Aunt May's OTP: Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson

[kevinroc]

Back in the old days of Spidey comics, Aunt May was often portrayed as a doddering old codger who didn't realize that her nephew was Spider-Man. But she also wanted something else out of Peter. She wanted him to date Mary Jane Watson.

We'll begin with Amazing Spider-Man #15. This is the first reference to Mary Jane Watson.



Despite the fact that Peter is actually in a relationship with Betty Brant (and had yet to even hear the name "Gwen Stacy"), Aunt May is quite insistent that "Mrs. Watson's niece" (she didn't have a name yet) was the perfect girl for Peter. And she would make a "good housewife."

(I'm also amused that MJ was first referenced in Amazing Spider-Man #15.)

In Amazing #16, Aunt May is still actively pushing Peter to get a hold of MJ.



Nothing can stop her OTP!

And a lot of people may not remember this but MJ actually DID show up at the Parker home and appeared on panel before her "face it, tiger" line. From Amazing #25.



We just don't see her face. (I wonder what Ditko's MJ would have looked like. Would she still have been a redhead?)

(Everything Aunt May does in this scene is outright telling these girls not to mess with her OTP.)



(It is hard to picture Romita's MJ dressed in that outfit.)

And here's a weird little tidbit. Amazing #41 ends with a real tease.



So after all this time, we are finally about to meet Mary Jane! I wonder what she's like! Aunt May has been shipping them so hard! Even with Peter clearly pining for Gwen Stacy.



Gwen who?

(This is why, in my opinion, if Aunt May isn't actively shipping Peter and MJ, she isn't really Aunt May.)
.

Comments

[silverzeo]

.... anyone else still ticked off royally that they spent so much time building MJ up, teasing us with EVERYTHING about her face, ONLY to have those two notoriously bad story arcs to change their whole relationship in a lazy, half-ass way, and when they DO give her Spider-powers, giving her a chance to be as big as a hero as Peter was... they took it away from her! Mj as the new Spider-Woman or Scarlet SPider... don't tell me you wouldn't read that!


Sorry for getting off topic there... but honestly how can you look at this and NOT have MJ be a significant character in the Marvel Universe if she is no longer "significant" to Spider-man? I mean, after CoIE, Lois and Lana had ALOT of adventures outside of being Superman love-interests...

[seisachtheia]

Fine: I wouldn't read that. Except for how that's a complete lie. I've only recently started exploring comics, so it's been kind of interesting to finally understand why everyone thinks she's awesome. It kind of sneaked up on me- although I was pretty much reading things in reverse chronological order- but yeah, I'm sold. It was interesting to finally start to understand why people were so very upset over the whole thing.

[kevinroc]

I suspect it is very surprising for people who came into Spider-Man through the original Sam Raimi movies to pick up the comics and learn how awesome MJ actually is.

[seisachtheia]

Hmm, I hadn't even thought of that, though I suppose it's true. (Though for myself, mostly I got into the comics via scans_daily. I got linked here some how, and it ended up being kind of addictive. And then I got curious. And then poorer.)

But thinking of movies in general, I tend not to be too surprised when a generic supporting character in a movie turns out to be a lot more interesting in the original source material. (But it certainly sucks to go the other way around, to see someone awesome turn bland.)

[silverhammerman]

Honestly? I probably wouldn't read that. I mean, if it was critically acclaimed and everyone was raving about it I'd probably get onboard, but just from the pitch of "Mary Jane has spider-powers now and fights crime!" I wouldn't be interested at all. Not that I don't like MJ, but I feel like it would just be cheesy to have them two as some sort of Spider-Couple,even if they weren't dating, in the same way I find it cheesy that Robin is now actually Batman's kid.
And you make it sound like MJ was a promising new character who was thrown away for no reason, but she's been around for decades as Spidey's primary love interest, she's gotten plenty of good stories and while I do hate how she's been sidelined, it's not like those stories are suddenly null and void.
I don't now about MJ being a supporting character apart from Spidey either, I do think there's a kernel of a cool story in there, but for the most part up until Bendis put Spidey on the Avengers (which was a stupid decision I think) the character had always taken great pains to keep his personal and "professional" lives separate, MJ never had an particularly strong connections with other superheroes, nor does she have any really skills or anything that could allow her to stand alone as a character. Using her as a supporting character in say, Iron Man, since I could see a billionaire playboy intereacting with a supermodel, would also be one of those "everything is connected" sort of things that make a world feel overly coincidental and fake.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, she was pretty insistent on those two getting together. Like, part of me wouldn't be surprised if she arranged Doc Ock to take Betty Brant out, and when that didn't work, paid off Ned Leeds to marry Brant out of the picture (even though that didn't help much).

