arrogantcur

I liked Peter and Mary Jane as a couple, and I wish that Quesada had been wise enough to leave well enough alone and not retcon their marriage out of existence.  I even made another post about it here and wrote about what I once said to Joe Quesada on the subject at a panel I attended here.  So let me make that clear right off the bat; just because I think Quesada might have a point about one thing does not mean that I think he was right to break up a marriage that had lasted twenty years.

However, yesterday I went to Fan Expo and took advantage of the fact that I was able to buy back issues that were decades old for literally cheaper than a current issue of anything.  And we're not talking about shitty or long-cancelled stuff either; pretty much every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man at one vendor I visited was a dollar an issue, and at another one I visited it was three dollars an issue.  I could have picked up one of the issues that comprised the historic "Kraven's Last Hunt" story arc if I hadn't already bought the trade of that back when I was in high school.

Anyhoo, while flipping through the bin I saw an issue of ASM that said on the cover: "Peter Parker Asks The BIG Question!"  And it showed Peter and MJ on the cover, and she looked really surprised.  And this issue was from 1987.  Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what question he was going to ask her.  Awesome!  I'd never seen, let alone read, this story before, so I bought it, along with the two issues that came after it.  (The issue that followed those was that part of the Kraven story mentioned in the previous paragraph, and I knew that they had gotten hitched by the time that took place.)

ASM #290 is written by David Michelinie, who is one of the best writers I'm familiar with, and pencilled by John Romita Jr., who is one of the best pencillers I'm familiar with.  That was a great creative team, and the story in ASM did not disappoint.  I thought about including a summary of that, but I think that would be too much of a digression.  Suffice to say that this story starts out with Peter considering the state of his life, and concluding that he's happy but nevertheless feels that there's something missing.  During the course of the story, he pays a visit to Mary Jane's apartment and has a little talk with her.  Now here's the thing: while reading that scene, there was a moment where I thought "Hmm, they're not quite acting like two people who are dating.  Two people who are good friends and care about one another, definitely, but there's not really any romance here."

Fast forward to the end of the issue, when Peter goes back to her apartment.  MJ's getting ready to take a trip, and she's telling Peter that she's really too busy to talk right now.  Peter's trying to tell her that this is really important.  Finally he gets it out: "Will you marry me?"

(That was on the last page of the issue, btw, along with "NEXT ISSUE: THE ANSWER!"  So it's a damn good thing I bought the next issue!)

Okay, so what's Mary Jane's initial answer?  Here is a transcript of the start of the next issue...

CAPTION: Several seconds ago, Peter Parker asked Mary Jane Watson to marry him.  The young lady's immediate response had been a widening of the eyes and a slow drop of a startled jaw.  Now, that initial reaction is followed by a tender and heartfelt...

MARY JANE: NO!

PETER: You mean you don't want to marry me?  Is it because I'm Spider-Man--?

MARY JANE: No!  I--I mean, I don't know!  Like they say in the movies, Tiger, isn't this kind of sudden?  I--I thought we were just friends!

PETER: We've been more than friends for a long time, MJ, and we both know it.  I just felt it was time to get that out in the open.  And after the way you helped me sort out my life this morning, I thought we should--

MARY JANE: That's, um, real sweet, Peter, but I can't talk about it now!

And she goes on to explain that she has to get going because she has to see her sister in Pittsburgh, although she's intentionally vague about the reason, and after another minute or two she's out the door and on her way to the airport.

THAT is why I think Quesada may have had a point if one of his arguments was that the marriage in 1987 was rushed or forced.*

All these years, I had just assumed that Peter and MJ had been in a relationship before he popped the question.  Now, the fact of the matter is that they had dated before this, and he even proposed to her once before this, but they eventually broke up and when he made that first proposal she turned it down and didn't change her mind.

If you think that Peter and Mary Jane make a good couple, as I do, the [i]logical[/i] thing to do would be to have them get together, go out for at least six issues (six months real world time), and then have Peter propose.  (Or have MJ propose, if you like.)  That would be realistic.  This isn't.  I mean, I guess sometimes something like that happens, but not very often, right?

I've read the whole story, at the end of which MJ decides that she wants to marry Peter after all.  The wedding itself takes place in the ASM Annual as it turns out, which I'll have to get some other time.

