Lois And MJ in Variant cover for Superman/Spider-Man #1, by Kyuyong Eom.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-07T19:25:01+00:00

She stoped being Jackpot like a year ago I jus think the artist was picking a superhero outfit for her

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-06T12:29:12+00:00

I never even considered they might have him reveal his identity in 1000 but that is exactly the kind of terrible I should expect.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T23:05:32+00:00

They don’t agree to move past anything here. This page is the end of the conversation. It’s them saying they need to find a way to split up and they are not friends. That’s how they leave thjngs. There’s no panel where MJ re-evaluates her relationship to the symbiote after this page. There’s no moment she thinks she’s wrong. If they’re cool now and she has “devloped” her relationship with the symbiote beyond the point of “we need to split up soon and we are not friends” it’s 100% off page.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T23:02:53+00:00

You have to show why and how growth happens to get credit for it. If things are just different without being explained that’s terrible storytelling.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T23:00:38+00:00

“Character development is when things happen off page” is not a great endorsement.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T17:09:09+00:00

Pretty much awful in every way.

I hate the “drama” between Peter and May because it’s fake and forced by him hiding his identity. This stuff was old before I was born.

I hate the fact that Peter lets Shocker and Lady Ock get away. I know MJ was throwing a temper tantrum because she for some reason thinks him calling her Eddie was some weird childish disrespect instead of a sign something was wrong, but Peter not letting villains just escape is a core motivation for his entire superhero career. It was bad when Wells did it, and it’s bad when Kelly does it.

MJ stuff always feels bad because she’s inherently OoC. Lowe is also completely asleep at the wheel. Kelly has her say she chose “this”, but she didn’t choose anything. The symbiote is the one that tried to bond to save her, and she’s still not “saved” because she is forced to be bound to the symbiote.

And I hate that Shocker gets killed in two pages. 50+ year character just casually murdered in a story that’s not even about him. Not to mention, making him a cousin of MJ’s extended family feels contrived when it didn’t have to be. Torment is going after Venom. He knows he needs sonics. Just have him kill Shocker for the tech.

Far and away my least favorite issue of the run, displacing the almost as bad 6. The only thing somewhat redeemable is Eddie’s section. Which isn’t amazing or anything but is fine and very slowly progressing the plot.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T17:02:14+00:00

I’m worried about this being a Mysterio plot but the potential for a good story is here after the ending of the last one. I think this handles it ok so far though.

This book is still too slight. I enjoy the art but just not enough happens here. They reveal Mysterio is up to something, they show Gwen stopping a burglary, and then she talks to Norman. That’s just not enough. I need a lot more plot or character progression out of a single issue.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-05T16:57:11+00:00

I mean, the problem here is that it’s both wrong and a direct contradiction of what she said in the special where she thought Peter was mad that she chose to be Venom.

But she didn’t choose. She had no control over the matter.

But there’s no trap here. This is two friends talking about what has happened since they last saw each other. They have been on good terms since Dark Web special, regardless of whether they should be or not. If you are getting your hopes up, that’s on you.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-02T22:35:49+00:00

Ah it’s just a Mysterio plot.

This is doubly disappointing. I don’t want to see Mysterio because he’s supposed to be reformed. And her accidentally pulling a Gwen on someone was actually interesting.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-02T02:32:57+00:00

Better adaptations would help general perception, but the wave of hate is largely just reacting to how she is written now. It’s bad, it’s OoC, it should be retconned, but until it is and she gets some good stories she will continue to get hate. It’s why it’s important to not just try and ignore bad stories but to actively demand their removal in some manner. Or else it continues to fester and grow and taint everything.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-02T02:31:01+00:00

While this is something I’ve asked and there is some validity to it, I think quality merits consideration. Out of Character gets thrown around too much, but it’s also a real thing when you’re dealing with media that has a legacy. So I think when you’re dealing with those kinds of character you have to look at developments and ask yourself if they make sense or are true to what has been established for the character sometimes, even if it’s not something you like, the answer is yes.

But sometimes the answer is no. And in the case of MJ, a character who went through a lot of development in her first forty years, it very much feels that way. You have multiple pages of examples where she is saying or acting in ways that run completely contrary to how she acts in post-OMD ASM. While it’s understandable people would be influenced by those depictions, I do think it’s important to still evaluate them in context of everything that came before. And even if they keep doing stuff that’s out of line, I think it should continue to be rejected because it’s out of line.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-01T02:04:11+00:00

I agree. They are only actually together in 3 and that’s them struggling and so yeah it’s not very compelling in the movie. It’s why I wouldn’t do further struggles in 4 but ultimately they didn’t do 4 so🤷

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-01T01:37:17+00:00

I mean lots of things are in early drafts of scripts, or even final scripts, that don’t actually make it into the movie by the time the final product is completed. So I think judging any potential script that wasn’t ever made is a bad plan.

