Actors - Mary Jane Watson

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	Actors - Mary Jane Watson

Mary Jane Watson is a fictional supporting character in the Marvel Comics universe who was created by Stan Lee. She is the love interest of Spider-Man (Peter Parker), whom she affectionately refers to as "Tiger". She herself often goes by the nickname "MJ".

In nearly all continuities in which she appears, there are several constants. She has red hair and green eyes. She is Peter Parker's "one true love", but she often initially has to compete for his affections with other women, most prominently Gwen Stacy and Felicia Hardy, and sometimes Liz Allan and Betty Brant.

Mary Jane in comic books

Mary Jane in mainstream Marvel continuity

In the primary Earth 616 continuity, Mary Jane Watson was Peter's fourth love interest, after Liz Allan, Betty Brant, and Gwen Stacy.

Mary Jane's early life was for many years unknown. It was first explored in Amazing Spider-Man #259 and finally established by Gerry Conway's graphic novel The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives (January 1990). MJ came from a severely troubled family. Her father, a professor and frustrated writer, took it out on his family in the form of spousal and child abuse. To cope with her hellish family life, Mary Jane kept up a facade as a superficial party girl to avoid the embarrassment, which may have cast her as a forerunner to the archetype of a wily, feisty red head. The parents eventually divorced. Mary Jane and her sister lived with her mother but often stayed with relatives. Her favorite was her Aunt Anna, who lived next door to the Parkers. At first, she was unimpressed by Peter, a bookish nerd. That opinion changed dramatically on the night of Ben Parker's murder and Mary Jane saw Peter become Spider-Man for the first time. For years, MJ kept that knowledge to herself, but it certainly made Peter more interesting to her.

Mary Jane's name was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #15 (August 1964), but she was originally an unseen character. The early issues of Amazing Spider-Man featured a running joke about Peter dodging his Aunt May's attempts to set him up with "that nice Watson girl next door", whom Peter had not yet met and assumed would not be his type, since his aunt liked her. (In the Parallel Lives graphic novel an identical scenario is shown between Mary Jane and her Aunt.) Mary Jane made her first actual appearance in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #25 (June 1965); however, in that issue, her face was obscured. It is not until Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #42 (November 1966) that her face is actually seen. In that issue, on the last page, Peter finally met her, and he was stunned by her beauty even as she spoke the now-famous line: "Face it, Tiger... you just hit the jackpot!" (see the quotations section below for more information).

Peter began to date her, much to the annoyance of Gwen Stacy. However, her apparent superficiality proved to be an irritation to Peter that her rival did not share. When the Green Goblin murdered Gwen, MJ stayed with Peter during his mourning, and he focused more on her on the rebound as he recovered. At one point, Peter proposed to her but she turned him down, not wishing to be tied down. She left New York for several years and Peter saw other women as his adventures continued.

MJ eventually returned and her behavior showed a marked change with her abandonment of her false front. She admitted her knowledge of Peter's secret identity in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #258, and Peter found a new respect for her with her newly discovered maturity, making her his confidante.

In Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) Annual #21 (1987), Peter married her, and Peter's surname made its way into her name, making her Mary Jane Watson-Parker. After Spider-Man began wearing his black costume, it was Mary Jane who convinced him to return to his old costume in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #300 (May 1988). She disliked the black costume because it reminded her of Venom.

During the 1990s, the character of Mary Jane and her marriage to Spider-Man was a subject of much controversy. Many of Marvel's top editors openly hated Mary Jane and her marriage, believing that the marriage and Mary Jane's career as a model countered the notion that Spider-Man must be forever miserable and poor, so as to ensure his "relatability" with readers. During the early 1990s, writers who supported the marriage tried to please the editors by having Mary Jane be blacklisted as a model after rejecting the advances of a wealthy stalker and having her make her living as a soap opera actress, a career move that made her life even more uncomfortable since her character was the show's resident "bitch" character. When a deranged fan tried to kill Mary Jane out of hatred for the actions of her soap opera character, Mary Jane quit her job out of fear for her own safety.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mary Jane Watson ]

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Actors - Mary Jane Watson

Mary Jane in comic books

Mary Jane in mainstream Marvel continuity

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