A Few Notes of Criticism

As of late, I have some bones to pick with Marvel Comics.

Before I do that, I want to say that I am enjoying several books published under their banner. The X-Men line with Messiah CompleX has been a great read. The ideas are constantly pushing forward in those books, while playing proper credence to the past. So often in the past few years, Cyclops would be played as in love with Emma Frost to such a degree that he was her lapdog. Now he's the most conflicted member of their ranks, having to lead a massive offensive against his own son, while on a subtle level he keeps questioning what's really going on. Cyclops is the leader at last and he doesn't have to be compromised on any of his values in order to pull it off.

This is just a small example of what's good about the X-Men.

Now, I could say what was bad about Spider-man right now, but I'm sure a lot of you have heard it before. Sure, we've got his identity concealed again. Peter's back to using webshooters and he's got conflict with Harry Osborn to look forward to. But the price was a story I've seen referred to as being "worse than the Clone Saga." If you know Spider-man comics, then you cringe at the thought of the Clone Saga. Someday, you might cringe at the idea of One More Day as well.

No, my note of criticism toward Marvel is about it's marriage policy. Joe Quesada has claimed for years that he, nor Marvel are anti-marriage. Here was his opportunity to prove that point. Instead, he proved ours. I would have loved to have been wrong about there being an anti-marriage policy at Marvel, but they just took the third of the crown gems and pissed on it.

(I describe the crown gems of Marvel couples being Reed and Sue Richards, Cyclops and Phoenix, and Spider-man and Mary Jane. If someone knows of a Marvel couple that is just as iconic, feel free to say.)

First, Quesada set Grant Morrison loose with his "I don't pay attention to what's come before bullshit." This cost us not only Jean Grey-Summers, but it screwed up Cyclops so badly, Joss Whedon couldn't fix him. Cyclops had to be forced into the role of the cheater, even though thirty years of material said that Jean would be more likely to cheat. Current writers now have to slip in notes to say that Cyclops still mourns Jean on a daily basis, just so people won't remember that only a few years ago there was a Cyclops/Emma Frost makeout scene taking place on Jean's grave. Score: Bullshit 1, Iconic Marriages 0

Next, Quesada had to create friction in every book with their Civil War event. In order to convince someone that Iron Man wasn't trying to conquer the world, editorial decided that all the scientist characters had to fall in line with Iron Man's thinking, while all the nice characters had to say Iron Man is evil. Thus, Reed likes Iron Man's fascist ideals and Sue kicks him out of bed for it. Later she leaves. Fortunately, someone in Marvel realized that the Fantastic Four is a family first, so the couple was removed from the book (for "counseling") and the ultra-forced Strom/Black Panther duo (which only existed in Reggie Hudlin's mind) was added. Score: Bullshit 2, Iconic Marriages 1

Now, we have One More Day. This was marketed as "we're killing the marriage because it started badly." (Anyone else thinking that about Storm and Black Panther?) During his tenure, Quesada has had no less than three plausible periods in while the Spider-man/Mary Jane relationship could end and he didn't make it happen there. After Mary Jane's stalker abducted her, she left for Hollywood--it could have ended there and just been bad writing. When Peter ran out to Hollywood to find his wife, there was a well-written moment when, if neither said another word, the marriage was done; yet, they finally started talking again and made it work. In the aftermath of Civil War, she could have taken the bullet that Aunt May got--a bit forced, but still within the realm of reason.

But no, we've got to have the most forced story ever. It would have made sense if Loki had been the deal-maker, since Loki still owes Spider-man a favor. But no, Mephisto, a character that shouldn't give half a crap about Spider-man makes it all happen. And Mephisto didn't even get Peter's soul out of the deal! What kind of lousy half-wit devil doesn't write in a loophole to take someone's soul. Fourteenth Century peasants who couldn't even read could figure that one out. Unfortunately, Joe Quesada can't.

Quesada burned a lot of her personal capital with Straczynski in convincing the writer to keep his name on the last two issues of the story--a move that was vital to maintaining long-term sales, especially in trade formats. Quesada had to manufacture a good portion of the story to end up with a result that he wanted. The story didn't matter at all to him, only the result. Now a massive hole has been punched in every Spider-man appearance in the last twenty years. Score: Bullshit 3, Iconic Marriages 1

So, if you like Spider-man, I have an odd request for you. You might think I'm a bit hypocritical for saying this, but I feel it's worth saying again. My request is that you refrain from buying Spider-man comic books. In order to make Dan Buckley realize a leadership change must be enacted, you need to vote with you wallet. Don't spend another cent on Spider-man comics. This goes double for anyone who has been reading Spider-man since the Sins Past storyline where many of Straczynski's fans left. If you truly care about Spider-man, you must stop buying. The Quesada and the editorial staff are playing the part of Mephisto, the devil torturing Peter Parker's soul. Those of us who care about Spider-man need to save him from his agony, and for each Spider-man comic we buy, that agony will continue.

A final thought. If you're going to claim your work doesn't have a perceived message, those works need to clearly support your position--Don't say you're for marriage when you're really disrupting the longest running marriages.