful.

  7. #67
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    Mary Jane should apprentice under Betty and they should have their own book.

    And then become vampires.
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  8. #68
    Astonishing Member boots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gregpersons View Post

    **MJ, a writer? Not believable! But Peter Parker's girlfriend is a supermodel AND he's also relatable everyman with money troubles? *shrug*... hey, it is what it is!
    there may be a difference between "not believable" or "not desirable" from sections of the fan-base. it may or may not be due to subconscious or inherent sexism. you're close to crossing over to ad hominen country.

    on the believability front; plenty of social media influencers are also bloggers or go on to write articles for thought catalogues and internet media. almost every actor i know has also written a screenplay. whether they're any good or not, is another matter.
    troo fan or death

  9. #69
    Astonishing Member boots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    Mary Jane should apprentice under Betty and they should have their own book.

    And then become vampires.
    and aunt may too? she'll finally have an excuse for never dying.
    troo fan or death

  10. #70
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    Mary Jane should apprentice under Betty and they should have their own book.

    And then become vampires.
    I don't see that ending well (the apprenticeship with Betty, not the vampire thing) .

  11. #71
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    on the believability front; plenty of social media influencers are also bloggers or go on to write articles for thought catalogues and internet media. almost every actor i know has also written a screenplay. whether they're any good or not, is another matter.
    Well, right.... I mean, yeah, that's what I'm saying! Being an actor/model does not preclude MJ from also writing. It's neither inconsistent with her character, nor unbelievable. Since Peter is already kind of a "gig economy" sort of person, it stands to reason that MJ could be, too.

    Quote Originally Posted by boots View Post
    there may be a difference between "not believable" or "not desirable" from sections of the fan-base. it may or may not be due to subconscious or inherent sexism. you're close to crossing over to ad hominen country.
    On that front, I'm curious how conservative fans reconcile liking a character who is literally a social justice warrior. Like, I can understand liking characters who only protect their self-interests like Venom or Punisher, but... Spider-Man is purely about selflessly helping other people, so how does that square up? (Edit: I mean, I know Ditko was famously libertarian, and there's a certain amount of that in the character, but it's not his dominant theme)

    It's gotta be the eyes. Everybody loves the Spidey eyes.

    Edit:
    Last edited by gregpersons; 04-13-2019 at 06:59 PM.

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by gregpersons View Post
    People generally seem to be comfortable comparing/contrasting Superman with Batman, but if you compare Superman with Spider-Man, it's almost like.... sacrilege? Is it because of fanboy/publisher loyalty stuff? I don't really get why the comparison is dismissed so effusively.
    It's part of the tendency to infantilize Spider-Man and so on. Superman for instance is an adult and fully formed hero, or at least that's how everyone sees him, but comparing Spider-Man to Superman requires people to accept him as an adult. So that's why you tend to get in some cases, very violent reactions. If you compare Peter to Jimmy Olsen for instance it doesn't matter because a group of fans feel that Spider-Man is a sidekick and below "everyone else's paygrade". Even if the first and greatest crossover, Superman vs. TASM, directly equated them and made them of equal stature and importance.

    Spider-Man's stories tend to resemble Superman's. In both cases, you have characters where the hero and his supporting cast is far more interesting and important than the hero and the rogues gallery. IN Batman for instance, the main drama is Batman's relationships with the enemies.

    but in the comics, she has been relegated to the sidelines for most of her published history.
    That's inaccurate. Mary Jane Watson has made more than a thousand appearances, and along with Jameson (just a little above her) is the most frequently recurring and featured supporting character. And basically she and Jameson are the most important supporting characters in 616 Publication History. Aunt May hasn't even clocked 1000 appearances by comparison.

    If we made a list of her highlights, what would those be?
    ASM #42-43, #47 (the MJ Gwen dance-off), MJ in the Drug Trilogy (the all-time best "diss" when she insults Harry Osborn), the end of The Night Gwen Stacy Died, several appearances throughout Conway's run, including the Kiss at the airport in ASM #142-143, her and Peter slow-dancing to "Kung Fu Fighting" (I kid you not), and then her return in Roger Stern's run and continuing into Defalco's run, and ASM #246, and ASM#259 where she plays a huge part, and in the latter she is totally the protagonist (the first time any supporting character took over entirely from Peter without any rogue or bad guy in the story), are both all-time classics. There are several more. And MJ didn't cry all the time either. Not any more than Peter does (who is also not shy about his emotions or ashamed of crying you know).

    It's ironic that there is this notion that MJ shouldn't be anything like Lois Lane, one of the few supporting/love interests who has been shown to be competent/strong-willed of her own volition, but nobody has an issue with MJ being another damsel in distress (seriously, how many bridges has she been thrown off of?)...
    I don't know what you know about Lois. But for the longest time Lois Lane was a joke, and she still is in some circles. She got the worst character assassination in the 50s in a bunch of comics where she was presented as a crazy-cat-lady type who wants to hitch with Superman. Then there's the jokes about how she doesn't know Clark is Superman and so on. And that version is not by any means dead. Witness "Superman Truth", a story so bad, that they rebooted the New 52 and killed off those versions of Superman and Lois just to get past it.

    Heck Mary Jane Watson for the simple fact she knew Peter was Spider-Man while he thought he was Mr. Smart Guy for lying to people about his double life is a good reason why MJ was so valued as a character. As Mark Ginocchio and Dan Gvozden pointed out, she was a major step up from "the silver age girlfriend".

