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From “Amazing Spider-Man” #15 onward, there was a running gag of Aunt May trying to set up a disinterested Peter with “nice girl” Mary Jane, the niece of May’s best friend Anna Watson. That all paid off in “Amazing Spider-Man” #42 (drawn by Romita). Finally unable to weasel out of a date, Peter opens the door to meet Mary Jane, and she leaves both he and the reader stunned. MJ had more than looks going for her too.
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Lots of MJ’s dialogue is now-corny ’60s slang, but that’s what made her unlike any other character in the book. She was confident, hip, and all-herself. In issue #43, when she and Peter properly get to know each other, she reveals she already has her own apartment and determination to be an actress, whereas Peter still lives with May. When the Rhino tears up Midtown, MJ rides with Peter on his motorbike to see the action.
That led to a brief love triangle in the vein of Archie, Betty, and Veronica, except this one lasted nowhere near as long. Peter was transfixed by Gwen and thought MJ was frivolous. MJ took that on the chin and dated Harry Osborn instead. While she kept flirting with Peter and sometimes cat-fought with Gwen, you could tell it was all fun for her.
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While Aunt May fretted over Peter and Gwen was “a non-entity, a pretty face,” Mary Jane was the only woman in “The Amazing Spider-Man” who acted like she was the star of her own story. Getting rid of Gwen in favor of MJ was inevitable, Conway claimed when interviewed by Howe:
“The amazing thing was that [Stan Lee] created a character like Mary Jane Watson, who was probably the most interesting female character in comics, and he never used her to the extent that he could have. Instead of Peter Parker’s girlfriend, he made her Peter Parker’s best friend’s girlfriend. Which is so wrong, and so stupid, and such a waste.”
The epilogue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” #122 features MJ coming to Peter’s apartment. A still-grieving Peter angrily tells her to leave — but she refuses.
As the foundation of Peter and MJ’s relationship was their shared grief over Gwen, it’s become easy to still dismiss MJ as second in Peter’s heart to Gwen. But Conway, too, has rectified that. In his 1989 graphic novel, “Spider-Man: Parallel Lives,” Conway showed how MJ had always known Peter was Spider-Man. Gwen never knew or loved the whole Peter Parker, but MJ did. In 2019 special issue “Marvel Comics” #1000, Conway also got to revisit that pivotal epilogue with a one-page story about MJ and Gwen’s friendship.
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Making Mary Jane into the main woman in Peter Parker’s life was 100% the right call. But is Conway’s assessment of Gwen accurate? What made Gwen Stacy less interesting?
“}]] The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most famous (and unforgettable) moments in Spider-Man history. Here’s why it happened. Read More