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 (as Mary Jane "MJ" Watson-Parker) before their marriage was sold to Mephisto; Mary Jane has also served as a supporting character to Iron Man and Venom.
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.
