Amazing Spider-Man V1 #106: J. Jonah Jameson and privacy

[starwolf_oakley]

Further down a bit, the subject of an X-Men post changed to J. Jonah Jameson. So, after the cut, is a page where we see that J. Jonah Jameson isn't *that* bad a guy when he starts a protest over video cameras all over Manhattan. Ah, the 1960s.






The follow-up pages are cut from the MARVEL TALES issue I saw this in. The missing pages have Robbie Robertson talking to his son Randy, saying "Jonah's all for civil liberties... as long as they aren't Spider-Man's." Jonah's sign says "Privacy or else!"

The cameras are actually a plot by Spencer Smythe so criminals will know where the cops are.

It does say something about how society changes, given there are security cameras EVERYWHERE now. I think there are HUNDREDS operating in London all day long.

J. Jonah Jameson is a hard character to figure out, given he's had conflicting motivations over the past 50 years. "Jameson knows Spider-Man is a hero and is jealous as a result" just doesn't hold up that well. I think Steve Ditko wanted to create a William Randolph Hearst character to warn readers about the evils of "yellow journalism." But "Hearst started the Spanish-American War to sell newspapers" is something of an urban legend.

Here are links to what I put in the X-Men post discussion thread, about how Jonah gives the X-Men a break but not the New Avengers.

UNCANNY X-MEN #346.

http://www.chasingamazingblog.com/2013/09/27/two-versions-of-j-jonah-jameson/

http://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/image84-e1379989833871.jpg

http://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/image85-e1379989870574.jpg

Comments

[drtechnobabel]

See, it's the opposite for me. I was first introduced to the character in the Sam Raimi movies, and then the stories that I read cast Jameson in a sympathetic light (for example, even though he still remains an antagonist to Spider-Man, every once in a while he's shown to have a soft spot for Peter and May), so I tend to be a little biased in the opposite direction.

I'll admit though, it doesn't help that the exact reason Jameson hates Spider-Man so much is not entirely consistent between portrayals of him, and seems to mostly be based on what the writer thinks it is. The explanation that the OP posted of Jameson being jealous of Spider-Man is definitely the oldest one (first appearing in Amazing Spider-Man #10), but other explanations range from Jameson blaming Spider-Man for the shuttle accident that nearly killed his son (which at least to me doesn't make sense in the 616-version of him since Jameson was slandering Spidey before that even happened) to having a distrust of masked heroes in general, believing they should have public identities and be held accountable like police and firemen are, and Spider-Man just happened to be an easy target to pick on since for the longest time he had no real connection to any supergroup that would at least somewhat shield him from bad publicity. Hell, there was one story that basically said that his father was an abusive policeman, which soured him to the idea of true heroes existing in general and believing that they all have something to hide. The only thing that (almost) every explanation has in common is that his hatred of the wall-crawler is genuine, and not simply a tactic to drive up sales. In fact, a couple times its been shown that as time went on, the constant slandering of Spidey has actually damaged his reputation due to a growing awareness of what Spider-Man is actually like. He may not be a nice guy, but it is rare that he is portrayed as completely evil, mostly just stubborn in his beliefs to an almost fanatical degree, which lets his hatred of Spider-Man cloud his judgement and morals, sinking his actions to levels he otherwise wouldn't even consider. And on very rare occasions, he'll even realize that something he did went too far and show genuine remorse for his actions, since on some level he believes that what he's doing is for the good of the people of New York, even though in reality his vendetta against Spider-Man specifically is still almost always on some level personal.

At least, that's how I see it. Again, thanks to over 50 years of Spider-Man stories, Jameson's actual morality is cloudy enough that it's basically writer's fiat at this point.

[tugrul]

Not only have writers always had trouble writing Jameson, his bad characterisation may also be a result of Marvel never stepping out of "let's make Peter's life miserable... again" and Jameson being Peter's boss and executive of a major news paper that covers Spider-Man opens up so many ways to give Pete a hard time.

Peter's life sucking and Jameson being douchy always bothers me about Spider-Man stories. Then Superior came along and they managed to make Jameson a bigger douche. O, how I hated the character's guts.

EDIT: Thank you for clarifying Jameson's character a bit. Now I can have some sympathy for his strings are being pulled by those who sit in the shadows... or offices.

[drtechnobabel]

That is true. Jameson has always been a go-to way to make Spider-Man's life more miserable on a daily basis. Though like I said, on occasion he shows that he actually has a pretty big soft spot for the Parker family, although given his attitude it's generally not something he'll admit out loud. One example that shows this perfectly (and, if memory serves correctly, has actually happened a couple times over the years) is that when Peter was in even deeper financial straits than he usually is, Jameson, who normally is a cheapskate of epic proportions, paid Peter noticeably more than his pictures were actually worth, even though he tried his damn hardest to make it look like he's lowballing the price. He may be a jerk, but in my opinion when he's written well, he does indeed have some sense of honor and a heart of gold. A very small, hidden one, mind you, but it's there.

And funny thing is, while I agree that Superior did make Jameson a bigger asshole than before, it also, for the first time ever, gave Jameson a legitimate reason to consider Spider-Man a threat to the general public. Grated, it wasn't REALLY Spider-Man, but Jameson doesn't know that, and I don't think Peter ever actually bothered to even try to explain the truth to him. I'm kind of interested to see where that leads.

[starwolf_oakley]

Hell, there was one story that basically said that his father was an abusive policeman, which soured him to the idea of true heroes existing in general and believing that they all have something to hide.

Are you talking about WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #52. The dirty cop in that story wasn't Jameson's father. But Young Jonah did say "That's the cop that beat me up. Some hero."

Funny coincidence alert: Flash Thompson's father was a hero cop who was also was abusive, an alcoholic and divorced. Like Mary Jane's father. Is there some sort of trifecta that the parents of Peter Parker's friends hit?

[drtechnobabel]

No, I was thinking of the story where he goes to a psychiatrist and talks about growing up with his abusive father who everyone outside of the household saw as a hero, and eventually standing up to him, which is what led to him taking up smoking. Thanks for the clarification, though. I think I might have meshed the two characters together in my head unintentionally.

And that is... odd. Maybe it's the exact same person, and he's just one of those people who jumps between families every couple weeks

other motivation

[7dialsmystery]

In the 90's Spider-Man cartoon Jameson said he hated masked men because honest people don't have to hide who they are. Plus, there was a flash back where his wife was gunned down by guys in ski masks.

So....take what you will from that.

[seisachtheia]

I liked Ultimate Jonah the best. They did a good job of fleshing him out as a driven, flawed, but decent man.

[drtechnobabel]

He's also the one that, when he found out Spider-Man's identity, did a complete 180 on his opinion on him, saying that the Bugle would actually help Spider-Man from now on. In contrast, when the 616-version found out, he got so angry it ended up giving him a heart attack, and drove his hatred even further. Of course, I think the one of the main difference is that in the main continuity, Jameson felt that Peter had conned him out of every cent he paid for Spider-Man, where as Ultimate Spider-Man had just saved Jameson's life.

[seisachtheia]

Plus, Ultimate Peter Parker was just a high school kid, a decent kid he felt somewhat responsible towards (and who had a terrifying aunt.)