Playin' the Field

Of course, the breakup won't be easy for everyone to get over. A series is only as good as its characters, and it's only natural for fans to get invested in them. "My sixth- and seventh-grade students asked me, after the first [Spider-Man] movie came out, 'What happened with Peter and Mary Jane?' Like they're real people that send me postcards," says Greg Hatcher, a Seattle art teacher who teaches drawing and cartooning and writes a weekly column for Comic Book Resources, the Web site that puts out the Comics Should Be Good blog. He says his students have even come to favor Spider-Girl over the original series, a Marvel spinoff in which Spidey is married and retired, with a 15-year-old daughter who inherits his powers.

Still others, like Sodaro, admittedly cling to the fairy-tale romance; the nerd-guy-gets-hot-girl fantasy that a lot of guys growing up could relate to. "Peter Parker was the 'everyman geek' when I was growing up," says the 52-year-old, who has written about the comic book industry for nearly 30 years. "He was the guy that everybody picked on. And for anyone who did get picked on, you'd fantasize what you'd do if you were a superhero. That's what Peter Parker was for us. And his marrying of MJ--a supermodel--epitomized that fantasy." Whatever happens, Quesada is confident his fans will stay loyal. After all, it's not a good story without a little controversy.

© 2008