Age of consent, Spider-Man, Black Cat and the Ultimate Marvel universe.

In the fourth hardcover collection of Ultimate Spider-Man, Bendis talks about the 616 universe Spider-Man and Black Cat:

When I first got the USM gig I was boning up on Spidey, and I came across this crazy issue of Peter Parker where the Cat and Spidey actually got a hotel room and were honestly about to get it on when Doc Ock or the Goblin came in and kidnapped her. It was crazy, but I loved, loved, loved the chemistry. I said, ?Well, we have the chemistry with the added bonus of one being 15 and the other not knowing it.?

Further on, the same article about the Black Cat says:

Bendis decided to make her a little older in this version to ?cause some interesting situations.?

In the arc that introduced her, Black Cat and Spider-Man didn?t exactly get a chance to bond much. Spider-Man tried to catch her as she made off with an artifact and she used her bad luck powers on Spider-Man to escape. The next day, she put an ad in the papers of New York inviting Spider-Man to meet her on a rooftop near where they had fought, an invitation he ended up accepting. He found her there with a picnic spread out. They had just clinked together wine glasses when Elektra showed up and ruined everyone?s night. Later, Elektra apparently killed Black Cat.

Cats apparently have nine lives though, because Black Cat is alive and well in Ultimate Spider-Man #81. At the end of the issue, with Spider-Man about to be killed by Hammerhead, Black Cat shows up and warns Hammerhead not to hurt her boyfriend. Recent solicitations for Ultimate Spider-Man indicate that Spider-Man is going to have a new girlfriend, someone we?ve seen before, and it looks like it?s going to be another superhero. So, all things considered, Black Cat and Spider-Man hooking up doesn?t seem impossible. Given how in the 616 universe Black Cat?s interest was at least at first entirely in Spider-Man, not Peter Parker, there?s some considerable potential for parallels.

So, given the comments that Bendis has made, given the original Spider-Man/Black Cat relationship, given advance solicitations, having the two hook up and have sex isn?t outside the realm of possibility. The comic is being marketed towards the mid to late teen market, and lets face it, sex isn?t exactly a mystery to the modern teenager, so I don?t think that there would be any issue in the idea of characters in the book having sex.

The problem lies in the respective ages of the characters. Peter Parker is either fifteen or sixteen. The character was introduced as being fifteen, and was still fifteen in the not-so-far-back Doctor Strange arc if I?m not mistaken. Black Cat looks like she?s in her mid-to-late twenties. For arguments sake, lets call her 26 and say that Peter is 16. Age of consent in New York is 17 years of age. A fair number of states, including New Jersey, put age of consent at 16, and some put it even lower, but age of consent in New York is 17. So, if they do have sex, it?s statutory rape.

At this point, I don?t think that we can say for sure where Bendis would go with that. Knowing Bendis and his take on Peter, I?d say that he?d probably feel hugely guilty and ashamed of the whole thing, but that?s just speculation about a plotline that hasn?t firmed up yet. Lets try to keep this discussion off of the morality of age of consent itself and what age of consent should be, and focus more on how Bendis should handle such a plotline, and whether such a plotline should be done, regardless of whether the relationship portrayed would be legal or illegal. Focus on the problem as it applies to the book rather than how it applies to the real world.

So, thoughts?

 

I'd hit Black Cat like the fist of an angry god.

Repeatedly.

 

Same here, black cat is hot. Besides how cool would parker be if at 15 or 16 he got with a hot mid tweenties women.

On the somewhat intelligent side, you could argue that with all spiderman has been through, he is allready well beyound his years in many aspects. Sex shouldn't be a big deal for him after taking on everything that he has. Hey if worse comes to worse and he get her pregnant or gets an std, i'm sure reed richards or doc strange could give him something to help him out.

 

I'd hit Black Cat like the fist of an angry god.

Repeatedly

Brilliant expression. And I totally agree.

 

616 universe

Not to drag this off topic but is that just the new name for the "normal" marvel universe (thats what I gathered from google), why and when did that happen?

Edit: Well I found a wikipedia entry on most of the why but I still find it very odd that I had never heard that in 15 odd years of reading comics.

 

BlackCat and Spider-Man I don't have a problem with it other then that I need to get USM comics again.

 

First off, lets just assume that Black Cat is desirable. I didn't intend this topic to be about "would it be fun in the short term for Peter to sleep with Black Cat", but more of a "Does this push the limits of what should happen in a teen targeted comic?"


The 616 universe is the standard Marvel universe. It?s called the 616 universe because the old What If? line called it the 616 universe.

 

First off, lets just assume that Black Cat is desirable. I didn't intend this topic to be about "would it be fun in the short term for Peter to sleep with Black Cat", but more of a "Does this push the limits of what should happen in a teen targeted comic?"

I don't think it just targeted at teens seeing as how some of the story lines get away from that. I mean when Nick Furry came in when Peter faced GG again. That was not really for teens I feel. So I would say no.

I mean look at the Venom story line that got really dark. So did the story line were Gawn dead.

 

...i suppose the question is: Honestly, how many people in the age group that this book is supposedly targetted towards ACTUALLY read comics, these days?

I know that, when i used to frequent the ole' comicbook store you VERY rarely saw people THAT age out there..

 

Yeah it was mostly males between the ages of lest say early 20's on up. Maybe some teens here and there but not a whole lot.

 

In all seriousness, I wouldn't mind if the plot line went this way. We know that the 616 Spider-Man wouldn't do it or get himself in that kind of situation, but thats the entire idea isn't it? The Ultimate universe is one of potentiallity and seeing characters react differently then their "real life" counter-parts do, for better or worse. We haven't seen Spidy in this kind of problem, if said problem becomes real, and it would be a new direction, to say the least.

And to keep things my way.
[image=http://images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/shdws/large/10093000/10093282.jpg]

Like the fist of an angry God.

 

I need to get caught up in my Ultimate Spider-Man...

 

Well, I think it's slighty pushing the limits. But it's not exactly uncommon to see couple with age differences nowadays.