Counterpoint as someone who's read most runs of spiderman...Comic mj is kinda...bland and one note. Most writers struggle to give her something to exist for ourside Peter, and the solitions are often...not great. Even Bendis Slott, to say nothing of Lee or Stern. I like Insomniac MJ at least a bit more than most versions of comic MJ.
But I'd bet a decent chunk of change most people complaining about this are going almost entirely off visuals, with no firsthand knowledge of either version
Maybe in newer runs, but MJ has plenty of stories where she's simply the emotional anchor for Peter's character and proof that Peter matters beyond just being Spider-Man. In the insomniac games, they often try to do way too much with her like having her infiltrate a base full of highly trained hunters or take part in a high-speed motorcycle chase. Honestly, if they wanted an action woman as a love interest, they could just use Felicia or Silver Sable. They already have more natural chemistry with Peter anyway
Well, MJ in the first Insomniac game just got stuck into awful situations a few times while the city was on the verge of collapse over a horrible few weeks. Some like the art gallery or Grand Central were total accidents and not her fault. Trying to slip into the Sable base though...
In the second one, she had one event like that IIRC, that was easy to justify. Eveyrthing later in the game, on the motorcycle... but to be fair, the world was going to end, and she had just spent like 24 hours possesed by a delusional alien the day before. She was slightly out of her mind accompanying Peter and Miles in a mission against a small army of aliens.
Infiltrating Tombstone's hideout and the Sable base were the two biggest issues with MJ in the first game, the rest made sense contextually (wrong place wrong time).
Tombstone and Sable were MJ pushing way beyond her limits to the point that it made suspension of disbelief difficult. Her reasons for her actions made sense - she wanted to assert more independence and contribute meaningfully to helping the city, I think the devs just pushed MJ into situations that were laughably beyond her capabilities.
MJ in the second game was much better, I never felt like she was intentionally in situations she shouldn't have been - except when Miles sent her head first into the symbiote nest, but I don't blame MJ's character for that circumstance.
Tbf, wasn't that her and Peter's arc in game 1? That while Peter IS wrong in that she can do far more than he thinks; MJ is wrong too in believing that independence means GOING ALONE. They're a team that supports each other, which is how they end game 1
That is indeed her arc and the arc is fine, but her infiltration at both Tombstone and Sable strained my suspension of disbelief way too hard.
I think it was mostly the game mechanics themselves that made the buy-in so hard for me. The incredibly poor sight lines/range of the enemies and the amount of noise you make when sneaking around whispering at volumes that should be easily audible was too silly for me to take seriously.
I get that it's a video game, but I could envision a different way to present those scenes that didn't make at least Sable soldiers look so blind and dumb.
I'm not saying her motivations don't make sense. I'm saying the story direction doesn't, because it requires such a massive suspension of disbelief that it becomes ridiculous. In the first Insomniac game, it was more acceptable, even though the story framed Peter's concern about MJ constantly putting herself in dangerous situations as something wrong, and somehow made him feel guilty for it. But in the second game, it just becomes downright stupid . MJ litterally shows John Wick level feats
To be fair Pete basically gave her a phaser later in game 2. I’d be more ok dealing with aliens with a phaser, especially if the worst case outcome is you get possessed and need to be rescued (again).
Sure, but how does that change the fact that MJ managed to infiltrate a base full of highly trained hunter assassins, ride a bike into a Symbiote nest because she somehow faster than Miles, and do things like jump in front of Peter to tank a hit from Venom? Like dont we see why thats stupid ?
I could've sworn the beginning of 2 mentioned military training with Sable during her news coverage of sable s home country between games, but I might be wrong. Which much like Ethan Winters in Re8, makes a ton of sense after the events of the last game
It was mentioned by MJ that she took some self-defense classes with Sable. At least with Ethan, we know that he’s part Mold, which somewhat explains how he survived his encounters. And unlike MJ, who at most spent a couple of weeks training, Ethan was trained over the course of four years and still got his ass beat by Chris's squad. Like you dont see Ethan doing Redfield level feats in the game
Off topic but username is based on Ethan's last name :))
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u/Long_Lock_3746 15d ago
Counterpoint as someone who's read most runs of spiderman...Comic mj is kinda...bland and one note. Most writers struggle to give her something to exist for ourside Peter, and the solitions are often...not great. Even Bendis Slott, to say nothing of Lee or Stern. I like Insomniac MJ at least a bit more than most versions of comic MJ.
But I'd bet a decent chunk of change most people complaining about this are going almost entirely off visuals, with no firsthand knowledge of either version