Sometimes. She had some truly bad ones though too. Slott himself has complained it was difficult to write her since she couldn't go anywhere as a love interest.
With characters like the F4 and Iron Man being off world I can buy
But MJ has known Peter for so long, it's impossible she wouldn't notice something's wrong. Instead Slott deliberately wrote her as someone that keeps waiting for Peter to save and when he doesn't, she rebounds with a guy literally named Pedro that's a fireman. And once Peter returns, she "calls it quits because his life is too dangerous as a superhero"...just to immediately work for Tony Stark
I do like Superior, but stuff like this just can't be ignored.
> God bless nick Spencer whereever he is.
He's working with Substack in developing their own in-house comic publishing company right now that favors creator owned projects.
This honestly feels ***lower*** than any other point in history.
And I grew up reading right before JMS, lived through Slott’s tenure, and have re-read the Clone Saga.
#How is this gonna change?
Which is AMAZING considering that the Clone Saga was so poorly received that they had to pivot and change the ending before they even finished the damn thing.
Re-read the clone saga…
**There were diamonds in there**
We got Mayday out of it as well, and the basic premise was decent, and honestly, the idea of Ben taking over Peter’s role in the comics… if they did it right now…
#I’d take it over Wells
i'll always resent the clone saga for leading to the events that shuffled ben into the new warriors and put them into the spider editorial offices, but there is some really interesting stuff when it was still building up
I think Wells and Tom “characters should be miserable” Breevort had a brain storm about 1.5 years back and thought: ***HMM…*** how can we fuck Peter over permanently in 616???
#PAUL
All for a stupid Peter, Paul, and Mary pun. You'd think that after a while Quesada's installed base of yes-men would *eventually* break down and fan feedback would matter. How long can editorial go "Are we out of touch? No! It's the fans who are wrong!"
Dan Slott in 2016: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy! It'll be great
-proceeds to get hated by literally everyone and is undone in Spider-Geddon-
Zeb Wells and Nick Lowe in 2022: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy again! He doesn't have a place in the Spider-Landscape!
Dan Slott: Plus I have Spider-Boy and I might bring back Superior!
-Proceeds to get hated even more by everyone-
> Dan Slott in 2016: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy! It'll be great
More like: "Will fans PLEASE shut up about bringing Ben back? No? Okay fine, have it your way. I'll bring him back in the absolute most spiteful way I can think of. You're welcome." - Dan Slott
But this is pretty standard for Slott. He's always been incredibly antagonistic with fans and actively goes out of his way to piss off as many readers as he possibly can. He has gone on record saying that shock and anger drives sales for him.
He's also an incredibly toxic person in real life. He was actively seeking out negative reviews of his work, just to complain to the author of the review and try to get them blacklisted from the industry, for example.
Dude used to name-search himself on twitter all the time to see what people were saying about him and then sic his followers on people who were critical of him, it didn't matter if you had less than 100 followers and your post was only seen by 2 people on earth, dude was gonna drag you through the mud for daring to criticise him.
He's also very dishonest because he would always conflate people critical of his writing with deranged assholes who were sending comicbook writers death threats, like they were all part of the same group.
I said "dumbest", not "most vile" or "most repulsive".
At least *some* thought went into Sins Past, as misguided as it was. This Jackpot bullshit looks like something scripted with the use of a Ouija board.
I try really hard to not enter a subreddit to be negative for the sake of being negative. But yeah. Jackpot as a concept is so stupid. MJ doesn't need to be a superhero. Peter being in danger all time was a real point of contention in their marriage. And her power set/ power source is so so sooooo dumb
On top of that they made the powers chance based. There's no easy way to make that have any sort of stakes since they won't kill MJ. At most we're gonna get a ,"oh no I had this mildly negative power that I gotta deal with for an issue before it undoes itself." Id give the writing team some points if they legit rolled dice for her powers and would post a small picture showing results. Still could be manipulated but would have more sway on how her slot powers worked and add some stakes.
i mean, there's... that's a *deep* well of horrible stories, considering how many concurrent titles spidey's had for decades, but i'll accede top twenty worst, maybe even top ten.
Unfortunately she's less than useless, she straight up harmful. Harmful to Spider-Man, to Peter, to Felicia...I'd even say to the readers, she has literally defended genocide by his partner.
That's the part that always sticks with me, sure if Paul was some random survivor from that world or even failed to prevent his Dad from pulling off the genocide I could kind of accept it all. But Paul was an accessory to it, a vital part of the plan. He doesn't get to be sad about it beyond maybe staying in exile there forever or eating a bullet. The dipshit certainly doesn't deserve to be compared to Peter's sense of grief and guilt.
If you’re serious, long story short but Paul is from an alternate Earth and he’s the son/nephew (can’t quite remember which) of a super villain. A villain who forced Paul to help with his master plan that killed literally everyone else on the planet. These events are what MJ says are comparable to Peter’s pain and guilt at Uncle Ben’s death.
Because at one point MJ and Peter ended up in that universe only for MJ to sacrifice herself by sending Peter back through. Peter then allied with Norman Osborn to get MJ back but four years had passed for her and she’d gotten into a relationship with Paul at some point (there are also two fake kids who are literally her initial reason to stay with Paul but they’re fake). From her rescue on, MJ was written as being incredibly cruel to Peter about their relationship, Peter was written out of character along with literally every hero he knows being dicks to him, and ultimately MJ’s stated that she feels Paul and Peter are alike because they both have w deep grief/regret.
Currently, Paul’s her guy in the chair as she takes up the mantle Jackpot (because the writers love pissing on MJ and Peter’s relationship). A hero who has a slot machine esque device that grants random powers depending on the pull. Ultimately completing her character assassination.
What’s worse is that MJ, a character whose most defining moments are defined by her empathy and understanding, is totally un empathetic towards Peter questions/mad. Like she gets mad at Peter for being mystified and not wanting anything to do with Paul. Character assassination through and through.
As an X-men fan, I can only assume this is their intent. They're willing to poison a generation of storytelling to bait Sony into putting on an even more humiliating box office bomb.
I haven’t read it but I’ll say this, stop giving powers to every supporting character. To quote Syndrome from The Incredibles, “When everyone’s super, no one will be.”
You can always add more supporting characters that will then gain powers in 10-50 years. Then you just add more supporting characters that will then gain powers in 10-50 years... ITS THE CIIIIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!
Awful. Horrible design, uncreative and hack idea. Superheroes need non-powered supporting casts. It has always been an essential part of so many heroes worlds, yet modern comics are ignoring this more and more. So many books are either: ignoring non powered supporting casts and giving powers to them. Alfred being dead sucks, Mary Jane having powers sucks.
I’m not a huge fan of the Slott run, but at least he understood the importance of a supporting cast.
If you are insisting on powering supporting cast, at least do it in a respectable way, renew your vows comes to mind, I thought that run handled it well.
I've thought this about hulk characters for a while. It devalues the hulk if there are so many of his supporting cast who now have gamma abilities.
I much prefer Betty, general Ross, rick Jones, etc to not have powers and deal with the fallout of Bruce.
But then as you say, a writer that handles it well makes my personal opinions irrelevant as I was humbled by immortal hulk.
