And Gwen, as of late, is a literally saint-like girl with supermodel good looks (‘A-ha!’, you say, ‘but she’s not actually a supermodel!’ Fine, just played by the girl who promotes Revlon with OLIVIA WILDE) who is also as smart or smarter than Peter (who, again, is only not the biggest brain in New York because there are people living there that can talk to God). So which is less realistic: a supermodel married to a combo firefighter/policeman/humanitarian, or the equivalents of Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton going to the same high school? Oh, and Isaac Newton also happens to look like a supermodel. But is not one.
Not to mention: MARY JANE WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A SUPERMODEL. She gained SOME success in her modeling career around the time of the marriage, but solely so the writer at the time, David Michelinie, could contrast Peter’s hand-to-mouth bachelor existence with Mary Jane’s more lucrative, celebrity-tinged lifestyle. But that only lasted a few months - MJ’s career was destroyed by a vengeful Jonathan Caesar, her savings were lost in a bad real estate deal, and Peter and MJ had to move in with Aunt May.
Mary Jane then became an actress with a small modicum of success - a supporting role on a daytime soap opera, which paid the bills but wasn’t a path to mega-riches. Later, under writer Tom DeFalco, she gave up acting to return to school to finish her degree, this time studying psychology (a plot thread I really wish Marvel had stuck with - just think of the story possibilities if MJ became a police psychologist or counseled people traumatized by supervillains or suffering PTSD because they were caught in a superhero battle).
It wasn’t until John Byrne’s disastrous, egregious aberration of a reboot that MJ was cemented as a “supermodel” and shown jet setting around the world on magazine shoots.
JMS turned her into a stage actress - again, not a career that pays extraordinarily well but one that allows MJ to use her brain and her talent and not just her looks. (Not that modeling isn’t a tough career - it is).
And, to Slott’s credit, he made MJ an entrepreneur running her own business, even if he defaulted to a one note “MJ the party girl” cardboard cutout without taking any consideration of how the character has changed and grown. But since Slott subscribes to the “MJ is too pretty for Peter” school of thought (no, Danny, someone like MJ is too smart, perceptive and has enough sense of self-worth not to date YOU. But date/marry Peter? Hell yes!) he can go insert his Doc Ock action figure where the sun don’t shine and stay away.
Whilst technically it was the marriage itself which cemented this idea of MJ as a model, that was more of a by-product of the situation…sorta.
Basically when MJ became Peter’s wife as opposed to…whatever they were before the marriage (I maintain they were effectively dating but in denial about it, but there isn’t a label for that so…), she became more important to the narrative and suddenly in info pages, bios and so on she got mentioned more and more. On those things they try to make things simple and convey information about a character. One way many things of this nature try to do that is to zero in on the occupation of any given character.
Jameson is the publisher of the Bugle. Robbie is the Editor-in-chief of the Bugle. Harry Osborn owns Osborn Industries.
Thus to quickly and concisely convey to people who MJ was they went with “she is his wife and a supermodel”.
When you have that repeated over and over and over again, as happened early on in the marriage, inevitably its going to be a brainworm to fandom, even though honestly her supermodelling job is less important to her character than photography is to Peter’s. It’s superfluous.
At the same time, even before the marriage hit (as well as after) you had narrow minded people throwing out the supermodel criticism at MJ, either because she was a model and therefore a supermodel and/or because she rose to supermodel status early on in the marriage (for some reason people seem define Michelinie’s run as the be-all-end-all of the marriage) and/or she is a very attractive woman ergo ‘supermodel’. It’s bullshit but that’s honestly how some people (including Paul Ryan, artist of the wedding annual…and a politician) think about things like that.
This all being said it is of course bullshit and when Byrne/Mackie made her a model again it literally was just so they could point and show us how ‘inappropriate’ it was for Peter to be married to someone like that. they manufactured a problem to justify ‘fixing’ it basically.
I think the idea of MJ studying psychology makes sense and is an interesting insight into her character…personally I’m actually glad they didn’t go with it. Psychologists have to consult psychologists of their own and I don’t want to see MJ doing that regularly and on a practical level it runs the risk of her and Peter’s secrets being more vulnerable. A big part of psychology is getting inside the head of people and in a way (through therapy) sort of taking on some of their stresses as they unload to you. MJ I think is stressed enough to the point where she herself NEEDS therapy more than she needs to be giving it to other people. So ultimately I think her having an INTEREST into he subject is cool, but doing it professionally has it’s problems. Plus we already have Dr. Kafka for that soo….
I don’t mind the nightclub. It’s an idea which I didn’t like because of the party girl thing, but it’s grown on me and for some reason I sort of want Peter to do fill in work there now??????
However personally, as I’ve said before, MJ running a modest little clothes or fashion related business (something which is a stable source of income but not going to make her or Peter incredibly rich) would be the ideal job for her. Ostensibly she should be doing what she did in Spider-Girl and have a Spider Shoppe
The house she’s lived in for over a decade and raised her family in aas been destroyed
After all her worldy possessions, including photographs have been destroyed
Her teenage daughter and infant son are missing having fled for their lives and been pursued by a rampaging immensely powerful monster, with MJ having no idea where they are or if they are safe
her husband has just been MURDERED!
Below is her reactions just to her daughter being out in the city fighting a old dangerous supervillain who isn’t a rage filled death monster who wants to eat her and her baby son, and to her husband going off to fight that guy, and to both of them returning safely home, a little worse for ware but otherwise okay:
Wow.
It’s almost as if Dan Slott gave Mary Jane a supremely underwelming and unnatural reaction that neither fit her previous characterisation, nor you know how ANY human being in that situation would react.
I mean it’s not like MJ should be in floods of tears that her children are safe, or be in great inner turmoil or grief that the man she loved for over 20 years has just been killed. Nope. It’s just a quick matter of fact:
I’m sorry baby he’s gone. But hey look wanna wear his costume?
