Zendaya's "MJ": Future as a Comics Character?

[Frontier]

Miles getting an MCU Flash is kinda lame, 'cause MCU Flash is more or less Ditko's Flash, since his bullying was mostly not violent (I think only ASM#8 is when he picked a fight with Peter), something MCU Flash also does since he just talks **** about Peter.

Yeah, but MCU Flash is hardly really all that effective with it and is mostly more comic relief. Miles' guy at least gets under his skin.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

They put more emphasis on wanting to "surprise" the audience that they cast Zendaya as MJ. So we get this whole "she's Michelle" thing all throughout Homecoming's promotion and the movie and all that. That she's "MJ" is treated as a big reveal, and Peter falls completely and madly in love with her between movies with no actual reason given other than she's "MJ", the nickname of Spider-Man's iconic love interest.

They should have just been upfront that she was Mary Jane all along. And to ignore anyone that had a problem with the casting. Instead we've reached this really muddled situation.

I'm fine with the opposite. I don't mind Michelle being a new character. Nor do I need Peter and MJ dating since high school. I'm fine with saving her till his college years.

[Kevinroc]

I'm fine with the opposite. I don't mind Michelle being a new character. Nor do I need Peter and MJ dating since high school. I'm fine with saving her till his college years.

But that's the point. There's not going to be a second love interest for Peter who also goes by "MJ". Michelle is MJ. They wanted that to be the surprise.

You'll have to wait for the next film version of Peter Parker.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

I doubt there are plans to import or create a Neo-MJ in comics, nor do I see it as likely. But who knows?

Marvel jumped through the hoops they did to give us a Nick Fury that matches Samuel L. Jackson in the comics as well, so "who knows" indeed.

[Kevinroc]

Marvel jumped through the hoops they did to give us a Nick Fury that matches Samuel L. Jackson in the comics as well, so "who knows" indeed.

People are absolutely right to say doing that would absolutely ruin the intention of Zendaya's casting "surprise" (and Homecoming's ending). Disconnecting them sends a really bad message.

[CrimsonEchidna]

That's basically what I think Barbara is, at least in terms of execution if not characterization, like how he has his own MCU Flash.

I mean, in the loosest terms but honestly Barbara never really got enough characterization to really establish much. Bendis just kind of wrote her as a designated love interest while Ahmed had them break up almost a little after he had just started fleshing her out, I guess to get her out of the way for Tiana. lol

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Marvel jumped through the hoops they did to give us a Nick Fury that matches Samuel L. Jackson in the comics as well, so "who knows" indeed.

That's not quite the same thing. Nick Fury in comics was never as iconic a character as Mary Jane Watson to start with (that might seem offensive/shocking to some old school Marvel fans but search your feelings).

When I said "who knows" I mean that in general we are in a period where we are rethinking and reassessing how our culture processes and sees characters. It's becoming more like theater and opera, where characters are just words on a page so for instance nobody bats an eye if you do Hamlet and have it set in Denmark but cast actors from a mixed pool because theater has successfully shed the association of race with the casting of actors (not that there aren't problems there or it's perfect or anything). Or in opera where you have Japanese and Korean singers belting Italian arias in plays set in Scotland or wherever. It's become the norm there.

What I mean is when you cast Denzel Washington as MacBeth as the Coens are doing in their upcoming film, it's understood that Denzel is the same MacBeth that Shakespeare wrote and isn't an African-American Macbeth. Does that make sense? It's the same guy who was previously played by Orson Welles and Ian McKellen. It's the same character but new actor and Denzel in that role is the same as any notable actor belting out the bard. Whereas in comics, when you do stuff like changing Nick Fury's race, it's like you have to create and introduce a new Nick Fury because the character continuity and visual continuity of the previous Nick Fury can't simply be converted into an African-American military guy without comment and acknowledgement like you can with theater. That's how it's taking place in cinema. Time was that cinema was seen as realistic and have a realistic background and setting but if we are going to have more and more CGI and genre film-making then there's absolutely no reason not to make it a free-for-all the way the performance arts are. Like there's no reality to James Bond and there's no reason why James Bond has to be a white Englishman because the movies expect us to buy that UK foreign policy Pre and Post Brexit still makes it a major player geopolitcally (lol) when it's in fact a tax haven for rich corporations and sovereign wealth funds. The recent Green Knight movie had an Indian-British actor Dev Patel as an Arthuriar Knight and it's still a straight medieval story and Dev Patel is the same guy in the original Arthurian story. So the casting has become totally abstract there.

