Comics Is there really any "good" way to get rid a MJ

As far as I know, Joe Q blames MJ and the marriage for everything that's wrong with Spidey right now; they were married because Stan Lee wanted to marry them in the newspaper strips he does, so the comics followed suit before him, kind of like a race in development I suppose.

To get rid of her? Mm, that'd too tough to really sort though, as I don't see anything really wrong with the marriage per say, JQ says it ages Peter too much, and divorce or widowing makes him even older. To hypothetically "get rid of MJ", I'd suggest letting her go back to college to take another carreer of her liking, or even keeping her busy elsewhere in acting (it's acting now, right? I can't get supermodel of out my head). I doubt Marvel would take such a mundane route out, but it's all I can think of that still opens her to be around and return.

 

I just don't like the Mary Jane character. I started reading the Spidey comics around 1990 to 1991. So, I started reading when they had been married in the comics for a while. It's just a relationship that I didn't enjoy. All she ever did was complain about how Peter was Spider-Man, etc. It got really annoying.

I even gave her a chance again once I got a hold of the Essential Spider-Man volumes. And her character, even written under classic Spidey writers, still bugged the crap out of me. She seemed more like a friend to Peter and that they only seemed to hook up because of Gwens death. While a neat little love story...just don't like the MJ character.

The only way I can see her going is death. How it happens? I don't know. Chameleon can come back for revenge against her for making him look like a doofus. Norman is too obvious. Maybe Roderick Kingsley can get his hands dirty. Either way I could see her getting the axe somehow. Especially if Peter goes public with his identity.

 

No. As a whole she is just too popular. And in comics popularity is everything.

 

Have her sacrifice herself to save someone she sees on the street, so she becomes a hero like her husband before she dies.

Other than that they've already tried the separation thing, and any other death would seem like Gwen Stacy part 2.

 

I honestly think the problem with MJ could be solved if they just dropped the whole actress/model aspect of the character and had her have a different career and simply stop drawing her as the prefect 10+ in the looks department. I think it's those aspects of her, that Peter is married to someone like that, that is causing the problem. If they want to keep the whole "everyman" aspect of Peter Parker/Spider-man those things about MJ have to go and change. It's constantly shattering that image. Him being friends with someone like that is one thing, he's friends with Felicia, but not married which is a hard to accept I think.

Short of doing that, then breaking the two of them up is the only think that will work if you don't want to kill her. Having her being replaced has already happen right? Doubt they want to do it again. Same for them being legally seperated right? So those options are out. What if Peter was the one that wanted the split and out of the marriage. How do you think readers would react to that?

Would that be acceptable?

 

Have Iron Man kill her to set an example.

 

doofus? as i recall mj justifiably KICKED HIS ASS for trying to force himself on her while disguised as pete she grabbed a broom and went "red sonja" on him [the older posters will understand this reference]

 

have read the latest wizard yall would notice that the Marvel House of Ideas has a very stern and gut wrenching plan for Spidey by the end of civil war. My assumption or my theory rather, is that Spids will indeed reveal his identity...at first...thinking it the correct thing to do...only to have the worst possible outcome affect him.

According to the writers..and I quote "By the end of all of this...there wont be a dry eye among any of our readers"...'it'll really be heart wrenching...emotionally devastating...and will change Spidey for years to come.'

 

Actually she had Pete's old Louisville. And they had a laugh about it afterwards.

And yeah, she did return to her Red Sonja "roots" didn't she?

 

she sure did
as for getting rid of mj if i HAD to i'd have her doing a fight scene in a "million dollar baby" or" angelfist"[about a womens martial arts tounament] movie and the stunt goes horribly wrong killing her in front of the movie crew and pete
the old parker luck kicks in later when the stuntwoman that killed mj is ruled not liable for prosecution

 

No, there isn't a good way to get "rid" of her character. First off. I don't even know why the heck that would want to get rid of her character. Spider-man has SO MANY problems going on right now with the writing. She isn't one of them. Joe Q is an idiot. He's trying hard to put the blame for sucky Spider titles on everything EXCEPT the actual problems that people are complaining about.

 

No... there's no "good" way.

She's one of the few original supporting cast members that made Spidey famous left. The Daily Bugle staff seems to be on a bit of a comeback, but everyone is practically dead and/or gone.

They can't just "kill" her off, because someone will simply ressurect her again later on.

Now, it has been suggested that Spidey will become "unpopular" again as far as his hero status in the Marvel Universe due to his betrayal in Civil War. I can see where Pete will reveal his identity at the begining, thus compromising Mary Jane (and Aunt May for that matter), and when he switches sides, they then become targets. Peter will then be forced to abandon his family in some form or another, and things will probably dissisapate (sic) from that.

Just a hunch.... who knows what Marvel will do?

