That’s right folks, I’m back to beat the dead horse which is my disdain of Ms. Brant. Surely there can’t be more offenses? I hate to say it, but we haven’t even scratched the surface yet
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In the last feature of “Bertone hates Betty”, I posted a few panels from “Amazing Spider-Man” issue 280 where Betty ponders why she didn’t realize that sleeping with Flash Thompson was hurting his girlfriend Sha Shan. That thought process is horrible in and of itself. Let’s now look at the rest of that page..
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He should have answered “What I should have done 100 issues ago”. At this point Ned is very aware of Betty’s dalliance with Flash Thompson.
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Ned brings up good points. “What about our marriage”. Where did this sudden concern for her marriage come from? Even before Flash Thompson, Betty had left Ned ON THEIR HONEYMOON to restart things with Peter. Betty has some nerve.
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“Doesn’t it mean anything to you?!”
WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!!! I’m so glad Ned calls on her on it.
Well here we have Ned asking her a simple question. All she has to do is acknowledge that she loves him. Surely that can’t be too difficult for her to do. Right. Right? Right?
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?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!??!!?!!!!!?!?!?!
SHE DOESN’T EVEN ANSWER HIM. SHE DOESN’T EVEN LOOK HIM IN THE EYES. Let me remind you that this is a mere panel after she asks if the marriage means anything to him. All she had to do was say she loved him….she won’t even give him that!! People who wonder what my problem is with Betty, look no further!
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Oh you do love Ned? Gee, maybe that’s something you should have said to him out loud when he asked you. “Maybe I just don’t love you enough”…enough to what? Enough to tell him? Enough to not cheat on him multiple times with multiple men?
In honor of “Hobgoblin Lives” being reprinted this week (BUY IT NOW), let’s see how Betty recalled this event. She had a dream about it in “Hobgoblin Lives” issue 1. She regret her actions? She realize she did wrong by Ned?
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So Betty’s version of the events is Ned abandoning her and the marriage….then terrorizing her…then chasing her as a giant. I always point to the page from “Amazing Spider-Man” issue 280 as one of Betty’s worse offenses. It always comes down between that an issue 184. It was nice to see Stern revisit it, even if it shows how out of touch with reality Ms. Brant is. Before anyone tries to tell me, yes I am aware that Betty doesn’t really think Ned is a giant and that it’s a dream. It’s the fact that the dream twists their conversation to make Betty the victim. Sigh. Betty and Hobgoblin have a discussion about Ned’s final days in “Hobgoblin Lives” issue 3.
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I will readily admit that Ned’s brainwashing did not make things easy for Betty. I do wish she would take SOME responsibility for her actions though. Don’t forget, she had other discretions before Ned was ever brainwashed. For all we know, she may have wound up with Flash regardless of Ned’s state of mind. Whatever the case Betty treats it as “OH! So it was Hobgoblin’s fault that I had an affair not mine!”.What makes it worse is the way she phrases it. That is what kills me. “These side effects led to the MISUNDERSTANDINGS all the pain between Ned and me and Flash Thompson.”
Back the truck up.
Misunderstandings?!??!
There was no misunderstanding. You had an affair. You were caught. This isn’t Three’s Company. Ned didn’t overhear you and Flash planning his surprise party and think you two were having an affair. You cheated on your husband and you were caught! I don’t get how she can write it off as a “misunderstanding”. Oh well, I suppose it’s Hobgoblin’s fault anyway. After all, if it was Betty’s then that would make her a horrible person.
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Been a busy week but I want to try to respond to some of these points (albeit late)…
@Proto,
Yea Ned was a jerk at many times and even got physical with people on a few occasions. Even still it doesn’t excuse Betty’s treatment of him. Especially in this scene. Betty was grabbed by Ned once which was unacceptable…but she was not a battered woman like some people like to portray her.
@Two-Bit,
Don’t hold back. I could take it 🙂
@Jack Brooks,
Semi????
God I love that title image of Betty going crazy. It’s just so dang funny.
nice work Bertone…great refresher!
Another home run buddy. Love these.
That’s a freaking creepy image at the top, kinda like what Don was talking about in ASMC, but worse, I think.
The way I read the “Hobgoblin Lives” issue 1 panels is that in the dream Ned is confronting Betty about how much shit she’s caused him and that she’s the reason why he when crazy and became the Hobgoblin. At least that’s how she sees it before she knew the truth about the Hobgoblin and it’s probably her subconscious telling her she’s a horrible person. When she’s saying at the end “Stop it!” she’s really running way from the truth that she was horrible to Ned and doesn’t want to accept that it might be her fault for what happened between her and Ned.
That’s just my understanding of the dream sequence anyway.
Betty Brant is a semi-sociopath.
*rolls eyes*
She had it coming.
To be fair here though Ned always came off as kind of a douchebag. I remember reading some of the Lee/Ditko issues with in them a little while ago and he just comes off like such a dick at times. Especially when Petes trying to contact Betty after the Scorpian batlle to see if she’s alright and Ned doesn’t even bother answering her phone to see if its her on again off again boyfriend wanting to make sure she’s recovering alright.