Probably the greatest love of Spider-man’s life. While she was talked about and had some “hidden face” cameos since Amazing Spider-Man #25 (by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.), it wasn’t until Amazing Spider-Man #42 where she was fully revealed, spouting her now famous line “Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot.” Mary Jane is the daughter of an abusive father and whose mother eventually left her husband. Mary Jane and her sister were sent to relatives, with Mary Janes being sent to her Aunt Anna, who lived next door to the Parkers. On the night of Uncle Ben’s murder, Mary Jane witnessed Peter running upstairs and Spider-man leaving his room via the window. She realized that Peter Parker and Spider-man were one and the same. Because of this, she initially refused to go on a date with Peter, when Aunt May and her aunt tried to set them up, feeling that he would prioritize his superhero duties. She eventually had no choice and the 2 would eventually met.

However, Peter was dating Gwen Stacy at the time, who she would become close friends with. She began dating Harry Osborn. After the death of Gwen Stacy, she went to a distraught Peter who told her to leave but she refused to and comforted him. She later broke up with Harry and would later become closer to Peter and eventually become a couple. While they would break up a good few times and she would later reveal she knew he was Spider-man, she would remain by Peter’s side. As such, he would purpose to her. Twice! However, both times she refused as she remembered her parents relationship. She confronted her father, who had framed her sister, and sent him to prison. After helping her, MJ accepted Peter’s purposal. They were married on at City hall, with both of them being late.

Mary Jane would remain with Peter through out most of the decades, despite once being believed dead or being separated a few times. However, this would all change in the aftermath of the Civil War, after Peter publicly revealed his identity and Aunt May was shot by a hitman for the Kingpin. Exhausting all resources to save his Aunt and arriving at their apartment, Peter and MJ made a deal with Mephisto, who agreed to save Aunt May if they erase their marriage from existence. He did so and it resulted in a new timeline where Peter never arrived on time for their wedding. They would still remain together and have mostly the same history but never married. She would leave Peter after this. She would later return during Aunt May’s wedding to John Jameson Sr. but they wouldn’t get back together. Instead she bought a night club but that was destroyed by the Vulture and would move to San Francisco and tried to run another club but it was destroyed by a battle with Iron Man. Tony Stark then offered her a job as his assistant. She eventually returned to New York and started her relationship with Peter. She has since restarted her acting career and moved to Hollywood.

Civilian characters and supporting characters were never a big priority for companies. They want more colorful costume to sell to kids. While many requested for them, companies never really listened. That was until Mary Jane got a figure in Marvel Legends as part of a 2-pack with, of course, Spider-man. It is thanks to this figure that even more people are requesting civies.

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