Marvel has often made some pretty mystifying decisions over the years, but one of the ones that will never make sense to Spider-Man fans is the ending of his marriage to Mary Jane in the maligned “One More Day”. Marvel editorial never liked the marriage, even going back to its beginning. However, entire generations of fans grew up with Peter and Mary Jane, and loved them together. Now, obviously, it’s not the job of creators to give readers what they want as long as they are telling good stories. However, Marvel has rarely told a good story when it comes to the current relationship between Peter and Mary Jane. One day, they decided to tell the worst story possible, and they introduced Paul Rabin, a man from an alternate universe that Mary Jane got trapped in for several years while Spider-Man tried to figure out how to save her. Mary Jane entered a relationship with Paul and since then, it’s become one of the most divisive plot lines in Spider-Man history.
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Paul has easily become Marvel’s most hated character in the interim. Spider-Man editorial kept pushing the character, and fans kept rebelling. However, things have taken a big turn, as All-New Venom #9 ended the relationship between Paul and MJ. This would seem like a huge moment for the Spider-Man fandom, but it’s become very hard to trust Marvel when it comes to anything involving Spider-Man. Paul could be relegated to the dust bin of Marvel heroes, but there’s a much more interesting option — trying to make readers get into reading Paul. It’s honestly actually possible, but it’s probably not a road that Marvel is going to go down.
Paul Could Have a Future, and It’s One That Has Been There the Whole Time
Paul has been played as a good guy for his entire existence. Paul is the son of a villain, and was a scientist who inadvertently helped his father wreck their world. Marvel went out of their way to make Paul into a somewhat sympathetic character, playing him as someone who was fooled into doing terrible things to the world. It honestly seemed like Spider-Man editorial thought they could make Paul likable to a fanbase who thought that they were finally going to get MJ and Peter back (Nick Spencer’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man ended with Peter and MJ as a couple, and the next run kicked off with a mystery box story that introduced Paul and MJ’s relationship). Since then, they’ve done everything they could to show Paul as a good person — have him help Peter pay his bills, make the tech that allowed MJ to become Jackpot, even make Peter friendly with him — but fans have never really warmed up to the character. Even the latest break-up between Paul and MJ feels like it’s making MJ the bad guy and the Paul the person who wants to make the relationship work. Marvel wants the fandom to like Paul, for some reason. If I’m being completely honest, that’s never going to work. There’s no way to make Paul a character that people are going to like if Marvel keeps going in this direction. However, there’s something right there, something that’s been there the whole time, and if Marvel plays its cards right, they can make Paul into a popular character.
Paul is a character who fans are already invested in hating. Well, take advantage of that. Paul is the son of a villain and actually helped his father. It’s about time to drop Paul as a sympathetic good guy and make him a villain as well. Marvel could reveal that Paul has always been secretly evil, waiting for the moment to strike, but I don’t think that’s the best plan. Instead, Marvel can use the break-up between Paul and MJ to break the character. We know that Paul can create technology that gives people superpowers. We know that he wanted to work on his relationship with Mary Jane. Maybe this can be Paul’s villain origin story. That the loss of the woman he loved drives him to the darkest place possible. Making Paul a villain would almost feel like a reward for readers who have hated Paul since the beginning.
The vast majority of Spider-Man fans want to hate Paul, so let them. Make him into a monster like his father, make him MJ/Venom’s arch-enemy, and go from there. There are plenty of villains that fans love to hate, and this is the way to go with Paul. Make him evil, let him do some crazy stuff, keep him around. Fans will definitely buy stories that feature Paul getting beat up. It would be like wrestling; the entire point of wrestling is to the make the audience hate the heel (bad guy wrestler in wrestling parlance) so much that fans will pay to see him beat. Heels eventually get popular because of their skill at angering the crowd. Paul as a wrestling heel-type character is exactly the way to make him into a character that readers will buy books for, even if it’s just to see him get beat up. If they do well enough with this, there’s a huge chance that fans will start to actually like Paul as a villain.
Paul Should Be a Villain and That’s All There Is to It
There’s honestly no way to make Paul into a character that fans are going to like. He was created as another way to keep Peter and Mary Jane apart, and since then nothing Marvel has tried has made him into someone that readers actually liked. Marvel has definitely tried their best to make Paul into a new part of the Spider-Man supporting cast, but that’s completely failed. It’s time to steer into the skid.
Paul is a character that fans want to hate. Let them. Make him into a villain, a monster like his father. Fans will pay to read about MJ as Venom beating up Paul. Fans will pay to see Spider-Man beating up Paul. Paul as a villain is money and it could actually make him a popular character.
What do you think Marvel should do with Paul? Sound off in the comments below.
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