Originally Posted by
Majesty
Very true. The opportunity for her to branch out beyond Peter romantically would have been while she worked for Tony Stark, and not with Tony obviously.
But there was a lot of people that could appear from the Marvel world, that she could have branched out to. But pretty much she's kept single while Peter is not, or Peter has multiple flings/kisses/romances/semi-romances while MJ sits stagnant on that front.
Personally while she worked for Tony Stark I'd have loved to at least seen Mary Jane even out on a date, talking about things with someone, superhero or no (but preferably superhero lol) and one that had known Stark or had worked together, such as Luke Cage, or as you said, Johnny Storm, though I think Johnny Storm would probably appeal to the 'old party animal' Mary Jane as opposed to who she is now. Luke's more down to earth in ways she'd probably appreciate.
But yeah, these are likely the reasons you don't see Mary Jane shipped with people outside of Peter, cause the comics go out of their way for the last 30 years to keep her away from anyone that isn't Peter despite Peter's many flings/romances/make-out sessions since that point that he's had whenever they were separated.
Is it fair? No. But it would take a writer to come along and go "Hey, instead of keeping Mary Jane on the sideline while we wait another 3-4 years to do Peter/Mary Jane again.. how about we actually branch out and pair her with someone else? Or at least build to that to show she can have a romantic life outside of Peter, like we obviously have no issue doing with him." Aside from the broken windows, and "status quo is God" painted all over your desk and stamped on your idea... it would take a writer to actually have the guts to do such a thing, or it would take the higher ups to actually okay it. As I'm sure it's come up and a writer has come along with it, but the higher ups went "Status Quo is God" and like many ideas that have come and gone through comic offices it was left on the cutting room floor.