The Truth About Spider-Man
Popular Misconceptions Abound in Current Spider-Man Continuity
Jun 14, 2009
Comic books are, first and foremost, a business. A story-telling and story-selling business. The Editors-in-Chief at Marvel comics and DC will say this at any opportunity, especially when their decisions are questioned by loyal fans. As a business, they say, the publishers have to make choices that will ultimately be in the best interest of selling their product. In a uniquely on-going entertainment medium such as comics, that means constantly creating interesting stories that balance the line between not alienating long-time readers, while at the same time bringing new ones to the table (or the cashier).
One of the ways to do this is to have the writers constantly play around with the status quo – the character's life situation and environment. Yet, with Spider-Man arguably the most recognizable superhero in the world, and with one of the biggest movie franchises in recent history reaching even more people than the comics, there are certain basic story elements that everyone knows, that they would imagine stay intact.
Not so much. Here's a list of plot points from current Spider-Man comic continuity in contrast to what people think they know:
- J. Jonah Jameson is not the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle – He is currently, in fact, the mayor of New York City. After a heart attack induced accidentally by Peter Parker, JJJ was hospitalized for a few months, during which time a southern business magnate named Dexter Bennett bought the Dailly Bugle from Jonah's wife (she had the authority to sell it while JJJ was incapacitated). After leaving the hospital, with no business to his name, Jonah took a shot and ran for office after both mayoral candidates had to duck out in a super-villain related controversy. He won in a special election, and now Spidey's biggest hater is in charge of the city. And speaking of haters in charge...
- The Green Goblin is the most powerful policeman in the world – He is not dead, nor is he even in jail. For the past several years, a supposedly rehabilitated Norman Osborn has been the leader of a controversial peacekeeping super-group of other former villains known as The Thunderbolts. When Osborn publicly dealt the killing blow to the leader of a recent alien invasion, effectively stopping it, he was lauded as a hero, and was appointed the new leader of the world-wide high-tech security and defense organization known as SHIELD (replacing Tony Stark aka Iron Man, by the way). He has renamed the organization HAMMER and is using it to track down discredited superheroes who've cause him trouble in the past, Spidey definitely included.
- Spider-Man's secret identity is not entirely secret – There was a long period of time recently in the Marvel Universe when it was known full well by the public that Peter is Spider-Man. He actually revealed it in a press conference. This was undone about a year and a half ago, however. More on that later. At the moment only the members of the Fantastic Four and what are called the "New" Avengers are aware of his identity. But what about Mary Jane? Surely she knows? Good question, but unfortunately...
- Peter Parker is not married to, or even dating, Mary Jane Watson – Yeah, this is a biggie. The most recent status quo shake-up was a very controversial one, enacted by decree of Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, in a story arc known as "One More Day", written by Quesada and J. Michael Straczynski. In it, Aunt May has been shot and is slowly dying in the hospital. After the doctors say it's hopeless and Peter exhausts his super-resources finding a way to save her, he, no joke, makes a deal with the devil. Aunt May will be saved, but in return, the devil demands his marriage to Mary Jane be nullified. Not just annulled - the idea is that the marriage never happened. Everything else in Peter and MJ's life up to that point would be the same, but for some reason we have yet to know, the marriage did not happen, and they've broken up. Their lives are different from that point on as a result, all without them ever knowing they were married in the first place. This is the event that also undid Peter's public revealing as Spider-Man. Somehow.
So anyway, these are just a few ways in which public knowledge of a popular character differs from what's actually happening in that character's (imaginary) life. If any of it sounds interesting enough, why not take a trip to a local comic shop and see what's going on? By the way, in a related point of interest, Bruce Wayne is not Batman. Look it up.
