Comics Interesting Theory on fixing the unmasking.

[spider greg]

This was a guy from the "Spider-man Message boards" who wrote a REALLY interesting, well thought (and long) theory on how they might fix the unmasking. It sheds new light also on "Sins Past" and "The Other" and how they might be part of an accidental alternate timeline (try saying that 5 times fast) I'm just curious to see what people think about it.

http://www.comicboards.com/smb/view.php?trd=070210221744

 

[SpideyZERO]

Well, it's basically a time-manipulating story that solve everything and destroy the marriage. It's a good theory but I don't want to see that happens. Do we really need to see Peter and MJ dates again even in this 616 universe? It just make Peter single again and 'older'!

 

[farmernudie]

And hey … MJ will still be around and available to date. So all is not destroyed from the fans point of view.

Uh....yeh. This will really move things forward and fans won't complain.


Well written article on it, just hope those things don't happen though.

 

[Won '08]

I see it happening. I've been thinking the exact same thing for quite sometime. Either through Loki's influence or Dr Strange's, MJ will end up forgetting who Spider-Man is.

Thats been my theory for quite some time. Can't wait till august.

 

[spidey-dude]

ugh god dammit I hate Joey Q, imo all they need to do to have a single spidey is bring back Ben Reilly and give him one out of 3 of the spidey books, give the other to peter, and maybe have the other alternate (or just with peter) there, then theres not only a single spidey, but the married spidey we all know and love, everyone is happy

also is it me or are all joe q's complaints about the marriage more down to jms writing??? before jms there was never any talk of the marriage not working or being bad

 

[CTFFFan]

I do think that when all is said and done that his secret identity will be restored.

 

[Parker756]

I liked that the first time I saw it on "The Butterfly Effect"

They seriously need to come up with something creative and in character with Spider-man to fix the unmasking and make me even want to touch another spidey 616 book.

 

[storyteller]

Its very simple, scarlet witch did more then house of m

KILL THE WITCH, RETCON THE WORLD

 

[UK_Stu]

Its quite a good theory - though I'm not sure it's how I would want things to go. The whole changing outcomes by going into the past is such a cliche and far too easy a way out.

But then I kind of expect this to basically happen - Dr Strange tells Peter he can wipe out anyone's knowledge of him being spider-man, unfortunately this has the side of affect of affecting everyone including MJ and May. Peter knows he can't remain married to MJ and keep his identity a secret and by telling her he is putting her life at risk - so they split up.

It's true JMS planted many little plot devices in early Babylon 5 episodes that weren't re-visited until far later, but after reading debacles such as sins past and the other - I'm convinced some of these little details really are just bad writing on his part

 

[hippy fascist]

It's true JMS planted many little plot devices in early Babylon 5 episodes that weren't re-visited until far later, but after reading debcales such as sins past and the other - I'm convinced some of these little details really are just bad writing on his part

Seriously man, sins past is not a valid argument for slagging off JMS. All of the problems in that book stem from osborn's involvement. JMS wrote the story with the idea that the kids would be peters. He had it ready to go and editorial told him they wanted norman to be the father. This is why it seems out of place and makes no sense. This is why the pacing is ****ed and this is why the story got such a bad reception (personally I don't mind it).

It's like saying spielberg is a crap filmmaker because some suit at warner brothers decided to force him to change the ending to one of his scripts to something non-sensical and crap.

The other was ****, but again that was laregly Joey Q's idea.

Lay off JMS

 

[UK_Stu]

Seriously man, sins past is not a valid argument for slagging off JMS. All of the problems in that book stem from osborn's involvement. JMS wrote the story with the idea that the kids would be peters. He had it ready to go and editorial told him they wanted norman to be the father. This is why it seems out of place and makes no sense. This is why the pacing is ****ed and this is why the story got such a bad reception (personally I don't mind it).

It's like saying spielberg is a crap filmmaker because some suit at warner brothers decided to force him to change the ending to one of his scripts to something non-sensical and crap.

The other was ****, but again that was laregly Joey Q's idea.

Lay off JMS

whoa... I appreciate that JMS doesn't take the full blame for Sins past or the other - but you can't tell me that you think that it was a good idea for those kids to be Peter's? The final version with Norman was truly awful, but the whole retcon that these could be Peter's kids was a rubbish idea - JMS' idea.

So unless this was one of JMS' cunning plot devices it is poor

 

[spider greg]

It's true JMS planted many little plot devices in early Babylon 5 episodes that weren't re-visited until far later, but after reading debcales such as sins past and the other - I'm convinced some of these little details really are just bad writing on his part

It does kind of seem like that, especially with the more minor plot problems. But I'm still hoping over all that this is the case. Either JMS or JQ did mention, I believe, that after "One more day" we would see "Sins Past" in a different light, I hope this goes for "The Other" also. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[ben_reilly_s_s]

I see it happening. I've been thinking the exact same thing for quite sometime. Either through Loki's influence or Dr Strange's, MJ will end up forgetting who Spider-Man is.

