First up, a few words about babes. Spider-Man's comics are rife with babes, almost every female in the comic has the kind of figure that only a 14-year old pubescent male could dream up. But fortunately, there are some (equally stereo-typed) non-pneumatic women to balance the score - intelligent women who are attractive without having 52-24-36 figures and skin-tight clothing. Women like Betty Brant, Marla Madison, and Dr Kafka.
You remember shy little Betty, and the professional no-nonsense looks of Marla and Dr. Kafka. Heck, Marla was well and truly middle-aged when she was introduced fifteen years ago, and Dr. Kafka was a scientist, not a lingere model. All three of them were figures we could point to in an attempt to show the critics that comics really didn't paint a misogynistic exploitative world pandering to a mob of hormonally rampant drooling teenage boys.
Well, so much for that excuse. Check out the recent appearances of any of those characters. Marla in particular has the kind of body that 22 year old women aerobics champions sweat five hours a day to maintain. Kind of tough for a forty or fifty-something research scientist to keep up, wouldn't you say?
I'm not complaining about having mega-babes in the books - I drool over MJ as much as the next guy. But at least let's see Jonah picking Marla up from the gym every now and again! And hey, maybe Aunt Anna wasn't visiting friends in the recent Spectacular storyline. Maybe she was spending some time with a cosmetic surgeon. That would account for her losing twenty years worth of wrinkles!