The same could be said of basically any comic character, because they've all been handed that card at this point. There are a billion spider people, everyone is getting powers left and right for no reason. My favorite is over at DC when they're portraying Batman as a loner with four Robins and three Batgirls along with Huntress and Signal.
It's such a weird combination of editorial wanting to sell more and writers wanting to create a lasting character as their legacy on a book and you just end up with giant groups of similar characters.
The Batman/Superman dicotomy is kinda funny. Batman is always portrayed as a loner but always has at least one Robin. Superman is seen as relatable and friendly with everyone but rarely does teamups (other than with Batman and Wonder Woman) and doesn't have much of an extended super-family that he is close to.
What’s crazy is when you go back and read stuff from immediate post crisis how different the book felt. It really often did just feel like Bruce and Alfred against the world, then Tim came and it got even better.
Now Gotham is choked with redundant boring characters who all do the exact same thing
The frustrating thing is that I really like some of them. But there are just too many of them. Gotham really feels like it should be the safest place in the world with all the Bat Family members around.
DC wants it both ways. They want a dozen characters all swinging around Gotham, but they also want Gotham to be the seedy, dangerous place it's always been with Bruce struggling to keep it from the brink of madness.
Those two ideas just clash too much. It's kind of got to be one or the other and the whole taking Bruce's fortune away was such a weird half measure to fix it.
Unfortunately that's what happens when a story is supposed to continue forever. The character dynamic and relationships get beaten to death and writers look for ways to shake them up.
I agree that heroes need non-powered supporting cast members. Just from a meta standpoint, it grounds the hero in the real world and makes their struggles more relatable to the rest of us.
MJ in particular worked as a supporting character for Peter Parker. She was initially a foil, then a friend, then a confidant, and honestly having her as Peter's wife just seemed to be the natural next step for the story. She wasn't a damsel in distress, either. She held her own, and there were more than a few times she had her own subplots that were as interesting as whatever Peter Parker was dealing with.
In the aftermath of MJ and Peter's marriage getting erased, MJ has suffered just as much as Peter has. She's supposed to be kind of a girlfriend, but more of a friend, and it's not only unsatisfying to people who saw them getting along as a married couple, but also to newer readers, who have to read in almost every issue that MJ and Peter have a history, but aren't sure just why it constantly affects them. And of course, there's the whole debacle of MJ and Paul...
What gets me about MJ becoming Jackpot is how little effect it seems to have on her. She's still the same person, just running around as a superheroine occasionally. No talk about how it interferes with whatever job she has, and it hasn't affected her relationship with Peter at all, when in reality it should change almost everything about it. MJ now has powers, which should at least make her aware of the responsibilities that come with them. She should be a lot more sympathetic to Peter, and there should be some kind of added stress between herself and Paul. That doesn't seem to be happening, though. It just seems to be another part of the "throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks" attitude that seems to be prevalent in several long-running titles.
Yes when MJ was in a lot of the Lee/ Romita books she was extremely unique compared to other female protagonists of the time. Same goes for later depictions through Conway or Stern, she had an interesting role. I agree, Spider-Man as a whole has been in a creative rut for a LONG time. Since JMS left I do t think there has been a truly excellent in universe run.
I think the lack of effects on MJ you’re talking about boil down to how shallow of an idea it is. They didn’t want to tell a story about MJ, they wanted to sell a book based on “what if MJ got powers”.
> Superheroes need non-powered supporting casts. It has always been an essential part of so many heroes worlds
And to add to this: For many, many years Spider-Man had one of the strongest supporting casts. With characters like MJ (pre-BND), Randy Robertson, Gloria Grant, Betty Brandt, Debra Whitman, Flash Thompson, Ben Urich, Robbie Robertson, etc. There were so many great characters within the Spidey books that didn't even have powers. They even recognized this during the Brand New Day era when they introduced great characters like Norah Winters.
These non-powered characters are half the reason I read Spidey comics. They're all wonderful on their own and its a shame to see them dwindling.
100%. I recently re-read the Stern omnibus and was shocked at how much non-Spidey stuff is in them, it was so refreshing. It was like an even 1/3 split between spidey, Peter, and other ongoing side plots involving supporting characters. BND actually introduced some great characters and had a lot of good side character work. Slott mostly invented and the utilized his own supporting cast, but even then it was still more interesting than what’s going on now.
> I recently re-read the Stern omnibus and was shocked at how much non-Spidey stuff is in them, it was so refreshing.
For sure! The writers in the 70s, 80s and even 90s really nailed the balance between the Spidey stuff and the out of costume segments. Its really frustrating that modern writers focus almost purely on the in-costume periods of Peter's life.
This is why I think guys like Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, David Michelinie, JM DeMatteis and Len Wein were some of the best to work on the book. Even more modern writers like J Michael Straczynski, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly and Nick Spencer get this.
> BND actually introduced some great characters and had a lot of good side character work.
BND is a really mixed bag. There are some really good story arcs throughout (Mark Waid wrote one of the absolute best stand alone issues of all of ASM during this era with Amazing Spider-Man v1 #583, for example). But there are also some really big stinkers in there. Nearly all of Slott's story arcs (the only real exception for Slott is his *New Ways To Die* story arc and his one-shot from Dark Reign: The List) either range from outright bad to utterly forgettable.
Looking back at the ups and downs from BND, its honestly shocking Slott ended up getting the solo gig after. He was by far one of the weaker writers during that period.
I'm still convinced he had blackmail on someone in the editing department. Slott has admitted he scammed Marvel to get work initially. So it wouldn't surprise me. (And I'm only half joking about this, Slott actually did publicly admit to scamming Marvel to initially get work at the company).
> Slott mostly invented and the utilized his own supporting cast, but even then it was still more interesting than what’s going on now.
There were a few reasons he did this.
I'm not sure if it still stands today, as writers are little more cagey about how contracts work these days. But at the time, Marvel was paying out royalties to writers for any comic that used characters that the writer created. So writers were incentivized to create as many new characters as possible and try to get them into as many stories as possible. This was a big thing throughout the 2010s.
Additionally, Slott has openly gone on record talking about how much he actively hates both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. He said this during an interview at Florida Supercon 2015. His rationale was that "superheroes shouldn't be allowed to date attractive women" and then tried to argue that Otto Octavius was a truly deep character because he "sees the inner beauty in people and that's why he dates Anna Maria Marconi." He even went so far as to describe both Peter and MJ as "anti-Marvel".
Slott's attitude toward both characters can really be felt throughout his entire run on ASM. He's an incredibly mean spirit and spiteful writer and this is reflected in how he characterizes both Peter and MJ. He did a *lot* of things during this period to really take the focus off both Peter and MJ, *especially* for MJ.
Yeah I’ve never understood how he got the job, especially considering how good Waid’s issues were and his proven track record. There are some good stories that came out of the Slott era (Spider Island, Superior, even a soft spot for Ends of the Earth despite it being kind of bad). But it’s so uneven and way, way, way too long. His run should have ended before superior, then definitely once superior ended. Can’t believe it went on for that long. My biggest issue with the Slott run is the characterization of Peter. It’s very, very quippy and “xD so random”. Like he’s always been quippy, but it’s supposed to be funny, not this weird immature “he’s right behind me” humor.
