[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spider_man_loves_mary_jane_6807.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[-[[MasculineGirlFeminineBoy Our swashbuckling hero once again saves the gir]]-- [[DoubleTake waaaait a minute...]]-] ]]

[[Characters/MarvelComicsMaryJaneWatson Mary Jane Watson]] is a popular, sweet-natured and well-liked teenage girl at Midtown High in Queens, who is part of the popular crowd, along with her best friends: [[AllGuysWantCheerleaders head cheerleader]] (and [[AlphaBitch queen bitch]]) Liz Allan, [[JerkJock star athlete]] [[Characters/MarvelComicsFlashThompson Flash Thompson]], and wealthy Harry Osborn, who is clearly interested in Mary Jane in a romantic sense (feelings which Mary Jane is not entirely sure that she shares). Although 'MJ' is apparently happy-go-lucky and cheerful to everyone she encounters, it's all [[StepfordSmiler a lie, of course]]; underneath it all, Mary Jane is unhappy, lonely and insecure, feelings which she keeps bottled up in order to project her cheery facade.

Over recent months, however, she has developed something of a crush on Spider-Man, a charismatic, quick-witted and confident SuperHero with whom she feels a connection, and after he saves her life when the train she is riding is attacked by a super-villain (and inadvertently lets slip a hint that he knows her), Mary Jane makes a resolution -- she is going to ask Spider-Man to be her date to the Homecoming Dance. However, she soon finds that following up her crush leads her life in unexpected directions, many of which seem to lead back to her developing friendship with the kind but {{geek}}y and [[SecretIdentity strangely]] behaving [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Peter Parker]]...

''Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane'' is, of course, the popular Creator/MarvelComics story ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' told from the point of view of Peter's {{Love Interest|s}}, Mary Jane. It explores Mary Jane's friendships with Flash, Liz and Harry (who are, of course, themselves key members of the ''Spider-Man'' cast of characters) and her developing friendships / romantic relationships with both Spider-Man and Peter Parker (whom, although it was strongly implied at times, was never directly revealed to be Spider-Man throughout the course of the book). Although primarily a TeenDrama aimed at teenage girls with little in the way of superhero exploits, it soon developed a following amongst a more diverse collection of fans owing to its clever and interesting writing (by Sean [=McKeever=]) and distinctive art (mainly by Takeshi Miyazawa).

Under [=McKeever's=] pen, the book lasted for two four-issue mini-series (''Mary Jane'' and ''Mary Jane: Homecoming'', focusing on the build-up to the Homecoming Dance) and a twenty-issue run, which Miyazawa drew up until issue fifteen (where he was replaced for the last few issues by David Hahn). After [=McKeever=] left to work for DC Comics, Marvel started the series again at issue one with Terry Moore (''ComicBook/StrangersInParadise'') writing and Craig Rousseau on pencils (it was originally supposed to be [[ComicBook/{{Runaways}} Adrian Alphona]], but he quit comics).

[[TheStoner Yes, that joke's been made already,]] [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay so has the other one.]]

----
!!''Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane'' provides examples of:

