J. Jonah Jameson is the funniest kind of comic book character I can think of, because he doesn't fit any of the traditional superhero genre archetypes. He's actively hostile to Spider-Man, to the point of obsession - by most superhero genre rules you'd think that would make him a villain, right?? But no, he's actively supported the rights of minorities (including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and mutants) since the 60s, enthusiastically exposes real criminals in his newspaper even when it's dangerous to do so, and has been shown in multiple adaptations to be willing to sacrifice himself/put himself in danger to protect the people he cares about (even his coworkers and staff he doesn't personally know well!). Literally the only villainous thing he does in most adaptations (with some notable exceptions) is hate Spider-Man and print inflammatory articles about him, mostly just because he believes that "anybody who looks that heroic on the surface must be hiding something" and "a real hero would work with law enforcement, not against it." But he's never really a hero either - he's abrasive, rude, prone to vindictiveness, and his dedication to the idea that law enforcement/the military should always be the first line of defense blinds him to a lot of important things and gets in the way of actively making a difference to help people in many situations. I'm glad he exists in the Spider-Man universe, because that's an extremely realistic kind of guy, and that makes him stand out in an environment full of superheroes and supervillains. I feel like that's a guy I could have conceivably heard host a show on local talk radio in the 00s, or encountered at my old church getting into an animated conversation over coffee and donuts. A guy with a lot of Opinions who's genuinely good to the people in his immediate circle and would yell at people if they used the wrong pronouns for someone but probably would have a thin blue line sticker on his car.
