Mary Jane Watson-Parker Appreciation 2022

[Lukmendes]

This is a very smart observation.

Thanks.

I would argue that Slott did go through a period where he was out to assassinate MJ and actively wrote her at the expense of trying to hype Carlie (which backfired spectacularly). I don’t think he necessarily had animus toward MJ in particular, but I’m betting he did that because he thought that’s what Quesada et al wanted - a story that tried to make people dislike the pre-OMD status quo (again, backfired spectacularly). He would have treated any female character who had a previous relationship with Peter poorly (and he did the same to Felicia) (I would argue he did the same to Peter).

Well, considering he also screwed over Spidey to hype up other characters, it is moot if him doing that means there's an actual dislike.

I do think there was to an extent a dislike for the relationship itself, but even that is hard to tell.

Also Carlie herself was basically humiliated in Spider-Island, because that was the story designated to make MJ look good, so Carlie doesn't do much and becomes a Spider-Monster, though, she did get the last word in when leaving in ASM#673, with that silly scene where she talks like Peter is just a mask for Spider-Man and Spidey doesn't really deny that, which makes no sense with Spidey's usual characterization, or Slott's own characterization, and he did something like that at least three times (In Superior#30, script by Gage, Otto says that Spidey holds himself back because deep down he knows he's smarter than everyone else, something that is completely contradicted by the fact he was working on Horizon Labs and was at least once shown to be glad he's making a difference, and in ASM#23 vol 4, co-written by Gage, we have Gwen saying that Spidey is so used to being miserable that he doesn't even try to be happy, though, at least, in that one Spidey replies to that by saying she didn't major in psychology and to drop it).

But again, that’s because Slott writes for action figures and their play sets. Asking him to understand characterization is like asking a starfish to perform differential equations - it just doesn’t compute.

I think he can understand that to an extent, but his way of writing stories is the more cartoonish one with random stuff happening with characters, basically like modern Simpsons.

Wells is interesting because he can write a well-told story but he has been consistently dismissive if not downright destructive to MJ over the years. I don’t know if it’s MJ as a character or if he just can’t write morally good civilian female characters who aren’t a generic archetype like Mother (aka Aunt May). And while they fall more into the superhero category, his Bobbi and Felicia in ASM 900 were also egregiously awful.

Yeah I heard Bobbi got screwed over, between this and how she showed up in Parker Industries era in ASM, if Bobbi fans don't want her anywhere near Spidey again, I can't blame 'em lol.

But then, I could also argue his Spider-Man is also off - he has consistently nerfed Peter and took away his smarts. His Flash was as egregious as Bobbi and Felicia in 900.

Spidey being nerfed might be more of a way modern Marvel thinks he has to be written, a miserable punching bag.

Like I understand why that's done to an extent, while other heroes were generally more succesful at life, Spidey generally struggled more even when winning battles, and many times he wins and still feels like he lost, that is part of the core of what made Spidey stand out so much, the thing is, even with how ridiculously over dramatic and poorly written Spidey could be in old comics (Seriously, ASM#13 has Spidey gaslighting himself into thinking he became a villain when sleeping because apparently only he could have Spider-Powers), he did get plenty of wins alongsides his losses, and in Ditko's run, Master Planner trilogy is generally seen as the best story he wrote (And it's even what made me check out the rest of his run to begin with), and that is a story where Spidey unambiguously won after working very hard.

So yeah, Spidey gets punched in the face, but the important thing is, he punches back, and the fact his victories can screw him over is part of the charm, but he still needs unambiguous victories to keep things interesting, because if he's getting beaten up, it feels more rewarding when he wins, and if he's winning a lot, then it hurts more when he loses, this kind of flexibility is important, and unfortunately Spidey can lose too much and just, not be interesting.

Maybe it’s just that Wells only has affinity for villains and the morally grey, with an especial liking for those who eat others.

Don't forget babies being hurt.

Seriously, Wells and Marvel Zombies is a truly inspired pairing.

He'll probably have a lot of fun with those lol.

But yeah, Wells, he's an edgelord as far as I've seen, he doesn't take it as far as Mark Millar or Garth Ennis, but it's still there lol.

[Spider-Tiger]

The OG Kirsten Dunst in a screen test for the first Spider-man movie. Wish she wore this hairstyle in the movies.

EmBVCLUXEAIP8OK.jpgEmBVCCVX0AAAZZv.jpg

[Spider-Tiger]

Happy 70th, Gerry Conway!

Happy belated birthday, Gerry!

[Kevinroc]

This behind the scenes picture gives me more Peter x MJ vibes than anything in any of the movies.

