Amazing Spider-Man 74 - Preview - LET'S GOOO!

[Unspeakable Evil]

I guess if anything positive comes out of Spencer's run it's that, married or otherwise, people don't care about Peter being single.

At the very least this era saw a resurgence in Mary Jane's character and her importance to the mythos that the past era and a half had degraded so I feel like that was a net good in the long run. As well as fixing Felicia's character.

To be fair all other Spider-Man media always comes back to MJ anyways. I feel like Spectacular and the Amazing Spider-Man films ever really got any use out of it. I doubt everyone loves the MJ/Peter but I doubt it would ruin Spider-Man in this day and age

[Frontier]

To be fair all other Spider-Man media always comes back to MJ anyways. I feel like Spectacular and the Amazing Spider-Man films ever really got any use out of it. I doubt everyone loves the MJ/Peter but I doubt it would ruin Spider-Man in this day and age

I think it's hard to argue that in one form or another she's seen as the definitive love interest, even to the point where Zendaya has to play a character referred to only by her initials just so people think she's Mary Jane .

[Vordan]

So, the "Confess! Confess!" line didn't go anywhere?

How did AI Harry even remember dying? He was created before that happened! It’s so abundantly clear things changed at the last minute.

I think it's hard to argue that in one form or another she's seen as the definitive love interest, even to the point where Zendaya has to play a character referred to only by her initials just so people think she's Mary Jane .

And ITSV even had them married… Marvel’s trying to paddle upstream against the current every time they try to sideline or replace her.

[DragonPiece]

To be fair all other Spider-Man media always comes back to MJ anyways. I feel like Spectacular and the Amazing Spider-Man films ever really got any use out of it. I doubt everyone loves the MJ/Peter but I doubt it would ruin Spider-Man in this day and age

I think a lot of us still are just happy to see Peter/MJ together just because of how bad their dynamic was during the Slott years. Still get annoyed thinking about her relationship with that random firefighter.

[HypnoHustler]

I’m souring on this issue the more I think about how much didn’t make sense and how much obvious interference there was. I can’t even bring myself to reread it. Oh well, I’ll always have my classic TPBs of decades-old stories. *sigh*

[HypnoHustler]

It is kinda weird the way Marvel editorial sees Peter . Didn’t want to to do divorce, didn’t want twins to be Peter’s because of premarital sex , and now MJ and Peter not being married means they can’t have kids? Fam why is Peter Parker who’s this Everyman not allowed to have normal bad things happen anymore?

It’s all Quesada and his yes men. Even today. He’s still “creative director”, whatever the hell that means. I’m not “woke” by any means, but Quesada’s views on marriage and children are retrograde and indicative of a man-child who never grew up. Or at least is hostile to the idea the Spidey readership is growing up. He’s still clinging to the desperate notion that a magical influx of preteens will suddenly swarm comic shops everywhere and rescue the Spider-Man comics from its slow three decade decline in sales. The guy still can’t accept that adults are the majority of the base now, and many of us are married or at least not hostile to the idea of Peter maturing and marrying. He’s still in denial, and the books suffer because of his heavy hand. This has Quesada’s prints all over it, not directly, but he probably told Breevort who told Spencer that Peter and MJ couldn’t find out about the deal or undo it in any way.

[Frontier]

I think a lot of us still are just happy to see Peter/MJ together just because of how bad their dynamic was during the Slott years. Still get annoyed thinking about her relationship with that random firefighter.

It's not like Peter's love life was all that exciting too between Carlie, Silk, and Mockingbird.

[stillanerd]

