If you ever have a day where you are cursing your job and just hating your boss, think of how hard it would be to work for J. Jonah Jameson. The cigar-chomping publisher of the Daily Bugle, Jameson was loosely based on Marvel Comic head poobah and Spider-Man co-creator, Stan Lee.
“I thought to myself, how would I be if I were a newspaper publisher?” Lee said. “I’d probably be bossy and irritable and loudmouthed.” But, he conceded, Jameson’s a hard worker and really cares about the newspaper. He’s “all bluster and he’s not a very likable guy.”
Month after month in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man comics, readers would watch their hero battle super villains and succeed against unstoppable odds only to be defeated by his curmudgeon of a boss who refused to pay him. It was all part of the ‘Parker luck’ that ran through the series touching everything from Peter striking out with girls to failing to get to class on time. But Jameson was something else. He even created a super-villain called the Scorpion to destroy Spider-Man in one issue!
This month, old J.J. gets even more detestable as he steps into the ring of city politics.
JJJ in his 'blue period'
Due to a convoluted and complex state of affairs involving a super villain named Menace (well, Spidey calls her that at least), the mayoral election of New York City in the Marvel Universe has hit a snag. Having recently lost his role as EIC of the Bugle after a heart attack, Jameson has been fuming and scheming at ways to get his voice heard and now he’s found it as Mayor-Elect of NYC.
Fans of old may recall the long runs of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas or Gerry Conway, but the Spider-Man comic of today is maintained by a rotating cast of writers referred to as the ‘braintrust’ and consists of some of the best writers in the industry from Mark Waid to Marc Guggenheim to Dan Slott. Given their rather revolutionary take on JJ, you can tell that the monthly comic is anything but boring!
“Oh, Jameson is probably my favorite supporting character in comics,” Waid said. “He has a terrible sense of humor, but he’s a riot to be around, listening to him scream, and rant and bully. Deep down, there is a heart of gold there, but I think you would need a drill press and an electron microscope to find it.”
“I think Jonah doesn’t think he’s evil,” Slott said. “He’s wonderfully rounded out. He’s a proud American; he’s very proud of his son the astronaut; he’s very petty; he very much likes being in the spotlight. He can’t stand that Spider-Man — Parker — kind of gets on his nerves, too. There’s all these different aspects of his personality. How do you explain Jonah? He’s an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a newspaper.”
Soon the entire MU will know why Spider-Man was always so gloomy as they meet their new boss, JJJ.
