Comics Would you cancel all Spider-Man books if they killed off MJ?

[kainedamo]

Recently Quesada has said that he can niether confirm nor deny that MJ would be killed off.

This has been building up for awhile. Quesada has never liked the marriage. According to him, there aren't many people at Marvel that do like the marriage. They all want to write about single Spidey.

I'm all for giving new plots a chance. But if they killed off MJ, I'd cancel all Spider-Man titles except for Spider-Girl.

Killing MJ off would be dumb on SO many levels. One of the biggest reasons is the amount of depression that would come across the Spidey books. How depressing would it be if MJ died! This guy's girlfriends keep dying on him! Why isn't he allowed this piece of happiness?? Killing off MJ, it's just too dark. It's too much. It would depress the hell out of me. And not depress me as in "oh wow, how touching, I wanna cry". But depressing as in "great, all the fun just went out of Spider-Man, how's he ever gonna be happy after this??"

You know that if he did it, it wouldn't be very long till he's a swinging single again. It would just be rediculous. I wouldn't buy it. I wouldn't buy that angle at all. We've been down this road! We've read about Spider-Man being single. We'll ALWAYS have those stories, and they can write new ones in Ultimate Spider-Man. Why regress the character to tell stories we've already read about? Quesada is wrong to say that you should keep these characters in stasis.

They're 40+ years old! They need to age and grow otherwise they become stale and boring. You take away MJ, for Peter it will be like "jeez... there's years of happiness gone... a massive thing in my life just gone...".

It would be a waste to kill off MJ. The marriage works when written well. JMS has proved this. They just need to be written about more as a couple.

 

[JLBats]

They're 40+ years old! They need to age and grow otherwise they become stale and boring. You take away MJ, for Peter it will be like "jeez... there's years of happiness gone... a massive thing in my life just gone...".

I disagree. You can keep the books basically the same but change little things to create the illusion of motion in story. The basic concept shouldn't change.

My main problem with killing MJ is that I like the character, but on a more useful level, killing MJ makes Peter a WIDOW. It doesn't revert things to the way they used to be. It ages Peter. I think they should seperate again, maybe, and we should reintroduce a strong supporting cast to the book, along with a new POSSIBLE love interest to keep things interesting.

 

[kainedamo]

But we've been down that line! We've been this direction!

People have really short memories, but it really wasn't that long ago when Peter and MJ were seperated. The way Jenkins had been writing Peter, it seemed like he might have been getting with a hot blonde chick.

They tried this with Ben Reilly too.

It just won't work. I have faith the fans will prove Quesada wrong if we come to it.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

if m.j was killed in either 616 or ultimate universes id drop the book.

 

[ragingdemon155]

Joey Q has been blowing steam about this whole situation for a while. I hate whenever the guy even opens his mouth. Damn is he annoying. He's already stated time and time again that he hates the marriage and pretty much has no love for MJ's character. He's gone on to say that people at Marvel feel the same way even though I rarely hear them come out and talk about it. Now fans in general love her character and the marriage. You'd think that the fan's would win out. But thats not the case with Marvel, not anymore anyway.

I don't think Joey Q would be stupid enough to kill off MJ. Then again, I never thought they would be stupid enough to unmask Spidey, give him stingers, have Norman seduce Gwen, have his kids, have Spidey eat people's brains, absorb there soul and come back from the dead.....Yet that all happened in about a year.

Personally I would drop the comic right away if they killed off MJ. She's one of my favorite characters in all of comics and the Peter and her are my favorite couple in comics.

That being said....

As long as Joey Q is in charge...MJ better watch her back.

 

[Sebastos]

No, i wouldn't cancel unless it was for good reason.

 

[freemadison]

I'd drop them.

616 Spider-Man comics are NOT the O.C. and it hasn't been that way in forever. I'm not complaining about it. I don't seem to be hearing many other fans complain "Maaaan I wish Spidey was in some bizarre love triangle (cue New Order song) and had teen angst". Fans who want to see that read Ultimate and are happy. This is a problem among writers who can't think of any plot points that don't involve the wild and swinging Peter Parker. Most of us fans seem to be complaining about crappy story arcs like the Other or Sins Past.