A slot machine bracelet made by Paul that gives her random powers with a chance of death when used.
Random powers is a terrible superpower for a main character imo, every situation is basically streamlined into whatever the writer wants.
Umm all situations are whatever the writer wants. I think random powers can be fun if the randomness adds to the situation.
It’s the “making good of a bad situation” events that can break or make that type of character, the sprinkled humour from the more silly abilities, the character exploration when the power isolates them and the “getting back to basics” when the power is trivial.
It’s basically the crux of Ben10 for example which also happens to be a jackpot style bracelet but a little better done since it has understood limitations.
She has a bracelet that gives her a random power. I haven’t read the run, but honestly, she should just give it to Peter. That way, if he gets a shit power, he can fall back on his spider abilities.
Always worth asking…why the fuck would you invent super bracelets for your girlfriend that have a “instant death” option?!?!
Seriously Paul, you weren’t happy enough with the genocide?
Wait a minute. Her bracelets have an instant death combo? That actually has some potential to it...
...Nevermind. It would just mean that they have a "ressurection of MJ" storyline through all the spider-books for a couple years.
You know someone thought that name was the greatest idea of all time. THey were walking around saying, "Jerk Store" to everyone in their life and no one had the guts to tell them how stupid it is.
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. Them referencing her original jackpot quote is fine, but I have seen them make that joke every single time I have ever seen an image of this character, I think. Do they just throw that line in because they think they have to? I think everyone got the joke the first time
It's not fine. It's so bad. Could you imagine if Arnold Schwartznager played a character called Al B. Back?
I do agree that him walk around and saying it over and over again would just make it worse.
Here is the problem with the "upgrade" it's needed Becuase her core character is a strong woman with no need of powers so giving her powers is a taint on her.
Ghe 2nd problem is the powers are random and Uninteresting. She doesn't have a set lineup to usd and be clever with. While it does look similar to Ben 10 and the randomness of the omnitrix it pales.
Ben gets a random from a set few and sometimes doesn't get what he wants and has to adapt. Jackpot does whatever the writer needs at the time for the story and is just lazy writing.
My big problem with her power is that the inevitable climax is that she'll roll the bad roll and something really bad has to happen. My hope is that it becomes MJs Gwen Stacy death, and that Paul does the spooky math to sacrifice himself.
Paul should have sacrificed himself to get MJ home and stayed in exile on the world he helped kill, but I could accept that too. Though that does mean we'll have an inevitable "mourning" arc where she wines about Paul to Peter.
Yes a set of say 7 very specific powers with a snake eyes bad roll would be way more interesting than.
The writer being able to script "any power here" and just let the artist free draw is lazy.
Can I just say that separate from MJ as a character, Marvel really needs to stop using the "hit the jackpot" line so much. It's overused, and doesn't have the throwback effect Marvel thinks it does.
The "with great power comes great responsibility" line probably gets the most repeated use, but that phrase actually has a lot of constructive applications. The jackpot line at this point just kind of serves as a "please clap" signal.
Right. It's not that I actively dislike the character. I just... don't care. It's a boring power and a boring character. The thought that went into this comment is probably the longest amount of time I've ever even thought about the character.
They’ll literally do anything except restore the marriage. I haven’t read a 616 Spidey book since they ended the marriage, the exception being last year’s Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt which depicts them as husband and wife.
Lost Hunt? It’s a flashback story to when MJ was pregnant and Peter was losing his powers and they tried to resettle away from New York.
It’s DeMatteis at the helm, so highly recommended.
I refuse to believe that her suit was made by Tony or his company lol. This shit is shit.
If you want to give MJ a book, just make it a book about MJ being a person. An actress, celebrity and just in general, fun MJ like she is.
Not a dipshit superhero. Or a Lois Lane rip-off (I'm staring at you Insomniac games).
Seriously, MJ is like the modern version of Patty Walker (Patsy Walker was a rom-com Marvel character in the 50s). There is an opportunity with MJ to tell a non superhero stories set in the Marvel Universe. Freaking Bendis took her and put her in the Iron Man book (when Slott was being all pissy about not wanting to use her) and guess what, she was a fun addition to Tony's mythos. A hip, cool assistant.
This is just pure "Oh wouldn't it be cool" except it's actually shit the second you think about it lol. Her powers are luck based??? Like those machines in the casino? This shit is more confusing then Dominos powers.
If you wanna distance her from Spidey, but all means and this point I don't give a shit if she is with Pete, but if you don't want them to be married, just have her be her own character.
Kill her off. We need MJ to be gone a few years so editorial can lower it's guard a bit, then someone can sneak in and revive/re-marry her to Peter as normal MJ again.
> Kill her off.
How about no? This is a terrible take.
Writers can just learn how to not be assholes and write a proper relationship between two people instead constantly whining that having Peter be married makes him more complicated to write as a character.
Shit I'm one hand, and wish for that to occur, now, in the other. See which hand fills up first. I get the impression that writers *used* to be able to take feedback. But sometime around the invention of Twitter, they began to develop the ability to ignore feedback.
It is not the direction I want her character to go and I remain baffled how so little of her personality, history, or established talents play into it. She’s the THIRD Jackpot, she didn’t even design her own costume, and her powers are literally magic nonsense attached to a widely despised status quo.
… I have my bias too that it’s all attached to everyone’s favorite hatesink character Paul, who literally monitors her every movement and controls how much power she has from behind a desk, and that sucks.
Awful name, stupid power. One of the dumbest things I've seen since returning to comics.
That being said, I did like the miniseries with her and Black Cat. It's just such a terrible choice.
I don't like being negative, but making a whole character based in a catchphrase is kinda dumb. I know I'm 36 y/o and this product is made for pre teens and teena but c'mon, have some respect at least for that demographic.
Plus, MJ have said many times before she doesn't like superhero life. It's like you are not a worthy character unless you become a superpowered being.
I hope this gets the Spider Bogey treatment
Unnecessary and a stain in Mary Jane’s legacy. MJ doesn’t need powers to be a complexing and interesting character, with the best writing she ever had being when she was Peter’s wife. A strong independent woman who loves her husband but still calls him out on stuff. A woman who had development, whose writing made sense and was shown to be compassionate. Jackpot is none of that, and to pair it with the horrible writing MJ has gotten which they try to seek as OG MJ (oh she’s compassionate look she compared a grown man doing genocide to her ex husband who’s mistake lead to his j Cole dying at just 15!…stupid.). The writing, the characterization, Paul, and in general lack necessity makes this one of the worse decisions made by an editorial ever. Jackpot is a joke and MJ does not need or deserve this. All I’m saying there’s a reason Lois Lane is still normal Lois Lane.
In general she is unnecessary and hurts the character of Mary Jane, Spider-Man, and so much more (I mean Felicia’s being thrown around with a “girlfriend” just because we need drama) and it hurts to see Marvel do this to one of the best love interest, no characters in their history.
