Did you read about the good news? 2007's The Sensational Spider-Man one-shot annual has been nominated for an Eisner award! How cool is that? This title would have slipped under my radar if not for the review I'd read over at SpiderFan.org about a year ago. For those of you not in the know, this story, told from both Peter and Mary Jane's perspective, describes just how these two crazy kids got together and stayed together, despite the many hardships that is Spider-Man's life. This book is without a doubt one of the best Spider-Man comics I've ever read and does a wonderful job of showing the strength of Peter and MJ's love for each other.I have always been a big fan of Spidey being married. In my eyes, it never took away the core aspect of what Spider-Man was about. There's all this talk that marrying Peter aged him too much and that someone like Peter never should have ended up with a babe like MJ. Kinda hard to believe that these comments have sprung out of the mouths of creators that worked on Spider-Man (Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, John Romita Jr. etc).
First of all, these same creators that worked on Spidey did more than their fair share to contribute to aging him in his college, grad school years and everything else they put him through. Placing all of the blame on the marriage, just ain't right. Secondly, these guys need to go back and look at all the women Peter's been around because Peter has never dated any ugly women. Every chick Peter's been around has been either cute, hot, or drop dead gorgeous. So the thought of Peter marrying a woman like MJ really shouldn't surprise anyone. This is a guy that has been surrounded by hot women for a long time and who do we have to thank for that? That's right, the writers and artists.
Does this annual lose it's strength now that we have to swap "husband" for "boyfriend" and "wife" for "girlfriend"? That could be a whole different blog post and I'm certainly not gonna get into the whole mess right here. Basically, I really don't think this annual story would have worked anywhere near as well if Peter and MJ weren't married. I doubt the story would carry the same emotional impact if they were just in a long term relationship.
As much as Joe Quesada dislikes the marriage, a story the has what he feels limits Spidey's appeal has been nominated for an Eisner. I really hope it wins but just to be nominated is pretty sweet in and of itself.
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And it did bum me out a bit when some of the people who had worked on Spidey had that viewpoint. :(
Yeah, creators that helped shape Spidey having so many knocks against the marriage when they aged him in their own way, well their arguments don't hold much water. Especially when Peter has always had good-looking women around him. I wonder if they've ever stopped to think about that.