Seriously?

I found this Livejournal entry via When Fangirls Attack. In it Kate Willaert gives more specifics about the Spider-marriage related discussions that went on at the various Marvel panels (including the X-Men panel - apparently X-fans support MJ too) at Wizard World Chicago, which was only hinted at in the Newsarama and CBR reports. The whole thing is interesting, but this is the meat of it:

I didn't hear any "boo"ing from the crowd at the Mondo Marvel panel, but the MJ marriage once again dominated the Q&A portion of the panel, though you wouldn't guess from the three-sentence summary it gets in Newsarama's report. The CBR report actually mentions a few of the specific questions/answers addressed, but misses what I thought was the money-quote of the hour, which at least Newsarama paraphrases in their aforementioned three-sentence summary. When asked why we need Spidey unmarried in the regular books, when you can read new young-unmarried-Spidey stories in Ultimate Spider-Man, Joe responded that there are all sorts of things you can do with regular Spidey that you can't do with younger, Ultimate Spidey, because younger Spidey can't do things like "have sex, or download porn."

Yes, have sex, and download porn. That is an exact quote...I am not making that up. My roomie crazy_elf_girl turns to me in disbelief and whispers "those are the stories he wants to tell...??"

After he's finished answering the next question (a non-MJ one), I decide to raise my hand, hoping to get him to elaborate on the sex/porn thing. Joe points right at me, but there were two guys in front of me and slightly to the sides, and one of them launches into his question, thinking Joe was point at him...oh well. After that question has finished up, I raise my hand, and Joe calls on me again. My question goes like this:

"One of the things I really like about the way the Spider-man books is set up, is that with Ultimate Spider-man you can read about younger, single Spider-man, and in Amazing Spider-man you can read about the older, mature, married Spider-man, which allows you to be able to tell a greater variety of different stories. So I'm confused, are there really stories you want to do with an older unmarried Spidey, that couldn't be done with Ultimate Spidey-- [Joe tries to start his answer, but I briefly cut him off to finish the rest of my question] --because I don't think "having sex" and "downloading porn" make for real interesting..."

And then I trail off to let Joe start his answer. Which is basically once again asserting that, yes, there are all sorts of stories you can only tell with an older unmarried Spidey, but without being able to cite any more convincing examples.

Y'know, I remember being a young girl, reading reprints from the Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita eras. More than stuff like Spider-Man's first battle with Doctor Octopus, or anything like that, what I really responded to was when Peter would sneak those porn mags or screw Betty Brant in the Daily Bugle's supply closet. Yeah, those were the good old days.

Kidding aside though, isn't that precisely the kind of question they should be prepared to answer for the fans in all seriousness? Don't they owe the fans that? And I don't mean fans that are upset at how MJ is treated as a character by this editorial regime, or fans that are just opposed to anything that messes with the status quo, though I probably fall into both categories. I mean the fans as potential consumers. Shouldn't they get some assurance that they will be getting a unique product and that it will be worthwhile to buy both comics in the future?

Quesada and company is supposed to be trying to sell us on a concept so that we will want to read their comics, and they are doing a piss poor job of it. Right now, people are so pissed that I'm not sure they will buy whatever Marvel has planned for Spider-Man even if it's the best thing ever, unless, of course, that this is all just an elaborate misdirection. I really don't think that's the case though, and if it is, that's lame. The only thing worse than manufactured controversy for the sake of sales, is false manufactured controversy for the sake of sales.

Anyway, wasn't the whole point of making Spider-Man single again to make him more relateable to nine-year-olds, or some such nonsense? It would be so much easier to be more reasonable about proposed changes to the status quo if the powers that be could actually get there heads out of their asses and provide actual logical and consistent reasoning for wanting the changes to be made. Quesada seems to be getting upset that fans are getting so upset over this issue, but he created the issue in the first place, and if he hasn't been able to speak about it in any rational manner, I don't see why he should expect it from the fans. I feel the same way about when he complains about the personal attacks towards himself and other creators. I personally think that's wrong. It's something I try to avoid, though I am sure I fail on occasion, but I also think that you reap what you sew. When you intentionally bait the fans ire, you are not going to get pleasantries, or even respect, in return. That's just how it goes.

To try to spin this in a positive direction for a second, as a long time fan of Mary Jane, it's gratifying to see so many people vocally supporting the character and the pairing. It's a bit odd, but she may be the most high profile female character in the Marvel Universe right now. It's sad that so much of that attention has come out of negative things, like the statue, all this Spider-marriage controversy, etc., and I'm not really happy that she's probably best known as the character Kristen Dunst portrays in the movies (a character that is so totally not the Mary Jane I know and love), but hey, at least now the word is out there that a lot of people think Mary Jane Watson is awesome.

Whatever happens in "One More Day" and "Brand New Day," at least we have the good times. Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane will still be there, albeit without Sean McKeever, and they can't take away our copies of Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1:

or the Sensational Spider-Man Annual:

And while the marriage might be over, there's always the hope that the new comics will feature significantly more dancing!