Mary Jane Watson first appeared in a Spider-Man comic in June 1965. Since then, she became such an essential character that in the last sixty years, there have been kisses, sorrows, jealousies, weddings, and even a daughter, whose fate is better left unasked in the Marvel universe. She has been Peter Parker’s love interest almost from the beginning, although only a few writers like Straczinsky truly understood the couple instead of subjecting them to unnecessary continuous torment. That’s why you might be surprised to open a comic today and find Spider-Man wanting to kill his lifelong love. But why? Can you find out what happened?
Black Spider-Man
We told you here that Spidey ended up receiving the sins of Norman Osborn injected into him and became the Black Goblin. And what seemed like a saga with a lot of potential ended up being nothing, once again. Let’s not forget that during this (terrible) phase, Mary Jane remained in an alternate reality for years, where she ended up marrying and having children -apparently imaginary- with someone named Paul, who overnight became the most hated guy among the fans.
Now Peter is out of control in the comic after burying Kraven (well, his son) and leaving a gun next to him. It’s the moment to end his lifelong love out of pure hatred, and while at it, end Paul too. In fact, he almost succeeds: he drops her from a great height without realizing that Mary Jane now has powers -seriously, this is happening– and can easily save herself.
But when the final battle between them is about to begin, which would have been something more or less epic, Norman Osborn manages to rid himself of his sins, and there’s peace and then glory. “Oh, I’m sorry, dear, it wasn’t really me,” “It’s okay,” “You didn’t do anything wrong,” and so on. And in the end, even after killing innocent people, he decides that just putting on the Spider-Man suit will make everything right again. No remorse or anything.
There have been rough patches in Spider-Man’s storyline, but very few like this one. It’s worth mentioning because rarely has a fandom united so strongly against a writer. Perhaps during the ‘One More Day’ storyline, where the couple’s marriage was reset, or during the clone saga, the public outcry came close, but what’s happening now is unforgivable. So much so that readers are eagerly discussing the possibility that it’s all a dream, that MJ is a Skrull, or that it will be revealed that it was all a Mephisto’s deception in some way. Being accustomed to misfortunes with a character is one thing, but… well, this is something else entirely. Forgettable.
