Mary Jane Watson-Parker Appreciation 2022

[Matt Rat]

I don't understand the claim that no one on Marvel is onboard with Peter/Mary Jane situation
After all, editors and writers at Marvel are making this crap happen.

Some writers on the other hand, like McKay, have been brought in to salvage it.

[Daibhidh]

Things seems to be quiet, so I thought I'd ask a question. I'm sure you've had it before, but not that I can find in the last couple of years.

What is the best version of Mary Jane?

(Include different writers' takes in Earth-616 and also versions from non-comic media if they can serve as inspiration for writing Earth-616 Mary Jane.)

First best: I started reading Spider-man comics regularly with Nick Spencer's run. So maybe it's just that his take on Mary Jane is my first extended exposure to the comics character; but it seems to me that he wrote her as someone who is both plausibly the character from the De Falco to Straczynski period, and also plausibly still a development of the fun-loving thrill-seeker 60s/70s character. Otherwise, the pre-DeFalco and the post DeFalco character seem very different characters. (Jed MacKay's take in the MJ/Black Cat one-off is clearly on the same page.) So I think Spencer's take should be definitive.
Second best: the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, which seems to me the best take on many of the characters it uses. My main reservation is that she's quite understandably a bit out of focus.
Third best: I think I'd have to go for the Straczynski period comics, including To Have and To Hold, and Web of Romance. (They don't all write her quite the same way, and Web of Romance seems to anticipate Spencer's take somewhat.) Though the 70s Mary Jane (Danger is my middle name; I have it monogrammed on all my towels) is undeniably fun.

[Vortex85]

Things seems to be quiet, so I thought I'd ask a question. I'm sure you've had it before, but not that I can find in the last couple of years.

What is the best version of Mary Jane?

My favorite is 1987-early 90s under Conway in Spectacular and Web. Followed by Michelinie and Dematties under same era. Also should mention DeFalco later on as he did her very well too.

Perfect peak MJ. A good soul, career minded with her own dreams and desires, both fun and flirty and partying, caring and sympathetic to Peter, and still messed up enough to make mistakes and not do the ideal thing in all circumstances. A natural evolution of everything she ever was before but peaking at her ideal place as Peter’s wife and taking center stage by his side in the book. Easy to fall in love with her character from this period.

JMS is also good but I feel she lacked the more sassy flirty side so she seemed a little dry in comparison. It was there but it was not as humorous and exciting as previously mentioned authors who had pretty much perfected her.

[hoth82]

For me, it’s when she has had own goal and ambitions but is still Peter’s full partner, supporter and wife. (1987-2005) Especially when Michelinie was writing Amazing and DeMatteis was writing Spectacular.

[Matt Rat]

DeMatteis/Micheline/DeFalco MJ was my childhood MJ, she looked older (that design is superior to her Romita look) and approached life with a desire to settle the score with her past so she could look forward. She and Peter were partners who only fought because they loved one another and only wanted each other to feel safe in the world. MJ's understanding and tolerance of Peter blossomed further in Spider-Girl as she coped with Mayday's succession of her father, and while she did break towards the end, she just as quickly bounced back and trusted her daughter's career and choices.

I'll probably go with newspaper MJ being the most underrated. Has her own goals, but almost has never any issue with Peter and is just an amazing wife who helps him deal with super heroes and villains on a routine basis.

[Spider-Tiger]

What is the best version of Mary Jane?

(Include different writers' takes in Earth-616 and also versions from non-comic media if they can serve as inspiration for writing Earth-616 Mary Jane.)

Conway, DeFalco, Michelinie, DeMatteis, and JMS are probably the best Mary Jane writers.

However, Matt Fraction wrote my favorite Mary Jane story. He encapsulated MJ's character so well in a single issue.

[K7P5V]

What is the best version of Mary Jane?

Without a doubt, Gerry Conway all the way!

[Frontier]

Without a doubt, Gerry Conway all the way!

It's tough being a woman.

[TinkerSpider]

Things seems to be quiet, so I thought I'd ask a question. I'm sure you've had it before, but not that I can find in the last couple of years.

What is the best version of Mary Jane?

(Include different writers' takes in Earth-616 and also versions from non-comic media if they can serve as inspiration for writing Earth-616 Mary Jane.)

First best: I started reading Spider-man comics regularly with Nick Spencer's run. So maybe it's just that his take on Mary Jane is my first extended exposure to the comics character; but it seems to me that he wrote her as someone who is both plausibly the character from the De Falco to Straczynski period, and also plausibly still a development of the fun-loving thrill-seeker 60s/70s character. Otherwise, the pre-DeFalco and the post DeFalco character seem very different characters. (Jed MacKay's take in the MJ/Black Cat one-off is clearly on the same page.) So I think Spencer's take should be definitive.
Second best: the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, which seems to me the best take on many of the characters it uses. My main reservation is that she's quite understandably a bit out of focus.
Third best: I think I'd have to go for the Straczynski period comics, including To Have and To Hold, and Web of Romance. (They don't all write her quite the same way, and Web of Romance seems to anticipate Spencer's take somewhat.) Though the 70s Mary Jane (Danger is my middle name; I have it monogrammed on all my towels) is undeniably fun.

