Trouble (comic)
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Trouble is a five-issue romance comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics under its Epic line in 2003. Written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Terry and Rachel Dodson the series deals with teen pregnancy. The basic concept was created by Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada.
Trouble was originally considered by Marvel's editorial group as the possible origin of Spider-Man, but after the book was not received very well by many comic book fans the story was declared not "official" Marvel continuity. It was also meant to re-popularize romance comics (which were very popular in the 1950s (see 1950s in comics), selling millions of copies), but failed.
A trade paperback collecting the five issues was originally scheduled to be published on 18 February 2004, but canceled when Epic was shut down after Bill Jemas, who had been a driving force behind the imprint, resigned as president of Marvel Comics.
Characters
- May - May is a 17-year-old redhead and somewhat of a wildchild.
- Mary - Blonde Mary is May's best friend and rather shy.
- Ben - Richard's older brother, who was often in hospitals as a child.
- Richard - Ben's younger brother and their dad's clear favorite.
Plot summary
After some time of living with a guy she is disgusted by and never even tells she is pregnant May contacts Mary and meets with her. Mary is still very angry about May for having an affair with Richie and tells her she deserves all the trouble she is going through, but decides to help her when May tells her she has been thinking about suicide. Mary comes up with the plan to tell everybody the baby is hers, so May will not have to face her fundamentalist parents and Mary can test if she can trust Richie, who is still in love with her and writing her frequent letters, none of which she has answered, yet. So once little Peter is born, Mary takes him to Richie and they start a family, while May returns home to her parents as if nothing had happened.
Covers
Unusually for an American comic book series, all issues of Trouble featured photo covers by French photographer Phillippe Biabolos in the style of teen romance novels, with cover design by Joe Quesada. These covers were to appeal to a female audience (Marvel originally hoped for high sales outside the comic scene, particularly with a collected edition that was to be heavily promoted in many bookstores, but never published after the series did not do well in the direct market). Contrary to speculations among comic book fans, the models on the covers were confirmed legal adults.
The second printing of the first issue (Trouble #1: The Second Chances Edition) was the only one to feature a conventional comic book cover, drawn by Frank Cho.
Reception
The series' main characters, May, Ben, Mary and Richard, were obviously meant to be Peter Parker's Aunt May and Uncle Ben along with his parents Richard and Mary Parker. Thus, the revelation that Aunt May is actually Peter Parker's mother was highly controversial among Spider-Man fans. They argued that Aunt May's behavior in Trouble did not match her character from the Spider-Man books, that the characters' appearances were different from their looks in previous Spider-Man comics, and that the story contradicted prior continuity. Complaints from fans were so strong that Marvel later declared that the story was not part of the "official" Marvel continuity.Also there is the matter of the ages of the characters involved. At the time when he gained his powers Peter Parker was fifteen. If May was his birth mother, and had given birth to him while a teenager then she would be in her mid 30's when Peter gained his powers, rather than the elderly woman she is portrayed as.
And while Dodson's round art was well liked Millar's dialogue in Trouble was criticized as not representative of the time it is set in (supposedly the 1970s) [link] and his storytelling failed to grab the audience, with many complaining that the characters were written too similar and hard to keep apart; "Save for the fact that one of the girls will do it on the first date when the other one won't". [link]
References
External links
- [SpiderFan.org] Top Ten Reasons Not To Take The Trouble Mini-series Seriously
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