Mary Jane Watson

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 Jackpot: The Amazing Spider-Man (volume 6) #31 (August 2023)
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	Peter Parker (Spider-Man)
Notable aliases	Mary Jane Watson-Parker Spider-Woman Mrs. Spider-Man Spinneret Red Sonja Jackpot
Abilities	Skilled business executive Master model and actress As Jackpot: Random superpower generation via Jackpot Bracelet

Mary Jane "MJ" 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. Mary Jane is his most famous and prominent love interest due to their long history, and one of the most iconic in all of comics.

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 it 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, with the character becoming the third to assume the superhero mantle of Jackpot in August 2023.

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. Despite their marriage being undone in the widely panned storyline "One More Day" due to the timeline manipulations by the villain Mephisto, Mary Jane and Peter retained a close friendship and have had on-and-off relations since. Unbeknownst to them, they are further destined to have a daughter who will end Mephisto's eventual reign over the Earth, and whom Mephisto seeks to erase from reality.

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.