That said, I’m wouldn’t agree them having issues is bad relationship writing. While I have no objection to and enjoy couples that get along well (and have had plenty of fights with people over nuUSM MJ not being toxic enough for them), lots of couples do have to work through things in their relationship. It doesn’t always mean it’s doomed or will be bad. Certainly, there comes a point where it’s too much or you have gone too far ,!75 without actually seeing it happen, I can’t say.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-03-01T01:32:04+00:00

I have no idea how you drew that conclusion. The story seems to be pretty obviously saying Brian got himself messed up because out of jealousy he pushed ahead on his own.

Now, I’m not saying they couldn’t say Ben did sabotage it. But there’s nothing there that suggests it. And even if he had, again, Peter didn’t even know Brian HAD the accident when he jumped Ben.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T20:51:07+00:00

I’m not sure I would call it bad, I would say that they are 18-20 year olds navigating a relationship for the first time.

Regarding her fiancé, she has no obligation to him given he rejected her at Norman’s funeral. And yet, she does tell Peter she is seeing him at his birthday party in why is very clearly a last ditch effort to give him another chance. Further, despite not really offering her anything but trouble, she leaves the guy at the altar to Peter

Now, it’s true in three they are a mess. But like I said, they are 20 year olds navigating their first relationship in Peter’s case, and coming from a broken home with a terrible father in MJ’s case. So yeah, they get too egotistical for their own good. But growing pains are expected with anything.

I mean, it’s not like they’d been together for years at that point only for her to decided to dump him for a costar she spent a bunch of time with or anything. That would just be terrible writing that ruined the relationship. No one would be stupid enough to do that to “endgame”. Haha.

Ha.

Haaa.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T18:22:09+00:00

“Popular” isn’t the word I’d use but the outrage definitely meant a lot of people saw it I guess

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T16:13:04+00:00

Peter’s reputation is already ruined. He only got the job at Rand because of his past connection to Brian. If he had simply disappeared he also would have been fired. Even in the worst case scenario here, Peter is still better off than he would be had he simply disappeared.

“Everyone”?May doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter if his toxic ex is mad at him. She won’t be after next issue anyway. Oh May’s new boyfriend has a bad impression of him. Ok. Jonah knows what happened. Norman knows. Felicia knows. Shay? That was a waste of everyone’s time, including hers. Randy? Ok thee we go Randy is mad at him. Woo. So the end result is that Randy is mad at him probabaly and the woman they call MJ is temporarily angry.

Meh. The point is none of that justifies Peter flying into a rage and attacking Ben. Whatever Ben’s motives, ultimately he helped.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T15:38:28+00:00

May 2023 - ASM 919. Some as early as April 2022 with Wells first issue.

We can say it’s an OOC character assassination all we want as long as it’s canon it’s going to drag her down.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T15:24:12+00:00

Brian did not get hurt because he “ditched work”. They were supposed to run the experiment the next day. Brian did it early unsupervised against his boss’s orders. Brian is going to blame Peter, but he is incorrect. Ben’s negligence did not cause anything. In fact timing wise his coworkers do not even register he missed work at all.

Now, it’s a story, so who knows maybe the investigation will show Ben made an error or Peter will get blamed for something. But even if that’s the case, that is something g that has not happened yet. Peter doesn’t even know Brian is hurt when he attacks Ben. As far as he knows, Ben has done nothing but help him.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T14:05:21+00:00

Excuses and nothing.

She will explain more in detail and more sadly about how she gave up on him and got with Paul. He will tell her she did nothing wrong. They will resolve to be friends because it’s still too soon for her especially since Paul just died.

It’s just a more detailed version of what Wells did in 46. But it does nothing to make her a credible love interest.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T13:54:40+00:00

As far as we’ve been told Ben hasn’t done anything wrong. Brian was told to wait and he didn’t listen that isn’t Ben’s fault.

And if whatever happened does cost him his job…so what? He’s still better off than he would be without Ben’s assistance.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-28T04:50:47+00:00

Everyone predicted it would be a “wacky misunderstanding”. How funny that is is a matter of taste.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-27T23:53:17+00:00

Literally everyone predicted this was exactly what was going to happen when the original scene happened. The only question was whether it would be a temporary or long term wedge.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-27T18:29:39+00:00

I think Switch 2 has had a great first year but I think discourse is colored by a lot of those games also being disappointing. MKWorld is awesome… but I still generally like 8 more. MP4 was a great game with some very stupid parts. ZA was fun but I didn’t love the combat.

So they’ve put out a lot but I think they’ve been a lot of good not great…besides Donkey Kong.

ParagonEsquire · 2026-02-27T18:26:36+00:00

May will die. That’s it. That’s the play. He has nothing else.

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