A Spider-Man webcomic by Daughter of the Lilies creator Meg Syverud. It's a Alternate Universe story of how Spider-Man meets Mary Jane Watson. Or more accurately meets Doctor Mary Jane Watson, who gets roped into treating Spidey after he's captured by her father, the Taskmaster.
Starts here
.
This comic provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Taskmaster to MJ. He's got no qualms about kidnapping her to take care of his arch-nemesis and is dismissive of both her complaints and the fact that she's a grown adult. In his mind, she should be grateful for him coming back to care for her after her mother abandoned her... even if it also meant forcing MJ to give up her dreams of becoming an actress and making her do his every whim. He also tries to hold her hostage to draw Spidey out of hiding and then blows up the entire building with her inside it, assuming that Spidey would rush to save her while Taskmaster ran away.
- Adaptational Job Change: In most depictions, MJ is an actress, supermodel, fashion designer, or somewhere in between thanks to her shockingly good looks. Here, she's a neurosurgeon, although not entirely of her own volition, as Taskmaster pressed her into going through medical school.
- Adaptational Wimp: Taskmaster is usually depicted as a deadly serious and worthy adversary for Spidey. Here, he struggles to make Spidey take him seriously, and he only gets the wallcrawler in a choke hold by holding MJ hostage. By the end, he resorts to blowing up the entire building they're in with MJ inside rather than admit defeat.
- Armor Is Useless: Downplayed. Spidey's spandex costume does nothing to protect him from tranquilizer darts. The same darts harmlessly shatter against Taskmaster's armor, though he decides not to take his chances when they start using live heavy machine gun ammo.
- Artificial Limbs: The big hint to "Grandpa's" identity is his Vibranium metal arm, revealing that he's the Winter Soldier.
- Bad Liar: Due to being a Socially Awkward Hero, Spidey is REALLY bad at lying to MJ when she notices part of his costume sticking out of his civilian clothes, with an easily disproved lie about his name (since he's wearing his faculty ID) and a comment about MJ being a doctor when he shouldn't know that about a stranger cementing her suspicions about who he really is.
- Beneath the Mask: Beneath Spidey's fast-talking, wisecracking persona is a Socially Awkward Hero who is easily startled by sudden advances. When MJ flirts with him for the first time with her famous Catchphrase, he's so surprised that he falls right off the building.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Spidey geeks out about Star Trek themed bandages, cracks jokes constantly, hits on MJ while in a drugged stupor, and is still one of the smartest and strongest superheroes around.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Taskmaster to Spidey, in response to his Motor Mouth tendencies.
- The Cameo:
- Stan Lee makes his usual appearance, lending Spidey five dollars so Mary Jane can catch a subway ride home.
- At the end of the comic, Spidey gets a phone call from "Grandpa" aka the Winter Soldier.
- Cassandra Truth:
- MJ talking to a co-worker about being imprisoned by her father.MJ: I saw my dad... luckily I was able to escape and see Miranda's play.
- On the darker end, she nearly got sectioned at 16 when she tried to tell people about him.
- MJ talking to a co-worker about being imprisoned by her father.
- Casual Danger Dialogue:
- Spidey as usual.
- MJ is largely unfazed by her dad's threats. Even when he has her by the hair and is threatening to kill her, she sardonically notes that he's spent too much money on her to seriously hurt her.
- Catchphrase:
- "Aaaaay!" for Spidey.
- Eventually MJ uses her signature, "Face it, Tiger. You hit the jackpot." at the end of the comic.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Taskmaster surprises Spidey by lifting him with one hand and throwing him into a forcefield-sealed cell.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Spidey ups his silly behavior in Taskmaster's presence, but can write code in his head for MJ to enter on a computer terminal to override the lair's genetic locks.
- Deadpan Snarker: Spidey, as usual. MJ dishes out plenty as well.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: MJ starts off frosty and sarcastic towards Spidey (when she's not outright yelling at him), but his genuine respect and care towards her causes her to start warming up to him.
- Distressed Dude: Spidey spends most of the comic drugged to the gills or locked in a cell, or turning up for medical attention.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": "Grandpa" tells Peter not to call him that.
- Fiery Redhead: MJ, who has no qualms about yelling at both Spidey and her dad about her situation.
- Geeks Are Sexy: Spidey loves the fact that MJ has Star Trek bandages.
- Genre Savvy: MJ immediately recognizes what's going on when Spidey tries to make friends with her to help him escape. Given her dad's behavior, she's willing to play along.
- Hates Their Parent: MJ, and for damn good reasons.Spidey: Sooooo... I'm probably going to have to beat up your dad if I'm gonna get out of here. Is that gonna bother you?
MJ: Please do that. He sucks. - Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Spidey admits to MJ that he's only an "honorary" member of the Avengers, meaning that he doesn't get the paycheck or benefits of being one despite risking his life as a superhero. In his day job, he works as a teacher, and has to get up to grade midterm exams before he can go to bed.
- Hospital Hottie: MJ is a general physician at a New York hospital but also supermodel-level gorgeous. The problem is that no one will take her seriously because of her looks, assuming she's either a nurse or a gynecologist solely because she's a beautiful woman.
