Once again, the question of whether or not Spider-Man should remain a bachelor has made headlines in certain online media outlets.
As recounted by PopVerse, current X-Men editor Tom Brevoort fielded a question about Marvel’s editorial mandates during a panel at Baltimore Comic Con over the weekend. Brevoort replied, “If you’re working for Marvel, the ground rules are all the characters are Marvel’s and Marvel as an institution gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong for these characters. So there are certain things you don’t want Spider-Man to do— ”
At this juncture, the audience member who’d asked the question originally interjected with a contentious follow-up: “like get back [together] with Mary Jane?” Brevoort assuaged the tense murmurings of the crowd that followed by answering, “He can get back with Mary Jane, he just can’t actually tie the knot with Mary Jane. Those are the ground rules going in. If you’re going to work on whatever character—if you’re going to work on Daredevil, you’re going to have to deal with the fact that he’s blind and he’s probably going to stay that way for a while.”
The insistence Peter Parker must remain single and swinging in the mainline MCU has been a subject of intense debate for years now, coming to a head with the infamous One More Day story arc in 2007. In a desperate plea to keep Aunt May alive for a precious few fleeting years, Parker unwisely forfeited his marriage to Mary Jane in a deal made with the demon, Mephisto. Now, Mephisto did not himself become legally wed to Mary Jane in the bargain; he simply found the annulment to be a fair trade by virtue of being the devil incarnate. It made little sense, but the machinations of gods and devils are beyond our mortal ken, we’re told. However, the deal worked gangbusters for Marvel editorial by removing their star character from the doldrums of marital bliss and placing him back into the unforgiving dating pool of the Marvel Universe. On the whole, readers were not happy with the development.
Despite fan outcry, Marvel refused to budge on the decision and Peter and Mary Jane continue living in sin to this very day. Though as the outlet notes, the couple are indeed back together and legally married in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man, a series set in a different continuity than the mainline Marvel range. Last month’s issue of the book was also the number one best-selling comic of August 2024, outperforming the mainline title, Amazing Spider-Man, which came in 29th place.
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