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The essence of Spider-Man can be boiled down to one phrase, and it was written down at the end of his first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 (albeit in a slightly, wordier form): With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. That statement means that Spider-Man must always do the right thing with the amazing abilities thrust upon him, even if it means he cannot live the life he wants.
As the final trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us, the life he wants, more than anything else, is to be with MJ. In fact, much of the final trailer consists of footage from the previous MCU Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland, showing everything he’s sacrificed before building to the cruelest loss of all, having all knowledge of his existence wiped from everyone, including MJ. As Zendaya told Den of Geek in this month’s exclusive cover story (order your copy here!), Brand New Day finds Peter “more vulnerable and intense than we’ve seen before,” having to “face all these challenges alone.” Turns out, the hardest challenge is being away from MJ.
Believe it or not, Mary Jane Watson wasn’t originally part of Spider-Man’s supporting cast on the page. For the first few years of Amazing Spider-Man, Peter dated Betty Brant, Gwen Stacy, and often, no one at all. Mary Jane initially appeared as something of a running joke, as her Aunt Anna, best friend to Aunt May, would cajole Peter about taking her niece out on a date. Sensing a responsibility he did not need to take on, and afraid that he wouldn’t find MJ attractive, Peter would duck the suggestions. In fact, from 1965’s Amazing Spider-Man #25 onward, MJ appeared only in silhouette or with her face obscured, leading readers to assume that he was right.
All of that changed with the final page of 1966’s Amazing Spider-Man #42, by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. There a beaten Peter finally agrees to take MJ on a date. He pulls open the door to find the beautiful Mary Jane waiting for him. She then delivers the iconic line, “Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot.” Despite that initial date, Peter and MJ weren’t immediately a couple. She stayed within his friend group and dated his best friend Harry Osborn for a while, meanwhile Peter stayed with Gwen Stacy. Even after Gwen’s death, the two couldn’t accept being together.
Yet once they did get together and finally married in 1987’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, by David Michelinie, Jim Shooter, and Paul Ryan, the couple seemed inseparable.
So important has the relationship been to Spider-Man stories that it’s driven most adaptations, including the Sam Raimi movies. As Tobey Maguire‘s Peter Parker tells us in the first lines of the 2002 film, his story is “all about a girl… Mary Jane Watson.” Peter’s connection to MJ provides the emotional core of those three movies, resulting in memorable images, such as the rainy upside kiss from the first movie or MJ returning to him in her wedding dress at the end of Spider-Man 2.
The Amazing Spider-Man movies tried to distinguish themselves by pairing Peter with Gwen Stacy, but that only worked because of Andrew Garfield‘s electric chemistry with Emma Stone, and even then it all built to a tragic end.
More successful have been the MCU movies’ attempts to distinguish themselves by casting Zendaya as a different type of MJ. Michelle Jones is the cynical intellectual whose cool reserve won over the excitable Peter Parker; for her part, MJ could not help but be charmed by Peter’s boundless optimism. The slow romance built over three movies before a heartbreaking conclusion in No Way Home, setting up Peter’s dire new status quo in Brand New Day.
Making matters worse is the fact that Marvel seems determined to keep Peter and MJ apart in the comics as well. Ever since Marvel editorial demanded that the marriage be dissolved in the abysmal 2007 miniseries Spider-Man: One More Day—which led to the (really good!) comic book storyline that gives the latest movie its subtitle,Brand New Day—Peter and Mary Jane have been kept apart by everything from new beaux (including the dreaded Paul!), supervillain body swaps, and multiple superhero identities (fun fact: Mary Jane is Venom in the current continuity).
All of which makes the final trailer for Brand New Day more exciting. Will Peter find a way to reunite with Ned and connect again with MJ? Or will the cavalcade of guest stars such as Punisher, Hulk, and a gaggle of Hand Ninjas keep them apart? In a sizzle reel that both promises “a brand new day” and a kind of ending to Holland’s vision for the character, can Peter and MJ do what the Marvel eidtorial gods have long denied? Prove they’re endgame for each other.
Only Kevin Feige and the creators of Brand New Day have the power to make that happen. We’ll have to see if they’ll take on the responsibility of letting Peter be with MJ again.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31.
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