Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson |
| Alternative name(s): | Peter/MJ, PeterMJ |
| Gender category: | Het |
| Fandom: | Spider-Man |
| Canonical?: | canon |
| Prevalence: | popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Peter/Mary Jane is a canon het pairing of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man fandoms.
Canon
Peter and Mary Jane's relationship is one of the most iconic Marvel Comics canon relationships in the comicsverse. They've been together for nearly six decades
Peter and Mary Jane started dating soon after Mary Jane's face is revealed The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966), although they break-up soon after. Peter and Mary Jane start to date again after the friendship deepened and after Gwen's death. They had an off-and-on again relationship for years, as Peter had other main love interests and Mary Jane's desire to not to be tied down and the fact that MJ figured out Peter's secret identity[1], although Peter did end up proposing to her twice and Mary Jane says no both times. After Mary Jane has an epiphany on marriage, Peter and Mary Jane get married in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987).
In 2007's "One More Day" storyline created by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, has their marriage erased from the Earth-616 Marvel Universe, although Mary Jane still remembered their relationship.
Eventually, Mary Jane and Peter started dating again, however Otto Octavius switches minds with Peter. This eventually causes Mary Jane to break it up with Peter for good since she wanted to start her own life[2]. Despite the break-up, Mary Jane remains an ally to Peter/Spider-Man.
Peter and Mary Jane relationship appears in other Marvel Universes and other Spider-Man adaptations: Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man Trilogy, MTV's Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man (TV series), and various Spider-Man video games.
Fandom
This article or section needs expansion. |
Peter/Mary Jane is generally one of the most popular het pairings in any Spider-Man fandom universe that features Mary Jane as a character.
Comics
Spider-Man: TAS, Spider-Man Unlimited, & MTV's Spider-Man
Fanfiction for the Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man Unlimited and MTV's Spider-Man cartoons are not very common despite the fact that the pairing is canon in the series, and the pairing Peter/MJ is the only pairing that can be found on FanFiction.Net[3].
Spider-Man Trilogy/Sam Raimi Movies
Peter/MJ is the second largest pairing in within the Spider-Man Trilogy fandom, and they are one of the more commonly reference superhero relationship in media. Their upside down kiss was often repeated (and not just with Peter/MJ works) in fanart, fanfiction, and also appears in other media (example: Summer/Seth from The OC - the video).
The Spectacular Spider-Man
Fanfiction for Peter/MJ is one of the rarest pairings within the The Spectacular Spider-Man fandom[4], this might be due to the fact that the series went with Peter/Gwen instead.
Ultimate Spider-Man (TV series)
Fanfiction for Peter/MJ is one of the rarer pairings within the Ultimate Spider-Man (TV series), with most tagged works at Archive of Our Own often appear along with other pairings of the fandom[5].
The Amazing Spider-Man & Marvel Cinematic Universe
Due to the series' decision to go with Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker's love interest, Peter/MJ is not canon in The Amazing Spider-Man films and although Mary Jane (portrayed by Shailene Woodley) was set to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the scenes were not used.[6] Speculation abounded as to whether MJ would appear in TASM 3, and who might play her,[7] before the announcement of a licensing deal to allow Spider-Man to appear in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe put paid to the notion of another film.
As with TASM, the MCU Spider-Man went in another direction for Peter's love interest instead of Mary Jane, this time going with Liz Allan as the main love interest. However, another character called Michelle Jones, played by Zendaya, was featured in the film, and rumours abounded that Michelle would be an updated version of Mary Jane Watson.
However, despite Michelle revealing in Homecoming that her nickname is indeed MJ, producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal stated that Michelle was intended as "more of a fun homage" to Mary Jane than as a reimagining of the character.[8] Although in No Way Home, her full name was revealed to be Michelle Jones-Watson, thus establishing her as the MJ Watson of the MCU[9].
Fan vidders and artists often use other actresses to portray Mary Jane in various fanvids and fanart, a popular choice among them being Holland Roden, often with Andrew Garfield portraying as Peter.
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfics
Spider-Man Trilogy
- Memories and Revelations by betty brant. An MJ POV story of the last act of the movie. A resourceful MJ struggles to solve the mystery of Peter Parker, helped by a few intriguing memories and various exciting events. (Post SM2)
- Caught in the Act of Love by Courtney Belle. Movieverse. Five months after Doc Ock's demise and Peter and MJ are still going strong. A simple fluffy look at a typical meeting between the two. (Post SM2)
- Human by Faelai. She was the only one allowed beneath the thin red skin that was his armor. MovieVerse, PeterMJ. Vignette.