So to sum up the last three years of the "Kindred Saga":
cue ominous music that sounds like the Omen theme
KINDRED: Now, Pete. It's time to face your sins! [unmasks to reveal Harry Osborn]
SPIDER-MAN: Harry?! But how--?
KINDRED: How am I alive? I'm not. I'm dead, Pete. My soul is still trapped in Hell. Now...confess.
SPIDER-MAN: Confess? I don't understand. Confess to what?
KINDRED: CONFESS! Confess that you and Mary Jane made a deal with the devil to save that decrepit and senile old bat you know as Aunt May!"
record scratch
MARVEL EDITOR: Wait, wait, wait! Nick, are you trying to retcon One More Day?
NICK SPENCER: Oh come guys, it's been well over ten years now. That deal with Mephisto has been plaguing this book for awhile. Don't you think we ought to address it?
MARVEL EDITOR: Address it is one thing. Getting rid of it is another. Besides, we all know that Spider-Man sells better if he's not married.
NICK SPENCER: But, I've already made Peter and MJ a couple again, which you didn't have a problem with.
MARVEL EDITOR: Couple? Yes. Marriage? No. Now go back and fix it.
NICK SPENCER: O...kay.
ominous music resumes
HARRY OSBORN: Wait, Pete! I'm not really Kindred.
SPIDER-MAN: You're not?
HARRY OSBORN: No. But I still died. I think I'm a clone now.
SPIDER-MAN: Shhh! Don't say the c-word!
HARRY: Sorry, pal.
SPIDER-MAN: But if you're not Kindred, then who...?
Kindred unmasks to reveal...
SPIDER-MAN and HARRY: Gwen Stacy?!
KINDRED: No! I'm Sarah Stacy, Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn's daughter.
Another Kindred wearing a brown coat steps out of the shadows and unmasks.
KINDRED 2: And I'm her brother, Gabriel.
SPIDER-MAN and HARRY: Who?!
SARAH KINDRED: Exactly! That's the sin you must confess, Spider-Man. You forgot all about us! Just like our father, Norman Osborn, did.
Suddenly a computer screen turns on
HARRY AI: Actually, Norman Osborn isn't your father. Thanks to the Robot Master, the real Harry created you and your brother the same time he had Chameleon create robot versions of Peter's parents.
MYSTERIO: And I, Mysterio, used my post-hypnotic gas to make Norman believe he and Ms. Stacy swapped spit...
NORMAN OSBORN: Really? Then who did I swap spit with?
MYSTERIO: And to make MJ believe that she knew about their non-existent affair.
MARY JANE: What? But Quentin. I thought we were friends.
MYSTERIO: Just like you, Ms. Watson, I'm an ACTOR!
SPIDER-MAN: So, wait a minute? What does this have to do with MJ and I trading away our marriage to the devil?
BOTH KINDREDS: Absolutely nothing!
MEPHISTO (Whispers): Except to prevent the birth of Spider-Girl into the mainstream Marvel Universe as she's destined to destroy my future reign on Earth, but don't tell anyone.
BOTH KINDREDS: Welp, we might as well get something out of this.
They kill Harry
EVERYONE: Again?!
PETER AND NORMAN: No, It's all my fault!
MARY JANE: Don't worry, Tiger. At least you have me.
BOTH KINDREDS: No, the power of love is melting us!
Both Kindreds turn into Malt O Meal
MARVEL EDITOR: Wait a minute. There were two Kindreds this whole time?
NICK SPENCER: Yep. Go back and look. Kindred always wore two different coats. Ergo they were two different people, and not the least bit a coloring mistake.
MARVEL EDITOR: And that bit about Spider-Man's sin being forgetting all about the Stacy Twins. We tried to forget about the Stacy Twins. What are you trying to say about us, Nick?
NICK SPENCER: Oh, gee, will you look at the time. Well, it's been fun guys, but I'm off to Substack!
MARVEL EDITOR: Wait? We still have to do Amazing Spider-Man #900. Who's going to write the book now? Wells? Thompson? Gleason? Slott? Anybody?!

[NC_Yankee]

It’s all Quesada and his yes men. Even today. He’s still “creative director”, whatever the hell that means. I’m not “woke” by any means, but Quesada’s views on marriage and children are retrograde and indicative of a man-child who never grew up. Or at least is hostile to the idea the Spidey readership is growing up. He’s still clinging to the desperate notion that a magical influx of preteens will suddenly swarm comic shops everywhere and rescue the Spider-Man comics from its slow three decade decline in sales. The guy still can’t accept that adults are the majority of the base now, and many of us are married or at least not hostile to the idea of Peter maturing and marrying. He’s still in denial, and the books suffer because of his heavy hand. This has Quesada’s prints all over it, not directly, but he probably told Breevort who told Spencer that Peter and MJ couldn’t find out about the deal or undo it in any way.

I agree 100% with this. I will add this: One of the biggest problems at Marvel is the need ( or perceived need) for Peter to be young. Obviously MCU comes to mind ( with Peter as “The Kid”) but Marvel Adventure, Slott’s Man Child and the cartoon with him in High School with Miles and Gwen are other examples of this. Until they stop this and allow Peter to be an adult nothing will change. It is time to start using Miles as the teenage Spider-Man and allow Peter to do the basics: Wife, kid and job.

[Rzerox21xx]

I think a lot of us still are just happy to see Peter/MJ together just because of how bad their dynamic was during the Slott years. Still get annoyed thinking about her relationship with that random firefighter.

