Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

Recognise this woman? Macy...? Mattie...? Mary...? Mary-Jane! Yeah, that was it! Didn't she and Spider-Man have some sort of thing going on at some stage, a few years back. What happened to her... didn't she go off to Europe or something?

Oh, hang on. Weren't they married? But... he's single now, and you don't see him suffering too much. Didn't they have some kid, or something, that died or something? Hmmm... he still seems pretty happy. Wasn't there something about him losing his job as well... and their house?

Let's Recap: Wife, Child, Job, House. Nobody can deal with that and still keep functioning as a human being, let alone a super-human-being. Of course, there was always the "I believe she's still alive" thing. Fair enough, but now Peter Parker Spider-Man #19 would have us believe that Peter now believes that Mary Jane is truly dead.

So, come on Marvel. You're determined to set up a tragedy. Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, His Mother and Father, and now Mary Jane. You've killed everyone - all lost to criminals, or super-criminals. So, you've had some fun playing God. To what end? Are you going to follow through and deal with the consequences? Are you going to show us what happens to somebody who has lost so much?

Or is it just so that you can wind back the clock, and re-invent Spider-Man as a single guy, looking for a job, looking for love. Is that really the plan? Can you really be so stupid? Have you so seriously misunderstood what kind of person reads Spider-Man comics?

Millions of people will watch the movie. A few tens of thousands read the comics. An ever decreasing number of them. And why is that number decreasing?

That number is decreasing because there are rules about 40 year old stories. Rules about what can be changed. Rules about what can be done, and what can be undone. Rules which carry their own consequences.