    You are right in asking for more to be done with MJ and so on...but the fact is that a lot has been done in the past and done well, and Mary Jane has been pretty well served compared to Lois and others. I mean as bad as OMD-OMIT was, it's better than what Miller and later Kevin Smith did to Karen Page, better than Superman Truth, and better than those '50s Lois Lane comics. And her marriage with Peter was far better written and served than Reed and Sue in the Lee-Kirby and Pre-Byrne era, and Hank and Janet, or Jean and Cyclops.

  13. #73
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    We’re talking exclusively about movie MJ?

    I can actually see her as a reporter then.

    It’s still incredibly cliche, but I can see it.

  14. #74
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    It's part of the tendency to infantilize Spider-Man and so on. Superman for instance is an adult and fully formed hero, or at least that's how everyone sees him, but comparing Spider-Man to Superman requires people to accept him as an adult. So that's why you tend to get in some cases, very violent reactions. If you compare Peter to Jimmy Olsen for instance it doesn't matter because a group of fans feel that Spider-Man is a sidekick and below "everyone else's paygrade". Even if the first and greatest crossover, Superman vs. TASM, directly equated them and made them of equal stature and importance.

    Spider-Man's stories tend to resemble Superman's. In both cases, you have characters where the hero and his supporting cast is far more interesting and important than the hero and the rogues gallery. IN Batman for instance, the main drama is Batman's relationships with the enemies.
    True.

    That's inaccurate. Mary Jane Watson has made more than a thousand appearances, and along with Jameson (just a little above her) is the most frequently recurring and featured supporting character. And basically she and Jameson are the most important supporting characters in 616 Publication History. Aunt May hasn't even clocked 1000 appearances by comparison.
    By "sidelines" I meant her role or function in the story... she's there about as often as JJJ, but she hasn't always seemed as important.

    ASM #42-43, #47 (the MJ Gwen dance-off), MJ in the Drug Trilogy (the all-time best "diss" when she insults Harry Osborn), the end of The Night Gwen Stacy Died, several appearances throughout Conway's run, including the Kiss at the airport in ASM #142-143, her and Peter slow-dancing to "Kung Fu Fighting" (I kid you not), and then her return in Roger Stern's run and continuing into Defalco's run, and ASM #246, and ASM#259 where she plays a huge part, and in the latter she is totally the protagonist (the first time any supporting character took over entirely from Peter without any rogue or bad guy in the story), are both all-time classics. There are several more. And MJ didn't cry all the time either. Not any more than Peter does (who is also not shy about his emotions or ashamed of crying you know).
    Those are good examples. Just to clarify on the crying thing -- it's not that she CAN'T cry in stories, it just seems that she doesn't often get more to do beyond that. The JMS run is what's fresh in my mind, and though she gets good moments throughout, she's still crying a lot, and waaaaay more than Peter. The nice thing about when Peter breaks down emotionally is it's his book, so you get to follow him down and then back up again. With MJ, it seems to me that we see a lot of her breaking down, and not a ton of her coming back up. But. Maybe I'm wrong. Idk.

    I think her early arcs (post-ASM 121) are among her strongest. The famous epilogue in that issue (or actually I think it's 122) where she's closing the door -- awesome. A defining moment! That, I think, is the heart of MJ -- she can be Peter's strength when he can't be. I love that. The more that stories expand on that aspect of her, I think it benefits the story.

    I don't know what you know about Lois. But for the longest time Lois Lane was a joke, and she still is in some circles. She got the worst character assassination in the 50s in a bunch of comics where she was presented as a crazy-cat-lady type who wants to hitch with Superman. Then there's the jokes about how she doesn't know Clark is Superman and so on. And that version is not by any means dead. Witness "Superman Truth", a story so bad, that they rebooted the New 52 and killed off those versions of Superman and Lois just to get past it.

    Heck Mary Jane Watson for the simple fact she knew Peter was Spider-Man while he thought he was Mr. Smart Guy for lying to people about his double life is a good reason why MJ was so valued as a character. As Mark Ginocchio and Dan Gvozden pointed out, she was a major step up from "the silver age girlfriend".

    You are right in asking for more to be done with MJ and so on...but the fact is that a lot has been done in the past and done well, and Mary Jane has been pretty well served compared to Lois and others. I mean as bad as OMD-OMIT was, it's better than what Miller and later Kevin Smith did to Karen Page, better than Superman Truth, and better than those '50s Lois Lane comics. And her marriage with Peter was far better written and served than Reed and Sue in the Lee-Kirby and Pre-Byrne era, and Hank and Janet, or Jean and Cyclops.
    100%. That's all true... thankfully Marvel wasn't around in the 1950s!

    And to be clear, I don't want to come across as saying Mary Jane has NEVER been written well -- I just think she deserves better, precisely BECAUSE she's been around a long time, and IS generally regarded as one of the better written love interest characters... but part of the reason she holds that position is because others have been written worse.

    Bringing me back again to the PS4 story, which has got to be one of MJ's best portrayals of the character in any medium, and the most compelling version of their status quo, imo.

  15. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by boots View Post
    on the believability front; plenty of social media influencers are also bloggers or go on to write articles for thought catalogues and internet media. almost every actor i know has also written a screenplay. whether they're any good or not, is another matter.
    That's a trajectory that would make sense for Mary Jane.

    Not many models and actors who go on to become investigative reporters though.

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