Fans hate Paul. There has perhaps never been something that has unified so many fans of Spider-Man, fans of comic books in general, in years. Everyone’s sheer, unbridled hatred of Paul and what he represents shines through in every series the man appears in. Fans screamed how much they loathed him during Zeb Wells’s run on Amazing Spider-Man, along with Mary Jane’s solo Jackpot series, and most recently in the All-New Venom series, where Paul is a prominent character. But not only is Paul justifiably hated because of what he stands for, the newest issue of All-New Venom shows that not only is Paul a terrible character, he is also an idiot.
Paul is the living embodiment of one thing: Marvel Editorial refusing to let Spider-Man be happy. The fact that superheroes have extremely strict status quos is well known even outside the comic book sphere. These characters have existed for decades after all, and to keep a story never-ending there must be solid ground to stand on and stretch out from. Their status quos are timeless backdrops from which literally thousands of stories can be told across years and decades.
Spider-Man, being one of the most popular superheroes in the world, naturally has a much stricter status quo than most others. It makes sense, Marvel wants to have direct oversight with their biggest cash cow. Unfortunately, the formula they’ve come up with to keep Spider-Man “relatable” is one fans have come to hate. Writing Spider-Man means that you need to keep him young, single or in a short-term relationship, and more often than not suffering in some capacity. Over the years, Marvel has come up with all kinds of dumb or convoluted ways to keep Peter single and unhappy, but even when compared to him making a deal with the literal devil, Paul stands as the one that makes fans the maddest.
Paul is the most hated status quo device because it’s so apparent that’s all he is. How he showed up in the story is boring and the foundation of Mary Jane and him being stuck in another dimension for four years is so contrived its angering. Paul’s only character traits are loving MJ, being a smart tech guy, and feeling extreme guilt for his role in ending his original home. And that last one he’s only had for about six issues in All-New Venom, before he was completely unrepentant.
Fans hate Paul not just because he keeps MJ and Peter apart, but because that’s all he exists to do. He might as well be a faceless wall that stands between the fans and one of comics’ most beloved relationships. He doesn’t even have a hatable character because he doesn’t have a character at all. He’s so inoffensive that it’s offensive because beyond his existence there was nothing about him to hate. Until now.
Issue #6 of All-New Venom has answered why MJ and Venom bonded and can’t be apart from each other. During the events of the “Venom War” storyline Venom temporarily bonded with Mary Jane and her Jackpot bracelet in order to unlock its limiters, which prevent her from rolling useless and uber strong powers. Later in the arc, Venom was infected with poison that effectively disintegrated it, and it fled into the sewers to ensure it wouldn’t infect Dylan. At the same time, Venom’s release of Jackpot’s limiters had disastrous consequences. The small part of Venom still inside the bracelet kept rerolling MJ’s powers, each time getting a more detrimental one. MJ found Venom, nearly withered to nothing, just as her bracelet rolled an instant death power and she started to disintegrate. Acting on instinct, Venom bonded to MJ, fusing the two together and saving both of their lives. However, they could no longer be apart without tearing themselves apart on a cellular level.
But MJ and Venom’s space issue aside, the real problem is Paul. Not only did Paul design Mary Jane a superpower-giving bracelet that is totally random, but without the limiters in place she can actually roll an instant death ability. Why would he design that? What purpose is there to designing tech that has a chance to literally invert its wielder’s bones? The idea of designing tech that purposefully relies on luck is already stupid, but the fact that Paul programmed this tech with that chance is literally a dumb move. Sure she was given literally supernatural bad luck to roll Glob powers into decaying skin, but Mary Jane should never have had those be options in the first place!
Paul designed a gauntlet that can literally just kill people if they have bad luck, so never let Spider-Man get near it. It’s so unbelievably stupid that it can even do this, and I couldn’t be happier that this is happening. Now, after years of hating him for what he represents, we can finally hate Paul for just being stupid. Paul has finally been given an actual flaw, and I say we milk it for all it’s worth. Let’s celebrate, because Paul is stupid and he’s finally proved it!
Paul is one of Marvel’s most despised characaters of all time, and now he just proved he might also be one of its dumbest. Read More