Don't let her sweet old lady looks fool you--Aunt May is one of the most devious, secret supervillains in comics.

[bruinsfan]

But of course! Why do you think Mephisto was so keen on keeping her around on earth?

[darkknightjrk]

MEPHESTO: Okay...let's see who we have joining us for eternal torment today...oh no, not--
*WHACK*
MAY: Move aside, pansy--that's my throne you're sitting on.

[mommy]

I'm willing to believe this is one of the reasons Mole-Man was so determined to marry Aunt May in the newspaper strips.

[qalchemist]

...and then Gwen Stacy, dead! Where was Aunt May -that- day?

[kenwyn89]

Can I mail her Carlie's address?

[eyz]

Awesome :D
I'm currently reading Tony Harris' With Great Responsibility so I love these old school scans^^

[cypherfdp]

Yeah, you can tell she has a great face from not being able to see her face.

[greenygal]

I feel sorry for Liz and Betty, both of whom look pretty awful in that last shocked panel--Liz in particular looks like she's wearing a crooked wig. Whereas MJ...well, time and fashion have not done a thing to diminish that panel's impact.

[arilou_skiff]

To be fair, the difference is largely between John Romita and Steve Ditko's art-styles: Romita's art was just.... Prettier. (if not quite as expressive)

One of my problems with OMD/BND/OMIT

[horselover107]

Yeah this is one of many problems I have with OMD/BND/OMIT. One very consistent thing about May's character all the way through right before OMD/BND was she shipped Peter and MJ. And she was very vocal about about shipping Peter and MJ. Gwen's seemingly back from the dead? Nope MJ's the girl for her nephew. Peter and MJ are having a trial separation? Nope MJ's the girl for her nephew. And then early in One More Day we were getting really vindictive lines about how Peter shouldn't date a redhead and she didn't even invite MJ (whom again she loved even when she wasn't dating Peter) to her wedding (and then was mad at Anna for inviting her as her guest). Although it looks lie they've fixed that a lot (MJ and May have been show interacting warmly by Slott) she's still not her usual Peter/MJ shippy self.

But hey, enough of all. Let's focus on the important part: MJ is awesome!

Re: One of my problems with OMD/BND/OMIT

[ablackraptor]

Exactly, it was one thing to have everyone support Carlie and Peter, but to have the pro MJ/Pete supporting May act like that is just...wrong. Though, when things finally recover, and I'm so idealistic so I believe without a doubt they will, I can see May having some choice words for Peter about selling his marriage to the devil.

Hm, that IS the important part.

Re: One of my problems with OMD/BND/OMIT

[silverhammerman]

But but but, it was MJ who actually said yes to Mephisto! So she's the bad one here, not Peter! It's not like he was written as a pitiful man-child who can't let go of his adoptive mommy! Because MJ said yes to Mephisto! So Peter's not in the wrong, she is!
Kidding.
But I doubt we'll ever actually see anyone given Peter the what-for over the whole deal with Mephisto, if only because I think as soon as we get a new writer who realizes how stupid that was they're probably going to want to bury and forget about the story as soon as possible, and never ever ever bring it up again.

Re: One of my problems with OMD/BND/OMIT

[ablackraptor]

Of course! Even though Peter guilt her into it and was the one getting crazy obsessive about keeping her alive, it was MJ who's the real badguy.
Lol.
Could do, it would make a big story event that would attract a few readers. I mean, it would give them a lot of options, allowing them to spin it into a saga of sorts later. If they had an event which involved undoig the deal and beating Mephisto, they could then sell it along with OMD, OMIT, and a potion of BND as one big (unneeded) trade to make money out of this nonsense.

[starwolf_oakley]

May knew Mary Jane at least a little bit, and I’m sure Anna Watson knew Peter well enough living next door. We have to see some logic in May and Anna thinking Peter and MJ would be right for each other. There could even be some “MJ is moving to the area and doesn’t know anyone her own age” logic on Anna’s part. May thinks “housewife” because that’s how she rolls.

Maybe UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN #16 and PARALLEL LIVES say more about that, I'm not sure.