Oh, and I'm definitely pro-BND. I didn't love the mystical mumbo-jumbo that ended the marriage--I always thought that MJ should have gotten hit by a car or had some other decidedly non-super-hero-related demise. I thought that would have carried greated emotional weight than the business with Mephisto. I disliked the Other and the Totem, and all the other spider-mysticism.
I actually thought Pete's marriage to MJ was a far greater betrayal to my vision of the character than the alleged "deal." The specter of Spider-Man, Pete's responsibility should have kept him apart from marriage. He had a choice to use his powers and not live a fully "normal" life, or renounce those powers for a regular life. The tension of those choices provided a great deal of interest for me, and shaped Pete's character. Once he "had it all," (uper hero, married to a piping hot model actress) I just thought it was dull. Marvel couldn't age him or let him have kids (well, it COULD do that, but for economic reasons, there's no way it WOULD), so we'd see Pete stuck forever in marrage--a marriage which had gotten pretty stale because Pete and MJ couldn't really do the things normal married people do (age, have kids, etc).
With respect to Mephisto, however, Pete was trying to make things right--things he believed HE had screwed up. And he was willing to sacrifice something dear to him--his love for Gwen--erm, MJ--to save his Aunt. Yet, even so, he wouldn't do it without MJ's acquiescense. So, to me at least, that's a heroic act, even if it might have been a "bad choice." That is at least in character in a way his decision to marry MJ was not. Not to mention just what MJ represented--the quintessential party-girl, a model/actress, not even a fellow science student (Gwen) or a person of more humble origins and work (Betty or Liz). But hey, I understand others disagree with that view. It's just how I see it. So, I'm pro-BND, but I wish they had ended the marriage differently. If there had been an internet back when Pete got married, the younger version of myself probably would have been flaming these boards too.
I actually thought Pete's marriage to MJ was a far greater betrayal to my vision of the character than the alleged "deal." The specter of Spider-Man, Pete's responsibility should have kept him apart from marriage. He had a choice to use his powers and not live a fully "normal" life, or renounce those powers for a regular life. The tension of those choices provided a great deal of interest for me, and shaped Pete's character. Once he "had it all," (uper hero, married to a piping hot model actress) I just thought it was dull. Marvel couldn't age him or let him have kids (well, it COULD do that, but for economic reasons, there's no way it WOULD), so we'd see Pete stuck forever in marrage--a marriage which had gotten pretty stale because Pete and MJ couldn't really do the things normal married people do (age, have kids, etc).
With respect to Mephisto, however, Pete was trying to make things right--things he believed HE had screwed up. And he was willing to sacrifice something dear to him--his love for Gwen--erm, MJ--to save his Aunt. Yet, even so, he wouldn't do it without MJ's acquiescense. So, to me at least, that's a heroic act, even if it might have been a "bad choice." That is at least in character in a way his decision to marry MJ was not. Not to mention just what MJ represented--the quintessential party-girl, a model/actress, not even a fellow science student (Gwen) or a person of more humble origins and work (Betty or Liz). But hey, I understand others disagree with that view. It's just how I see it. So, I'm pro-BND, but I wish they had ended the marriage differently. If there had been an internet back when Pete got married, the younger version of myself probably would have been flaming these boards too.
