They are not a couple now... they broke up at some point after OMD... because Peter made Mary Jane remember when she wanted to forget like everybody else because it was just "too much"... OMIT's not great, but it does tie erverything together so that the books since 1987 still "matter", in spite of what the haters will claim...
Yeah, it shows you how out of the loop I am with Spidey these days when I had no idea this story existed until I thumbed through some paperbacks two days ago to see what Marvel has done with the character as of late. :shy: After I posted that, I Wiki'd the story to fill in the gaps with the images that I skimmed. My more nuanced thought:
OMIT seems to be Joe Quesada's second try to push his argument that Spidey should be single and he and MJ do not belong together. His first attempt, OMD, is almost universally considered the worst Spider-Man story ever told in any medium....ever. The fanbase is still wildly divided (I quit following Spidey comics semi-regularly for the first time in 12+ years with that story). Thus OMIT, appears to be the retcon of the retcon. Peter didn't really make the deal with the devil as he saved Aunt May with "the power of love" (
) and he wiped everyone's minds with Dr. Strange's deux ex machina. However, that doesn't really explain then why the red bird let the fat thug out to fall on Peter.
However, the problem was it's still damage control. It isn't a story in its own right but a piece of editorial agenda trying to force the character to where Quesada believes he will be more profitable and long-lasting. I don't hate Joey Q despite my mocking. I think outside of Spidey he has done a great job of bringing Marvel into the 21st century (and should take notes now from what DC is doing with iTunes for tablets), but this is just a decision that I really disagree with. However, he wants Spidey single. Fine. The way he goes about it though is completely lousy. He hides behind much of the Annual for coverage, but the Annual was trying to point that despite their (very
reasonable) doubts they still give it a chance because they love each other. He uses that as an excuse to make it not happen.
But the rest of it seems to be he blames it all on MJ. He doesn't want much blame to fall on Peter, because he is the hero of the books and he can't vilify him too much. That's understandable. But either intentionally our unintentionally he turns MJ into a weak, shallow woman and betrays her character's integrity even more. Now, not only did she make a deal with the devil or some form of that, she calls off the marriage....because she wants to be with Peter but they can't be married unless he gives up Spidey and they have kids? So Baby May is erased? She wanted to forget her life with Peter because "it's too painful"?!?!?! She leaves Peter because she was put in danger, even though she has been through much worse at Peter's side? She is, literally in her own words and by her own admission, "too weak" and "not strong enough" for Peter to be with him and he needs to find someone else? She's....setting him free?
It is all so out of character and just hackneyed writing for Quesada to apologize for trivializing her importance with OMD/BND and now to try to move on. There are still holes (MJ's role as married to Peter in KLH, Harry's death,
the baby which disproved that he was a clone, the split up and going to Hollywood, etc.). If he wanted to break them up he should have had a good writer do it three years ago. This was a retcon of the retcon that Marvel hopes will salvage the fractured fanbase.
It kind of reinforces why I quit Spidey four years ago.