Tell me about it, I hated her relationship with that celeb douche Bobby Carr, Slot wasnt going to feature her in the Papperazzi arc but decided to bring her in.

(by the way Dragonpiece nice Shiki profile, I'm too a Mashima Fan of both Fairy tail and Eden zero, read the latest chapter wow wont spoil but this is not the time and place I guess lol)


yeah i honestly think Slott did a pretty good job writing Peter MJ relationship in Renew their vows and they were married with a kid.

[stillanerd]

I think a lot of us still are just happy to see Peter/MJ together just because of how bad their dynamic was during the Slott years. Still get annoyed thinking about her relationship with that random firefighter.

A firefighter named Pedro (the Spanish variant of Peter) no less. But yeah, getting Peter and MJ back together was at least one good thing to come out of this.

[stillanerd]

It's not like Peter's love life was all that exciting too between Carlie, Silk, and Mockingbird.

Don't forget the disaster that was Michelle Gonzales. Or Lian Tang from Parker Industries.

[Username taken]

It is kinda weird the way Marvel editorial sees Peter . Didn’t want to to do divorce, didn’t want twins to be Peter’s because of premarital sex , and now MJ and Peter not being married means they can’t have kids? Fam why is Peter Parker who’s this Everyman not allowed to have normal bad things happen anymore?

It's rather bizarre to be honest.

I'm not expecting OMD to be undone but the general "limitations" placed around Peter Parker is strange to say the least.

[wleakr]

Wow. So many folks here defending Spencer with the "obvious" it must be on editorial for why this issue is not as good or as strong as expected.

IMHO, there has been nothing in the run to indicate we would get more than what was given.

He had more than enough time (and actual issues published) to execute a satisfying narrative. At a minimum, he could've not opened so many plots in which there would be no way to close the majority of them before his final issue.

The one thing I remember from an interview was the claim that it's not about who Kindred is/was, but what he wants. The run is over and the "what he wants" still went over my head.

[FFJamie94]

It’s all Quesada and his yes men. Even today. He’s still “creative director”, whatever the hell that means. I’m not “woke” by any means, but Quesada’s views on marriage and children are retrograde and indicative of a man-child who never grew up. Or at least is hostile to the idea the Spidey readership is growing up. He’s still clinging to the desperate notion that a magical influx of preteens will suddenly swarm comic shops everywhere and rescue the Spider-Man comics from its slow three decade decline in sales. The guy still can’t accept that adults are the majority of the base now, and many of us are married or at least not hostile to the idea of Peter maturing and marrying. He’s still in denial, and the books suffer because of his heavy hand. This has Quesada’s prints all over it, not directly, but he probably told Breevort who told Spencer that Peter and MJ couldn’t find out about the deal or undo it in any way.

It’s sad to see that this is what Quesada’s legacy will be. He did a lot of good things back at the start of his Marvel tenure. Getting Morrison and Joss Whedon (he may a piece of shit, but his X-men is pretty cool) on X-men, JMS on Spider-man, giving BMB a career which had New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-man and Daredevil. In fact, I’ll argue that the Quesada era is the best work we got from BMB, some good events (some poor ones too). The 2000-2006 era of Marvel is considered great, and I’ll argue even after that was pretty amazing. But the weak link was always Spider-man, and I think Quesada is just way too close to him. Joe seems to be nostalgic for a very specific period of Spider-man history, that being #42-50, a period which People tend to talk about a lot and get nostalgic for. The problem is, that was barely a year in Amazing history, and it was brought back in 2008 because it’s what Marvel wanted at a time.

There seems to be a huge disconnect between fans, editorial and other media. While the fans want a married Peter and outside media are open to a married Peter, editorial wants this 30 year old guy to still be a virgin which is really… disturbing.
The squeaky clean image that Marvel have for Peter is actually doing more damage to the character than you’d think. Instead of being an actual character, he is just a mascot for Marvel to do what they want. He becomes oblivious of what’s around him.
There is a nice piece of meta commentary here, Quesada is the Devil and he wants Peter to remain unmarried, no matter what. Doctor Strange is everyone else, trying to say what a horrible idea that is.
But if Peter and MJ do get married again, then One More Day was all for nought and the last 15 years of Spider-man becomes useless.

The funny thing is, it seems Marvel are more open to the idea of a married Peter as we’ve seen in AU titles, and maybe Zdarsky and Taylor should just write AU Spider-man books until the end of time, because both seem to be more comfortable doing so.

No, with Quesada trying to make Peter squeaky clean, he just insults most of his audience, which I think is hilarious