Uriel_Hayabusa said:
As someone whose only experience with the Spider-Man franchise are some of the movies and some episodes of the cartoons, I'd definitely love to see more elaboration on what makes Mary Jane so compelling. She never struck me as that special from the things I've seen her in.
I'll take a personal stab at this.
I'll preface by saying, like any character, it depends on who writes her. Spider-man has had his ups and downs in terms of good character development, as well as Mary Jane.
Mary Jane also went through several annoying cycles where writers and editors in charge absolutely despised the idea of Spider-man having a long-lasting love interest or wife, and they purposefully wrote stories intended to showcase Mary Jane in a bad light (such as making her a smoker, demanding Peter quit being Spider-man, running out on him several times, etc.)
BUT, that's not the girl she was created to be. I read a book just yesterday from Stan Lee talking about how Mary Jane exists because she is THE one, single person in Spider-man's world that serves as the reader's eyes and ears for how a normal human being can relate to a superhero like him. She knows his secrets, she supports his heroics, she bandages his wounds and accepts the dangers her relationship brings. She is what Alfred is to Batman; she is his means of having a foothold in normality, his anchor to a semblance of a normal life.
Chiefly, however, she broke from the "love interest" stereotypes of the time. Where 90% of love interests just can't seem to figure out that Clark Kent is Superman or Bruce Wayne is Batman, Mary Jane figured it out all on her own in the comics, and so for years Peter kept making excuses and trying to pull the wool over her eyes and she went along with it, waiting for him to love her and trust her enough to tell her himself.
She also was a bit of a fake. She portrayed herself as a bit of a bimbo party girl, popular and sugary sweet... like nearly every other love interest of the time. Only it was soon revealed to just be an act, a ploy she used to cover up her insecurities and a terrible home life with an abusive father and neglectful mother. She ultimately liberated herself and lived with her aunt, but she drowned her pain in parties and dating.
This is further driven by the fact that, at first, Mary Jane and him weren't dating. He was in love with Gwen and Gwen was her best friend. When Gwen died in the comics, BOTH of them had just lost one of the most important people in their lives. Though Mary Jane was in love with Peter, she kept her distance after Gwen died to allow him time to grieve and move on, not wishing to ever be a rebound.
Ultimately, they did hook up. And, more shockingly, their relationship became pretty much rock solid. Stan Lee got them married, moving the Spider-man mythos into the next stage of Peter's life from high school student to college student to young adult career man to supporting husband, as he had always intended.
It was in that marriage that some of my favorite stories were told, with the two being the most believable married couple in comics. Mary Jane's life as wife and career girl became just as important as Spider-man's job as hero and husband. She was the one fixing up his shredded costumes, helping him cope with the stresses of work and heroics, and standing by him when no one else around him would.
Probably my favorite story was when The Chameleon figured out Peter Parker's identity, disguised himself as Peter, and went to his home to try and seduce/kidnap/kill Mary Jane. But despite looking and sounding like the man she loved, she knew him better, outsmarted him, and proceeded to beat him senseless with a baseball bat until her "hero" showed up to discover she had already saved the day.
Their relationship was honed and perfected further in the Spider-Girl series that explored their daughter becoming a heroine... which, in a twist, Peter didn't want her to do, while Mary Jane secretly encouraged her to do what she needed to do.
All of that was erased when Joe Quesada mandated the marriage be retconned in "One More Day", a story that practically every Spider-man fan agrees was the worst story ever written for the comic that was out of character for everyone involved in the story.
I ignore it. Spider-Girl serves as the logical canon that followed the marriage and its ups and downs. It was never perfect, but no marriage is, but it lasted because the two of them committed to each other like no individuals in comics have.
There's a reason Stan Lee STILL insists Mary Jane is the only one for Peter (and why his newspaper Spider-man comic keeps them married). No other character in Peter's life has meant as much and worked so hard for him in return.
The_Darkness said:
Anyway - Bob, that hint you dropped of doing a "Comics Are Weird" episode on Mary-Jane? Do that. PLEASE. Given that she's almost a second protagonist for large chunks of Spidey canon (no matter how hard Marvel tries to get rid of her), I'd love to see your thoughts on her background - both in and out of universe.
As I mentioned above, I was pleasantly surprised to read a book by Stan Lee the other day, written fairly recently, about how Stan Lee insists Mary Jane is an essential part of Spider-man's life and his single, most important connection to a normal life. No matter what any editors say, or what retcons they do, Mary Jane remains the second most important character in the Spider-man series.
I REALLY hope they can do her justice in the next movies. No offense to the Raimi trilogy, but Mary Jane was hardly in as much danger in the comics; she was smart enough, resourceful enough, and stubborn enough to get herself out of plenty of binds without Spider-man's help.