Mary Jane's Introduction in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN

Back in September comic readers were shocked by the news that Mary Jane Watson would be joining the cast of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN. The cover to issue #4 shows MJ with a Stark employee badge and the speculation began.

As writer Brian Michael Bendis stated, there weren't any plans for Mary Jane to be used in any of the All-New, All-Different Marvel titles. Bendis also mentioned they do know each other from when Spider-Man, Mary Jane, and Aunt May lived in Avengers Tower (but let's not think about how that still happened with One More Day).

When we see Mary Jane, there's no indication of her having any plans to work for Tony Stark.

Mary Jane has relocated to Chicago and has opened up a new night club. This may seem a little odd since she's spent most of her time in New York. Her reason for opening up a club in Chicago actually makes a lot of sense.

Her last club in New York City didn't do too well. She poured all she had into it and it ended up getting destroyed. It's that lack of common sense we have to overlook when we see business owners staying in New York City where pretty much all the heroes and villains hang out.

As a result of her club getting trashed, she decided to relocate. We rarely hear of anything happening in places like Chicago so MJ decided that would be a safe place to open a new club.

Of course, we wouldn't have much of a story if she was simply a successful night club owner in a city that rarely sees any superhero action.

Before she knows it, her club is about to become the center of a big super-powered showdown between Madame Masque, Iron Man, and Doctor Doom. It looks like her time with Peter Parker has resulted in some of that Parker Luck to rub off on her.

None of this explains the cover with Mary Jane as a Stark employee.

What seems likely is her club is going to suffer from some serious damage. Even if it's minimal and her insurance company can get things repaired quickly, there will still be the tarnish from the word of mouth. "Hey, don't go to Mary Jane's club. You might get killed in the middle of a superhero battle."

That may seem like a bit of a stretch. People tend to forget about negative instances and carry on with their lives. The problem is, this marks the second club Mary Jane's had in two completely different locations that have been under attack. People's superstitions may get the better of them even if she offers to buy everyone a round of drinks.

Tony Stark may feel bad for MJ. He may be impressed with what she's managed to accomplish on her own. Tony Stark isn't in the absolute best place financially. He could use someone with Mary Jane's social and now business skills to give his company a boost. He could easily offer her a job based on her skills and she may see it as a good option. She may have her heart set on establishing her own club but how many times can you witness your hard work and dreams get torn down and demolished in front of your eyes?

It might seem like an odd fit, but sometimes the unexpected can bring good things. Mary Jane simply wasn't be used anywhere. It's unfortunate to say, but there isn't really a place for her in a Spider-Man comic. Mary Jane has evolved as a character over the years. Why would she have to only appear in a Spider-Man related title?

Will Tony Stark try to put the moves on her? One would think so but, again, they do have a history. Tony knows her as Peter's ex. Why wouldn't it be possible for them to just be friends? After dealing with Peter leading a dual life and the dangers that went along with it, it's completely possible the last thing MJ would want is another superhero boyfriend. She can be more than just the girlfriend of a hero. This could be her chance to evolve some more with her character getting fleshed out further.

Yippe... Tony is going to bang Spider-mans ex-wife....

I am just vomiting rainbows of joy right now....

What gives you that idea?

@truemarvel: No way man.

I was never a fan of Iron Man but I might grab this issue just because of Mary Jane!

at least they're trying something different; the whole Peter/Mary Jane will they/won't they/were they/weren't they was SO tired

I'd suggest reading the series form the start it's been one of my favorites of the ANAD launch.

If you want it just for MJ however I'd skip this one and get the next issue. She's only in like 3 pages of this issue and looks to be more prominent in the following one.

@mickeymayhew: I've found that the whole dynamic between the two of them has always been a sort of hit/miss situation, dealing with their relationship problems, from just putting aside their feelings to be friends, or just trying to pretend like their past history doesn't affect their current history. Their relationship is as timeless Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

@rocketraccoonthingy:It's honestly one of the best issues to come out of the relaunch group. Bendis may have horribly botched the X-Men, but he's more than shown his prowess for writing single character driven stories with Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man.

A character he created... he didn't botch that one? Amazing...

Nothing else to do with her

@mickeymayhew: The consistently best selling Secret Wars mini series- Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows.

If Marvel actually paid attention, then maybe they would fix what they screwed up with OMD.

Is this the first time that Doom has been seen post secret wars? I actually haven't been keeping with many of the ANAD Marvel titles, sorry if a stupid question.

