A time when he was an actual character.
Unto themselves, the 1990s were hardly the best era for Spider-Man comics.
And however slowly that has continually happened for the perpetually 20-something character, it nevertheless did happen.
By 1978, he was out of college.
The funny thing is that everyone liked the flake better, including Stan Lee and John Romita.
But it also freed Peter Parker to grow, as most young adults do.
He would not marry his first love, nor would he even run-off with MJ right away.
Except, he hadntreallyquite been that character since high school.
And soon, hed have a confidant in Mary Jane.
She kept it to herself for years, amused with the knowledge.
If you havent read the actual miniseries, its not as bad as it sounds;its much worse.
The old Marvel adage is that writing comic books is about creating the illusion of change.
He also has taken on the greatest responsibility yet: being a father to daughter Annie.
Choosing to name the daughter Annie certainly presents this as a What If storyline.
Rather, they are again husband and wife, and adults.
Since one of Peters arch-nemeses (Venom!)
is in Rykers, its no choice at all.
Fortunately, MJ proves to be every bit as resourceful as weve come to love.
Slott has Peter Parker plan and orchestrate Venoms death by fire with the expressed intent of killing the baddie.
That inaugural issue ended with Peters choice having dire ramifications.
From the very beginning, the seeds were sown for the storys inevitable undoing in September.
But that will be the wrong takeaway.
One who they have also struggled greatly to make interesting again.
Well, Miles is about to join the main Marvel Comics universe as the most editorially desirable teenage superhero.
Maybe its time the publisher grew up in regards to Peter Parker; the character did so decades ago.
I take a stab at grow up all the timeon Twitter(to inconclusive results).
This article was originally published on July 6, 2015.