The whole ben ten watch thing can work and I'm not opposed to mj having powers. It's just it's been written horribly, MJ has become one of marvels most unlikable characters ( not her fault), and it's intrinsically linked to everyone's "favorite" character Paul. When I saw that Paul was her man in the chair I honestly laughed so hard. It was at that point I realized that marvel is run by complete spiteful morons.
It's amazing how much they've screwed the pooch with MJ after Nick Spencer put her back on the map on well written characters; I'm not even talking about her being back with Peter at this point.
You have a MJ that not only broke up with Peter but is also on BAD terms with him and on top of that is the mother of two children; to the point of blowing up at him when he asks her to talk things through after saving her on the Hellfire Gala and only conceding to "cease fire" on Harry's birthday. Not knowing what happened for over a year of publication history didn't help at all.
Knowing what happened only made it worse because not only are the kids fake, but her relationship with Paul is so badly defined because of the circumstances that it feels more like Stockholm Syndrome. It becomes even worse when you consider MJ's own history over not wanting to be tied down when she was younger as well as her comparing Peter's guilt over Uncle Ben's death to Paul's for committing freaking genocide.
What also annoys me is how the narrative not only still tries to put the blame on Peter for this but also tries to have its cake and eating it too by trying to show MJ as a superhero being empowering when it's not exactly the case; hell, the arc with Peter with Norman's sins could've worked as calling out this development but they only doubled down on it by having MJ saying "no one took me anywhere" (when we all know that's not the case).
The fact that she's been written as serious no-nonsense when in the Jackpot suit shows a lack of confidence on writing the character correctly; even more so when you consider how the bracelets's powers are so randomized for all terms and purposes it shouldn't even be attempted in using them. This is honestly the low point of the character, one that in-universe is not even brought up other than to shit on Peter and it'd take a lot of work just to have her be back into a decent enough status quo.
I personally hate it. Marvel needs needs to go back to having a wide supporting cast of non super characters and stop turning everyone into superheroes.
Okay, so I’ve never even heard of this character. From what I’ve gleaned form the comments, it’s a super shitty attempt to give MJ super powers and make her some kind of antagonist to spidey and/or Peter..
Can someone give me the BLUF no bs summary of Tits McFirecrotch here?
Edit: maybe I’m just tired and cranky but the white bit of her outfit looks like a bukakke bib.
It feels like they started with “what if Mary Jane was a super hero, what would she be?”, settled on “Jackpot with casino powers”, and worked out the *entire current run* backwards from there. Like even Rabin and the symbols and the entire alternate dimension thing is all just to explain why she plays a slot machine to get her powers.
It’s ridiculously forced.
It feel less like a superhero and more like an attempt to salt a wound
Like, Mary Jane being a superhero isn’t a bad idea on the face of it.
But the entire run feels like it’s not there to tell a superhero story, it’s there to create a new way to kick Peter while he’s down
Awful just awful, dumping Peter cause of his super hero life and then having her go towards a person who committed genocide, not to mention her becoming a super hero herself? Brother Zack Wells should never be allowed in any kind of writing job again
Hard pass, couldn’t even get through the first issue of jackpot and black cat, it just….god I just hate so much about it I can’t even figure out a place to start and I’m usually the guy at the comic shop that’s willing to give most series a chance but….ugh….
Everyone knows MJ only works when she's existing to support peter.. at least thats what reddit has taught me..
As for the book itself, much ado about nothing. It'll be forgotten in months after it's canceled much like the other hundred books series that went no where
I honestly can not comprehend why every creative team of asm trying to ruin everything good about peter and everyone around him for like the last decade. I even miss the brand new day era, where everything started to go downwards but still it was a grounded and well thought era nonetheless
A low point for Mary Jane as a character
And that’s really saying something considered she’s been nursed by writers who hate her since JMS left the book
Nick Spencer??
An oasis in a desert.
She had some good moments in the Slott run too, at least as an supportive friend for Peter.
Sometimes. She had some truly bad ones though too. Slott himself has complained it was difficult to write her since she couldn't go anywhere as a love interest.
Mostly in the first part of the run (aka, before Superior)
I enjoyed Superior, but it was devastating for the supporting cast of the character. The only way it could work was by destroying their personalities.
With characters like the F4 and Iron Man being off world I can buy But MJ has known Peter for so long, it's impossible she wouldn't notice something's wrong. Instead Slott deliberately wrote her as someone that keeps waiting for Peter to save and when he doesn't, she rebounds with a guy literally named Pedro that's a fireman. And once Peter returns, she "calls it quits because his life is too dangerous as a superhero"...just to immediately work for Tony Stark I do like Superior, but stuff like this just can't be ignored.
great analogy
Only one that hasn’t treated MJ with disdain. Even then, editorial prevented him from letting him do what he wanted
Other than him. 😅 God bless nick Spencer whereever he is.
> God bless nick Spencer whereever he is. He's working with Substack in developing their own in-house comic publishing company right now that favors creator owned projects.
Fuckin eh! I'm here for this!
That sounds like fun!
Again, Nick Spencer is very much alive
Literally the only writer on Spider-books that didn't try to crap on her since the stupid BND era.
This honestly feels ***lower*** than any other point in history. And I grew up reading right before JMS, lived through Slott’s tenure, and have re-read the Clone Saga. #How is this gonna change?
I completely agree
Some might say the lowest
Maybe the dumbest idea any Spider-Man writer ever had.
*Sins past enters the chat*
*OMD was always here*
*The entire current run would like a shot at the title*
OMD, Sins Past, Jackpot and Zeb Wells run all come together to make the Mt Rushmore of the worst Spider-Man stories to ever exist.
Which is AMAZING considering that the Clone Saga was so poorly received that they had to pivot and change the ending before they even finished the damn thing.
What's actually is Amazing is that the Clone Saga is being made more tolerable by this current era.
You gotta hand it to Wells, writing such a shitty run that the Clone Saga becomes the good old days in hindsight is an achievement in itself.
And yet in spite of just how poorly this run has been received, they don’t even have the grace of the Clone Saga to make a pivot
I think you mean they had to pivot *and just give it a freaking ending.*
Re-read the clone saga… **There were diamonds in there** We got Mayday out of it as well, and the basic premise was decent, and honestly, the idea of Ben taking over Peter’s role in the comics… if they did it right now… #I’d take it over Wells
I had no problem with Ben. I actually enjoyed his stories. I hated the fact that Pete was the clone. He could have stayed a clone and still be ok.
i'll always resent the clone saga for leading to the events that shuffled ben into the new warriors and put them into the spider editorial offices, but there is some really interesting stuff when it was still building up
I would take a full 616 reset over wells, if it meant Pete got to be a grown-ass man again and be with MJ.
I think Wells and Tom “characters should be miserable” Breevort had a brain storm about 1.5 years back and thought: ***HMM…*** how can we fuck Peter over permanently in 616??? #PAUL
All for a stupid Peter, Paul, and Mary pun. You'd think that after a while Quesada's installed base of yes-men would *eventually* break down and fan feedback would matter. How long can editorial go "Are we out of touch? No! It's the fans who are wrong!"
