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Jan 1 08 6:27 PM
Burgomaster
OK, here's what happened.
It's hard to believe, but for those who only know Spider-Man from Toby Maguire and Kirstin Dunst, in the actual comics, Peter Parker has been married to Mary Jane Watson for more than 20 years! It happened in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (published in 1987).
While it caused a sensation at the time, it clearly changed the character, and editors knew it. Where Parker had been a nebbish, a shy teen-ager and eternal loser that kids could relate to, he was suddenly married to a gorgeous super-model. Mary Jane learned his idenity. Then Aunt May learned it too. Younger readers had trouble relating to such a character, the company feared, and plummeting sales showed it.
So Marvel tried everything. The couple squabbled, they separated, almost divorced, had a miscarriage (or did they?), split up again. One storyline tried to convince everyone the Parker who got married had been a clone. They even started an entirely new line of comics -- ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN -- which featured classic Spider-Man in a new continuity, still a teenager, still single.
But the main continuity, represented by AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, continued with the marriage.
Then, during CIVIL WAR, a Marvel mega-event just last year, Peter Parker revealed his identity not only to wife Mary Jane and Aunt May, but to the entire world!
That set up the most recent storyline, which gave Marvel a chance to 'undo' what had been true for more than two decades.
Having learned Spider-Man's secret identity along with everybody else, the Kingpin sends an assassin to kill Parker in his apartment. But the bullet hits Aunt May instead! A frantic Peter spends issue after issue trying to save Aunt May's life in the hospital -- high-tech medicine, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Reed Richards. No one can help.
So Peter turns to Mephisto (the fabulous devil character created by John Buscema in Silver Surfer all those years ago), and a Faustian bargain is proposed. Mephisto will save Aunt May's life IF Peter and Mary Jane agree to give up their marriage. In other words, Mephisto will save his aunt's live, but the marriage will be as if it never happened. Mephisto says if they agree, all Peter and Mary Jane will remember about their relationship in their new world is that something buried deep within them both is missing, something they'll never be able to recapture. An eternal longing.
In a quite emotional and thought-provoking scene, Mary Janes says to Peter that Aunt May has lived a long and wonderful life, and that people DIE, Peter. She wouldn't want this, and maybe it would be better to just let her go rather than give up our life together. Peter responds that if Aunt May was dying from a heart ailment or cancer he'd agree, but that the truth is she is dying because of his poor judgment in revealing his secret identity to the world. If she dies, he says, he'd never be able to live with that guilt.
So the couple, in a heart-wrenching scene, tearfully agree to have their marriage erased. Mary Jane whispers something to Mephisto (some final new bargain which isn't revealed), Peter and Mary Jane kiss and Mephisto, relishing the pain he is causing, causes a reboot flash of light that not only erases the marriage -- it is as if it never happened -- but also reverses the fact that Peter ever revealed his identity to the world!
Suddenly, Peter Parker -- single and shy -- is at a party. There are several new characters, including a pair of attractive women who are being obviously added to the cast. Mary Jane is there at the party, too, still beautiful but sitting quietly. She gets up and leaves, eyes down, when Peter tries to talk to one of the blonde women. As the elevator door closes, Peter looks up wistfully after her. A new era of Spider-Man soap opera has begun.
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