Sensational Spider-Man #41

[nathalia]

I’m reading Sensational Spider-Man #41 right now and I couldn’t help but notice that the little girl is a redhead with green eyes and tells Peter she comes after her father and is very intelligent but that she wishes she came after her mother who is beautiful. Could that be a future daughter of Peter and Mary Jane?

A rich intelligent man who was bullied in school appears later on and tells Peter he has everything he wants in life. Everything but a beautiful girl he was in love with who died. An alternate future version of Peter?

The video game designer … another Peter? Who wishes he were a hero?

I know there are theories about the girl being the Devil which would fit as I feel that Peter is going to pull a Faust. In the first part of One More Day he says he’d sell his soul to safe May – I don’t think that’s a red herring, I think it’s foreshadowing. Quite clumsy foreshadowing.

And the mysterious lady. I’d say Mary Jane or May or well, red is the color of the Devil. As I cited Faust before and want to keep going with that comparison, I’d say Peter is facing Mephisto. He is capable of shape shifting, after all.

“There are some cultures that believe we have dream selves, each as real as out waking selves … Each living alternate lives, alternate futures, alternate destinies … and that it’s only at the crossroads of the dreaming that we meet them.” – “Sorry, never believed in that sort of thing.” – “That’s too bad. Because you just met some of them on your way here.”

I’d say that reinforces the instinct I have. Well, okay theories about the two men have just been proven correct. I love to write while I read because this way I can go back and point out to everybody that I knew it.

“Though I confess that I find it interesting that in nearly all of those iterations you end up alone.”

That’s strong.

Peter: “I’ve got important things to do and not a lot of time.”
Lady In Red: “Actually, time is all you have. And as for these important things, you’ve already failed. Everyone’s told you the same thing. Your aunt is going to die and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Heh. Right again. I knew there was going to be a pact with the devil somewhere in this story.

“I deal in the currency of misery, loss, despair, hopelessness, pain, regret and sadness.”

So what is it Mephisto wants from Peter? I don’t want the spider-marriage to suffer from this, I am totally for it. MJ is a big part of what makes Peter Parker interesting, she has been around for so long and unlike May she isn’t always on the brink of death. But breaking up the marriage is Joe Quesada’s big goal, something he has been trying to achieve ever since he became EIC I think. Well, it seems he’s getting it. I was suspecting it considering that he chose to pencil this story.

“What I want is greater than what one paltry soul can provide me. What I want is the one thing in the universe that is truly greater than the sum of its parts and tastier than any single soul I could devour. I want that which gives you joy, that which sustains you in your moments of greatest despair, the source not of your power, but of your strength, your happiness, your dreams and your passion. I want your love … I want your marriage.”

JMS couldn’t have put it in a way that would please Quesada. I would go as far as to say that Mephisto is Quesada, only more eloquent. He wants exactly the same thing as Quesada wants. That’s not a coincidence. I hate it!! And it’s kind of a retcon as well, just what Quesada wanted:

“You will not consciously remember […] the life you lived to this point.”

And what the characters don’t remember didn’t really happen if that’s how you want to put it. I would give up Aunt May. The only thing she does is have heart attacks, anyway. And I just like MJ better, I think May should have died back in the Clone Saga. It had been written so beautifully.

So, this is the end of the marriage which in my eyes means that those previews shown on Newsarama about a redheaded villainess showing up in the revamped Amazing Spider-Man whose codename was given as Jackpot will be Mary Jane. Why? I have no idea, but it can’t be a coincidence that a red haired female is slated to appear, when her name is Jackpot. Not when the first thing Mary Jane ever said was, “Face it, Tiger, you hit the jackpot.”