"The Wedding!" | |
---|---|
![]() Cover of The Amazing Spider-Man Annual vol. 1, 21, art by John Romita Sr. | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Publication date | 1987 |
Genre | |
Main character(s) | Spider-Man Mary Jane Watson |
Creative team | |
Writer(s) | Jim Shooter David Michelinie |
Penciller(s) | Paul Ryan |
Inker(s) | Vince Colletta |
Letterer(s) | Rick Parker |
Colorist(s) | Bob Sharen |
"The Wedding!" is a story from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 in which Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) get married. It was published in 1987 and written by David Michelinie, featuring cover art by John Romita Sr.
Spider-Man is web slinging through town and runs into Electro. He defeats him and then returns home, to find Mary Jane in the process of moving in. MJ leaves for a photo shoot, leaving Peter to ponder how on earth he'll be able to provide for him and MJ.
Peter takes his photos of Spider-Man defeating Electro to the Daily Bugle and is surprised by the staff with a party in honor of his upcoming wedding to Mary Jane. J. Jonah Jameson arrives, clearly irritated, and starts to complain about why they are hosting a party when they're supposed to be working. As soon as Peter leaves, he states that he wants to cut the pay of everyone who didn't attend.
Peter is barely able to sleep that night, contemplating his impending wedding. The next day he meets Mary Jane. He leaps to the ceiling and goes down to one knee, asking her to marry him once again. "I hate cleaning footprints off the ceiling," she responds with a smile. They both eat, but can't help shake their worries about the wedding. Mary Jane leaves for a meeting, where her old boyfriend presents her with two tickets to Paris, that she can only take if she skips the wedding. Peter goes to Aunt May's house, and goes through a scrap book, remembering his most prominent times with Mary Jane. MJ and her aunt arrive, and they announce the upcoming marriage to their family. She leaves in a Ferrari with her ex-boyfriend, and Peter takes the subway home. Both are starting to have second thoughts about their marriage. When they meet up again that night, Spidey takes MJ out web-slinging to clear their heads.
The next day, Peter's best man, Flash Thompson, and his best friend, Harry Osborn, take Peter out for a bachelor party, but he's beginning to show his true feelings about the wedding. They try to convince him that love conquers all. Meanwhile, Mary Jane is having a grand party across town. Peter finally decides to go home for the night, and has nightmares about all of his enemies trying to attack MJ, and being helpless to stop them. He wakes up in a sweat, wondering what he should do. Meanwhile, MJ is out with Liz Allan, wondering the same.
Later at City Hall, all of the guests are in attendance (for reasons unknown, Matt Murdock is not present), but both Peter and Mary Jane are late, leaving everyone confused. At the last minute, they both appear and are married by Mary Jane's uncle, judge Spenser Watson. [1] (MJ's wedding dress was designed by real-life designer Willi Smith.) [2] MJ gives Peter the tickets to France with which her ex-boyfriend tried to tempt her, and they go off on their honeymoon to begin their new life together, as Mr. and Mrs. Parker. The wedding occurred simultaneously in the Spider-Man comic and in the daily news strip. [1]
The marriage between Peter and Mary Jane was so strong than even Mephisto wanted it. In an attempt to save Aunt May's life, the 2007 storyline, Spider-Man: One More Day erased the wedding from continuity by Mephisto. Both participants are single again. How the changes prevented the wedding was explained in the story arc One Moment In Time.
In the first issue, Spider-Man stops Electro and his gang. One of the gang members, Eddie, makes note of the arresting officer's name. Then Mephisto, as a red pigeon, swoops down and unlocks the door of the police car Eddie is in. The officers are all occupied with cuffing Electro and Eddie escapes. Spider-Man is out patrolling that night and hears the gunshots of Eddie shooting at the arresting officer and his wife. While saving the cop and his wife, Spider-Man gets hit in the head with a cinder block. He chases after Eddie and tackles him off the side of a building. Spider-Man misses his web shot to save them because of the cinder block to the head, so he turns his body to absorb the impact and they both crash to the ground with Eddie on top of Spider-Man. On the wedding morning, MJ shows up but Peter does not as he is lying unconscious in an alleyway. When he wakes up and rushes to where the wedding was to take place, he finds Mary Jane there and the two decide to take what happened as an omen and simply live together. At that point, the bulk of the Spider-Man stories from that point to the events of One More Day take place as they did normally, but with the two as a couple and living together while being unmarried. However, Mary Jane makes it clear she does not want to be an unmarried mother, and thus Peter and MJ probably never conceive their child.
Stan Lee, who co-created Spider-Man and was writing the Spider-Man newspaper strip at the time, recounted:
I suggested [that Spider-Man and Mary Jane be married] to whoever was in charge, and they thought it was a good idea, too. Now, I wanted to find a way to have them get married in the comics books and the newspaper strip at the same time. There is no way I can explain to you how difficult that was, because the comics books are written two or three months ahead, [and] the newspaper strip is written a certain period of time ahead. To synchronize the two was almost impossible. Also, the Spider-Man strip had one storyline going on, and in the newspaper strip we had a totally different storyline going on, and in order to make them sort of come together so there'd be a marriage... well, it was the toughest thing creatively that I think I have ever done or the people at Marvel had done. [emphasis in original] [3]
Marvel's promotion director Steve Saffel came up with the idea of having a famous fashion designer make the design for Mary Jane's dress. [4] The newspaper strip version of the wedding was dedicated to designer Willi Smith, who died shortly after designing Mary Jane's wedding gown. [5]
There have been several references, variants and adaptations of The Wedding!.