Besides, if MJ dies then Peter is the most miserable man alive. No way he's dating again. He'll be a hermit forever...

I can see it now!
Headline:

"Peter Parker No More! Only the Spider Remains" (reeeeehash)

Oh wait...I forgot that Marve...um...I mean..Peter forgot all about the deaths of his unborn child and "brother".

He'll be dating in a month.

 

[Sloth7d]

I'd keep buying them in hopes of Peter hooking up with Black Cat.

 

[Tangled Web]

I've already cancelled them. Let's say all this Other, mysical, spider-god, unmasking, gwen ****e, metamorphises: crap never happened? Well then maybe I'd keep it to see how it goes. But it would probably suck.

I'd see Pete donning the black and white suit and killing guys like the Shocker, Rhino, the Beetle.

Actually that'd be a pretty cool What If concept.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

nah. who reads a superhero comic so they can follow the exploits of that superhero's wife? anyone? didn't think so. there's always mary jane loves spider-man if you want that sort of thing

 

[JLBats]

But we've been down that line! We've been this direction!

People have really short memories, but it really wasn't that long ago when Peter and MJ were seperated. The way Jenkins had been writing Peter, it seemed like he might have been getting with a hot blonde chick.

They tried this with Ben Reilly too.

It just won't work. I have faith the fans will prove Quesada wrong if we come to it.

Mostly, I just think Spider-Man is truer to his original intention when single. It's harder to give him personal life troubles when he is in a stable marriage, and frankly, I think the supporting cast suffers as well.

 

[Spideys Sister]

You kill of MJ and Bring back Qwen or Liz Allen or have Felicia Hardy dump Flash all is well and life can go on.

 

[spideylover89]

Joey Q has been blowing steam about this whole situation for a while. I hate whenever the guy even opens his mouth. Damn is he annoying. He's already stated time and time again that he hates the marriage and pretty much has no love for MJ's character. He's gone on to say that people at Marvel feel the same way even though I rarely hear them come out and talk about it. Now fans in general love her character and the marriage. You'd think that the fan's would win out. But thats not the case with Marvel, not anymore anyway.

I don't think Joey Q would be stupid enough to kill off MJ. Then again, I never thought they would be stupid enough to unmask Spidey, give him stingers, have Norman seduce Gwen, have his kids, have Spidey eat people's brains, absorb there soul and come back from the dead.....Yet that all happened in about a year.

Personally I would drop the comic right away if they killed off MJ. She's one of my favorite characters in all of comics and the Peter and her are my favorite couple in comics.

That being said....

As long as Joey Q is in charge...MJ better watch her back.

Well said

I'd drop the 616 books, but if MJ was still alive in Ultimate I stick with that. Has Joe forgotten what happened the last time someone messed with MJ, it's not pretty. There are a lot of MJ fans and a lot of people who read the book because of the spidey marriage, they are one of the most famous and well liked comic book couples in history.

 

[spideylover89]

You kill of MJ and Bring back Qwen or Liz Allen or have Felicia Hardy dump Flash all is well and life can go on.

Felicia hasn't been with Flash for years, until recently he was comatose

And the day Gwen is brought back, all hell will break loose, they already ruined her enough just leave her alone.

 

[Venom Drool]

gwen = dead.. leave it that way

felicia would be nice IF she somehow stopped being the black crap.

 

[Dr.Dude]

Even not taking into account the fact that MJ's a great character, how important she's become, how she rounds out the story so perfectly.... the fact of it is that killing off Peter's goddamn wife would be one tragedy too many. It'd throw the character into a depressive black hole that there'd be no realistic or reasonable kind of escape from.

So yeah, my answer is yes.

