Mary Jane Watson-Parker Appreciation 2020

[Celgress]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/c...ke_deodato_jr/

A lovely interpretation of an iconic scene, very nice.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Amazing Spider-Man #143 Apr 1975
"...And the Wind Cries: Cyclone!"
Web-slinging through the city, Spider-Man once more swears that he's seeing Gwen Stacy,
but dismisses it only as guilt brought on over her death.
Arriving at the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man changes into Peter Parker,
where he learns that J. Jonah Jameson has suddenly left New York and left for France, leaving Joe Robertson in charge.
Joe takes Peter out for lunch where he shows Parker a telegram from Jameson that asks Joe to pull one million
dollars out of the Bugle's account and bring it to him in France immediately, and asks Peter if he'd go with him.
Peter agrees but tells Joe that he has to get the time off his classes.
After meeting with Professor Miles Warren, who's impressed with Peter's better grades, he allows for Parker's absence.

Peter goes to the airport with Mary Jane accompanying him,

where they share their first kiss together before Peter boards the airplane for France.

Upon arriving in France and checking into a hotel, Joe immediately gets a call from Jameson's kidnappers.
Peter decides to follow Joe as Spider-Man. When Joe is attacked by costumed men,
Spider-Man jumps into battle and fights them off. Before Joe can revive,
Spider-Man knocks him out again to make sure that
he doesn't see Spider-Man in action and possibly learning Peter Parker's secret identity.

Before Spider-Man can take Joe to safety, he's attacked by the attacker's leader,
a costumed super-villain known as Cyclone who has wind generating powers.
After a brief battle, Cyclone is able to defeat Spider-Man, knocking the wall-crawler out by collapsing a building on him.
As Spidey revives, he can only watch as Cyclone takes Joe Robertson hostage and tells
Spider-Man if his demands for ransom are not met in the next 24 hours, he will murder both men.

Script by Gerry Conway. Pencils by Ross Andru. Inks by Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt (backgrounds).

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Thanks for sharing that. Even after all these years, it's one of the greatest romantic moments in, not just Spider-Man, but all of superhero comics.

There's an added poignance to that, the fact is that this scene is permanently dated for being Pre-9/11. Before the attacks, it was possible for family, friends and others to accompany people into the airport (help them carry lugagge, sup with them, wait alongside them) right until the boarding gate as you see in that image. After the attacks they changed that permanently to "just passengers".

In ASM#505, set after 9/11, you have Peter dropping MJ off at the airport, and saying goodbye right outside the gate. It was the first time that JMS really showed a reality of the world after 9/11 in the comics.

[Frontier]

Dunno, I have gathered that an aspect of their dynamic is that they're out of each other leagues from different perspectives.

From the outside looking in moreso then if you get to know them better.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/c...ke_deodato_jr/

Deodato does an amazing rendition of the kiss.

where they share their first kiss together before Peter boards the airplane for France.

Upon arriving in France and checking into a hotel, Joe immediately gets a call from Jameson's kidnappers.
Peter decides to follow Joe as Spider-Man. When Joe is attacked by costumed men,
Spider-Man jumps into battle and fights them off. Before Joe can revive,
Spider-Man knocks him out again to make sure that
he doesn't see Spider-Man in action and possibly learning Peter Parker's secret identity.

Before Spider-Man can take Joe to safety, he's attacked by the attacker's leader,
a costumed super-villain known as Cyclone who has wind generating powers.
After a brief battle, Cyclone is able to defeat Spider-Man, knocking the wall-crawler out by collapsing a building on him.
As Spidey revives, he can only watch as Cyclone takes Joe Robertson hostage and tells
Spider-Man if his demands for ransom are not met in the next 24 hours, he will murder both men.

Script by Gerry Conway. Pencils by Ross Andru. Inks by Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt (backgrounds).[/CENTER]

This kiss deserves to be adapted into another media.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

This kiss deserves to be adapted into another media.

I always saw the upside-down kiss as the movie correlative of Conway's issue.

Raimi was a reader of Conway's run as a teenager. So he got a sense that "First Kiss between Peter and Mary Jane has to be epic".

The kiss in Conway's run was epic especially compared to how lame Peter and Gwen's kisses were...and the one in the movie is even moreso.

[Frontier]

I always saw the upside-down kiss as the movie correlative of Conway's issue.

Raimi was a reader of Conway's run as a teenager. So he got a sense that "First Kiss between Peter and Mary Jane has to be epic".

The kiss in Conway's run was epic especially compared to how lame Peter and Gwen's kisses were...and the one in the movie is even moreso.

Yeah, both are pretty epic, I'd just like to see more of a direct adaption at some point.

[Jman27]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/c...ke_deodato_jr/

do they ever kiss like that in the comics or was that from the movies? Like who was first?

[Frontier]

do they ever kiss like that in the comics or was that from the movies? Like who was first?

...I think it's been referenced in the comics.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

do they ever kiss like that in the comics or was that from the movies? Like who was first?

The upside-down kiss was invented in the movie. Clear and simple.

But the comics after the movie came out have alluded to it in "montage moments". So maybe in current canon, a moment like that happened in Peter and MJ's relationship at some point. I mean it doesn't contradict anything to establish that it could have happened sometime when they were married or so on.

That kiss is one of the greatest romantic moments, not just in superhero movies, but movies period. It's right up there with the train scene in SM2 when people talk about the Raimi movies. So it's natural for Marvel comics artists and writers to allude to it in some way or form going forward. It's an iconic Spider-Man moment period...same as the 1967 Theme Song (which has shown up in the comics many times), and other parts of other media that turn up.

[Kevinroc]

Slott should have written an inverse of the Spider-Man kiss during Spider-Island, but it's too late now.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Slott should have written an inverse of the Spider-Man kiss during Spider-Island, but it's too late now.

Maybe Spencer will do it eventually.

[Kevinroc]

Maybe Spencer will do it eventually.

It is so weird that the only Peter/MJ kiss during Slott's entire run happens close to the very end, where she declines resuming their romantic relationship afterwards, and then does in Spencer's first issue a little while later.

Editorial really dropped the ball on that transition, lol.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

It is so weird that the only Peter/MJ kiss during Slott's entire run happens close to the very end, where she declines resuming their romantic relationship afterwards, and then does in Spencer's first issue a little while later.

Editorial really dropped the ball on that transition, lol.

According to Slott, he wrote Go Down Swinging knowing Spencer would follow and that he would reunite MJ and Peter in the first issue. So in his final story, he had to end the story with Peter and MJ having some kind of flirtation and tension but not fully being back together.

[Frontier]

Mary Jane's handling in that era was very spotty.

They sure did drop that Pedro plotline quick.

[Kevinroc]

Mary Jane's handling in that era was very spotty.

They sure did drop that Pedro plotline quick.

Bendis didn't care about that at all.

And we are glad for it, lol.

(Slott probably had some idea he wanted to do for MJ that probably involved Regent, but had to change it when Bendis claimed her for Iron Man.)