Oh for god's sake, nothing really bad has happened to Marten. I think a lot of you are projecting/identifying with him wayyyy too much and want his life to go swimmingly for your own fantasy identification.
He and his girlfriend broke up. Not even out of nowhere, and for perfectly legit reasons. It sucks, but it happens.
Then he was sad and moped about. Because, you know, it logically follows, since that's what
all people who break up do. He got too drunk and got punched out by Faye but didn't even remember it. Honestly that's a lot better than what happened to me in the bad place after my last breakup. Or to others. One girl I knew drank too much, and when she unexpectedly saw her ex at a party, ran out sobbing into the middle of Massachusetts snow barefoot and sans overcoat and still holding her beer bottle; tripped, cut herself up, and had to go get stitches at a hospital. So, y'know, there's worse.
Then his mom came and embarrassed him a little in her efforts to lighten his mood. Oh no! That is surely a fate worse than death that no one else ever suffers.
Then he continued hanging out with his friends and living life, and then he met a girl he's attracted to but couldn't yet have any sort of serious feelings for, and when he came up to flirt with her at a bar, she wasn't instantly into him.
Seriously, that's all it takes for you to cry "Butt Monkey" and "Character Cruelty"? Really? You guys should read some Funky Winterbean.