+

@g_man You've summed it up nicely, it's just a shame and it still hurts that, that not only we might not see her interact with Peter, hopefully Bendis can do something about that, but that Marvel in essence wrote Mary Jane out of the book she, and I'm not exaggerating, was a huge part of and was pinnacle in it's success.

Before I carry on, I guess now with Mary Jane in Iron Man, what Alex Widen said in his article about Mark Millers run has come full circle, but not only for Mary Jane who is now in Iron Man, but also Black Cat who is now in Silk.

What he said was "ASM the Franchise she helped craft no longer saw a place for her within it, due to it being too busy telling the story of a global billionaire superhero who has an armada of spare lovers and fancy gadgets.", which I think you'll agree it fits both of them.

now onwards

I thought I'd place my observations here as well

1. So, we have her contradicting what she said to Carlie in Superior Spider-Man #31, stating that she will not allow anyone to scare her away from her home, her home being New York, Mary Jane has left New York for good and now lives in Chicago, which I always thought Marvel should have done if they wanted to separate her from Peter, because as long as she was in New York, we were always going to expect her and Peter to get back together, especially me, now, they live in different cities, while not impossible, will make it difficult.
2. Her being in Chicago could mean that we no longer have that so called "placeholder" boyfriend around, I say with high hopes.
3. Her not mentioning Spider-Man in her list of reasons for leaving is in my opinion because, no one knows her in Chicago, so, this is her new start and bringing up Spider-Man might show her connection to him and it would remind her of the times they had together which would go against her starting new somewhere else. Which could be the reason for the anti-spidey bubble on the cover, and Bendis did have Iron Max mention Spidey, which is nice of him.
4. With the cliffhanger and the terror/sadness showing on her face to what's happening, and asking why?, could mean either her club will be destroyed or the reputation of the club will be damaged to such an extent that it will go under. and so we are slowly going into the reason why she could be to start working for Tony, and I would suspect she will start working either at the end of Invincible Iron #5 or at the start of #6

as for how she's portrayed in the book

1. Granted it's only the last 3 pages and we did not get any interaction between her and Tony, but it's how Bendis works he simmers the story and then when it ready, places it the oven for the final serving.
2. As for her not realising that everywhere she goes there is potential danger, which I doubt, she's very smart, thing is Chicago as far as I know hasn't has the much danger, so it would make sense for her to move there, it was just bad luck it had to happen in her club.
3. and her being dumbed down, as mentioned by others, I doubt it, no I don't think so, we haven't really seen what Bendis has in store her, so for know I am still going to put my trust in him. on top of which. she opened a new club, which is GREAT in it self, it also shows that she has the smarts do it.

So, so far it looks promising, and I can't wait for what comes next, and over all, the book is still better than ASM

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and regarding what they said in the letter at the back of the issue.

"As for guess stars, we have no plans to let those shifty Spidey guys steal MJ back any time soon. She's ours, I tell you! OURS! and you have an anti Spidey symbol added."

Yes it does indicate that they are are not prepared to let MJ go for a long time, I think this is a cheeky way of saying they understand that they how we the fans feel about the current Spidey team and her

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Finally about her club and how she goes to work for Tony

I try to see things from multiple angles, so I see one the following happening

1- Her clubs gets destroyed and although she would have insurance, it's not not enough to rebuild plus her insurance premiums would increase, thereby making the business too expensive to run thereby making it no longer viable.

2- The reputation of the club gets severely damaged to such an extent that it will no longer make a profit.

3- so if you add those 2 plus, she has likely taken out a loan to start the club, if that is the case, then the bank might come along and as for their money back, which would me that all the insurance money would go to pay off the bank loan.

In short

She more than likely has insurance to cover damages, but the success any new night club is dependent on its opening night, what happened would constitute a failure of said opening night and I wouldn't be surprised if she took out a loan to fund the opening of the club, in which case, the bank will more than likely ask for its money back, since they would have lost faith in the business, due to the reputation it would have gotten because of the incident, leaving her with nothing to fix the damage caused and even if she was able to, nobody would come to her club, fearing a repeat of something similar happening.

Because it's tony stark

besides, it's not like it's never been hinted at before

I'm finding the reset on this series to be super weak. The whole new Marvel universe has suddenly taken a quick detour from long time adult readers to "screw them, kids are into comic movies we're going to make everything rosy, give the youngsters a new civil war and hope that mom & dad bring them to comic shops and they'll start reading books or download them to their devices!"

I'm not liking most of their titles thus far. Very bland at best.

