Today, we look at the dramatic return of Mary Jane Watson to the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, as she shocks Peter Parker almost as much as when he first hit the jackpot with her back in the day.
In If Her Hair Was Still Red, I take a look at all of Mary Jane Watson's comic book appearances in chronological order (by date of publication). Mary Jane's progression as a character fascinates me.
Well now, it's been over a year since we've checked back in on the journey of Ms. Watson, and appropriately enough, this is during a shocking period where Mary Jane basically goes missing from the Spider-Man books for THREE YEARS! So let's see how she returns.
DAREDEVIL ENVYS PETER AND MARY JANE
Something we mentioned a bit last time, but still held true after Mary Jane "officially" left the Spider-Man books is that other comic book titles were a whole lot less interested in Spider-Man continuity as the main Spider-Man titles. At the time, I was talking more about the quasi-continuity of Marvel Team-Up. Although, there, it was probably less an issue of ignoring continuity because they didn't know about the continuity and more that they ignored continuity because Claremont and Byrne thought it was just too perfect to have the redheaded Mary Jane transform into Red Sonja, so she had to still be dating Peter despite their break-up. but it also applies to stuff like Peter and Mary Jane's cameo in Daredevil #160 (by Roger McKenzie, Frank Miller and Klaus Janson)...
The irony of Matt Murdock pining for the happiness of Peter and Mary Jane while Peter and Mary Jane are broken up is kind of cool, though. Or perhaps Daredevil's continuity was just waaaaaaay behind Amazing Spider-Man?
EVEN BEHIND THE SCENES, MARY JANE CAUSES SOME DRAMA
While Marv Wolfman was the one who wrote Mary Jane out of Amazing Spider-Man (as Wolfman just never saw Mary Jane as a serious love interest for Peter), Wolfman's successor, Denny O'Neil, wasn't interested in adding her back to the book, either. She did not appear at all in O'Neil's run on Amazing, but she did at least get one reference.
In Amazing Spider-Man #208 (by O'Neil, John Romita Jr., Al Milgrom and Brett Breeding), Peter and Aunt May go to visit Anna Watson, who is in the hospital for a little gall bladder problems (Aunt May is oddly macabre about Anna's body breaking down. It's just some gall bladder issues, lady). Once there, Anna mentions that they just missed Mary Jane, who had visited her earlier...
Peter is happy that he did not have to talk to Mary Jane, as he is upset about the whole "turn down his wedding proposal and then breaking up with him" deal.
AUNT ANNA AND MARY JANE CHECK-IN FROM FLORIDA
By Amazing Spider-Man #238 (art by the Romitas), a new writer had taken over Amazing Spider-Man, as Roger Stern, the writer of Spectacular Spider-Man, moved over to the main book. Stern has always been excellent with continuity and I suspect that he was wondering as to how Peter had avoided seeing Mary Jane for so long with them both being in New York City and both being friends with the same group of people, so Stern revealed in this issue (the same issue that introduced the Hobgoblin) that Anna and Mary Jane are now living in Florida...
You would think Aunt May would have mentioned her best friend moving to Florida, but she was busy turning her home into a boarding house, so I guess she was busy.
THE DRAMATIC RETURN OF MARY JANE!
Here's the funny thing. We just saw Mary Jane in Amazing Spider-Man #238, so it is amusing that a few issues later in Issue #241, Stern decides to have Anna and Mary Jane take the train back to New York City and Stern still has Mary Jane's existence in the issue (drawn by John Romita Jr. and Frank Giacoia. This, by the way, was back during the time that Romita was doing breakdowns, as he was drawing multiple ongoing titles at the time) be a bit of a surprise...
We JUST saw you three issues ago! Your presence can't be all that shocking!
In a similar sort of approach, Mary Jane visits Peter's apartment looking for him in the next issue (by Stern, Romita Jr. and Kevin Dzuban) and Mary Jane is specifically drawn from behind, presumably to disguise that it is her, but, well, she has famous red hair and she was JUST IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE! So it's an odd approach.
Amusingly, the aforementioned Amazing Spider-Man #208 was the first appearance of Peter's photographer rival, Lance Bannon, and this issue has a plotline involving Bannon. You see, Bannon had been dating a woman named Amy Powell and they both wanted the relationship to be an open one, but it soon devolved into them sort of tormenting the other one by sort of parading their other partners in from them and Lance really just wants to commit to Amy. The issue is that she has chosen Peter as her next target. Lance lays it out to Peter and Peter decides that when he meets Amy for dinner that night, he will bring Lance with him so that they can hash things out.
However, when his door knocks that night, it is Amy, deciding to have a picnic at Peter's place instead. She quickly makes a move on Peter and even though he is expecting Lance at any minute, Amy is all over him. Then the door opens and instead of Lance, it is Mary Jane!
You really have to give it to Mary Jane, she hasn't seen Peter in three years' worth of stories, but when she returns, she REALLY makes the most of it!
We're up to Amazing Spider-Man #243 if you have any thoughts you'd like to share that I might share with the others in the next column!
Again, for everything, you can write me at brianc@cbr.com!