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul:
** The premise is about Mary Jane and her childhood friends Liz, Flash and Harry as they attend Midtown and deal with the frequent problems they face, while Mary Jane herself deals with her crush with Spider-Man while developing a closer friendship with Peter Parker. This is all wildly different from the original comics.
** Dialogue seems to indicate that Mary Jane has a strenuous relationship with her ''mother'' instead of her father.
** Flashbacks reveal that Mary Jane dated Ned Leeds in the past.
* AdaptationalBadass: ''The Looter!'' The character is genuinely seen as one of the biggest losers in the supervillain community in the normal Marvelverse, rivaled only by Stilt-Man and Leap-Frog. Here, he's far more adept, and actually gets away from Spider-Man for their first '''five''' battles.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: In the original comics, Mary Jane was a stereotypical party girl which was eventually revealed through several HiddenDepths to be a mask she puts on to avoid making attachments due to her bad home life. While it's established early on that Mary Jane hides how depressed she can sometimes be, she's far more open about her feelings especially when it comes to her best friend Liz. However she does eventually adopt a party girl facade to deal with how complicated her life has been since Homecoming and her feelings for Peter.
* AlphaBitch: Subverted; whereas Liz Allan has most of the (negative) character traits associated with the AlphaBitch, Mary Jane is actually more popular and well-liked.
* BerserkButton: Pretty much the one time we see Spider-Man lose his temper, it's when a supervillain he's been chasing notices and recognizes Mary Jane, who is present at their battle for an unrelated reason, and approaches her in astonishment as she (not recognizing him) backs away in fear.
-->'''Spider-Man:''' Hey! ''You don't go near her!''
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Lindsay from the drama club. She acts nice to Mary Jane at first, but when Mary Jane gets the lead role, she starts dating Harry, her ex to get back at her.
* TheBreakfastClubPosterHomage: [[https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/6/a0/5ca79f821f081/clean.jpg Issue 9]]'s cover has Spider-Man as Brian, Gwen as Claire, Flash as Andrew, and Liz as Bender.
* BreakingTheFellowship: A far less dramatic example occurred after the prom. Due to the argument at the prom, the main cast's friendship is severely strained.
* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:Mr. Limke]] ends up becoming the Looter.
%%* CelebCrush: MJ towards Spidey
* CharacterDevelopment: MJ gradually becomes a bit more confident in herself and what she wants, Liz becomes less of an AlphaBitch, Flash becomes less of a bully and Harry becomes ''more'' of an underhanded, scheming jerk (hey, character development isn't always nice).
%%* ChickMagnet: Harry. Probably helps that he has normal hair here.
%%* ChildhoodFriends: MJ, Harry, Flash and Liz in this continuity.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: All over the place, it first starts with Flash and Liz dating, with Flash having a secret crush on Mary Jane. Then Mary Jane starts dating Harry. Then Flash and Liz break up and so do Mary Jane and Harry. After a while Flash falls out of love with MJ and then starts dating Liz again. And while it never actually happens, it's heavily implied that Mary Jane and Peter are going to end up as this.
* ClingyJealousGirl:
** MJ is a reasonable example.
** But not Liz, who's jealous that everyone seems to like MJ more than her, thus acting ''more'' like a bitch than usual.
%%* DeadpanSnarker: Spider-Man
* DemotedToExtra: Since the series focuses on Mary Jane, many of the classic characters (such as Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, several villains) are either [[ContinuityCameo de-emphasized]] or [[AdaptedOut absent]] altogether.
* DramaticIrony: It's never outright stated, but there would be few in the audience who don't know that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are different identities of the one and same person, which adds copious amounts of this to the romantic entanglements Mary Jane gets into regarding them.
* DudeNotFunny: In-universed. In a flashback panel in one issue, Flash sees Peter quietly slinking through the school corridors, obviously upset about something, and makes a snide taunt towards him. One of his friends, appalled, has this reaction... and then realises that Flash hasn't heard the news about [[DeathByOriginStory what happened to Peter's Uncle Ben the previous night]]. In general, other characters tend to be quick to call out Flash's bullying of Peter as mean and unfair.
* {{Elseworld}}: Although not strictly part of the mainstream Franchise/MarvelUniverse continuity, it is essentially set in the universe next door, with things not being that different.
* EmoTeen: A flashback storyline sees Mary Jane indulge in an Emo Teen period after breaking up with her first boyfriend. It's mercifully brief.
* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: The basic premise of the series; in the original 616 continuity only Flash and Liz were Peter's high school classmates- he didn't meet MJ, Gwen and Harry until he went to college, and Felicia Hardy certainly ''never'' studied with any of them.
* {{Expy}}: Mary Jane in this series is based off Kirsten Dunst's version from [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy the Spider-Man film trilogy]], except kept in high school, allowed more time to develop, and not [[DamselInDistress placed in nearly as much distress]].
* GoshDangItToHeck: The relatively common teenage-girl exclamation of "Omigod!" (as in "Oh my God!") has become "Omigosh!"
%%* {{Goth}}: Mary Jane's old friend ComicBook/JessicaJones.
* HarsherInHindsight: InUniverse. Done intentionally where Liz says that she bets Mary Jane would "love to bump [[ILetGwenStacyDie Gwen Stacy]] off a bridge." Mary Jane replies by saying that wasn't funny.
%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mary Jane and Liz Allen.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: "The _____ Thing" (until vol. 2)
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Spider-Man initially turns down MJ asking him out because of how insanely dangerous his life is.
* {{Jerkass}}: Harry Osborn starts off as a fairly decent, if slightly flighty and shallow, guy at the beginning of the series, but gradually begins to become more of a jerk as time goes on.
