Mary Jane Watson
| Mary Jane Watson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | (partial) The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965) (full) The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966) |
| Created by |
Stan Lee (writer) John Romita, Sr. (artist) Steve Ditko (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Mary Jane Watson |
| Species | Human |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Team affiliations | Stark Industries |
| Supporting character of | Spider-Man |
| Notable aliases | MJ, Red, Red Sonja, Emma Holmes, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Spider-Woman, Iron Spider |
| Abilities | Experienced hand-to-hand combatant |
Mary Jane "MJ" Watson is a fictional character, a supporting character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr., the character made her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965). She has been the best friend, love interest, and wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man.
Mary Jane Watson is first mentioned in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (Aug. 1964), and is initially used as a running joke of the series, as Peter Parker's Aunt May repeatedly attempts to set her unwilling nephew up on a date with her. Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) consistently worms his way out of meeting Mary Jane who, aside from a brief appearance in #25 (June 1965) with her face obscured, is never actually seen until The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (Nov. 1966).Peter David wrote in 2010 that artist John Romita, Sr. "made the definitive statement of his arrival by pulling Mary Jane out from behind the oversized potted plant [that blocked the readers' view of her face in issue #25] and placing her on panel in what would instantly become an iconic moment." Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he "used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts."
According to co-creator Stan Lee, he and Romita had intended for Gwen Stacy to be Spider-Man's one true love, and introduced Mary Jane "just for fun", but that "somehow, Mary Jane seemed to have all the personality, and much as we tried to make Gwen more attractive, we couldn't! We, ourselves, felt that Mary Jane ended up being not only more attractive but more fun and more interesting, and we finally decided to let Peter end up with her, but it was ... as though the characters had taken over!" The names "Mary Jane" and "M.J." are also common slang terms for marijuana. When asked about this, Stan Lee claimed it was purely coincidental, that he knew nothing about drugs and never tried marijuana.
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