What were they thinking? Who thought it would be a good idea for Spider-Man and Mary Jane to sell their relationship to the devil. It’s outlandish even for a comic book. This story titled, “One More Day”, grew out of an editorial mandate. Marvel thought being married made Spider-Man unrelatable to teenage readers. I mostly disagree with this. I grew up in the 90’s during the time the spider-marriage existed. I’ve always loved the characters’ union. The fact that Spider-Man was able to maintain a loving relationship made him a more well rounded character. Whereas a character like Batman chooses a life of solitude and violence dedicated to ‘the mission’, Spider-Man gets to feel love. It gives him something to fight for, and makes him more human. I feel like this was a monster that Marvel created to slay. I’m not ready to accept Mary Jane as a detriment to Spider-Man, but lets examine the character and find out just whats wrong with Mary Jane.
Origins: You hit the Jack Pot
Mary Jane was introduced to Peter Parker by his aunt. The running gag was that Peter always assumed any girl his aunt set him up with would be homely. Every time she appeared in the comic her face was obscured. When she finally meets Peter, Mary Jane is revealed to be a drop dead gorgeous red-head. She smiles and says the immortal line “Face it Tiger you hit the jackpot.” She was portrayed as a wild party girl. Stan Lee has stated that Mary Jane was never intended to be the love of Peter Parker’s life. That role fell to Gwen Stacy. MJ was only intended to introduce a Betty vs. Veronica scenario. Mary Jane however proved to be more popular. She was a fun vivacious character, whereas Gwen was just a nice sweet girl. They were on again off again paramours until Gwen Stacy dies. In one issue after her death Mary Jane tries to comfort Peter Parker and he tells her off, blinded by grief. Instead of storming out MJ stays with the grieving Peter. They develop into best friends and confidants. Many interesting stories came out of this relationship. MJ comes from a broken home. Her wild personality was just a cover for the pain she had due to her home life. Peter Parker helps her deal with her family issues. It is revealed that MJ has known Spider-Man and Peter Parker are the same person since the night Uncle Ben died. There’s a great panel where Peter realizes that MJ is his best friend, and because she is his best friend he’s in love with her.The early stories with Mary Jane were so successful because they were interesting and well developed. Even though they had cheesy retro comic dialog, they were fun. They may have been a little bit on melodramatic side, but it was interesting and engaging. It wasn’t just Spider-Man saves the day and had a warm body to go home to at night. MJ wasn’t just a hot bit of arm candy for Peter to faun over. Like a real relationship the character’s lives were interwoven.The couple helped each other.
Side Tracked: Disfunctionality
So how did such an cool character go wrong? In my opinion lazy writing. Initially Mary Jane was a fully rounded supporting character. After a she devolved into the woman who looks out of the window forlorn, not knowing if her husband will survive to come home. In some stories she begged Spider-Man to quit superheroics. In others she would get jealous of Black Cat. Mary Jane went from an awesome companion to a boring two dimensional ‘wifey’. If Spider-Man was a the escapist fantasy, marvel began writing MJ as the wet blanket. Marvel even toyed around with killing her off and putting MJ and Spider-Man through a trial separation. None of which seemed to improve Spider-Man’s popularity.
The Spider-Man movies didn’t help at all. With no offense to Kirsten Dunst, they portrayed Mary Jane as the goal of Spider-Man. In a way it objectifies women. The only real reason Peter gives for being in love with her is that, he’s know her since childhood. MJ is constantly getting kidnapped and stirring up drama. She’s not a fun character. MJ never says anything about any tigers hitting any jackpots. During the course of the first movie she hooks up with 3 different guys (4 if you count Spider-man and Peter as separate people). The famous upside down kiss was actually an act of infidelity against Harry. Spider-Man 2 she toys around with the feelings of her best friend and fiance, and leaves a great guy at the alter. In the third movie she didn’t even bother to tell her boyfriend that a super villain threatened to kill him if she didn’t break up with him. This ditsy girl has seems to have taken root in the editorial boards minds.
All of this is indicative of lazy writing and character development. It’s easier to write a highly dysfunctional relationship instead of a couple who help and support each other. For me Mary Jane always played an important role in Spider-Man’s love life. Where as Gwen never knew about Peters double life, and Black Cat only loved Spider-Man with his mask on, Mary Jane loved both. She knew from the beginning who Spider-Man was and why he needed to to be a hero. She wasn’t star stuck by dating a superhero, or the cliche hot girl validating the nerd by dating him. Honestly, if the Green Goblin never killed Gwen Stacy, I still think Peter Parker would have married Mary Jane.
So What Now:
The One Day More reboot has substituted a new girlfriend for Peter Parker in the form of Carlie Cooper. She’s a normal human and has had some new stories revolve around her, but the problem that could arise with her is that she could fall into the same pitfall Mary Jane did. Why not give an old beloved character something interesting to do then have a new random character shoehorned in via convoluted Faustian deals.
The problem was never that Spider-Man was rendered unrelatable as a married man. The problem was that the relationship faltered from the formula that made it work originally. Mary Jane became popular because she was a fun character. To revitalize the Spider-marriage Mary Jane needs to be fun again. Make her take a few levels in bad ass, and be involved in Spider-Man’s super heroics. I don’t want her to be a superhero, but use her to explore a superhero world through a mortal’s eyes. Maybe Spider-Man will begin to teach her self defense, and she’ll get to use it against a lower level threat like Mysterio or the Chameleon. Maybe she’ll figure something out that Spider-Man couldn’t. Ultimate Spider-Man did this in when Mary Jane helped Spiderman figure out Mysterio had a mole in the police department. I’ve always imagined her as a someone who could have become a superhero, if she had superpowers.
Spider-Man comics has fallen into a dark age. Hopefully in the next few years they will right this awkward reboot, and restore Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s love for one another.