- Fear of Falling by jjonahjameson. Fluffy romantic one-shot. PeterMJ movieverse.
TASM
- Perpendicular by nine miles to go. An examination of how MJ falls for Peter over the years (Amazing Spider-Man movie universe). Companion piece to "Lying Heart" and "Reckless".
MCU
- The Lady Doth Protest (in Front of Embassies) by YankingAwry. It's gym period and M.J.'s bench-pressing The Second Sex while deep in speculative thought. So, the way Peter's shirt stretches over his biceps and shoulder blades is not a joke. On the other hand, his eyebrows are always in the middle of an identity crisis, and his lips are kinda thin. His smile, though--really, really nice. First class, one might say. A solid, toothpaste advertisement smile. Yeah, M.J's not doing great service to Simone de Beauvoir right now.
- you make my heart beat like the rain by starkmccall. “Nice.” She bumps their shoulders together and then holds hers there, keeping a point of contact between them. “Same.” Peter looks up from his hands to her face, and she’s wearing an expression he’s never seen before. It’s kind, and open, and wildly beautiful in a way he’s never really noticed before, and oh God, his brain’s going to start composing some shitty poetry if he doesn’t look away in the next two seconds. It’s not that he’s never noticed Michelle is pretty, it’s kind of impossible not to, but it was always in an objective, factual way: the sky is blue, grass is green, Michelle is beautiful. And besides, he spent too much time pining over Liz to even think of anyone else. But now Liz is in Oregon, and Michelle is here, touching their shoulders together, and he’s probably going to tell her that he’s Spiderman. Post-Homecoming. Peter develops feelings for Michelle, and mostly deals with it well.
Various Media
- Maybe in Another Universe (I Deserve You) by seekrest. "There’s this philosopher from the 1890s named William James, and he coined this theory about “the multiverse” which suggests that a hypothetical set of multiple universes comprises everything that can possibly exist simultaneously. The entirety of space, time, matter and energy is all happening at once in different timelines. Let's presume the multiverse is real. What if, in another universe, I deserve you?" - Gaby Dunn
Fanvids
Comics
Spider-Man Trilogy
- Apologize by raliaddict
- A Thousand Years by 003superpippo93
- Pretty Girl by Pikachu
- "You don't know what you feel." by SilverBloodStream
TASM:
Fanart
Spider-Man Trilogy
MCU
- Peter & MJ by willow-s-linda
Fanmixes
TASM
Archives & Fannish Links
- Peter/Mary Jane works at AO3
- Mary Jane & Peter works at FFN (Spider-Man Comics/Movies)
- Mary Jane & Peter works at FFN (USM cartoon)
- Mary Jane & Peter works at FFN (SSM cartoon)
- _heytiger, the LiveJournal community
- Meant to Be Together Fanfiction.net community
- mj & the tigers, Archived version, Tumblr blog
Tumblr
Canon Resources
- Greatest Peter/Mary Jane Stories at Superior Spider-Talk
- Why Did it Have to be You, Mary Jane? Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 at Spidey Kicks Butt
References
- ^ Wikipedia: Mary Jane Watson Early History
- ^ "Dying_Wish"_and_The_Superior_Spider-Man Wikipedia:Mary Jane Watson "Dying Wish" and The Superior Spider-Man
- ^ January 16, 2018: FFN's TAS category has no list to be able to sort by character or pairing. By going through the two pages, only a couple have Peter & MJ in the summary. AO3 category only has 2 works listed as Peter/MJ.
- ^ As of January 15, 2018: Only 11 Works at AO3 and 2 works at FFN are tagged with Peter/Mary Jane & Spectacular Spider-Man
- ^ January 16, 2018: AO3 Peter/MJ search with USM cartoon found only 11 workss.
- ^ Emma Stone & Andrew Garfield Why Mary Jane Watson was "Edited Out" of The Amazing Spider Man 2,
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Is THIS Mary Jane Watson?, Movie Pilot, published August 26, 2014 (Accessed July 24, 2017).
- ^ Marvel producers reveal the truth about Zendaya’s name in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, The Daily Dot, published 10 July 2017 (Accessed 22 July 2017).
- ^ https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/spider-man-no-way-home-drops-a-small-but-significant-reveal-about-zendayas-mj/, We Got These Covered, published 16 December 2021 (Accessed 22 October 2022)