Winter wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:07 am
But what do you think? Are you in favor of Miles and Gwen or do, like me, just not all that interested in them as a couple?
I admit I have a lot of contempt for the "I just don't GET Superman and Wonder Woman" argument. It always comes off as disingenuous to hide their shipping of Lois and Clark or the equivalent in Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Yes, you can absolutely love Lois and Clark or Spider-Man and Mary Jane. However, that doesn't mean you can't like Barbara Gordon and Nightwing or Spider-Man and Black Cat. There's a genuine refusal to engage with Superman and Wonder Woman that comes from writers being snide little bastards who refuse to actually try to deal with the material.
Why would Superman and Wonder Woman work? Is it because they're the two strongest people on Earth? Maybe. Is it also possible that readers might be interested because they're also two Lawful Good moral paragons? Maybe that's why the writers are afraid of them. They fear that pairing them loses their "cheap" storytelling. You can't endanger Diana, you can't have Superman hide his secret identity, and you can't have her depicted as a wet blank whining over him choosing the mission over her. They are couple that would UNDERSTAND each other's mission. Maybe that would make them boring but there's plenty of other places to take the story.
Why would people like Miles and Gwen?
Well, the obvious answer is because they have both had their lives shit on horribly by their secret identities. It's nice to "throw the dog a bone" and have both of them have someone that they can actually confide in. Spider-Gwen doesn't have a secret identity in the comic verse but I believe that was a mistake and there's no way she could fight crime after that (which was why moving her to 616 was necessary). In the movies, though, they're two lost souls reaching out to one another and the struggles of their respective responsibilities.
Out of universe, it's also good that we don't have a Rey/Finn "Disney can't stand interracial couples" thing going on. Luke Cage couldn't be with Jessica Jones. Note that they broke up Zendaya and Tom Holland too. Iron Fist couldn't be with Misty Knight (but could be with an Asian woman--thanks, Disney :sarcasm:) but Sony is willing to have a white woman with a black man and GOOD FOR THEM. The fact it's as iconic a pair as Gwen Stacy and Spider-Man is also important.