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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 23 September 2016 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | 1  
Arguably, Betty's the most unrealistic one of all. A full time secretary dating a high school kid? (I know there was a note in the letter's page saying Betty was actually a high school drop out who was younger than Peter, but that never made it into the actual books and once Ned showed up...) At least the others were his peers. :-)
++++++++++

Other way around--Betty was supposed to be slightly older than Peter.
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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 23 September 2016 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | 2  
Peter is like Chandler Bing, a "loser" mostly because we say he is. Meanwhile, cool job and hot girls all around.
++++++++

This kinda speaks to my point. Early Peter was right out of REVENGE OF THE NERDS--scrawny, bespectacled, mocked by his peers, and unable to get a date to save his life.

After that spider-bite, though, he started to come out of his shell. His natural wit and creativity were unleashed by his being Spider-Man, and this spilled over into his civilian life. Girls like Liz (who had previously written him off) and Betty saw the confidence and charm that had been developing. And then he stopped wearing the glasses, and got more althletic-looking (presumably due to his activities as Spider-Man, since his physique began to change even during Ditko's run)...

This all makes me wonder where Peter's life would have gone, without that spider-bite. The charm, the confidence, the jokes--all of that was really set in motion by the spider-bite. He might have gotten there, eventually, but becoming Spider-Man changed him on some fundamental levels, beyond just that sense of guilt over Ben Parker's death.


Without becoming Spider-Man, poor Peter probably wouldn't have ended up with the cool job and the girls angling for his attention. Heck, Gwen's initial attraction to him came from frustration and intrigue over his perceived snobbery, when, in reality, he was worried about Aunt May's medical condition (which was direct result of receiving a transfusion of his irradiated blood). Without Spider-Man, Aunt May wouldn't have fallen ill when she did, and Peter might have tried some nerdy pickup line on Gwen, only to be turned down flat. 


Edited by Greg Kirkman on 23 September 2016 at 10:07pm
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Anthony J Lombardi
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Posted: 23 September 2016 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | 3  
I imagine John Romita's art style had a big impact on Peter's social life. Since he was drawing him less awkward looking. I think I recall Stan Lee saying something like that. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 24 September 2016 at 8:03am | IP Logged | 4  
Beware of articles which feature much use of the words "appears" and "seems". Plus, other phrases like "may well be".

••

I was such as this that turned me into an Oxfordian, holding that Edward de Vere was the actual author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. Read an official bio of the Stratford man, and notice how many times those kinds of phrases turn up.

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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 24 September 2016 at 9:20am | IP Logged | 5  
 Greg Kirkman wrote:
Other way around--Betty was supposed to be slightly older than Peter.


From the special announcements section of ASM #12:



My collection hasn't quite made it back to #12 yet, so the scan is from the first Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, hence the blurry half. Here's the full transcription:

 Stan Lee wrote:
We’ve received many letters from fans who feel that Betty is too old to be dating Pete. Although, we tried to explain this in the past, for those who’ve missed the point, we’ll tackle it again – Betty is actually a few months YOUNGER than our hero. She had to leave school and take a job because she needed the money, and she intends to complete her education at night when she gets the chance. She only SEEMS older because Pete is a high school senior while she is a working girl. Okay?


But like I said, it didn't exactly make it into the comics.

Edited by Dave Phelps on 24 September 2016 at 9:21am
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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 24 September 2016 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | 6  
Huh. I could've sworn that later writers (Roger Stern, maybe?) stated outright that Betty was older than Peter.

This just means I need to re-read the Lee/Ditko run, of course. Not that I need a reason to!
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Stephen Robinson
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Posted: 24 September 2016 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | 7  
Although it's best not to dwell on it, I think Betty's age is probably a clear
victim of "Marvel time." Maybe a 17-yr-old high school dropout could work as
the assistant to a major newspaper publisher, but nowadays that's fairly
laughable.

Heck, Jameson would probably hire a graduate student as an unpaid intern
*for the experience* (sadly, that wouldn't be too far removed from reality).
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Chris Durnell
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Posted: 24 September 2016 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | 8  
In regards to Betty Brant's age, this is something that really can't translate now to comics.  The idea that a girl quits high school and enters the workforce, was at least "normal" even if rare.  Nowadays, many states probably have laws against that, and Betty's future job prospects would not be good without a high school diplomacy.

In fact, even as a secretary to JJJ, Betty would likely be a college graduate nowadays and would be very privileged to be one of the secretaries working for the publisher of a major New York newspaper.  In order to make Betty age contemporary to Peter in high school, she'd likely be just an intern while going to high school herself and probably only got the internship as a result of someone's influential help.  It'd be a very different Betty Brant than the one we know.

It really is a very different world than when Stan and Steve wrote it back in 1962.
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