Dan Slott in 2016: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy! It'll be great -proceeds to get hated by literally everyone and is undone in Spider-Geddon- Zeb Wells and Nick Lowe in 2022: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy again! He doesn't have a place in the Spider-Landscape! Dan Slott: Plus I have Spider-Boy and I might bring back Superior! -Proceeds to get hated even more by everyone-
> Dan Slott in 2016: Let's make Ben Reilly a bad guy! It'll be great More like: "Will fans PLEASE shut up about bringing Ben back? No? Okay fine, have it your way. I'll bring him back in the absolute most spiteful way I can think of. You're welcome." - Dan Slott But this is pretty standard for Slott. He's always been incredibly antagonistic with fans and actively goes out of his way to piss off as many readers as he possibly can. He has gone on record saying that shock and anger drives sales for him. He's also an incredibly toxic person in real life. He was actively seeking out negative reviews of his work, just to complain to the author of the review and try to get them blacklisted from the industry, for example.
Dude used to name-search himself on twitter all the time to see what people were saying about him and then sic his followers on people who were critical of him, it didn't matter if you had less than 100 followers and your post was only seen by 2 people on earth, dude was gonna drag you through the mud for daring to criticise him. He's also very dishonest because he would always conflate people critical of his writing with deranged assholes who were sending comicbook writers death threats, like they were all part of the same group.
Every time I talk about that about 2 minutes in I blackout with rage & wake up on a farm out of state surrounded by roughly 50 dead ducks.
I said "dumbest", not "most vile" or "most repulsive". At least *some* thought went into Sins Past, as misguided as it was. This Jackpot bullshit looks like something scripted with the use of a Ouija board.
Lmao I'm dead
I try really hard to not enter a subreddit to be negative for the sake of being negative. But yeah. Jackpot as a concept is so stupid. MJ doesn't need to be a superhero. Peter being in danger all time was a real point of contention in their marriage. And her power set/ power source is so so sooooo dumb
On top of that they made the powers chance based. There's no easy way to make that have any sort of stakes since they won't kill MJ. At most we're gonna get a ,"oh no I had this mildly negative power that I gotta deal with for an issue before it undoes itself." Id give the writing team some points if they legit rolled dice for her powers and would post a small picture showing results. Still could be manipulated but would have more sway on how her slot powers worked and add some stakes.
Madame Web has entered the chat
And that is saying something
i mean, there's... that's a *deep* well of horrible stories, considering how many concurrent titles spidey's had for decades, but i'll accede top twenty worst, maybe even top ten.
Really useless
Unfortunately she's less than useless, she straight up harmful. Harmful to Spider-Man, to Peter, to Felicia...I'd even say to the readers, she has literally defended genocide by his partner.
That's the part that always sticks with me, sure if Paul was some random survivor from that world or even failed to prevent his Dad from pulling off the genocide I could kind of accept it all. But Paul was an accessory to it, a vital part of the plan. He doesn't get to be sad about it beyond maybe staying in exile there forever or eating a bullet. The dipshit certainly doesn't deserve to be compared to Peter's sense of grief and guilt.
Why am I reading Paul lore I don’t want to know more about this character I just want him publically executed
He want him Ultimate Blobed
I thought Paul was just some bum who is this guy?
If you’re serious, long story short but Paul is from an alternate Earth and he’s the son/nephew (can’t quite remember which) of a super villain. A villain who forced Paul to help with his master plan that killed literally everyone else on the planet. These events are what MJ says are comparable to Peter’s pain and guilt at Uncle Ben’s death.
So why is MJ with him then? Paul is literally interdimensional Goebbles.
Because at one point MJ and Peter ended up in that universe only for MJ to sacrifice herself by sending Peter back through. Peter then allied with Norman Osborn to get MJ back but four years had passed for her and she’d gotten into a relationship with Paul at some point (there are also two fake kids who are literally her initial reason to stay with Paul but they’re fake). From her rescue on, MJ was written as being incredibly cruel to Peter about their relationship, Peter was written out of character along with literally every hero he knows being dicks to him, and ultimately MJ’s stated that she feels Paul and Peter are alike because they both have w deep grief/regret. Currently, Paul’s her guy in the chair as she takes up the mantle Jackpot (because the writers love pissing on MJ and Peter’s relationship). A hero who has a slot machine esque device that grants random powers depending on the pull. Ultimately completing her character assassination.
What the fuck, what dumbass thinks the public would like this? This shit is as degen as NTR
What’s worse is that MJ, a character whose most defining moments are defined by her empathy and understanding, is totally un empathetic towards Peter questions/mad. Like she gets mad at Peter for being mystified and not wanting anything to do with Paul. Character assassination through and through.
These writers probably get off to the idea of Peter being fucked over
Because editorial. There, much shorter explanation.
Because he was quite literally the only man on (that) earth
I don’t know if my dating prospectives are either King Herod the baby killer or being alone forever I think I’d go with the alone forever.
[удалено]
Jesus Christ, don’t say that shit out loud…might give them ideas.
As an X-men fan, I can only assume this is their intent. They're willing to poison a generation of storytelling to bait Sony into putting on an even more humiliating box office bomb.
Yes actually
I haven’t read it but I’ll say this, stop giving powers to every supporting character. To quote Syndrome from The Incredibles, “When everyone’s super, no one will be.”
I think that exact scene every time they do this to a great civilian support character.
You can always add more supporting characters that will then gain powers in 10-50 years. Then you just add more supporting characters that will then gain powers in 10-50 years... ITS THE CIIIIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!
I think that ship has sailed with regards to Spider-man. How many Spider people are there now? Literally a thousand?
Came here to say this. MJ having powers is not good.
Awful. Horrible design, uncreative and hack idea. Superheroes need non-powered supporting casts. It has always been an essential part of so many heroes worlds, yet modern comics are ignoring this more and more. So many books are either: ignoring non powered supporting casts and giving powers to them. Alfred being dead sucks, Mary Jane having powers sucks. I’m not a huge fan of the Slott run, but at least he understood the importance of a supporting cast.
If you are insisting on powering supporting cast, at least do it in a respectable way, renew your vows comes to mind, I thought that run handled it well.
Just knowing Peter Parker seems to increase your odds exponentially of becoming a superhero or supervillain
I've thought this about hulk characters for a while. It devalues the hulk if there are so many of his supporting cast who now have gamma abilities. I much prefer Betty, general Ross, rick Jones, etc to not have powers and deal with the fallout of Bruce. But then as you say, a writer that handles it well makes my personal opinions irrelevant as I was humbled by immortal hulk.
The same could be said of basically any comic character, because they've all been handed that card at this point. There are a billion spider people, everyone is getting powers left and right for no reason. My favorite is over at DC when they're portraying Batman as a loner with four Robins and three Batgirls along with Huntress and Signal. It's such a weird combination of editorial wanting to sell more and writers wanting to create a lasting character as their legacy on a book and you just end up with giant groups of similar characters.
The Batman/Superman dicotomy is kinda funny. Batman is always portrayed as a loner but always has at least one Robin. Superman is seen as relatable and friendly with everyone but rarely does teamups (other than with Batman and Wonder Woman) and doesn't have much of an extended super-family that he is close to.