 

MJ just seems like one of those cemented characters in that universe. Which is very odd considering she's not a super-hero. Previous attempts to kill her or make her leave Peter's life havent been met by a very positive fan reaction. The best they could hope for is have her go back to school or jump back in to her career. Even with that kind of solution, it feels off. The party girl side to MJ was her way to deal with her life, so when shes really got Pete, someone who cares for her, she'd naturally start to grow up. Especially after what happened with Gwen. She's gotten a bit of that girl-next-door to her back where it seems more natural for her to be on the couch watching tv with Pete than out in Milan in a club.

The other part of it seems like the Clark/Lois relationship. Superman always saves Lois Lane, but a lot of people miss how Lois saves Superman. He tries very hard to fit in and not feel alienated, so Lois loving him and treating him like any other man (when is she really afraid to stand up to him?) is sort of saving him. It seems like the same dynamic to me with Pete and MJ. Sure, when it comes to goblins and lizards, he can save MJ from the monsters. But what about when Pete cant save somebody and/or loses them, who saves him? The writers lose that at times when they mischaracterize her. She should always be the first one to call Pete on his bs. I think she has to be written like that. Pete seems to be a very family oriented character, and if they ever "really" kill Aunt May, someone has to be his family. Theyre what anchors his character. Losing absolutely everything and everyone permanently (no retcons) would just take Spiderman to a place no one will like.

We've seen all the excessively grim and gritty stories of the 90s, its gotten old. A lot of people miss some of the feel of the older days of comics, but we also see how that can be very campy. There's gotta be a middleground to the writing. A character doesnt need its world shook every month, especially if the aftereffects never really stick. Happy endings to stories are nice, but they shouldnt come easily. Comic writers get a lot of pressure to write great stories, so its easy for them to try to stick to a formula or constantly stray from one using what they consider to be how the character acts/reacts. Im sure another writer will come along eventually that will care a lot about the book and make fans happy (for a while at least).

 

While I don't want to see a divorce or MJ's death, I don't think either automatically ages Peter to the point where readers can no longer relate to him.

I had a visitor in my office last week who is going thru a divorce and she's is about 23-24. I former classmate of became a widow while we were still in our 20's. People can undergo tragedy at a young age, mature from it, and still not be considered "old".

I can't see either character just up and asking for a divorce, especially after all they've been thru. Yet, scenarios could be created that could cause Pete or MJ to leave the marriage if one of them thought it was in the best interest of the other party. The hard part for the writer helming such a story would be coming up with a believeable scenario where that would/could happen.

Eye Doc

 

Yeah. That's what I was talking about. I mean...the guy is The Chameleon. The first Spidey villain! And Spider-Man's wife kicked his ass. So, yes, she made him look like a doofus by beating him down.

And he's waiting in the wings to extract his vengeance.

Remember...there was that one story where Chameleon said he loved Spider-Man. Maybe he'll off MJ because she's taking all of Spider-Man's love.

 

isnt he...ya know...dead?

 

I'm only speculating that he's alive because he appeared in Millar's Marvel Knights run.

 

Okay I just thought of a good way to "end" the marriage.

Say Spidey's ID is revealed during Civil War. Peter asks MJ and Aunt May do some acting.

They pretend that they never knew that Peter was living a double life(they both have experience at it) and prevent themselveves from being persacuted. MJ files for an anullment on the grounds of fraud to make it convincing.Thus making it so that leagaly the marriage never happened

Meanwhile Pete's hiding out on the lamb,stealing one of Tony's Holo-inducers Pete takes on a number of different identites while assisting captain america's avengers and contiuing as spider-man.


All this leads to a get-back-together story that will allow for the entire relationship to be made stronger than ever.

 

That might work, but I think most fans would be upset that Peter was "on the lamb," so to speak - not actually being Peter Parker, but pretending to be someone new each day, issue, story arc, whatever. I just don't see it going over to well with the fans. The fans want Peter as Peter, and they want him written well. That's all they really want. You can have that and Mary Jane.

I don't think there's a good way to get rid of MJ. Maybe the marriage was a good idea, maybe it's not. They made their figurative bed with the marriage, now they should lie in it. Deconstructing and retconning should be a last resort. If they divorce, they'll just get back together when the next EIC who loved the relationship comes along. If she dies, someone will just bring her back to life or say she never really died at all. There's no use in getting rid of her at this point, she's sort of a staple. The man on the street - especially now with the movies and everything - sees Mary Jane as Peter Parker's girlfriend. That's just the way it is.

Keep her, I say.

 

that might work but where does fraud come in?

 

Well, if Aunt May and MJ pretend that they never knew that Peter was Spider-Man...

...MJ can theoretically have the marriage annulled on the grounds of fraud, saying that Peter married her under false pretenses; that the assumption was that he was just a regular Joe.

It works in theory.

 

It wouldn't matter if MJ got a divorce from Peter. Any of Peter's enemies would still know that they could hurt him by hurting her. Whether they're married or not, Peter still cares about her.

But i highly disagree with the consensus that the book has to feature MJ to survive. Some the best comics in Spidey's run either didn't involve her, or she didn't play any pivotal role in.