- Important Haircut: Taskmaster slices through MJ's ponytail during his last fight with Spidey, changing her hairstyle to her trademark shoulder length. It also represents MJ cutting him out her life completely, and she returns to the office with renewed cheer and vigor... at least until Spidey knocks on her window to bother her again.
- Inconvenient Attraction: Neither MJ or Peter are happy when an Almost Kiss makes them realize they have genuine romantic chemistry, with both of them fully aware of how dangerous it would be for them to be anything more than what they are.
- Instant Sedation: Subverted like hell when Spidey is kidnapped: he's surprised but annoyed and practically unaffected by a single dart, it takes four more of them administered at once to even slow him down, and six more on top of that to take him down. Even then, he comes out of it pretty quick, requiring his kidnappers to start an IV to actually keep him under control. Justified due to his superhuman metabolism cycling the drugs out of his system quickly.
- It's All About Me: Taskmaster to a T. Lampshaded when MJ outright calls him a narcissist.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Peter tries to use this as an excuse to break off contact with MJ, but she angrily tells him that if her father hurts her over this, it's not his fault.MJ: At some point, you're going to have to wake up and face the fact you take on too much responsibility for things you can't control.
- Jerkass: Taskmaster again.
- Manchild:
- Taskmas—, okay there's a bit of a pattern here.
- Spidey to a lesser degree, but that's mostly a front to keep Taskmaster off balance.
- Meet Cute: Well, meet as mutual prisoners in Taskmaster's lair.
- Never Heard That One Before: Yes, MJ is aware that she has the same name as that Dr. Watson.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: MJ points out to her dad that Spider-Man needs a trauma surgeon, and her specialty is neurosurgery. Spidey later acknowledges this apologetically when asking for help with a dislocated shoulder, but she's literally the only doctor he knows.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: "Grandpa" AKA the Winter Soldier calls to let Spidey know that he took out the soldiers that had kidnapped Peter at the beginning of the comic.
- Once More, with Clarity: MJ spends much of the first comic pushing or slapping Spidey in annoyance while they're both captive of Taskmaster. It's only when she's settling down to watch Miranda's play that she remembers Peter telling her that no one can really hit him unless Spidey lets them...
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Taskmaster saves Spidey from offscreen military goons because of his belief that they're fated rivals and that only he is allowed to defeat Spidey. Unfortunately for him, Spidey doesn't see things that way.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Spidey is a well-known and experienced superhero who also happens to be an unabashed nerd who happily chatters away about Star Trek with MJ while dropping additional references to Star Wars and Sherlock Holmes.
- Related in the Adaptation: One of the comic's main premises is that Taskmaster is Mary Jane's biological father.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Spidey shares an apartment with Ned Leeds, who is both aware of his Secret Identity as Peter Parker and reminds him to grade midterms before classes start tomorrow.
- MJ also becomes one for him when she discovers his secret identity. She's also a much more unwilling one for her father, Taskmaster, but she doesn't tell anyone because nobody believed her when she was younger, and she almost got committed because of it.
- Shout-Out:
- Spidey and MJ repeatedly discuss Star Trek.
- When MJ admits that she got into Star Trek because Chris Pine is hot, Spidey recoils and says, "You were the chosen one!" He then says he hates that he made that reference but loves that she got it.
- The title is a play on A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story. This is lampshaded by Spidey himself, who notes that MJ's full name makes her "Dr. Watson", just like the books.
- Skewed Priorities: MJ is less concerned about being kidnapped by a super villain than missing the Broadway show she's got tickets for. Admittedly given the villain is her dad, she knows he won't hurt her (at least physically).
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Invoked by MJ, who wears a fake pair so people will take her seriously as a doctor instead of focusing on her looks.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Spidey. As he explains, his quips are a way to cover up for the fact that he's pretty much scared all the time, and his own adorable way, he is terrified of MJ, who finds it both amusing and endearing.
- Spider-Sense: Spider-Man's secret weapon in crimefighting is his trademark Spider-Sense, which warns him of incoming danger. This is why Taskmaster is never able to take him by surprise, though it apparently fails to work when an unseen military group riddles him full of tranquilizer darts.
- The Stinger: The comic ends with Peter talking to his "Grandpa", who informs him that he's taken care of the unseen military group that tranquilized Spidey. The important detail is that "Grandpa" possesses a Vibranium arm with a red star on it, making him the Winter Soldier.
- Stupid Sexy Friend: MJ and Peter both recognize that having a relationship bigger than Just Friends would be bad due to Taskmaster's presence in their lives, not to mention that Peter's It's Not You, It's My Enemies attitude means he's not ready to be that close to someone. Doesn't stop them from still having a mutual attraction.
- Suddenly Shouting: Taskmaster and MJ both have this in common. In fact, it's pretty much the only thing they have in common.
- Villainous Rescue: Spider-Man is knocked out by a team of military goons, and ends up rescued by the Taskmaster, who was annoyed by them interrupting the fight between him and Spidey.