With comics, characters aren't entirely words on the page. They are designed and created a certain way and it's expected that characters have visual continuity, and story continuity. If you introduce MCU MJ into 616 she would become an entirely new character. The more interesting question is you can abstract the character design completely...like suppose a new writer/artist come on 616 Spider-Man and they decide to make the cast different ethnicities and backgrounds, would people accept that change as entirely surface aesthetics and interpretation and see the characters as the same?

[Kevinroc]

I'm definitely curious what the next Peter Parker led Spider-Man films will look like.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

That's not quite the same thing.

It's not, but no analogy is ever 1:1 and Marvel/DC just act pants on head silly when it comes to the big S (synergy, what else?). That's pretty much why I wouldn't put anything above them.

[John Venus]

Problem with MCU "MJ" is the ambiguity around whether or not she is Mary Jane or Michelle Jones.

I voted for Ben Reilly. Maybe 616 MJ could be a clone of Mary Jane and hooks up with Ben Reilly.

[Reilly]

There is a lack of "no" in the poll...

She shouldn't be introduced in the comics because she's been there since forever. Whether you like it or not, she is supposed to be Mary Jane Watson. I didn't like the idea at first, but it did grow on me and now I don't care that much. The TASM2 MJ was better (to look the part) if you ask me and it's shame she was cutted out of the final product. Kirsten Dunst was a misscast. Zendaya isn't the "real" MJ but she's funny and cool and she steals every scene she's in (Raimi's MJ was depressing and boring).

I bet when the next trilogy hits the theaters, she's (Zendaya) going to become popular in some way (in the MCU). Maybe red hair will come along (she looks great in red hair).

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'm definitely curious what the next Peter Parker led Spider-Man films will look like.

They adapt Spiderman Noir. .

In a way each live action Peter Parker feels like a foil/correction for each other. So maybe we'll get a more experienced Peter to offset Holland's wide-eyed take?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'm definitely curious what the next Peter Parker led Spider-Man films will look like.

Who knows? The interesting thing will be if they ever race lift Gwen Stacy because she's always been a character who's implicitly whiter than Mary Jane.

I have no problems if they go with non-white performers for MJ hereon (or for the cast in general), so long as they adapt everything else about her from the comics. Like there's no reason why Aunt May can't be black, she's not biologically related to Peter. In the comics she was Irish American, in the MCU they cast an Italian-American, so in theory she can be any ethnicity.

'Course I do know that it will be ages before they do a race-lift for Peter, lol. There's a kind of weird IP blinking game going on about who'll be the first to race-lift the main guy -- the first black Clark Kent, the first Bond, the first non-WASP Bruce Wayne. Right now it seems the upcoming Superman movie in the works (which may or may not happen who knows) is going to take the plunge. Donald Glover campaigned to play Peter Parker in the TASM series and they went with Andrew Garfield instead and Glover's campaign was an inspiration for Miles Morales' creation and some African-American commentators while liking Miles wondered if Miles' creation means the can for a black Peter Parker or a non-white Peter Parker got kicked down the road.

We have had alternate universes with an Indian Peter Parker, but he's not Peter, he's an Indian guy who's sorta like Peter. It's not quite Dev Patel as Green Knight or theater/opera parity yet. Where an African-American gets to be "The" Peter Parker the way a black theater performer gets to be "The" MacBeth or "The" Hamlet on stage. Or where a black actress gets to be "The" Mary Jane Watson, and not just a MJ.

The TASM2 MJ was better (to look the part) if you ask me and it's shame she was cutted out of the final product. Kirsten Dunst was a misscast.

To be honest that's a blessing IMO. For several reasons, no way could any actress cast as MJ work in the films built around Gwen the Goddess the way TASM did. It would be a failure. Secondly, Shailene Woodleigh's proven herself to be quite the clown with her dodgy homebrewed vaccine.

[PCN24454]

The amount of denial in this thread is awe-inspiring.

[Celgress]

OP Question -

I did not vote. I don't want this MJ in any comics. Keep her out of the comics, I say.