InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Giggity Giggity!"

Matt (angelophile) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-27 22:18:00

J. Jonah Jameson - He's like an onion

One of the things that aggravates me about Spider-man's "new direction" is that in addition to attempting to take Peter's character back several years (and thus making him a loser, basement dwelling man-child) they've also been rewinding the clock on several members of his supporting cast.

Take, for example, J. Jonah Jameson, who's been returned to his Spidey-hating roots and now that seems to be the entirety of his character again. A damn shape after several years where Triple-J was shown, not to be just a great newspaperman but sometimes, a great man as well. Okay, still a cigar chomping a-hole, but not exclusively so. Take, for example, his cameos in Uncanny X-men #337-#346, where he proves himself to be the kind of guy I could buy the people of New York voting for.

First let's check in with political candidate and mutant-hater Graydon Creed (the love-child of Mystique and Sabretooth. Literally. With parents like that it's small wonder he has grudge against mutants.)

Next issue J.J.'s not quite so glowing.

That's an undercover Iceman there, by the way. Before he was outed and Creed had his father almost beaten to death. Presidential material right there. Anyway, Peter Parker gives the X-men the heads up that J.J.'s investigating Creed, assuming that he's gunning for mutants this time so they follow him. Inconspicuously of course.

Meanwhile, the reporter J.J. put on the case discovers Creed's true parentage. Unfortunately for him, that's a secret that Prime Sentinel Bastion doesn't want coming out, since Creed serves his purposes. So he kills the story.

Which leads to this confrontation:

Now that is a J. Jonah Jameson I can get behind.

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	xdoop 2009-05-27 08:02 pm UTC (link)
	To be fair, it's not like JJJ was always written this good before BND came along. (Reply to this) (Thread)

angelophile
2009-05-28 08:19 am UTC (link)

No, I agree with this, but as I said, he's a character that's grown more layered over the years. Pre-BND he'd evolved into a character who had moments like this while still having plenty of bite and bile - he's a character that Bendis actually did justice to, tempering assholery with the fact that he's also a damn fine newspaperman. He'd developed into the kind of character who would rant and rave at his employees in one book, while it was also a natural evolution that he'd adopted Mattie Franklin as well as other more humanitarian acts.

The trouble is, since BND the ONLY Jonah we've seen is one who's Spidey obsessed to the point that he'd send armed troops after him, create Spider-slayers, becomes Mayor purely on the "I hate Spider-man!" platform. Prior to this J.J.'s hate for Spidey was a defining feature of the character but he'd evolved past it being his sole motivation. It jars particularly hard because Jonah KNOWS that Osborn is the Green Goblin, screwed him over and killed at least one of his employees and he's completely ignored that to re-ignite an obsession with Spider-man to levels he's not had in years. If he was concurrently gunning for Osborn it wouldn't seem so suddenly out of character.

It's a bit like Grant Morrison's take on Magneto - yes, he has acted like a murderous psychopath before, but we're past that point now and the character's grown more layered. Going back to how he was portrayed in the 60s is a step backward in all senses of the phrase.

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	xdoop 2009-05-28 10:11 am UTC (link)
	But it's not like the post-BND JJJ is totally flat; there's the stuff with him recuperating after his heart attack, his relationship with Marla, his biological father, ect. So far we've only seen Waid write JJJ as Mayor; I think Slott likes his character more. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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