The Marvelous Mary Jane: Motherhood

If you ever thought that Mary Jane didn’t strike you as a “Mother Type”, think again. Even a “Party Girl” type grows up and matures over the years and I have some scenario’s that show just how great a mom, Mary Jane can be.

Earth-616: Clones weren’t the only thing “baking” in the 90’s. Mary Jane PARKER (that’s right, they were married. Despite how hard Marvel wants us to forget) had a bun in the oven. Both Peter and Mary Jane were expecting and the scenes of parents to be were very emotional and touching. In Revelations Part 4 a lot of things happened. Norman Osborn is ALIVE, Ben Reilly died and turned back into flour, Peter was actually the REAL DEAL and sadly Mary Jane lost the baby do to a miscarriage. At least that’s what we were to believe. Some potholes suggest that Norman Osborn had something to do with it and that “Baby May” was alive and kidnapped, it was never cleared up followed through. 

Author’s Note: The original plan was to have Peter and Mary Jane move to Portland and live a separate life with the baby and Marvel would start “A New” with Ben Reilly as Spider-Man. That did NOT sit well with the fans considering the money they were spending on Spidey comics over the last 20 years were tales of a “Fake Spider-Man”, so Marvel went with this story. Fearing a baby would “age the character” and loose the “youthfulness of Spider-Man”, Marvel went the direction they did. They went farther by scrapping the marriage as well, but you can honestly blame Joe Quesada for that.

Earth-982: A lot of people weren’t happy with the miscarriage, kidnapping, recon, editorial decision that Marvel made for Peter and Mary Jane to be parents so they decided to give us a flash forward tale in the WHAT IF series which introduced us all to “Mayday” May Parker, better known to you as SPIDER-GIRL. This was Tom Defalco, Pat Olliffe, and Ron Frenz’s book. They both took great pride in this book and it did generate a strong, very loyal, fanbase. In this book, it showed Mary Jane as a mother of not just one kid, but TWO. After a few volumes Benjamin Parker was born! May was already known as Spider-Girl at that time and Mary Jane was very supportive and protective as any mother would be to a teenage superhero. As a respected fashion designer and businesswoman, she secretly started a store based on Spider-Girl related merchandise to pay for May and Ben’s educations. Smart thinking if you ask me.

Earth-18119: The third Secret Wars came to be and Battleworld domain was formed. Peter is married to Mary Jane and have a little girl named Annie! The first volume focused on Peter giving up being Spider-Man to be there for his wife and kid, going so far as to actually letting Venom/Eddie Brock die in the fire because he threatened his family. A forgetful villain named Regent (seriously, don’t ask) had a suit that collected all superhero’s powers and to have a “Spider-Sense” would make him unstoppable. When Peter was captured, Mary Jane and Annie went to save him in superhero fashion and rescued Peter, just in time to defeat Regent with a lame “Spider Cent” joke. In Volume 2., Mary Jane had opened a boutique in SoHo which drew the attention of a fashion critic. Peter reversed engineered Dr. Sharron Stillwell’s Empire Unlimited Test Suit to mimic his own spider-powers for his wife and Spinneret was born! Unfortunately this suit drained most of Peter’s powers and she gave it up, but she acquired a biotech suit that wouldn’t do that from friend Liz Allen, not knowing it was actually the Venom symbiote that survived the fire. Later, She actually revealed to Annie that she had a first miscarriage to what would be her older sister, May. There was a lot of family love in this series and quickly became a fan favorite. Mary Jane focused on her husband and Annie at all costs and joined her husband and child on their adventures.

Age of X: In this Universe, Peter and MJ were still married and expecting a baby girl. Peter was fearing that the possibility that their unborn child could be a mutant, therefore killed by the government. Peter sent Mary Jane off to live in Paris.



Earth-91110: In this Universe Peter kept the Captain Universe power forever. Things ran smoothly for a while until the power consumed Peter’s mind. MJ and Peter split apart, but when Peter’s powers were taken away, Peter and MJ reconciled their relationship just in time to find out the she was pregnant.

House of M (What IF): Instead of No More Mutants, we got No More Powers.  All heroes are stripped from their powers, but evil still comes to fight.  So when Peter is forced to lead a bunch of non powered heroes against the Red Skull, the day is won.  Mary Jane has her child and her name is Anna after Aunt Anna who just happens to have spider powers just like her dear old dad.

If I miss any, comment on the bottom.  I know “LIFE STORY” is missing, this article was written before it was finalized though.