That's what people have been saying about MJ all along. It's honestly not much different.
There's major difference. MJ has been given more than 30 years to be interesting and that has yet to happen.
You are also not taking into account that there are a lot of things that can be done with MJ that can't be done with Gwen. For example, they've never really explored MJ's shady criminal father and how that has an effect on her psyche.
There's nothing there to explore. MJ's "problems" were dealt with in one or two stories, 25 years ago. There's nothing more to them. If there were any residual damage then the many events that have occured over the years would have brought it out.
And the difference is, that MJ's issues are just for soap-operish storylines. Gwen's actually spill into Peter's life as Spider-Man.
She's certainly dealt with Peter's other identity for a very long time and is even friends with Peter's "co-workers". She matured from being a ditzy party girl to a woman with emotional depth. She's closer to Aunt May than Gwen ever was and she MOST OF ALL has to deal with the lingering knowledge that she may always be #2 in Peter's mind since he lionizes Gwen so much (stupid Parker guilt, he's never guilty about Reilly, but that's probably because he's a self-loathing prick
).
Why on Earth would he feel guilty about Ben Reilly? Ben had super powers and could defend himself. Gwen didn't.
As for the points about MJ- yeah- and to what avail? The comics haven't moved forward after all this time. MJ serves two purposes. As hostage and Peter's support system. She's never been realized as a full person on her own. And honestly there isn't that much to her. An actress' life simply doesn't match up to the dynamics of Spider-Man's life.
You could argue that Gwen was never given the opportunity cause of her death, but that just goes to show that she has almost 30 years of less stories than MJ.
Right. And after 30 years, MJ is still in the same place. Her shelf life is extremely limited, which is why theu look for a new reason to get rid of her every few years.
It's like the Clone Saga when fans were forced to accept Ben Reilly as the real Spider-Man even though he had 20 years of fewer stories under his belt than Peter Parker. There was no way he'd be accepted as the original. Bringing back Gwen would be a similar kind of emotional cheat.
It isn't the same thing at all. Peter Parker is Spider-Man. He's the one who was bitten by the radioactive Spider. He's the one that was established in Amazing Fantasy #15. Ben Reilly is a cheap knock-off that untaleted "creative" staff conjured up to spark sales.
Gwen was a well-developed original character killed off for similar effect. She still had story mileage at the time of her death, it simply wasn't made use of, mostly because then writer Gerry Conway simply couldn't write relationships. In every title he was on at the time the characters (Ironman,FF,Thor as well as Spidey) all went through relationship upheavals.
If Gwen is brought back and the stories are well-written, then there's really nothing to complain about. I haven't been following Captain america, but apparently a good spin was oput on Bucky's return, and at DC a similar one was used to bring back Jason Todd. It's all in the writing.
Heck, I think Betty is much more interesting compared to Gwen but "the writers don't know how to handle her".
No she isn't. She, like MJ simply got more focus over the ensuing years. When Gwen was around, stories weren't devoted to supporting characters.
I just don't see how the writers would handle Gwen any better than they've handled anyone else. Gwen was great cause she was written by Stan Lee and Gerry Conway. MJ was great then too.
That depends on the writer. If a guy like Jeph Loeb is on the stories, then it will be in good hands.
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