The Four Color Media Monitor

It's been apparent for some time that Marvel was just taking Spider-fans for a ride when, on the surface, it looked as though they were willing to reverse One More Day and restore Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's relationship. But since last year, C.B. Cebulski made clear they'll do nothing of the sort, and now, in a Popverse interview with Zeb Wells, he's signaled what he has in store for the web-slinger's stories is something he's completely okay with angering Spider-fans about. They bring up one of the worst eras in the past 15 years, which Wells was involved with writing:

You worked on Spider-Man during the 'Brand New Day' era. What are some of the biggest changes in your writing process since then, how you view Spider-Man, and if you think he's different now than he was then?

Well, I think I'm a much more skilled writer - I would hope. I'm more confident. I've just done it for a lot longer, and so my process is a lot more dialed in. I have more fun doing it because I am more disciplined. And that's one thing you have to learn, more discipline leads to more fun. Spider-Man, he's got some more miles on him. He's seen some more stuff, some more traumas, some different traumas.

You're responsible for one of those traumas!

I am! I am!

And this surely preceded the equally pretentious Tom King's obsession with writing contrived traumas in the DC universe. With the way Wells has gone about his career, his claim he's more "skilled" and "disciplined" is very sad.

Another former rogues gallery member, but one that Peter is a lot more comfortable with - A LOT more comfortable with is Felicia Hardy. They've gotten closer during your run. Talk about getting Peter and Felicia back together. How do you see their relationship?

I see it as very fun. They're both superheroes. Felicia is clearly not his equal because she's more of just about everything that he is - she's more. It's fun to put him in a situation where he can barely keep up and to see if now that he's a little older, see if he can hang with her a little bit better.

They've both changed a lot since their first relationship.

For sure, and Jed MacKay has filled in so much of her character in the meantime. It's fun to play with.

There may have once been a time when these team-ups with Black Cat would've been a delight, but when it all comes at Mary Jane's expense, that ruins everything. On which note, let's turn to that precise issue:

Over in Jed MacKay's Mary Jane and Black Cat limited series we saw Mary Jane with powers. Will the origin of her powers be addressed during your current arc, as we flash back to the missing events from last year?

Yes. We will definitely see how that came about, and what happened and see the origin of Mary Jane as a hero.

This is all leading to Amazing Spider-Man #26, which you have called the most shocking event to happen to Spider-Man in 50 years. Back in 1973 Marvel killed Gwen Stacy. I know that you can't tell us what this shocking thing is, but what can you tease?

I can tease that many people will be very mad at me. I can tease that Nick (Lowe) told me not to do any comic conventions after this issue comes out (laughs). People will be upset.

I know you can't tell us what happens, but can you describe how editorial reacted when you pitched this to them. What was their level of shock?

Nick's a mad man, so he was completely down. I don't know how it went when he ran it up the ladder, but I'm very excited for people to read issue 26.

No doubt, he's begging for outrage to occur, which only makes this all the more repellent an affair. It makes no difference where this is going, or what they'll have in store for MJ. When somebody says he hopes to offend fans over what could easily be the wrong reasons, that's only a signal why we should stay away and not put our money into their pockets. It's bad enough that, last time I looked, the writers appear to have joined MJ up with another man, who may have kids, in another slap in the face to Spider-fans who'd rather she have kids of her own with Peter. Now, Marvel's trolling the audience again with aggravation, and only making clear that so long as Marvel's under Disney's ownership, this'll just go on and on, explaining perfectly why we can't buy their products anymore.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, Spider-Man, women of marvel