Back in the late twentieth century, most continuing Marvel series spawned a special type of comic book known as an annual every summer, which contained stories and ephemera that weren't strictly tied to the monthly continuity of that series. The concept of the annual reached its peak at the end of the '80s, when nearly every Marvel annual of a particular summer was tied together to tell the huge crossover stories of The Evolutionary War (1988) and Atlantis Attacks (1989). Most of the main characters in the Marvel Universe were involved in these stories, no matter how odd it might seem that, say, the Punisher (a vigilante who was concerned primarily with drug dealers and mobsters) would be in any way involved with stopping the undersea kingdom of Lemuria's attempts to resurrect the god Set and conquer the land dwellers of planet earth.1 Not surprisingly, these crossovers were bloated, overly complex, and not particularly good--even from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old who would read pretty much anything uncritically.Nevertheless, a Marvel annual would sometimes serve as the repository for a significant Marvel event, and one such event, contained in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21, was Peter Parker's wedding to Mary Jane Watson. For a Marvel comic book fan, this was a big deal. Peter and Mary Jane had been dating, off and on, since the mid '70s.2 Mary Jane, being a gorgeous party girl, was arguably out of Peter's league, and much of the drama of their relationship hinged on this mismatch (not to mention Mary Jane's irritation that Peter was always disappearing to do his Spider-Man thing). Fan reaction to the wedding was probably mixed (I don't really know), but it was the kind of landmark story that got a brief mention in some newspapers around the country (if it happened to be a slow news day). Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee, who still wrote the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip, was the one who spearheaded this marriage, and he wrote the wedding into the strips that were published that summer. Real-life fashion designer Willi Smith designed MJ's wedding gown. Like I said, a big deal.
As a story, though, the annual is only so-so. First, Spidey battles Electro in a fight that has absolutely no bearing on anything related to the rest of the issue, because (a) this is a superhero comic not a romance comic, and (b) otherwise the rest of this issue would be filled with a lot of pointless hand-wringing, second thoughts, and cold feet.
Typical Spidey banter with a supervillain; too bad this fight is literally pointless.
I can think of a half dozen ways in which to make a superhero's wedding interesting without resorting to the "I don't know if I really want to get married" cliche. And yet both Mary Jane and Peter spend the majority of this comic book thinking about how their pending nuptials are probably a huge mistake. MJ in the form of some rich creep who keeps bribing her with expensive cars and trips to exotic places:
Ugh. That MJ even smiles at this guy's crass behavior is a bit unsettling.
And Peter in the form of guilt over loved ones who died, either directly (Gwen Stacey) or indirectly (Uncle Ben) because of his Spider-Man alter ego. He even has a supervillain-filled nightmare about the danger MJ might be in as Spider-Man's wife:
The angst! My god, the overwrought angst.
But I think the biggest red flag should be this couple's inability to tell the most important people in their lives that they're getting married. Aunt May is Peter's closest relative, biologically and emotionally speaking. And yet he doesn't tell her he's getting married until a few days before the wedding. I should clarify that they're not eloping; their friends and families are fully expected to show up at this formal occasion--but invitations were not, apparently, sent out.
MJ forgot to finish her sentence: "We're getting married...tomorrow!"
Likewise, Peter asks Flash Thompson to be his best man in the same breath as he's telling Flash he's getting married, which Flash had apparently heard from someone else beforehand.3 And the wedding is in, like, twenty-four hours.
Peter forgot to finish his sentence: "I'd like you to be my best man...tomorrow!"
Yes, I'm probably taking all this too seriously. As I mentioned, Amazing Spider-Man was a superhero comic, not a romance comic. The writer, David Michelinie, was (is?) actually a pretty good writer, and penned a lot of good Spider-Man comics in the '80s. But you can tell that this story wasn't really his idea. He gets through it, but the whole thing is written by the numbers. There are no surprises or genuine moments of tenderness.
Which might lead you to wonder why I'm writing about it at all. And the answer to that question is that, as a connoisseur of Archie comics (especially the sappy ones), I wanted this to be a great, romantic comic book. Alas, the only two moments of romance are (a) when Peter presents MJ with an engagement ring (after they'd already been engaged for a while) upside down while he kneels on the ceiling, and (b) when Peter, in his Spider-Man costume, gathers MJ up in his free hand and web-slings them to the top of a skyscraper with a gorgeous panoramic view of the Brooklyn Bridge, where MJ promptly mentions Peter's dead girlfriend (the aforementioned Gwen), they share an awkward silence, and Peter returns them to their apartment in a funk. Sigh.
Anyway, not a great comic. But at least these two are still married.
Oh, wait. Never mind.4
Pointless Footnotes
1 Except insofar as, y'know, he would probably not be a fan of the god Set conquering the land dwellers of planet earth--being a land dweller himself and all.
2 Which may sound, to the untrained reader, as if Peter and Mary Jane had been dating for over a decade by that point. This is (sort of) true from a fan's real-world perspective, but Marvel continuity is a tricky thing: although Peter Parker was created in 1963 as a high school student, by the late '80s he was only just in his early twenties. Time moves much more slowly in the Marvel Universe than it does in the real world. And if I recall, Peter and MJ weren't really dating much at that point in the comics. I think Peter was more interested in Felicia Hardy.
3 Who, exactly?! Who would know about your wedding before the guy you want to be your best man? For that matter, who would know before your aunt, who raised you and is one of the most important people in your life? It makes no sense....
4 See the "One More Day" storyline.
