Tom Brevoort explains why Northstar marriage will last
Published May 27 2012, 11:32 BST | By Hugh Armitage
© Marvel Comics
The Marvel Comics executive editor was asked on Formspring whether there was hypocrisy in abolishing Spider-Man's married life while introducing the new nuptials, reports The Beat.
"The marriage of Peter [Parker] and [Mary Jane] felt far less forced or sudden," said the questioner.
"No, because different characters require different things," said Brevoort.
"This is similar to arguing that it's unfair that Reed Richards is so smart - that works for his character, but wouldn't work as well for, say, Ben Grimm. Different character.
"Also, and take this from somebody who was there as a reader and watched it happen, the marriage of Peter and MJ was absolutely as forced and sudden, probably more so. It's just had the advantage of having been a status quo for so long that a lot of readers grew up with it and accepted it.
"We've never said that no characters should be married. The point is that Spider-Man, the most popular youth-based character in the entertainment world, probably shouldn't be married."
Astonishing X-Men #50 saw X-Man Northstar propose to his boyfriend Kyle. The pair will be married in issue #51.
Spider-Man's marriage was controversially undone by the demon Mephisto in 2007.
The conservative religious group One Million Mums is protesting against the forthcoming gay nuptials.
I hope all this media attention the X-men comics are getting means people pick it up and half of them stay on board if not them all. I love X-men and Northstar has always been one of my fave characters right back from in his Alpha Flight days, nobody can give a put down like Jean-Paul, not even Emma Frost!
May 27th 2012 at 8:43pm
As someone who grew up reading a married Spider-Man, it felt perfectly normal for him to be married, and this was me as a child talking. I still thought he was cool, I wanted to be Spider-man and marry the hot red-head. It feels strange that the character is basically back in the same position he was when he was 16. It won't spoil his status as a youth icon for him to have remained married, if anything it feels more natural for the story to progress after almost 50 years. Northstar's marriage probably makes perfect sense (I must admit I am not familiar with the character) but Peter and MJ were together for years. It's a clumsy story for him to propose one issue, be married the next. That feels forced and rushed to me, but like I said, I am not entirely familiar with the character.
May 27th 2012 at 4:01pm
I also grew up with Spidey & MJ married and I didn't see a problem with it at all...that is until I started reading the MJ character as a single girl about town, not being married to Peter has made her back to her party girl, happy roots and if truth be told when I look back at the married issues she seems like a worrying, depressed version of herself, MJ has always been a role model to me growing up but now I actually wanna be her mate & party with her and those knee high boots, if only she was real :)
May 27th 2012 at 8:40pm
Spider-Man did a deal with THE DEVIL to undo his marriage... How come One Million Moms didn't protest this?
As a long long time reader Pete and MJs marriage felt right. She was there for him when Gwen died, he tried to push her away, but she stayed. They had earned their happy ever after
May 27th 2012 at 1:55pm(+1 like)
Well, it "feels" that way. I think you can't be naive and not say it with a straight face -- especially after our Presidents announcement support of gay marriage(Hollywood thereafter). Maybe there's nothing to it, who knows.
May 27th 2012 at 1:07pm
There is no difference Northstars relationship and marriage is a natural progression but so was Spidermans. The retconning done to the spiderman plotline was ridiculous.
May 27th 2012 at 12:35pm
Yeah, Northstar has been looking to settle down for years. I honestly thought they were going to turn Iceman for a while too (kind of glad they didn't).
If anything it'd be going against his character to have had him not eventually get married.
May 27th 2012 at 3:11pm