I almost hope that the rest of the DC movies continue to flop in comparison so those knuckleheads don't start down the same path.

Another notch for Tony's bed post.

It is a travesty how out of touch they are. I mean after all that they still had NO PLANS FOR MJ in SPIDERMAN ?! REALLY ?!

Soo this appearance is what ? Consolation prize that people didn't want ?

@stahlflamme: First: I know this. It's the reason why I mentioned it in the first place. Secondly: It's not exactly uncommon for a writer/artist to come up with a character, write them poorly, then have that character become more properly fleshed out and suddenly experience a surge in likability in the hands of a different writer/artist.

She can be more than just the girlfriend of a hero. This could be her chance to evolve some more with her character getting fleshed out further.

This was clearly written by a man

Odds are she'll end up in his bed, seduced, drugged, simply drunk... This is Tony Stark and she's a good looking woman. MJ would be safer walking through a prison while wearing a string bikini then walking into Tony's office fully clothed. Whether or not Bendis can make this part of a good story is an open question, but I doubt it. This is the guy who ruined Wanda and Tigra after all.

BRO CODE

So many whiners around here.

This will be awesome if there is no sex at all. If MJ shoots him down and laughs in his face. But since this is (Spaghetti Against the Wall) All- New Marvel they will hook up. She will probably be impregnated by his armor and name the kid Jarvis. Possibly take up knitting with Heavily Knocked Up Spider-Woman. Not that im a jaded Marvel Fan or anything.

Careful now. Some of these people can't stand whenever Marvel trys something different, yet also complain when Marvel rehashes old storys like Civil War too. There's just no pleasing some people.

This will they won't they bullshit is only in existence because of one more day. A dynamic MARVEL themselves created. If one more day was a gunshot to the head, this is the equivalent of kicking our already dead body.

It's going to be funny when Nighthawk gatecrashes her next party and kills half her guests

Stark wants to know if the drapes match the carpet. There I said it.

Hopefully.

Well since Tony already has a new girlfriend that Bendis has used the first 3 issues building into some kind of supportive character for Tony, I don't think MJ will be a love interest. Bendis said he wants people to read the book for there relationship and with this book also being about Tony coming to terms with his adoption, to me it points to MJ being his sister or niece.

@g_man: Me too. No will they or won't they. A definitive WON'T!

I don't think sister or niece will stop Tony Stark the way he's been written over the past few years. Slow him down maybe, but not stop him. I don't think the adoption stuff will last past this author anyway.

So if a woman appears in Iron Man, Tony Stark is automatically gonna bang her?

*politely raises his hand*

Is it because they wanted a redhead?

She relocated to Chicago to get away from the crime in NY? Wha? I guess she doesn't know that Chicago is nicknamed "Chi-raq" for a reason.

Oh MJ, it seems you can never catch a break.

Odds are, yes. Or at least he's going to try. As he's been written since cw Tony's been the James Bond style ideal man for the marvel writers: someone who has the exalted status of a he-man, able and willing to do and treat anyone anyway he wants and avoid any real consequences. Bendis is a character butcher to begin with and Mary Jane is past meaning anything to the Spider-Man books. She was up for grabs and he can do what ever he wants to the character. So based on that in my opinion Tony will get her into bed somehow. As I said, trickery, seduction, drugs, mind control... It's probable at the very least that it will happen. If for no other reason just to drive more MJ fans away and have less pressure to bring her back into the Spider-Man books.

@theheat: To be fair that still better than Superpowered Central that is New York in the Marvel Universe.

@mark_stephen: I don't think they'll go that way the book seems to be heading in a different direction for Tony's love interest.

FFS Bendis!

peter dont care he getting more tail then he can handle at this point

and im calling it now she is gonna be some sort of iron something

Okay... My interest is peaked in an Iron Man comic. That hasn't happened since Fraction was writing and Salvador Larroca was the artist.

Bendis knows how to write MJ. He did it for the longest time in Ultimate, and I know this is a different incarnation of her, but she's still a leading lady and BMB can do her justice.

Why is MJ going to work for Stark Enterprises?

Because she wants to get f**ked by Tony Stark.

G-Man, when you said Stark and MJ had a history, do you know any arcs that was in? I was gifted a Marvel Unlimited subscription so I'm curious to dig back for plot points like this. =)

I thought this issue was weak but I hope they do a good job with mary jane in the rest of the book.

@jonny_anonymous: This was a interesting and pleasant comment.