"SPIDER-MAN'S TRUE LOVE?"
For the umpteenth time, I began reading Mad Goblin's article, "Why Did It Have to Be You, Mary Jane?" on his "SPIDEY KICKS BUTT" website. According to Mad Goblin's article, Spidey creator, Stan Lee has claimed that Gwen Stacy had originally been created to be the main woman in Peter Parker's life whom he would eventually marry. Mad Goblin also added that artist Gerry Conway had decided to kill off Gwen, because he found her character uninteresting by the early 1970s - probably due to Lee's mishandling of her character.
First, let me say that I believe Mad Gobliln. I am quite certain that he genuinely believe Lee and Conway were telling the truth. But . . . I am not certain if I believe either of them.
It is just hard for me to accept that Mary Jane Watson became Peter's main love through some fluke based on Lee's poor characterization and Conway's "Amazing Spider-Man" issue #15 (August 1964) and her character was finally introduced in "Amazing Spider-Man" issue #42 (November 1966). I just find it hard to believe that a female character that had an introduction that lasted for 27 issues and two years, just to be a minor romantic rival of Gwen Stacy? The only other character that had been given such a build-up was Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin. And he turned out to be Spider-Man's main nemesis.
I don't know. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part. But the more I think about it, the more I have a growing suspicion that Mary Jane had been created specifically to be the main female in Peter's life (aside from Aunt May), not Gwen Stacy. I think that Gwen had been created to be nothing more than Peter's first love . . . an interim to his more long-lasting relationship with Mary Jane.
Am I wrong? Who knows? Something tells me that my suspicions will never be confirmed one way or the other.
1 comment:
Frankly, I think Mary Jane is the most mysterious--or at least the most mysteriously presented--of the 'civilian' characters in the early Amazing Spider-Man issues. Given the time she was 'introduced' and the lengthy buildup to her facial revelation, she functions almost as a plainclothes counterpart to the equally mysterious Green Goblin. If one studies those old issues carefully, one begins to perceive of implied storylines and dark undertones revolving around her. (The same might be said of Betty Brant to some extent by the mid '60s.) There may even be subliminal embeds emphasising her dark nature and background.
As for who was truly intended to be Parker's life partner, the story I once heard was that Stan Lee was going off on holiday just as 'decision time' had come down to the wire: How exactly are we going to resolve the love-triangle issue? Apparently, Lee said something like, "I'm off to Bermuda (or wherever)--you fellas take care of it." When he returned, he was supposedly somewhat surprised that the bullpen had gone with MJ and killed off Stacy. That's the way I've heard it, anyway....
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