[Jman27]

The OG Kirsten Dunst in a screen test for the first Spider-man movie. Wish she wore this hairstyle in the movies.

EmBVCLUXEAIP8OK.jpgEmBVCCVX0AAAZZv.jpg

normally I like bangs this one aint doing it for me

[Lukmendes]

The OG Kirsten Dunst in a screen test for the first Spider-man movie. Wish she wore this hairstyle in the movies.

EmBVCLUXEAIP8OK.jpgEmBVCCVX0AAAZZv.jpg

Doesn't look good on her to be fair, what they went with is better.

https://i.redd.it/thsh75rw05j71.jpg

This behind the scenes picture gives me more Peter x MJ vibes than anything in any of the movies.

It is depressing how movies can remove actual chemistry the actors have lol.

Reminds me whe saw Star Wars related bloopers, and in it, Hayden Christense and Natalie Portman had actual chemistry, which makes any scene those two are acting even more depressing 'cause the characters have no chemistry.



1:38 in particular lol.

Meanwhile in the actual movies they're two boring character whose most interesting traits is how dumb some of their lines are, and they're not even unique in that regard.

[Spider-Tiger]

Doesn't look good on her to be fair, what they went with is better.

I think the Romita bangs look good on her. Love the darker red too. Although they probably could've used a better wig.

Kirsten.jpg

[Frontier]

Why was Zendaya not allowed to play a comic-accurate Mary Jane:

[Jman27]

Why was Zendaya not allowed to play a comic-accurate Mary Jane:

Plot of the movies would change too much then. She isn’t going to be in these science field trips in the first two films. And she isn’t going to do MIT in the third film. I liked that the mcu Mj isn’t the most popular girl

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Why was Zendaya not allowed to play a comic-accurate Mary Jane:

I still think she is a perfect MJ in spirit, kinda like how Pattinson didn't play Playboy Bruce Wayne but was still Bruce Wayne in spirit.

That said, yeah, it's unfortunate they didn't make her more like 616 MJ. It all comes down to the fact that each live-action franchise since Raimi has been shadowboxing the previous take and was more fixated on being different than playing Spider-Man straight. It's a consequence of having two reboots back to back and both of them starting in the same place.

That and they didn't have confidence in a black MJ.

[Mercwmouth12]

I still think she is a perfect MJ in spirit, kinda like how Pattinson didn't play Playboy Bruce Wayne but was still Bruce Wayne in spirit.

That said, yeah, it's unfortunate they didn't make her more like 616 MJ. It all comes down to the fact that each live-action franchise since Raimi has been shadowboxing the previous take and was more fixated on being different than playing Spider-Man straight. It's a consequence of having two reboots back to back and both of them starting in the same place.

That and they didn't have confidence in a black MJ.

Well they could do something to akin to make her more like comic MJ or even have her say her jackpot line as a end stinger for the next spider-man 4 and the mcu run

[NC_Yankee]

I still think she is a perfect MJ in spirit, kinda like how Pattinson didn't play Playboy Bruce Wayne but was still Bruce Wayne in spirit.

That said, yeah, it's unfortunate they didn't make her more like 616 MJ. It all comes down to the fact that each live-action franchise since Raimi has been shadowboxing the previous take and was more fixated on being different than playing Spider-Man straight. It's a consequence of having two reboots back to back and both of them starting in the same place.

That and they didn't have confidence in a black MJ.

Changing the race or ethnicity of a character can work in some cases (remember there was a black Catwoman ( Eartha Kitt) on the TV series ( not to mention Halle Berry)), so having a Black woman ( Zoe Kravitz) play Selina/Catwoman is not out of canon ( Zoe Kravitz also did the voice of MJ and did a great job). But part of who MJ is related to attitude and Zendaya got that all wrong: Why? Too nice. i would have rather seen Zendaya play a teenage Carlie or Felicia for that very reason.

[Mercwmouth12]

Changing the race or ethnicity of a character can work in some cases (remember there was a black Catwoman ( Eartha Kitt) on the TV series ( not to mention Halle Berry)), so having a Black woman ( Zoe Kravitz) play Selina/Catwoman is not out of canon ( Zoe Kravitz also did the voice of MJ and did a great job). But part of who MJ is related to attitude and Zendaya got that all wrong: Why? Too nice. i would have rather seen Zendaya play a teenage Carlie or Felicia for that very reason.

But this is also a variant of MJ so you can have some leeway as it's a version of her and not all versions of a character across the multiverse will be the same

[Matt Rat]

Zedaya won her Emmy btw

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1569511454415679489

[Mercwmouth12]

Zedaya won her Emmy btw

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1569511454415679489

Then said the first person she texted was her boyfriend (Tom)