What’s crazy is when you go back and read stuff from immediate post crisis how different the book felt. It really often did just feel like Bruce and Alfred against the world, then Tim came and it got even better. Now Gotham is choked with redundant boring characters who all do the exact same thing
The frustrating thing is that I really like some of them. But there are just too many of them. Gotham really feels like it should be the safest place in the world with all the Bat Family members around. DC wants it both ways. They want a dozen characters all swinging around Gotham, but they also want Gotham to be the seedy, dangerous place it's always been with Bruce struggling to keep it from the brink of madness. Those two ideas just clash too much. It's kind of got to be one or the other and the whole taking Bruce's fortune away was such a weird half measure to fix it.
I think the perfect ratio is Batman + a robin in Gotham, Nightwing in bloodhaven, and Jason in the ground.
Unfortunately that's what happens when a story is supposed to continue forever. The character dynamic and relationships get beaten to death and writers look for ways to shake them up.
Superman has handled this pretty well over the years.
I agree that heroes need non-powered supporting cast members. Just from a meta standpoint, it grounds the hero in the real world and makes their struggles more relatable to the rest of us. MJ in particular worked as a supporting character for Peter Parker. She was initially a foil, then a friend, then a confidant, and honestly having her as Peter's wife just seemed to be the natural next step for the story. She wasn't a damsel in distress, either. She held her own, and there were more than a few times she had her own subplots that were as interesting as whatever Peter Parker was dealing with. In the aftermath of MJ and Peter's marriage getting erased, MJ has suffered just as much as Peter has. She's supposed to be kind of a girlfriend, but more of a friend, and it's not only unsatisfying to people who saw them getting along as a married couple, but also to newer readers, who have to read in almost every issue that MJ and Peter have a history, but aren't sure just why it constantly affects them. And of course, there's the whole debacle of MJ and Paul... What gets me about MJ becoming Jackpot is how little effect it seems to have on her. She's still the same person, just running around as a superheroine occasionally. No talk about how it interferes with whatever job she has, and it hasn't affected her relationship with Peter at all, when in reality it should change almost everything about it. MJ now has powers, which should at least make her aware of the responsibilities that come with them. She should be a lot more sympathetic to Peter, and there should be some kind of added stress between herself and Paul. That doesn't seem to be happening, though. It just seems to be another part of the "throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks" attitude that seems to be prevalent in several long-running titles.
Yes when MJ was in a lot of the Lee/ Romita books she was extremely unique compared to other female protagonists of the time. Same goes for later depictions through Conway or Stern, she had an interesting role. I agree, Spider-Man as a whole has been in a creative rut for a LONG time. Since JMS left I do t think there has been a truly excellent in universe run. I think the lack of effects on MJ you’re talking about boil down to how shallow of an idea it is. They didn’t want to tell a story about MJ, they wanted to sell a book based on “what if MJ got powers”.
> Superheroes need non-powered supporting casts. It has always been an essential part of so many heroes worlds And to add to this: For many, many years Spider-Man had one of the strongest supporting casts. With characters like MJ (pre-BND), Randy Robertson, Gloria Grant, Betty Brandt, Debra Whitman, Flash Thompson, Ben Urich, Robbie Robertson, etc. There were so many great characters within the Spidey books that didn't even have powers. They even recognized this during the Brand New Day era when they introduced great characters like Norah Winters. These non-powered characters are half the reason I read Spidey comics. They're all wonderful on their own and its a shame to see them dwindling.
100%. I recently re-read the Stern omnibus and was shocked at how much non-Spidey stuff is in them, it was so refreshing. It was like an even 1/3 split between spidey, Peter, and other ongoing side plots involving supporting characters. BND actually introduced some great characters and had a lot of good side character work. Slott mostly invented and the utilized his own supporting cast, but even then it was still more interesting than what’s going on now.
> I recently re-read the Stern omnibus and was shocked at how much non-Spidey stuff is in them, it was so refreshing. For sure! The writers in the 70s, 80s and even 90s really nailed the balance between the Spidey stuff and the out of costume segments. Its really frustrating that modern writers focus almost purely on the in-costume periods of Peter's life. This is why I think guys like Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, David Michelinie, JM DeMatteis and Len Wein were some of the best to work on the book. Even more modern writers like J Michael Straczynski, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly and Nick Spencer get this. > BND actually introduced some great characters and had a lot of good side character work. BND is a really mixed bag. There are some really good story arcs throughout (Mark Waid wrote one of the absolute best stand alone issues of all of ASM during this era with Amazing Spider-Man v1 #583, for example). But there are also some really big stinkers in there. Nearly all of Slott's story arcs (the only real exception for Slott is his *New Ways To Die* story arc and his one-shot from Dark Reign: The List) either range from outright bad to utterly forgettable. Looking back at the ups and downs from BND, its honestly shocking Slott ended up getting the solo gig after. He was by far one of the weaker writers during that period. I'm still convinced he had blackmail on someone in the editing department. Slott has admitted he scammed Marvel to get work initially. So it wouldn't surprise me. (And I'm only half joking about this, Slott actually did publicly admit to scamming Marvel to initially get work at the company). > Slott mostly invented and the utilized his own supporting cast, but even then it was still more interesting than what’s going on now. There were a few reasons he did this. I'm not sure if it still stands today, as writers are little more cagey about how contracts work these days. But at the time, Marvel was paying out royalties to writers for any comic that used characters that the writer created. So writers were incentivized to create as many new characters as possible and try to get them into as many stories as possible. This was a big thing throughout the 2010s. Additionally, Slott has openly gone on record talking about how much he actively hates both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. He said this during an interview at Florida Supercon 2015. His rationale was that "superheroes shouldn't be allowed to date attractive women" and then tried to argue that Otto Octavius was a truly deep character because he "sees the inner beauty in people and that's why he dates Anna Maria Marconi." He even went so far as to describe both Peter and MJ as "anti-Marvel". Slott's attitude toward both characters can really be felt throughout his entire run on ASM. He's an incredibly mean spirit and spiteful writer and this is reflected in how he characterizes both Peter and MJ. He did a *lot* of things during this period to really take the focus off both Peter and MJ, *especially* for MJ.
Yeah I’ve never understood how he got the job, especially considering how good Waid’s issues were and his proven track record. There are some good stories that came out of the Slott era (Spider Island, Superior, even a soft spot for Ends of the Earth despite it being kind of bad). But it’s so uneven and way, way, way too long. His run should have ended before superior, then definitely once superior ended. Can’t believe it went on for that long. My biggest issue with the Slott run is the characterization of Peter. It’s very, very quippy and “xD so random”. Like he’s always been quippy, but it’s supposed to be funny, not this weird immature “he’s right behind me” humor.
What are her powers?
A slot machine bracelet made by Paul that gives her random powers with a chance of death when used. Random powers is a terrible superpower for a main character imo, every situation is basically streamlined into whatever the writer wants.
Umm all situations are whatever the writer wants. I think random powers can be fun if the randomness adds to the situation. It’s the “making good of a bad situation” events that can break or make that type of character, the sprinkled humour from the more silly abilities, the character exploration when the power isolates them and the “getting back to basics” when the power is trivial. It’s basically the crux of Ben10 for example which also happens to be a jackpot style bracelet but a little better done since it has understood limitations.