Thats been my theory for quite some time. Can't wait till august.

what if Loki causes everyone except Peter to forget everything - and Dr. Strange is the one who grants Peter One More Day with both MJ and May with them knowing who he truly is.

 

[ben_reilly_s_s]

I see it happening. I've been thinking the exact same thing for quite sometime. Either through Loki's influence or Dr Strange's, MJ will end up forgetting who Spider-Man is.

Thats been my theory for quite some time. Can't wait till august.

what if Loki causes everyone except Peter to forget everything - and Dr. Strange is the one who grants Peter One More Day with both MJ and May with them knowing who he truly is.

 

[The_Dark_Knight]

I love how Joey Q and JMS like driving the Spidey books into the ground.

They are killing the character.

 

[e-three]

I really hope they don't go that route, although it wouldn't surprise me if they did. All that time travel alternate reality mystical mumbo jumbo is out of place for Spidey stories in my opinion. Yeah, let's make Spider-Man single again so he can be the relatable everyman again, and we'll do it by having him travel through time and alter history with a master of mystic arts guiding the way. Ugh. That would be fine if this was The Amazing Quantum Leap, but not Spider-Man.

And don't give me that crap about "it's the Marvel Universe, people travel through time in the comics a lot and if you can accept that a guy could be bitten by a radioactive spider and get powers, you should be able to accept this." Just because the Fantastic Four make regular trips to the Negative Zone for kicks doesn't mean it makes sense for Daredevil to do it. Likewise, although I know he's (unfortunately) done it before, Spider-Man works much better as a character that doesn't cross galaxies or alternate timelines and the such. Besides, doesn't Marvel's time travel rules make it so that Dr. Strange and Spidey didn't prevent the Marvel heroes from dying, but they only created an alternate timeline in which the heroes lived?

No matter what they do or how they do it, if Marvel breaks up the Spider-Marriage a lot of people will get pissed off. So why go through all this crap if you get the same result? If they're dead set on splitting them up, make it simple. Divorce 'em, kill MJ, get their marriage anulled, give MJ amnesia so she forgets she ever knew Peter, have Peter wake up and realize that his entire marriage was a dream if you're feeling saucy. These are all dumb ideas (I admit I'm against ending the marriage) but at least it's a little more realistic than a "Crisis on Infinite Friendly Neighborhoods" idea that this theory sounds like. This Dr. Strange story guest starring Spider-Man angle isn't going to convert any marriage supporter to the other side. And no matter what you do, after letting the "genie" of an unmasked Spider-Man "out of the bottle," returning the secret identity to status quo is going to be viewed as a cop out.

 

[Zenien]

The only reason the marriage has become a controversy is because Quasada has been so vocal against it, prompting the 3 percent of Spider-Man readers who don't like the marriage to rattle the cage...

On topic, that's one heck of a theory... if they were to split MJ and Peter up (they absolutely should not) that's probably the best way to do it, certainly better then any of the alternatives.

 

[dusk20]

^ I have to agree with you 100%. I've always liked that Peter and MJ are married and it's good to know that the character of Peter has aged as the Marvel Universe has.

The thing I like about Spider-Man comics is Peter/Spider-Man comes across as serious and smart (also jokes around alot). The number 1 guy for the job, but when he is with other heroes, he is always joking and having fun...that to me is how I remember Spider-Man years ago...but I still enjoy him married.

 

[Zenien]

I love the marriage. I think they complement eachother perfectly and are fun to read both apart and especially together. I can't imagine JMS would be the man behind them splitting up when he's vocal about how he loves the marriage (as do the vast majority of fans, no question)... well I CAN see him writtng it, but I do hold out some hope that this is a bait and switch, and remember how JMS loves the marriage so much gives me that ray of hope that they won't split them up even though all signs are pointing to that direction...

 

[chris moore]

I didnt get all the way through it because ultimately his theory is that events involving the JMS/Dr Strange story will result in MJ and Peter never having been married.

So in essence this would make the answer to the marriage and the identity thing to retcon the last, what, 20 years? Too many events in both Peter's hero and personal lives revolve around he and MJ being married or at least deeply intertwined in their emotions and happenings - no way is not liking the marriage and attempting to sort out a really controversial event worth denying so much in the comic's history ever happened

 

[spider greg]

I didnt get all the way through it because ultimately his theory is that events involving the JMS/Dr Strange story will result in MJ and Peter never having been married.

So in essence this would make the answer to the marriage and the identity thing to retcon the last, what, 20 years? Too many events in both Peter's hero and personal lives revolve around he and MJ being married or at least deeply intertwined in their emotions and happenings - no way is not liking the marriage and attempting to sort out a really controversial event worth denying so much in the comic's history ever happened

I don't think they plan on retconning Spidey's history, because to do that it would have to affect all the other heroes, giving a major overhaul to the entire Marvel universe. Somehow, I guess, they'll change the status of the marriage, but somehow keep everything "business as usual". That's the impression I get, and how they'll pull it off is anyone's guess.