Writer Roger Stern Talks AMZ 580

13 Comments

1. RS: Could? Possibly. Should? Not so much. The thing is, Spider-Man is a mystery to his general public — he could be anyone under that mask. No one would know about his marital status — or even give it much thought, unless they were enemies looking to strike at him through loved ones. In those pre-“Brand-New-Day” stories, it wasn’t really Spider-Man who was married, it was Peter Parker.

   And Peter for the most part works best as a young, single guy. I would never say he should never marry. But he certainly should not be married to Mary Jane Watson. That’s just crazy.

   The only way the writers were able to keep that marriage going on the printed page for as long as they did was by changing who Pete and MJ were, by turning them into different people. And a lot of talented writers worked on Spider-Man during that period, doing their best, but that marriage never quite worked for to me. It was like hearing about two old friends who’d run off and made this terrible mistake.

   Enigma: … who… who is this man… and what the h*** is he smoking? And WHY is Spider-Man the ONLY person in the Marvel U that must NOT change, evolve, and grow?!?!?

   Oh, I forgot… he exists in his own little bubble… his own little world… where nothing ever changes… everything remains constant… second verse, same as the first… and marrying the high school sweetheart that he fell in love with… that’s a no-no…. because he shold be a swinging single, who’ll never get lucky… the old “Parker luck” will see to that… now that I think about it, if they won’t let him stay married to Mary Jane, why the hell do they even bother keeping her around in the first place? And will there ever be a point where he “passes the torch” so to speak, or is that wishful thinking on my part?

   Well, Spider-Girl was cancelled, so I guess that answers my question…

   … and someone should tell CP that other than a few diamonds in the rough, current Spidey stories haven’t been hitting on s*** either. But I’m a supposed MJ fascist… so what do I know, right? If I had any real sense, I’d be a member of the BND Illuminati or something…

2. RS:
   “As a matter of fact, Marvel’s been trying to correct that particular mistake for years. I believe that the original thought behind what turned into the Clone Saga was to re-establish an unmarried Spider-Man…in a way that didn’t involve divorce or death.”

   And look how well that lasted. i expect BND to go the same way.

3. Thanks again, RS, feels good to hear someone finally say things like this! (ok, I’m leaving now, just wanted the new folks to know that there are Spidey fans other than MJ fascists on this board.)

   RS:
   “As a matter of fact, Marvel’s been trying to correct that particular mistake for years. I believe that the original thought behind what turned into the Clone Saga was to re-establish an unmarried Spider-Man…in a way that didn’t involve divorce or death.”

4. So true, Mr Stern! I kinda felt this way the six years before BND.

   RS:
   “…with prose you can have your characters engage in long, meaty discussions or even monologues that would be a series of boring-looking talking head shots in a comic book. ”

   Oh, yeah, and StyleShift, the last 20 years of Spidey purchases happened because of Spidey, NOT because PP was married to MJ. The last 20 years is replete with horrible story lines, too btw.

5. You Go, Mr Stern!!!

   RS:
   “The only way the writers were able to keep that marriage going on the printed page for as long as they did was by changing who Pete and MJ were, by turning them into different people. And a lot of talented writers worked on Spider-Man during that period, doing their best, but that marriage never quite worked for to me. It was like hearing about two old friends who’d run off and made this terrible mistake.”

6. Love Stern but I have to admit he’s wrong about the marriage.
   20 years of comics means it was successful. That’s nearly half of the time Spidey’s been around.

   Anyone else notice that the only time we had bad stories was when Marvel was trying to eliminate it?

7. Of course, someone named Miles Warren couldn’t see why Gwen would be the girlfriend from hell! 😉 She was frosty to Peter and first and then when they started dating got very clingy with dramatic mood swings. That, or Stan Lee just over dramatized everything!

8. “Girlfriend from Hell”? Gwen?

   C’mon. LOL I’m interested to know what Roger’s reasoning is behind these kind of comments.

9. Actually, I wondered the same thing, Webhead623 on another message board and Roger Stern himself responded and stated, “Just for the record, I never thought that Gwen was Pete’s “true love,” either. She was often the girl-friend-from-Hell.” So, in light of that, I re-read his comments, and basically Stern is saying that the Spider-Man, because he works better when he’s single, hasn’t found the right woman yet. And it’s not only limited to MJ, but presumably every woman he’s ever dated, including Gwen, Betty, Felicia, etc. And probably never will find the right girl as long as there’s a Spider-Man comic being published.

10. Yeah, that should read Gwen is the RIGHT girl. Sorry.

11. I wonder if he thinks Gwen is the wrong girl. I’m sorry, but I read Parallel Lives as a young teen and I TOTALLY feel she is the right girl. Agree to disagree.

12. Like him as a writer but he clearly wrong here with his views and not even he will bring me back to reading the book again.

13. I don’t get what he means about “marrying the wrong girl”. Who should he have married?