"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
Same here.
It's worse when they have Zendaya doing promos and stuff flaunting her red hair and clearly making casuals think she is Mary Jane. It sucks because when you see Zendaya on the red carpet and clips of her in other roles, she could have nailed the MJ role, if they let her.
I noticed that in FFH they kept calling her 'MJ' and never Michelle. Hey, maybe by the third movie they'll confirm that actual name of the character she is playing. ::facepalm::
Dunst's MJ almost cheated on her fiance and left him at the altar so I wouldn't call her 'innocent and nice'. She was used too much as a damsel and distress and plot device to create conflict for Peter. Not surprising since Spider-Man 2 and Smallville were written by the same people (Alfred Gough and Miles Miller) and there are similarities in how they handled in Peter/MJ and Clark/Lana.
Zendaya's MJ barely has a backstory. At least with Dunst we knew she was a struggling actor/dancer and that she had a troubled home life. I can see Zendaya's MJ having a troubled home life and maybe the 'Michelle' and 'MJ' thing was just a coping mechanism but I would rather see that on screen than extrapolate that as a head canon.
I'm also frustrated with how interchangeable MJ and Gwen have become. Especially with Spider-Man 3 and the Amazing Spider-Man movies. Maybe if the ASM movies didn't give Gwen Ultimate MJ's role of being Peter's confidant, we could have seen Zendaya's MJ take up that role. No offense, to Jacob Bataclan but I wish they had gone with one of Peter's canonical friends instead of not!Ganke for the MCU (either Randy Robertson or a retooled version of Hobie Brown or a retooled version of Kong).
I love Zenday's MJ and find her to be a very good reboot of the character in a modern context. She feels exactly, to me, like who MJ might be if she was made today for the first time.
She lacks the push from Aunt May, which is something I think is quintessential to the character. Aunt May was originally portrayed as a senile old fool and that she pushed this strange party girl as "THE ONE" for Peter was just the biggest example of how senile and out of touch May was. But when MJ took on a more dramatic role in the narrative, May's character was portrayed with more dramatic weight as well. They boost each other up. And that relationship does not exist in the MCU. Instead MCU MJ is just a girl who follows Peter around school and wants him to notice her. (That's really more of a Gwen thing than an MJ thing.)
I just think the relationship is dull (but I think a lot of MCU romances are pretty dull. A lot of them are very sexless. MCU Peter x MJ is no exception. Which is definitely not the vibe I get from their comic counterparts.)
The problem is a lot of people are outright racist and scream about how MJ isn't a white redhead.
Last edited by Kevinroc; 11-15-2021 at 03:12 AM.
Very true, i don't like Marvel's direction with her, but i would never support or engage in this kind of horrible behavior.The problem is a lot of people are outright racist and scream about how MJ isn't a white redhead.
"Wow. You made Spider-Man sad, congratulations. I stabbed The Hulk last week"
Wolverine, Venom Annual # 1 (2018)
Nobody does it better by Jeff Loveness
"I am Thou, Thou Art I"
Persona
I resent being labeled racist because I want an accurate version of MJ. I pointed out several times that in my opinion the best non comic book/newspaper strip version of MJ was voiced by Zoe Kravitz ( a woman of color). I am also one of those who prefer MJ to Gwen, Felicia, Carlie, Betty or Mockingbird ( all of whom are white).
I have no doubt there are a few jerks out there ( they come in all shapes, sizes and colors), but using “The race card” when it comes to complaints about MJ is extremely unfair. Most people first and foremost want quality then accuracy ( which is why I go back to the Zoe Kravitz MJ ( she brings both). A different example is Nick Fury. He was white until Samuel L. Jackson came along. I have not heard complaints about Jackson in that role. The same applies to Robert McCall ( The Equalizer). He was originally played by a white Englishman ( Edward Woodward), and that was was surpassed in excellence by Denzel Washington.
you hear complaints more if the character thats being changed is a Major/ popular character. Like some characters in the new Eternals movie got changed but you didnt hear that many complaints. Did anyone complain about Liz Allen for example? Marvel/Sony should have stick by making Zendaya MJ from the very start but then again I was under the impression from Homecoming that the plan was is she MJ they just wanted her to be a surprised character at the end. For her not to take away that little focus that was being given to Liz's character
"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
I don't, she has nothing in common with comic book MJ personality-wise. Maybe if we are talking the Ultimate version I could see that argument since she was a bit more nerdy, but not 616.
It's kind of ironic though that who Zendaya is in real life has much more in common with MJ than her character in the movies does.
Last edited by Vortex85; 11-15-2021 at 08:13 AM.
Yeah the problem is definitely the script, she's written like a socially awkward girl who doesn't know how to make friends, and it shows, so there's just no room for MJ's charm there, at least in Homecoming.
Maybe they decided that Michelle is definitely MJ now.I noticed that in FFH they kept calling her 'MJ' and never Michelle. Hey, maybe by the third movie they'll confirm that actual name of the character she is playing. ::facepalm::
I would laugh if they decided to say her last name is Gonzales .
Yeah it's annoying when one character gets another's traits, it cheapens out both of them, since in this case, it removes the traits that made MJ a good love interest, and removes stuff from Gwen that could be used to develop her instead of making her "Scientist MJ" lol.I'm also frustrated with how interchangeable MJ and Gwen have become. Especially with Spider-Man 3 and the Amazing Spider-Man movies. Maybe if the ASM movies didn't give Gwen Ultimate MJ's role of being Peter's confidant, we could have seen Zendaya's MJ take up that role. No offense, to Jacob Bataclan but I wish they had gone with one of Peter's canonical friends instead of not!Ganke for the MCU (either Randy Robertson or a retooled version of Hobie Brown or a retooled version of Kong).
Guess that's the problem with Gwen being iconic for the wrong reasons, since fans like to talk like she was the love interest, and while in-universe she's treated as such, her character was really, really boring and definitely got martyrized.
While I find it to be pretty silly they didn't pick a redhead to play MJ, honestly, biggest problem with Michelle, at least in Homecoming, is how she's probably intentionally made to be MJ's opposite in some traits, 'cause while MJ is friendly with everyone, Michelle has no friends and is pretty rude, which makes me wonder why even say that's supposed to be MJ.
Fury became black in Ultimate and that version of him was pretty popular, and it's even because of Ultimate Fury that MCU had Samuel L. Jackson to play him to begin with.
Not to mention that Fury just isn't that high profile for overall audience to even know he got black washed, he was a B-lister at the very, very best lol.
Liz also got her skin color changed in Spectacular cartoon, so any possible complaints about that had already happened, but I doubt too many people cared.