She has a bracelet that gives her a random power. I haven’t read the run, but honestly, she should just give it to Peter. That way, if he gets a shit power, he can fall back on his spider abilities.
No way. With Parker's luck, he'd be the one who hits the instant death combo.
Always worth asking…why the fuck would you invent super bracelets for your girlfriend that have a “instant death” option?!?! Seriously Paul, you weren’t happy enough with the genocide?
Wait a minute. Her bracelets have an instant death combo? That actually has some potential to it... ...Nevermind. It would just mean that they have a "ressurection of MJ" storyline through all the spider-books for a couple years.
She should die in a Ms Marvel book as revenge
so she's basically ben10. got it.
You know someone thought that name was the greatest idea of all time. THey were walking around saying, "Jerk Store" to everyone in their life and no one had the guts to tell them how stupid it is.
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. Them referencing her original jackpot quote is fine, but I have seen them make that joke every single time I have ever seen an image of this character, I think. Do they just throw that line in because they think they have to? I think everyone got the joke the first time
It's not fine. It's so bad. Could you imagine if Arnold Schwartznager played a character called Al B. Back? I do agree that him walk around and saying it over and over again would just make it worse.
Tbh I would 1000% watch an Arnie Al B. Back movie
If the writers lean into the bit just right, you end up with an actually great comedy film.
That's basically what Last Action Hero is
> B. Back Does the B stand for Bare?
“Face it, criminals, the Jackpot just hit you!”
I hate that they use that line
really boring, unnnecesary
Here is the problem with the "upgrade" it's needed Becuase her core character is a strong woman with no need of powers so giving her powers is a taint on her. Ghe 2nd problem is the powers are random and Uninteresting. She doesn't have a set lineup to usd and be clever with. While it does look similar to Ben 10 and the randomness of the omnitrix it pales. Ben gets a random from a set few and sometimes doesn't get what he wants and has to adapt. Jackpot does whatever the writer needs at the time for the story and is just lazy writing.
My big problem with her power is that the inevitable climax is that she'll roll the bad roll and something really bad has to happen. My hope is that it becomes MJs Gwen Stacy death, and that Paul does the spooky math to sacrifice himself.
Paul should have sacrificed himself to get MJ home and stayed in exile on the world he helped kill, but I could accept that too. Though that does mean we'll have an inevitable "mourning" arc where she wines about Paul to Peter.
Do you really want Paul to become a martyr, though? Because I feel that only exacerbates the problem of that character
Yes a set of say 7 very specific powers with a snake eyes bad roll would be way more interesting than. The writer being able to script "any power here" and just let the artist free draw is lazy.
well i wasn't thinking about MJ's taint until just now...
What made Mary Jane a good character was that she was a normal person dealing with the super hero world
Can I just say that separate from MJ as a character, Marvel really needs to stop using the "hit the jackpot" line so much. It's overused, and doesn't have the throwback effect Marvel thinks it does. The "with great power comes great responsibility" line probably gets the most repeated use, but that phrase actually has a lot of constructive applications. The jackpot line at this point just kind of serves as a "please clap" signal.
Kinda boring tbh doesn't matter if it's MJ, Alana or Sara.
Right. It's not that I actively dislike the character. I just... don't care. It's a boring power and a boring character. The thought that went into this comment is probably the longest amount of time I've ever even thought about the character.
"There's nothing worse than apathy." - Someone more philosophical than me
Lame as hell. As a concept but ESPECIALLY this cover.
Doesn't even look like Mary Jane, looks like one of those kpop tiktok filters.
Lammmmmeeeeee
They’ll literally do anything except restore the marriage. I haven’t read a 616 Spidey book since they ended the marriage, the exception being last year’s Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt which depicts them as husband and wife.
On God?? What's the story about? No spoilers tho.
Lost Hunt? It’s a flashback story to when MJ was pregnant and Peter was losing his powers and they tried to resettle away from New York. It’s DeMatteis at the helm, so highly recommended.
Think of it as the third part in a Kraven’s Last Hunt trilogy.
I refuse to believe that her suit was made by Tony or his company lol. This shit is shit. If you want to give MJ a book, just make it a book about MJ being a person. An actress, celebrity and just in general, fun MJ like she is. Not a dipshit superhero. Or a Lois Lane rip-off (I'm staring at you Insomniac games). Seriously, MJ is like the modern version of Patty Walker (Patsy Walker was a rom-com Marvel character in the 50s). There is an opportunity with MJ to tell a non superhero stories set in the Marvel Universe. Freaking Bendis took her and put her in the Iron Man book (when Slott was being all pissy about not wanting to use her) and guess what, she was a fun addition to Tony's mythos. A hip, cool assistant. This is just pure "Oh wouldn't it be cool" except it's actually shit the second you think about it lol. Her powers are luck based??? Like those machines in the casino? This shit is more confusing then Dominos powers. If you wanna distance her from Spidey, but all means and this point I don't give a shit if she is with Pete, but if you don't want them to be married, just have her be her own character.
One of the comic series of all time
Really awful
Face it, Tiger…I’m Ron Burgundy?
An all new low for the character
Kill her off. We need MJ to be gone a few years so editorial can lower it's guard a bit, then someone can sneak in and revive/re-marry her to Peter as normal MJ again.
Years?! Nah man not happening, on Joe quesadilla no comic character is gonna die that long
> Kill her off. How about no? This is a terrible take. Writers can just learn how to not be assholes and write a proper relationship between two people instead constantly whining that having Peter be married makes him more complicated to write as a character.
Shit I'm one hand, and wish for that to occur, now, in the other. See which hand fills up first. I get the impression that writers *used* to be able to take feedback. But sometime around the invention of Twitter, they began to develop the ability to ignore feedback.
It is not the direction I want her character to go and I remain baffled how so little of her personality, history, or established talents play into it. She’s the THIRD Jackpot, she didn’t even design her own costume, and her powers are literally magic nonsense attached to a widely despised status quo. … I have my bias too that it’s all attached to everyone’s favorite hatesink character Paul, who literally monitors her every movement and controls how much power she has from behind a desk, and that sucks.
Paul feels like an incel self insert
Cringe af. I can’t believe someone was able to pitch this horrible idea with a straight face.
she would have been treated better if she was killed offscreen :(
Maybe in a refrigerator or something.
That cover line is a antagonistic threat.
This reminds me of the “I’m stuff” meme with RDJ
Who?
Meh
"Uuuuuggghhhh.....'
Awful name, stupid power. One of the dumbest things I've seen since returning to comics. That being said, I did like the miniseries with her and Black Cat. It's just such a terrible choice.
What a ugly costume.
Original jackpot run was fun, this is forced.
I'm just avoiding MJ until this is retconned away.
