Eye Doc said:
I still think a woman can date a guy and not bring it up to her husband.
A "woman" certainly can keep secrets from her husband. But you're speaking in general terms. We need to speak in
character specific terms. Most husbands and wives don't share the sort of secrets that Peter and MJ do. Or share the type of intense life history these two have. Because of the nature of trust between them, it's unlikely that MJ specifically would hold back about a serious love affair from Peter. Remember how artificial MJ's secrets seemed in Sins Past? That's how this would appear.
MJ may have told Peter about her childhood and family history, but I don't recall her saying anything about her lovelife.
That's because she never had a lovelife. She dated guys, but it's pretty clear that she only really loved Peter. Also, the very fact that before MJ came clean about her life, she insulated herself from being involved in serious relationships, and even explained why she didn't want to be in those sorts of relationships, it makes it that much more unrealistic that it happened. That she, for both love of Peter and not wanting to be roped into a committed thing would end the relationship before it got too serious.
Just because Felicia was involved with Peter while MJ was away doesn't mean that MJ is obligated to tell him who she was involved with in Florida.
Again- it's not about obligation- it's about who these people are. Look- I've made it no secret that I don't think MJ has the character mileage that Gwen does. I think her character is pretty shallow; Not in the personality sense, but in terms of being a character to generate stories from. But- if she and Peter have anything, it's trust. Marvel screwed her character big time with Sins Past by making her harbor these ridiculous secrets and that damaged the appearance of the relationship between her and Peter. If they keep having her reveal new secrets everytime things get stale, it's not going to help fortify the marriage, but ultimately be the dissolution of it.
In one of your post you said inserting such a character into MJ's past would be a retcon. I disagree. A retcon is going back and saying that what you read, or what was clearly established in the character's canon, didn't happen.
A retcon is also altering prior events or omitting/adding key elements that either did or did not exist. As I said to Mara Jane, I'm not saying this would be a major retcon. But I'm saying because fans have so little trust of Marvel, continuing to toss retcons out there, even small ones isn't going to make things better. Especially since the main point of the story concept you and Mara Jane are bringing up doesn't need a retcon to be presented. As I said, the same result could come from a totally new character.
If you go with your point of view, Tom DeFalco's brilliant backstory for MJ is a retcon because it didn't appear in the early issues but was added years after the character first appeared in the series.
That IS a retcon. In fact, it's one of the worst, and when I first read it, I knew the floodgates were going to be opening to terrible effect. That retcon is what's led us to things like Sins Past. MJ should never have been written to have always known Peter's secret. It was a cheap gimmicky idea that did nothing for the characters or their relationship. She could have easily figured it out in real time to the same results.
I have no problem with a writer using another plot device to make the marriage interesting. The point Mara Jane and I were making was that this could be a way of introducing "drama" into the strip. Some of the love stories I've enjoyed the most are the ones were the couples have to fight against outside forces to keep the love intact and eventually grow stonger because of it.
I agree that good drama needs to be injected into the stories. And I won't say in an all encompassing statement that another love triangle won't work.
But I honestly feel that to dig Spidey out of the hole he's in, quite a bit more needs to be done.
