Sorry about another late entry this week, I had a math exam and I was just burnt out. Anyway, this week is a sort of analysis on one of Marvel’s most Hero’s girlfriend.
Let’s face it, using a romantic interest in peril in stories is both overly used and endearingly loved. Having the person the hero or heroin are in love with in danger increases the intensity of the drama. Generally, the audience is invested into the relationship, and we find ourselves rooting for the protagonist to succeed. That all being said, there are certain characters that have had this element of fiction beaten to bloody and then left to die in an alley, in fact, it essentially has become a part of their character. The one character that has had this happen to them more than any other that I can think of is Mary Jane Watson from Spider-man, otherwise known as MJ.
First of all, who is MJ? Depending on the storyline, she’s either a high school student or an actress (occasionally struggling). She generally doesn’t have any powers and very seldom acts as a super hero, making her for the most part an average New Yorker. Before she develops a romantic interest in Peter Parker, who always has a crush on her, she usually dates a number of people from the same circles (including Peter’s high school bully Flash, and his best friend turned super-villain Harry Osborne). Finally, most of the time she doesn’t know that Peter is Spider-Man, and when she does she doesn’t usually help out a lot in his crime fighting. There are variations to these norms in a number of Spider-Man universes, including ones where she get's Spider-Man's powers, however these are MJ’s usual traits.
Now, super heroes have their girlfriends kidnapped or in danger all of the time, occasionally it is the central theme of an episode or a comic. There are a number of super heroes that this happens to often, Superman and Batman being two really good examples, but it always is happening to Mary Jane. Even if Superman’s Lois Lane was literally in trouble every episode during the middle of the 20th century, it’s for a good reason. Lois Lane is a risk taker, she’s a hard core journalist and when you spend your life on the edge, you can expect to get cut. As for Batman, well, the badguy is either kidnapping a billionaire’s girlfriend or she’s a villain herself, so them being in danger makes sense.
Such conditions are not the same for Mary Jane Watson, who for all intents and purposes, is just a normal girl with nothing exceptional about her. Yet she is always getting kidnapped or finding herself in dangerous situations. MJ is Marvel’s poster-child for a damsel in distress. And if that wasn’t bad enough, half the time—if not more—when she is captured or in danger it’s because she’s either a victim of circumstance, or because she’s dating the badguy, and her danger is completely unrelated to Spider-Man or Peter Parker. This isn’t even true for Spider-Man’s other normal girlfriend, her Dad was a police captain, so her being in close proximity to danger makes sense (and in the Amazing Spider-Man movies, she is a scientific genius so of course she’s going to be useful in a sci-fi). It’s like MJ is a living disaster magnet. Most the time, the badguys don’t even see a link between Peter/Spider-Man and her. Sure she get’s rescued because Spider-Man is A: a superhero, and B: madly in love with her. In any universe where MJ doesn’t have a guardian angel/super-powered stalker, she would have either died in Highschool or would have been locked away somewhere by one of the many psychopaths that she has dated.
This week’s blog was in part inspired by an assignment I had for my English course. We had to use a metaphor to describe either a celebrity or a comic book character with a piece of technology. So, as a bonus, here is my response:
Mary Jane Watson, from Spider-Man, is a high-performance sports car. She’s attractive and is full of glamor, but the only thing that seems to make her famous is how she looks. When things are going well, she’s pictured with actors and celebrities, when things are going badly there’s certainly emergency sirens nearby. Criminals want to take her before anyone else and generally end up in either prison or a hospital. When disaster strikes, it seems worse because it happened to her. Insurance agencies must recognize the constant danger associated with her, so she's bound to have high insurance premiums. A scrawny nerd pined for her for most of his life. The only person who is responsible enough to take care of her on his own, is too responsible to keep her for very long. Finally, when she’s expected to be there but isn't, everyone spends their time either wondering where she is or comparing her to who's there.
I hope you all enjoyed this week’s entry, and if you think I am being too hard on Mary Jane, or you want to see more posts like this one let me know in the comments (I really do check them)!
Image Source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Mary-Jane-Watson-370146959
Image Artist: BrecklynGrimes