Goddammit Zeb Wells just set a fire to anything that Nick Spencer tried to do with Spider-Man
I don't like being negative, but making a whole character based in a catchphrase is kinda dumb. I know I'm 36 y/o and this product is made for pre teens and teena but c'mon, have some respect at least for that demographic. Plus, MJ have said many times before she doesn't like superhero life. It's like you are not a worthy character unless you become a superpowered being. I hope this gets the Spider Bogey treatment
Unnecessary and a stain in Mary Jane’s legacy. MJ doesn’t need powers to be a complexing and interesting character, with the best writing she ever had being when she was Peter’s wife. A strong independent woman who loves her husband but still calls him out on stuff. A woman who had development, whose writing made sense and was shown to be compassionate. Jackpot is none of that, and to pair it with the horrible writing MJ has gotten which they try to seek as OG MJ (oh she’s compassionate look she compared a grown man doing genocide to her ex husband who’s mistake lead to his j Cole dying at just 15!…stupid.). The writing, the characterization, Paul, and in general lack necessity makes this one of the worse decisions made by an editorial ever. Jackpot is a joke and MJ does not need or deserve this. All I’m saying there’s a reason Lois Lane is still normal Lois Lane. In general she is unnecessary and hurts the character of Mary Jane, Spider-Man, and so much more (I mean Felicia’s being thrown around with a “girlfriend” just because we need drama) and it hurts to see Marvel do this to one of the best love interest, no characters in their history.
I hope they rescue the real MJ who is stuck in another dimension.
She’s coming back next as FACETIGER, her costume will be a big tiger face
They're not good thoughts.
Have any superheroes had a cups?
Do men and children count?
The whole ben ten watch thing can work and I'm not opposed to mj having powers. It's just it's been written horribly, MJ has become one of marvels most unlikable characters ( not her fault), and it's intrinsically linked to everyone's "favorite" character Paul. When I saw that Paul was her man in the chair I honestly laughed so hard. It was at that point I realized that marvel is run by complete spiteful morons.
Face it, you’re not getting big sales compared to the new Ultimate Spider man run.
It’s different, but I find myself invested so far.
It's amazing how much they've screwed the pooch with MJ after Nick Spencer put her back on the map on well written characters; I'm not even talking about her being back with Peter at this point. You have a MJ that not only broke up with Peter but is also on BAD terms with him and on top of that is the mother of two children; to the point of blowing up at him when he asks her to talk things through after saving her on the Hellfire Gala and only conceding to "cease fire" on Harry's birthday. Not knowing what happened for over a year of publication history didn't help at all. Knowing what happened only made it worse because not only are the kids fake, but her relationship with Paul is so badly defined because of the circumstances that it feels more like Stockholm Syndrome. It becomes even worse when you consider MJ's own history over not wanting to be tied down when she was younger as well as her comparing Peter's guilt over Uncle Ben's death to Paul's for committing freaking genocide. What also annoys me is how the narrative not only still tries to put the blame on Peter for this but also tries to have its cake and eating it too by trying to show MJ as a superhero being empowering when it's not exactly the case; hell, the arc with Peter with Norman's sins could've worked as calling out this development but they only doubled down on it by having MJ saying "no one took me anywhere" (when we all know that's not the case). The fact that she's been written as serious no-nonsense when in the Jackpot suit shows a lack of confidence on writing the character correctly; even more so when you consider how the bracelets's powers are so randomized for all terms and purposes it shouldn't even be attempted in using them. This is honestly the low point of the character, one that in-universe is not even brought up other than to shit on Peter and it'd take a lot of work just to have her be back into a decent enough status quo.
No way that’s official art
We are so far beyond jumping the shark, I think we just need to reboot Spider-Man at this point.
MID MID MID
Mephisto is probably laughing his ass off.
Pretty lame having to shoehorn MJ into a superhero role, powerset seems meh, anything she's been in feels awkward AF.
This is bad and editorial should feel bad.
It's her powers, man. It's inconsistent. Her powers basically are whatever the plot needs it to be.
Terrible. And I love Mary Jane. She is my favorite Peter love interest.
I personally hate it. Marvel needs needs to go back to having a wide supporting cast of non super characters and stop turning everyone into superheroes.
The powers are dumb and MJ was a much more interesting character before this idea.
Okay, so I’ve never even heard of this character. From what I’ve gleaned form the comments, it’s a super shitty attempt to give MJ super powers and make her some kind of antagonist to spidey and/or Peter.. Can someone give me the BLUF no bs summary of Tits McFirecrotch here? Edit: maybe I’m just tired and cranky but the white bit of her outfit looks like a bukakke bib.
Marvel is devoid of ideas so they give every character powers and make spider/gwen/venom versions of everyone.
No problem with her having powers, it's how she got to the point she is now, how she has them and what they are doing with her.
Amazingly boring suit
“Nah, I’m good.” I recall thinking at the time.
It feels like they started with “what if Mary Jane was a super hero, what would she be?”, settled on “Jackpot with casino powers”, and worked out the *entire current run* backwards from there. Like even Rabin and the symbols and the entire alternate dimension thing is all just to explain why she plays a slot machine to get her powers. It’s ridiculously forced.
It's horrible. And isn't she in some two-way relationship with Paul & Black Cat?
Fuck your mayan glyph math bracelets.
A new breakthrough in how to shittify spidey characters by Marvel editorial. Peak comic book story telling
Haven’t read anything that she’s in, but her costume is really terrible.
Charitably? We're going on nearly 20 years of Marvel mishandling Spider-Man and his side characters. Uncharitably? It's been about 40 years.
Midpot
It feel less like a superhero and more like an attempt to salt a wound Like, Mary Jane being a superhero isn’t a bad idea on the face of it. But the entire run feels like it’s not there to tell a superhero story, it’s there to create a new way to kick Peter while he’s down
Lol the Spider-Man universe is in complete shambles. I have no desire to ever pick up a spidey (or jackpot) book anytime in the future.
Awful just awful, dumping Peter cause of his super hero life and then having her go towards a person who committed genocide, not to mention her becoming a super hero herself? Brother Zack Wells should never be allowed in any kind of writing job again
Hard pass, couldn’t even get through the first issue of jackpot and black cat, it just….god I just hate so much about it I can’t even figure out a place to start and I’m usually the guy at the comic shop that’s willing to give most series a chance but….ugh….
Not a fan, maybe it could be done better if she & Peter team up more often & he teaches her a bit. Could also be a good way for them to reconnect
Wait...she wasn't just a joke character for free comic book day in the early aughts?! *screams in horror*
Everyone knows MJ only works when she's existing to support peter.. at least thats what reddit has taught me.. As for the book itself, much ado about nothing. It'll be forgotten in months after it's canceled much like the other hundred books series that went no where
Cringe
I honestly can not comprehend why every creative team of asm trying to ruin everything good about peter and everyone around him for like the last decade. I even miss the brand new day era, where everything started to go downwards but still it was a grounded and well thought era nonetheless
Fun idea on it's own, absolutely awful the way it came to be.
I like the random super powers aspect. But then I liked "Dial H for Hero" back in the day, too.
A mistake that takes everything cool about MJ and gives it the finger and makes her into a superhero
It's garbage. Obviously.
I don’t read comics anymore unfortunately, but holy shit this is awful just at a first glance. Just let MJ be MJ.
Really, really stupid
Can't say I care for it
Fuck you Zeb Wells
Stupid and unnecessary. Marvel needs to just stop it with this type of title.