Comic Couples We Love: Peter & Mary Jane In ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #82
by Tony Thornley
Welcome to our final entry in Comicon’s “Comics Couples We Love.” This has been an incredibly fun feature all through the week, and you should really take a look at all the entries. But we thought we’d wrap up with one of our favorite couples, and one that has an incredibly frustrating recent history.
In Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were two sides of one of the most classic love triangles in comics history. With her carefree attitude, MJ was a perfect counterpoint to the much more centered and calm Gwen Stacy. Yet, when Gwen was killed by the Green Goblin, the relationship shifted. In a moment, Peter’s life was broken and MJ found herself choosing to mature to be the rock for her crush.
Thus began the love affair that fans really know and love.
Now, the two have been through so much in their history. They’ve broken up and gotten back together. They got married. They suffered through a stillbirth (maybe, there were supervillain shenanigans). They battled through stalkers, petty wannabe paramours, supervillains, and night after night of anxiety about whether Spider-Man would make it home alive.
When written well, they were the most realistic relationship in comics. It was a story of two normal young people in love and dealing with normal problems- bills, unemployment, health scares- the real stuff. Unfortunately, too many writers didn’t know how to write normal relatable struggles within a relationship (confusingly so considering how many were married, white men). But when they were written well, they were fantastic together.
And that all ended when a demon got them divorced.
But since that time, they’ve grown back closer together. At one point in writer Nick Spencer’s 2018 run on Amazing Spider-Man, they finally got back together. It all seemed great. (Spoiler, it wasn’t.)
The story I wanted to look at to wrap the week up took place after Spencer, and before… Paul. In the bridge run between Spencer and writer Zeb Wells’ volume of Amazing- Spider-Man Beyond- Peter was severely injured in a fight with the U-Foes. He ended up spending most of that story in a hospital bed, while his “brother” Ben Reilly served as Spider-Man. And through that whole ordeal, MJ was at his side.
In Amazing Spider-Man #82 by Saladin Ahmed, Jorge Fornes, Dan Brown and Joe Caramagna, Peter is improving and is released from the ICU. Yet, he’s about to have one of the worst nights of his life.
In his new room, he finds himself sharing the space with two roommates. Yet, both are wheeled away due to special circumstances. Even worse, there’s something wrong, and Peter notices immediately. It’s an incredibly tense and creepy situation created by Ahmed.
And best of all, MJ notices too (which is nailed wordlessly by Fornes who I want to draw more Spider-Man). First, it’s the unsettling orderly. But then, she listens to Peter. He knows there’s something wrong, and due to their deep connection, she hears his concerns, and keeps an eye on the situation.
It’s a fantastical situation that could only happen in a Spider-Man comic. But the resolution is entirely set up by the fact that these two people love each other and trust each other so deeply, that they truly listen to each other. It’s a supernatural horror story that has a happy ending for our hero (unfortunately not for his roomates though) because of the history and relationship Peter and MJ have.
This is how to write them. Other writers, should take note.