616 MJ as written from 1966 to 2007. I like nealy all of them: Lee's flirty but determined would be actress, Conway's more emotionally mature college student, Stern's teasing "we're just friends, no, honest" aspiring actress, DeFalco's best friend MJ who might be something more, Peter David's "no, we are something more, we just won't admit it" leg of the Peter/Felicia/MJ triangle, Michlinie's head-over-heels in love newlywed, DeMatteis's anchoring presence MJ, JMS's supportive wife but has a clear life of her own MJ.

After that, she's just a rubber action figure for Slott, Wells and co to twist and shove into whatever plot hole they want her to fill. Spencer brought back some of the original MJ - ASM 25 and ASM 60 being prime examples - but left a lot of her story untold (whatever happened to the the LookUps? Or to MJ's film with Mysterio? Was she ever going to tell Peter about Mysterio?). Jed Mackay did a decent job with MJ in Mary Jane and Black Cat Beyond, but he's a Felicia writer first and foremosr and my enthusiasm for the upcoming Dark Web series - since it has to follow Wells's egregiously out of character MJ - is practically nil.

[Mercwmouth12]

616 MJ as written from 1966 to 2007. I like nealy all of them: Lee's flirty but determined would be actress, Conway's more emotionally mature college student, Stern's teasing "we're just friends, no, honest" aspiring actress, DeFalco's best friend MJ who might be something more, Peter David's "no, we are something more, we just won't admit it" leg of the Peter/Felicia/MJ triangle, Michlinie's head-over-heels in love newlywed, DeMatteis's anchoring presence MJ, JMS's supportive wife but has a clear life of her own MJ.

After that, she's just a rubber action figure for Slott, Wells and co to twist and shove into whatever plot hole they want her to fill. Spencer brought back some of the original MJ - ASM 25 and ASM 60 being prime examples - but left a lot of her story untold (whatever happened to the the LookUps? Or to MJ's film with Mysterio? Was she ever going to tell Peter about Mysterio?). Jed Mackay did a decent job with MJ in Mary Jane and Black Cat Beyond, but he's a Felicia writer first and foremosr and my enthusiasm for the upcoming Dark Web series - since it has to follow Wells's egregiously out of character MJ - is practically nil.

But Jed is good with writing women and it seems like the mini could be more MJ focused and was probably created due to the backlash and who knows if Jed does take over next could give a better insight on how his MJ would be over a longer stretch

[Hoodj]

Some writers on the other hand, like McKay, have been brought in to salvage it.

Mary Jane isnt a main sell like Peter(his Spider Alt Partners) and the villains. Outside of being his main squeeze, MJ in her own titles is just a generic/spunky good girl that models or uses the Spider Man cast to make herself unrealistically heroic.

[Kevinroc]

Mary Jane isnt a main sell like Peter(his Spider Alt Partners) and the villains. Outside of being his main squeeze, MJ in her own titles is just a generic/spunky good girl that models or uses the Spider Man cast to make herself unrealistically heroic.

This is an odd thing to say in the MJ appreciation thread.

[Daibhidh]

Mary Jane isnt a main sell like Peter(his Spider Alt Partners) and the villains. Outside of being his main squeeze, MJ in her own titles is just a generic/spunky good girl that models or uses the Spider Man cast to make herself unrealistically heroic.

I don't think Marvel wholly see it that way. She got herself put on two Iron Man covers when she was in the Iron Man supporting cast.
(Bendis' run was overtaken by Civil War II before he could do anything with her. Also, while Bendis is praised for his characterisation, the bits he is praised for in his Avenger's run were when he focussed in on a single character: it seemed to me that he was pretty poor at having characters play off each other.)
Yes, when Mary Jane's written badly she can be generic and spunky, but it's not a criticism of a character to say that they don't work when they're written badly.

[Daibhidh]

Spencer brought back some of the original MJ - ASM 25 and ASM 60 being prime examples - but left a lot of her story untold (whatever happened to the the LookUps? Or to MJ's film with Mysterio? Was she ever going to tell Peter about Mysterio?).

The Lookups I assume are ongoing in the background: they're purposely set up by Janet Van Dyne and Stephen Strange to provide no plot hooks.
I don't see the problem with MJ's film with Mysterio? The premiere happened at the start of the climax of the run. (I suppose there might have been more about it if The Amazing Mary Jane series hadn't been cancelled.)
MJ told Mysterio she intended to tell Peter about him when things were a bit calmer in Peter's life: Peter, God love him, even before OMD could not be relied upon to make his best decisions and not just lash out when under emotional stress.

[Daibhidh]

Peter David's "no, we are something more, we just won't admit it" leg of the Peter/Felicia/MJ triangle

Peter David's extended run on Amazing Spider-man must be one of the great comic book runs that inexplicably never happened.