 

[Citizen_Kaine]

I hate MJ and her character in general. For lack of a better metaphor, she always seemed like Peter's Silver Medal, and to me, her marriage to Peter was pretty rushed and ill concieved (Marvel only did it, to beat Stan Lee who was going to put it in his newspaper strip). She has a terrific back story, but unfortunatly there are very few people that can write the character effectivily. Stan Lee did it easily, his succeser, Conway took her to another level as well. The rest Tom Defalco, JM DeMatties and even JMS, can write her in their sleep. Everyone else likes to make her into:

A. Crybaby over Peter being Spider-Man

B. Supermodel, who says "Tiger" excessivley

C. *****, who's always upset that Peter missed an important event

My rant aside, she is far too embedded in the Spider-mythos to be killed now, as she appears in almost every continuity from Ultimate to MC2 (And I like her in both of these Uni's) and in every media outside of comics. If MJ dies it will be a big time sign that Marvel has truly run out of idea's for 616 Spidey. I don't even pay for my 616 Spidey's anymore(Just steal my roomies), but I doubt I'd even read the damn things, if MJ was killed. Just lazy, lazy writing right there

 

[Kraven]

I would most likely drop all titles.

 

[DACrowe]

Well Mackie (who couldn't write worth a **** except for the occasional good Goblin stsory, and that includes his inability to write women) "killed" off MJ for a year. Sure we knew it was a kidnapping and she'd be back, but besides being the usual Mackie crap (in the late '90s with DeMatthis watching his back he could do okay, but once it was all his Jenkins and JMS had to pry it away from him before he could the series) it was so DEPRESSING. Pete was gone, **** he was homeless and broken.

Then they seperated them and the fans are like "Okay thati s ****ing it, I am out of here, **** YOU MARVEL." But I stayed because I liked Jenkisn and JMS was supposed to be promising and many came back realizing how good JMS was (I use the word was as he ran out of steam about a year ago) and the stories were fresh again and they brought MJ back and this is what fans want. You can give them money problems, baby problems (wouldn't it be interesting, oh screw it, Marvel will never agree)....

but kill her again, than **** you.

I'll be honest I quit and dorpped all my subscriptions after Sins Past and Sins Remembered (the two best Spidey writers in year screw up Gwen) and I just waited for Millar to finish his pretty solid (if a bit of a retread, albeit grittier) Spider-Man run and I was gone. Spider-Man joining the Avengers sounded boring to me and had no interest in my eyes. I hesitantly read a few issues of The Other. I thought his death issue would have been a good THE END story besides the head biting off thing, if he had just died saving MJ from Morlun and she was pregnant and that coulda' been a good what if conclusion. But this was continuity and how do they bring him back...he ****ing rips himself out of his own body and makes a cocoon. What do I say? **** YOU MARVEL.


And now with Civil War I am coming back a little, not because I think it is good storytelling, I thought it was a great idea and premise but Spidey was mutilated and butchered in it, but it is kinda' like going to see a car wreck.

BUT if they kill MJ, again, for good, than I am done. I am not returning to 616 because a spike-laden, organic shooting, iron-wearing Spidey that is unmasked and single again holds about as much interest to me as a hit in the head with a hammer. And if they do bring back Gwen, I think every fan in the world will simultaneously refuse to read a 616 issue ever again though.

 

[DACrowe]

Killing MJ kills what Peter is. Though in set-up he was supposed to be single, he was also supposed to grow. He grew into Spider-Man. He was supposed to go to college, grad school, get a job and it was Stan Lee's demand that he marry MJ in 1987 because it was "time." The character grows, it is when he is in a state of flux he is boring and reverting just plain sucks (coughFlashcough). I say the next step is one forward...children. A step back by killing off the best superhero couple ever is just...a bad idea, really.

 

[kainedamo]

Excellent point DaCrowe.

I think Joe Q is seveerely wrong when he says characters should stay in stasis.

 

[farmernudie]

IF MJ is killed....Peter turns into an old guy who is a widower....and if they write it (properly) they can't just "forget about it next month"....to make it realistic...they'd have to write the "friendly mopey neighborhood spider-man" who is going thru the natural grieving process which takes a lot of time.

I don't want to read about Peter the widower....mourning the loss of his wife.....who gets off'ed in some cheap cheesy way. (maybe related to him no longer having a secret identity???)

THe thing is, if they do kill MJ, they want to force Pete into this puzzle piece all of the sudden, so it'd prolly be one or two issues nod to the death and then BAM!-MOVE ON fast to do Joey's Q's "fix"....bringing in dating interests.

