How can you read this page and not be a fan of the Peter/Mary Jane marriage? How?
I should also point out this is a perfect example of Ring Theory, which I’ve found both fascinating and useful when considering how to treat people in considerable pain that is causing you to suffer as well.
Many people forget that Mary Jane and Gwen were friends, but Peter and Gwen were closer. Mary Jane does the harder thing here and accepts that what Peter is going through is worse and, even though she is hurting too, and even though Peter attacking her is a low and unfair blow, comforting him is the right thing to do. There are people there for her who weren’t close to Gwen who could comfort her later.
According to later stories, Mary Jane KNEW that Peter Parker is Spider-Man here, which adds additional, if unintended, poignancy to the scene. She knows that Peter is blaming himself for what happened. She knows the weight of his sense of responsibility.
These are nine of the best damn comic panels ever devised.
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5 comments:
I emphatically agree, Cal.
I still vividly remember just two or three years ago, when I was first getting seriously into digital comic book collecting, I started at the very beginning of The Amazing Spider-Man (which picks up mere hours after Spidey's debut in Amazing Fantasy #16) and read straight through to about 1974, past the switchover from Ditko to Romita, including the issue you highlight here.
It took me a while (it was my bedtime reading for days -- an iPad lets you take a hundred comics into bed with you) and I emerged just stunned...it's one of the greatest if not the greatest runs of a single comic I've ever read. The first few years of Peter Parker's story (and the story of his indelible cast of back-up characters) is absolutely astounding in its thrills, drive and emotional force.
And the story of Captain Stacy (around this time) and his interactions with Peter/Spidey are possibly even more emotionally affecting. (They feinted at this in the first Andrew Garfield movie but didn't get anywhere near the target.)
That Romita stuff is so great that you just feel like you are in every panel he does. Who else could make Hammerhead so cool? Or make the marriage of Aunt May and Doc Oc NOT seem goofy. Digital comics are a godsend for just the reason you explained.
And there was only ONE Spidey comic to read to follow his adventures.
That is indeed a beautiful page with some surprisingly mature characterisation ( for the time ) by Gerry ( Killer ) Conway.
BTW Cal... when this issue came out, Spidey had also been appearing in Marvel Team-Up for about a year :-)
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