* JerkJock: Flash Thompson, as he is in the mainstream ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' series. Played with in that even his best friends think he's a pretty unreasonable jerk to Peter Parker.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** While Flash Thompson is the high-school bully to Peter Parker that he is in every continuity, in this one we see a lot more of his perspective on things and thus witness more humanising moments from him. Notably, however, the "Heart of Gold" part is never allowed to excuse the "Jerk" part, as those around him tend to be quick to criticise him whenever they see him bullying Peter Parker.
** Similarly, Liz is a bit of an AlphaBitch but she genuinely does like MJ, and her mean treatment of Flash conceals genuine fondness for him. Furthermore, while she has a rather sharp tongue and abrasive personality she's not an outright bully and there's no real malice to her.
* LighterAndSofter: Spider-Man might be a light-hearted superhero, but he is still one surrounded by death. Here, at least, no one's life is in danger.
* LimitedSocialCircle: Played with; although the series follows a core cast of about five or six friends, MJ is a popular and well-liked girl so we frequently see her talking to and hanging out with peripheral characters to underline this.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Liz Allan.
* LoveDodecahedron: Take a seat; Mary Jane starts off in a relationship with Harry Osborn. At the same time, Flash Thompson, the boyfriend of Liz Allan, Mary Jane's best friend, also has a not-so-secret crush on Mary Jane. Mary Jane also happens to have a crush on [[LovesMyAlterEgo Spider-Man,]] who himself [[WillTheyOrWontThey may or may not have a thing]] for the super heroine Firestar. [[LampshadeHanging Overwhelmed by all of this nonsense]], Mary Jane swears off boys, only to later develop a crush on [[GiveGeeksAChance Peter Parker.]] The moment she's ready to confess it turns out she's too late because he's now in relationship with Gwen Stacy. Dejected, [[RunningGag Mary Jane kinda-sorta gets back together with Harry Osborn who kinda-sorta may also have feelings for Felicia Hardy]]. In the end, both Peter and Mary Jane end up single, [[EveryoneCanSeeIt and everyone can see the inevitable happening]], but it ironically never does.
* LovesMyAlterEgo: Mary Jane starts out the series with a huge crush on Spider-Man, but when the two actually go on a date, she finds that there isn't much of a connection between them, and Spider-Man becomes a confidante instead. Instead, MJ begins having eyes for her Adorkable classmate Peter Parker...
* MeaningfulEcho: In the first issue, after accidentally revealing he knows where Mary Jane lives, Spider-Man stutters out a flustered {{Blatant Lie|s}} ("It's one of my special powers!") before quickly scurrying away in embarrassment after an awkward pause. At the end of the "Homecoming" arc, after walking her home from the diner, Peter Parker scurries away in a similarly flustered and embarrassed fashion after a similarly awkward pause. [[SecretIdentity Almost as if they were the same person...]]
* MemeticBadass: In-universe, Limo Girl.
* MythologyGag:
** See HarsherInHindsight above.
** Issue 8 is [[http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2007/12/separated-at-birth-yall-dont-know-about.html nearly identical]] to ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'' #16.
** Felicia Hardy's introduction in issue 17 includes references to her identity as Black Cat.
** The cover of issue 18 has Firestar in place of Mary Jane's reflection, likely a reference to Angelica Jones resemblance to MJ in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends''.
* NewTransferStudent: Felicia Hardy appears as this near the end of the first volume, having been expelled from her last school because of her temper and being confrontational.
* NiceGirl: Mary Jane.
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Mary Jane, however, actually ''is'' an ordinary high school student. The vast amount of the cast is this, the only one that isn't, of course, is Peter (though it's never actually confirmed in-story).
* ParentalIssues: There is... ''something'' going on between MJ and her mother, which may contribute heavily towards MJ's issues throughout the series. It's never really elaborated on, and we never actually meet the woman, but MJ does not appear to harbour warm feelings towards her and the one time her home life comes up in a conversation with a school counsellor MJ mumbles out some vague, flustered comments about her before quietly asking to change the subject, clearly uncomfortable with discussing it.
* PerspectiveFlip: Non-villainous example; it's ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' told from the point-of-view of Mary Jane (and a few other members of the supporting cast) instead of Peter Parker.
* PluckyGirl: Mary Jane -- her life isn't the easiest, but she keeps going anyway.
* PreviouslyOverlookedParamour: Played With, where Mary Jane Watson is initally infatuated with the dashing, daring, Spider-Man, but eventually falls for her kind, considerate tutor Peter Parker, with the twist that the suitors are one and the same.
* SecretIdentity: The series never directly comes out and says it but Spider-Man and Peter Parker are, of course, one and the same. There are plenty of clues, overt and otherwise, for the discerning reader to pick up on, but the unaware reader (all three of them) could easily read the series and never pick up on it.
* SecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Peter ends telling Gwen about him being the one to take pictures of Spider-Man and she begins to cover up for him.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: While Liz was against it at first, she does later ship MJ/Peter.
* ShoutOut: The book is mainly focused around the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' cast of characters, but allusions are made to characters such as ComicBook/IronMan, the ComicBook/FantasticFour and the ComicBook/XMen.
* StepfordSmiler: Mary Jane
* TeenDrama
* {{Tsundere}}: Liz easily qualifies as a Type A.
* TwoPersonLoveTriangle: Guess. Go on. Guess. We'll wait.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: Still waiting.
* WrongGuyFirst:
** Harry Osborn.
** [[spoiler: Also, Mary Jane initially pursues a relationship with Spider-Man, but realizes that she's actually in love with Peter Parker. There's [[SecretIdentity an irony here]]...]]
* {{Wedgie}}: In the second volume Flash Thompson gives Peter Parker a wedgie because he’s jealous of his relationship with Mary Jane.
* YoungerAndHipper: While putting Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Gwen Stacy in high school with Peter isn't a new idea, the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' book and the former two in the first Creator/SamRaimi ''Film/SpiderMan1'' film having beaten this comic to it, it is the first time Felicia Hardy is also in high school with them. This is notable because ''Ultimate'' kept her an adult when she appeared.

----