Worse yet, the supporting cast is so dwindled as is....killing MJ only makes THAT problem worse too.

Marriage isn't a problem to write. Look at all the tv sitcoms/shows. Bringing in a "superhero aspect" can only make it MORE interesting.

I don't know why the writers can't get a handle on it, or bring in someone that can.

The second problem with killing her is....it is only a year or so after her death some writer and Joey Q will bring in a "CLONE OF MJ" mystery storyline....is it a CLONE or really HER type of thing???

We've had to deal with enough Gwen-clone stories over the years...then we'd have to deal with MJ clone stories.

Worse yet....if and when he hooks up with a new girl...then we'll have Peter and MJ dream episodes not unlike the Gwen fantasies they write now...Peter stuck in illusions of life being married to MJ if she hadn't died.....Peter will never have gotten over both Gwen AND MJ if this death occurs....gag.

Yeh, killing off MJ just opens up great stories alright. >sarcasm<

And of course...the eventual retcon of her death....when they see it doesnt' work....oy.

It's like Joey Q. is trying to find as many ways he can possibly alienate and tork off Spidey fans with his "Story decisions" the past year or so. I don't think he any longer would know a good storyline for Spider-man if it bit him in the butt.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I wouldn't "cancel" the Spider-Man books.

In fact, I'd buy multiple copies of that Mary Jane death scene.

Possibly a goblin glider through the chest? Maybe blown to itty bitty pieces by a big fat pumpkin bomb? Drowned to death? Possibly go the super cliched way and have her thrown off of a bridge by a Goblin? Maybe she'll get caught up in a giant battle between the superheroes and Iron Man will accidentally nail her with a repulsor ray and blow up her spleen? Hmmm. So many possibilities and death scenes to go through.

But seriously, I wouldn't mind. I've been wanting MJ dead for a really long time. And lately I've been getting things I've wanted to see out of Spider-Man for a very long time. I got the unmasking just a month and a half ago and I'm loving it to death.

But right now I think it'd be really stupid to kill her. I think they should have killed her like 15 years ago if you ask me. But JMS gave her a little bit more in her character...so...really...what's the point in killing her off? If Joe Quesada doesn't want to age Peter Parker that's the last thing that you want to do...kill MJ. Than Peter Parker is a widow and while there are young widows...like the poor wives of some of the soldiers who die over in Iraq...it will still age the character whether they like it or not.

What they should really do when it comes to MJ is have JMS keep doing what he's bee doing with her. But also have Peter meet another woman that he ends up really having a thing for because she's into science and into the fact that he's Spider-Man, and that the two get along. Then you've got a story where you might think that Peter could cheat, though he doesn't want to or never would. It could be a story that makes the reader constantly question whether Peter would/should/could go with the other woman.

There is actually a lot that can be done now with MJ, it'd be dumb to kill her off at this point. As I said earlier...yeah, 15 years ago...killing her would have probably been a nice move, especially for a fan like me who always and forever will enjoy a single Spider-Man, but it's not a time for her to die right now.

But if they do kill her, I certainly won't shed a tear, nor drop the Spider-Man titles. Though having her killed by a pumpkin bomb would be my personal choice of death.

 

[GoblinScrier]

2 things:

1)Just WHAT exactly is it going to take to get rid of Quesada at Marvel? What powers in charge realize that he is power mad (I never dreamed I would know about someone with a bigger ego than Victor Von Doom!!!) and that he is the single worst thing to ever happen to Spiderman.

2)I swear if he kills Mary Jane/divorces them and it happens during Civil War...then the outcome is clear...Civil War was created just so Spiderman could unmask, and have Mary Jane divorce him (I don't care about what he says about they won't, this man is a pathological liar), die, or just leave.

It is making me sick to my stomach...just leave Spiderman alone and actually "repair" the damage you have caused.

 

[Grim Goblin]

I posted this before in another thread but it's worth posting again

JoeQ needs to be dumped in the middle of a grizzly infested wood, with only a tooth brush for a weapon.