As I said, this isn't a bad story by any means; I don't think that I've ever read a bad story by Michelinie.  But it seems like there was executive meddling here, like Jim Shooter (the editor-in-chief at the time) was telling Michelinie behind the scenes that he wanted those two together ASAP.

*His objections to Peter being married at all, or to being married to MJ, are not what I consider good arguments against the marriage.  Clark Kent and Lois Lane got married.  Reed Richards and Susan Storm got married.  Scott Summers and Jean Grey got married.  There's no reason why Peter Parker shouldn't get married as he grows older.  And as for being married to MJ...well, as Mary Jane herself tells her sister later on in the story, people grow and change over time.  I could understand if people had a problem with her as a character--and as a potential mate for Pete--back when she seemed to be a ditz or when she was treating poor Harry Osborn like crap for no apparent reason, but by the time of Michelinie's run on the book in 1987 she had changed.  She wasn't ditzy or bitchy any more.  She was beautiful both inside and out.  Peter could not have picked anybody better.

I knew that there was some site called "That Guy With The Glasses" before this, but hadn't really checked out anything on it until recently when I found an individual known as "Todd In The Shadows" through TV Tropes.  The description of what he does, under "Better Than It Sounds", is as follows:

"A dude on YouTube That Guy With The Glasses sits in shadow wearing a hoodie and complaining about horrible pop songs. And it's awesome."

So here is his review of Usher's "OMG", which I agree is pretty subpar for Usher:

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/tis/tpsr/26951-omg

After you're done with that, and hopefully enjoyed it, I will provide you with evidence that even somebody with STANDARDS, such as Todd, has got guilty pleasures.  Because to prove he wasn't a total hater back when he was on YouTube, after he'd posted a list of the very worst ten hit pop songs of 2009, he posted a list of the very best eleven hit pop songs of 2009. ("And you're going to hate all of it!" says the caption.)





ETA: I originally thought of putting his review of "Eenie Meenie" by Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston--which is a song I very much want to GO THE FUCK AWAY FOREVER--in here, because it deserves to be eviscerated and he does it in a way that made me laugh hard enough to almost hurt myself.  The problem is that after watching the video--which naturally has clips of the song throughout--I had the awful thing stuck in my head for hours afterward despite myself, and I was thusly miserable.  So watch that one if you're comfortable with the risk.

MightyGodKing found a site which analyzes something you've written and tells you which author or authors your writing style is simlar to.  So I went to the site, copied and pasted the one piece of fanfic I'd posted since I created this account (this one), and unbelievably...

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

http://iwl.me/s/8ccf5154

Wow.  Just wow.  I don't know how accurate this thing is, but obviously that's the best I could've hoped for considering how much I idolize the guy!

(EDIT TO ADD: I have no idea why it's only showing part of the image when it shows the entire thing in the preview.  Anyway, clicking on the link shows you the whole thing.)

My god, have I not posted anything since February, really?

Time to remedy that, even if it's just embedding stuff which some (in a perfect world, all) of you will enjoy.

First, I'll tell you what I got. When the older guys used to work I used to watch, and when I watched, I learned...the Lovercall!




Where's my Elvis? WHERE?! :(



Switching genres...



In honour of the season:




And finally, a Bad Company track that you have perhaps not heard before:

Why do I call myself "Arrogantcur", you may have been wondering for an indeterminate amount of time? Wonder no longer! Here is the answer:

http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showpost.php?p=1387402&postcount=578

First: Poison.




Actually the first song I ever heard by this band, and arguably the best.

This next pleasure is not so guilty, as I feel anything from the animated Transformers movie is just awesome by default. I give you this:




This rocks. Nobody will ever convince me differently. This is one of the few things I am am absolutely positive of.

Finally:




Should've been a single, IMHO.

That is all. Hope you liked these, and did not think they sucked. :)

Huh, I just looked at Wiki and apparently they can! I thought it was just words that could be palindromes. Guess not. Anyways, I'm 33 now.

For all my talk about how I wasn't looking forward to it, I woke up today feeling the same as I did yesterday, which wasn't bad. It's not the end of the world, and while I planned to embed this song no matter what today I feel like it really accurately reflects my outlook:

Yesterday I went out into the bitter cold without really bundling up and regretted it because it was -6 degrees celsius. That's fucking COLD!!! It's 21.2 degrees fahrenheit for you Americans and everybody else who's more familiar with imperial than metric.

And today it is -7. That's a whole degree more freezing!

Fuck you, Old Man Winter. >_< .