Mary Jane Watson - Wikipedia

"MJ Watson" redirects here. For the film characters, see Mary Jane Watson (2002 film series character). "Mary Jane (comics)" redirects here. For the comic book series about the character, see Mary Jane (comic book) and The Amazing Mary Jane.

Mary Jane Watson is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, making her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965), and subsequently designed by John Romita Sr. in #42 (November 1966). Since then, she has gone on to become Spider-Man's main love interest and later his wife (as Mary Jane Watson-Parker). Mary Jane Watson has also served as a supporting character to Iron Man and Venom.

Mary Jane Watson
Art by Adam Hughes
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Cameo appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965) First full appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966) As Red Sonja: Marvel Team-Up #79 (December 1979) As Iron Spider: The Amazing Spider-Man (volume 4) #15 (September 2016) As Jackpot: The Amazing Spider-Man (volume 6) #31 (August 2023) As Venom: All-New Venom #1 (December 2024; masked) All-New Venom #5 (April 2025; unmasked)
Created by	Stan Lee (writer)Steve Ditko (artist/writer)John Romita Sr. (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Mary Jane Watson
Place of origin	New York City, United States
Supporting character of	Spider-Man (Peter Parker) Venom (Symbiote)
Notable aliases	Mary Jane Watson-Parker Spider-Woman Mrs. Spider-Man Spinneret (Earth-18119) Red Sonja Jackpot Venom
Abilities	Skilled business executive Master model and actress As Jackpot: Random superpower generation via Jackpot Bracelet As Venom: Superhuman strength, speed, agility, and durability Ability to cling to most surfaces Organic webbing Limited shapeshifting and camouflage Symbiote's autonomous defense capabilities Undetectable by Spider-Man's "Spider-sense"

Although she made a brief first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 with a plant obscuring her face, as part of a then-long-running recurring gag about Aunt May attempting to set Peter up with her friend's "nice girl" niece, Mary Jane's first official face reveal was a cameo appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #42. Designed and drawn by John Romita Sr., her entrance is regarded as one of the most iconic introductions in comic history, owing to its build-up, her hyper-vibrant red hair and beauty, and her introductory line, "Face it, Tiger… you just hit the jackpot!". Since then, 'Tiger' has been her most recognizable nickname for Peter, spanning comics and media adaptations.

Throughout her initial appearances, Mary Jane was written as a foil to Peter's initially intended soulmate, Gwen Stacy, with her extroverted, fun-loving personality (a mask for her troubled home life) contrasting with Gwen being more like Peter in demeanor and intellect. Nonetheless, following Gwen's death in "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" story arc, the heartbroken Mary Jane became more caring and empathetic, and eventually one of the few people to consistently know Peter's secret identity. This would result in the two falling deeply in love and eventually getting married, before their marriage was undone in the storyline "One More Day" due to the timeline manipulations by Mephisto. Unbeknownst to them, they are further destined to have a daughter who will end Mephisto's eventual reign over the Earth, whom Mephisto seeks to erase from reality. In Spider-Man/Red Sonja, she becomes Red Sonja, in Armed and Dangerous, she becomes the third Jackpot, while in All-New Venom, she becomes the new host of Venom. In the alternate universes of the Marvel Multiverse, Mary Jane is depicted as the superheroines Spider-Woman in Exiles (as a lesbian) and Marvel Mangaverse (as straight), and Spinneret in Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, as well as Carnage in Spider-Gwen.

Since her debut, Mary Jane Watson has been described as one of Marvel's most notable non-powered female characters.[1] In film, Kirsten Dunst portrayed the character in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, while Shailene Woodley had an uncredited silent cameo appearance as the character in the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2; Zoë Kravitz voiced Mary Jane in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with Nicole Delaney and Melissa Sturm voicing other versions of the character in its 2023 sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Contents

• 1 Publication history
• 2 Fictional character biography
  • 2.1 Early history
  • 2.2 Marriage
  • 2.3 Pregnancy
  • 2.4 Marital problems
  • 2.5 "Civil War"
  • 2.6 "One More Day"
  • 2.7 New life
  • 2.8 "Spider-Island" and "Ends of the Earth"
  • 2.9 "Dying Wish" and The Superior Spider-Man
  • 2.10 All-New, All-Different Marvel
  • 2.11 Fresh Start
  • 2.12 Spider-Man Beyond
  • 2.13 Six Months Later/Hellfire Gala
  • 2.14 Dark Web
  • 2.15 The Secret of Paul Rabin
  • 2.16 Debut as Jackpot
  • 2.17 Venom War
  • 2.18 All-New Venom
• 3 Powers and abilities
• 4 Cultural impact and legacy
  • 4.1 Critical reception
  • 4.2 Accolades
• 5 Literary reception
  • 5.1 Amazing Mary Jane - 2019
  • 5.2 Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond - 2022
• 6 Other versions
  • 6.1 Age of X
  • 6.2 The Amazing Spider-Man: The Daily Comic Strip
  • 6.3 The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows
  • 6.4 Earth X
  • 6.5 Exiles
  • 6.6 House of M
  • 6.7 Incredible Hercules
  • 6.8 Infinity Wars
  • 6.9 King-Sized Spider-Man Summer Special
  • 6.10 Mangaverse
  • 6.11 Marvel 1602
  • 6.12 Marvel Universe vs The Punisher
  • 6.13 Marvel Zombies and Marvel Zombies Return
  • 6.14 MC2
  • 6.15 New Fantastic Four
  • 6.16 Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham
  • 6.17 Silver Surfer: Requiem
  • 6.18 Sinister 60th
  • 6.19 Spectacular Spider-Man magazine
  • 6.20 Spider-Gwen
  • 6.21 Spider-Island
  • 6.22 Spider-Man: Fairy Tales
  • 6.23 Spider-Man: Clone Saga
  • 6.24 Spider-Man: Life Story
  • 6.25 Spider-Man: Reign
  • 6.26 Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
  • 6.27 Spider-Man never existed
  • 6.28 Spider-Verse
  • 6.29 Ultimate Marvel
  • 6.30 Ultimate Universe
  • 6.31 What If?
• 7 In other media
  • 7.1 Television
  • 7.2 Film
  • 7.3 Video games
  • 7.4 Novels
• 8 Collected editions
  • 8.1 Spider-Man/Red Sonja
  • 8.2 The Amazing Mary Jane
  • 8.3 Mary Jane & Black Cat / Jackpot & Black Cat
  • 8.4 Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
  • 8.5 All-New Venom
• 9 References
• 10 External links