At least he seems more of a martyr to Dylan than MJ. Still, they made him such a stain on MJ's history that it won't make sense if she doesn't mourn him. They at least didn't try to go full Gwen with him, as laughable as that attempt would've been.

Does this change that you gave MJ her own Sins Past/Avengers #200 story to force her with this guy? In a post-OMD world, her first experience with a spouse and kids is with some forced unwanted original character that she left Peter for. Yet fans should pretend that never happened because he's gone?

That actually sounds concerning. Because even if he likes to troll, he used to say this wasn't happening. Like back when he swore up and down that Paul wasn't Venom and he was telling the truth. They will totally force this Flash/MJ nonsense to kick fans in the teeth, it's just what they do.

What equally bothers me is her complete lack of self-awareness about the door slam scene. Not that she couldn't recognize it wasn't Peter, but being utterly clueless about what could've possibly happened between them for him to feel so spurned by her...

Seems like the main reason for that door slam scene was to once again disregard and deflect from the one topic that people want MJ and Peter to address, by creating yet another cheap manufactured conflict between the two. MJ will probably still tell Peter she broke up with Paul but that would be it.

You know in his next entry he's gonna try to gaslight people about how they supposedly misunderstood him or demonized him for no reason.

I'm able to suspend my disbelief, Mr. Slott. I merely pointed out that MJ was written in a way that contradicted her established characterization and history with Peter in order to tell a specific story and reach the desired outcome. Thank you for the response.

The build wasn't the reason she recognized he wasn't Peter, it was after seeing him brutalize the crooks. She recognized the fact that he was acting out of character and therefore it couldn't be her Peter. She should notice something was off when "Peter" called her "Watson woman" repeatedly.

But MJ used to be able to tell when something was wrong with Peter. She could instantly tell that Kraven wasn't Peter. Even Chameleon couldn't fool her when he was disguised as Peter. Otto would refer to her as "woman" or "Watson woman" right to her face and she still never suspected anything.

I was just thinking this may not be what it seems given how sudden it is. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

No I meant her reasons for it. Where's this "It's not working" coming from all of a sudden? She hasn't shown doubts or second thoughts about the relationship, what suddenly makes her think it doesn't work? I thought she might be worried about putting him at risk and came up with this to protect him.

Hell, what if the breakup itself turns out to be a cop out? MJ's never shown any doubts, regrets or second thoughts about being in this relationship(which I think is one of the main reasons she's been so vilified), yet all of a sudden she decides it's not working? What led to this change of heart.

Do you think there's a chance this could turn out to be a cop out?

The treatment of Hal really rubbed me the wrong way.

Can MJ make a single appearance without this guy being glued to her 24/7? Does she need his permission to tell Peter about the Venom stuff or do anything on her own? Some people have the nerve to call USM MJ "obedient wife with no agency" when that's literally what 616 MJ is now. It's abhorrent.

This could be a flashback since she wears the same outfit as in #7, while the solicits for #10 make it sound like the issue is one big screaming fest between her and the symbiote.

As long as they insist she's done nothing wrong, she has nothing to redeem herself for. To them she simply "moved on". Carlos knows that's BS, but he doesn't mean "redemption" literally, just that because of how tarnished MJ is now, it's up to him and Ewing to make something out of that awful SQ.

When you think about it, its very much written like a BND book. A "new" era where the MC is "freed" from past baggage: they totally ignore her history with Peter, they dropped Jackpot and now would split her from Paul. So when ANV becomes just "Venom", she won't be "held back" by anything anymore.

Part of it could also be they want to market MJ as Venom to new fans too. If so, they likely don't want to show them all this baggage that doesn't paint her in a positive light at all. So instead they have the basic story of her being in a relationship that isn't going well because of her heroics.

You don't take such an important character, have her leave Peter for another man, force a family on her, then keep forcing powers and symbiotes on her, just for cheap drama. All of this was a concentrated effort done solely to eliminate her as a threat to their preferred status quo. It's revolting.

No, I believe him, they don't want her dead since she's popular and they can make money off of her. He just wanted her away from Peter by any extremes necessary since she's the big threat to their outdated status quo. So they assassinated her character and ruined her credibility as a love interest.

But Peter didn't "lose" MJ, she left him for another man. None of the circumstances she found herself in required her to start a relationship with Paul. That contrived fiasco of a situation was entirely outside of Peter's control, yet it's still used against him and treated like it's his fault. Why?

Unlikely. I think they're just doing the same thing ASM did, which was trying to make it look like Peter deserved being treated that way by MJ, but now MJ is the one who "messed up" so therefore "deserves" what she gets for it. They won't touch on anything about her disloyalty or treatment of Peter.

The thing is anyone who says anything bad about him is made to look like a jackass. Dylan insulted him so he got "put in his place" for it. MJ didn't listen to him and went out with a malfunctioning tech so she "deserved" being guilt tripped. He's always painted as being in the right no matter what.

That last part confused me but yeah, I can see now he was trying to finish the reply being somewhat diplomatic right after slamming the idea beforehand.

Is he implying that Jackpot is an idea that "worked"? If so, why force her into becoming Venom afterwards. Seems like they have no clue what to do with MJ after destroying her so now are throwing shit at the wall and hope something sticks.

It's truly ironic how MJ is written ominously similar to Peter, as someone whose life takes a turn for the worst and it's not directly her fault, yet the writing treats it like it is, and she's being gaslit to accept it. Almost feels like karma too since that's exactly how she treated Peter.

Because of all that and Peter clearly having no sense of dignity and self-respect by editorial design, their inevitable reunion will indeed happen the same predictable way, with him begging her to take him back.

Since they had him come over for dinner and go on double dates with them, no humiliation is enough. Any form of acknowledgment by MJ that she did Peter wrong contradicts their standing that she did nothing wrong and the idea that everything bad that happens to Peter is his fault and his fault alone.

He's awful in general but I think the worst part about Paul is the damage done to MJ by forcing her with him. They had her throw away her entire 50 year history with Peter because she got trapped with some random dude. It's an insult to both her established character and relationship with Peter.