In the MC2 timeline, Peter and Mary Jane remain happily married, and the annual remains part of its continuity. Unlike the 616 version, May Parker died of natural causes in Amazing Spider-Man Issue 400, and Mary Jane's daughter Mayday Parker survived a difficult delivery; although her death was initially faked by Norman Osborn, she was eventually returned to the Parkers.
The U.K based The Spectacular Spider-Man comic revealed that, in their future history, Peter and Mary Jane are married and have a daughter, Mayday Parker, who is currently active as Spider-Girl. Peter reveals to his daughter that he lost his leg in battle, making this timeline the second to carry the MC2 explanation for Peter electing to put his costumed identity behind him.
Spider-Man married in the newspaper strip the same time as he did in the comic book. The strip underwent a vanilla reboot (a reboot of an existing timeline without a real explanation for the changes based in the storylines), restoring Peter Parker to an unmarried young man. The strip went on to reveal that it was now reflecting the "current storyline" in the Amazing Spider-Man title. Peter now lives alone in a renovated apartment, attends college, and dates long-time best friend Mary Jane whenever she is available. The current timeline of the rebooted strip is set "in the days before Peter and Mary Jane were married". This confirmed that the newspaper strip's previous canon had not been compromised and that the present day timeline was on hold. The marriage was restored to the dailies, the previous storyline involving Electro having been revealed to be a dream. The revelation dawns on Peter as MJ walks out of the shower, paying homage to the infamous cliffhanger of Dallas involving the return of Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing. The couple have now been married for over 30 years in the newspaper strip.
In What If? (Volume 2) #20 and #21, the reader is presented with a variant version of the classic issue, in which Peter had not married Mary Jane, but instead he married the Black Cat, the marriage ends in tragedy with the death of Black Cat and Peter and Mary Jane going separate ways, but at the end seemed to lead to a possible relationship between Silver Sable and Spider-Man. Another version was also seen in What If? (Volume 1) #24 - "What if Spider-Man had Rescued Gwen Stacy?". In this issue, Peter ends up marrying Gwen Stacy, but the wedding is interrupted by Jameson, who has been given evidence that proves that Peter is Spider-Man that was mailed to him by Norman Osborn, who seemed to be reformed later.
In the Universe X alternate timeline, Peter is shown (while under a hypnotic influence by Spiders-Man) marrying Gwen Stacy and not Mary Jane. Meanwhile, Mary Jane ends up marrying Harry Osborn. In reality, however, Mary Jane had passed on, leaving Peter to raise May on his own and in a state of depression. Later in life, May somehow becomes the new host of the Venom symbiote, much to Peter's chagrin.
The Marvel Zombies #5 cover is a parody of The Wedding! It depicts a zombie variant of Spider-Man holding Mary Jane's half-eaten corpse, the heroes and villains in the background are decaying, and the Spider-Man shaped heart in the background has a bite taken out of it.
The Simpsons shows a parody of the cover of the original comic after Comic Book Guy gets married (S25E10).
A trade paperback, The Amazing Spider-Man: The Wedding ( ISBN 0-87135-770-4) was published in October 1991, collecting the comic book wedding storyline from The Amazing Spider-Man #290-292 (July-Sept. 1987), The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987), and Not Brand Echh #6 (Feb. 1968). It also reprinted the newspaper strip wedding, and the media tie-in live action wedding held at Shea Stadium.
In 2005 a wedding themed trade paperback called Marvel Weddings ( ISBN 0785116869) was published. This collected FANTASTIC FOUR #150 and FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3, INCREDIBLE HULK #319, AVENGERS #59-60 and #127, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #21 and X-MEN #30.
The Amazing Spider-Man is an ongoing American superhero comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it was the character's first title, launching seven months after his introduction in the final issue of Amazing Fantasy. The series began publication with a March 1963 cover date and has been published nearly continuously to date over six volumes with only one significant interruption. Issues of the title currently feature an issue number within its sixth volume, as well as a "legacy" number reflecting the issue's overall number across all Amazing Spider-Man volumes. The title reached 900 issues in 2022.
Maybelle "May" Parker-Jameson, commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Making her first full appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, the character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, playing an influential role in the Spider-Man comic books.
Gwendolyne Maxine "Gwen" Stacy is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as a supporting character in those featuring Spider-Man. A college student and the daughter of George and Helen Stacy, she is the first romantic interest for Peter following his high school graduation before she is murdered by the Green Goblin. Her death has haunted Peter ever since, and stories published long afterwards indicate she still holds a special place in his heart. Gwen is posthumously subjected to numerous cloning experiments by her former professor Miles Warren, Peter's clone Ben Reilly, and an A.I. of Harry Osborn, the latter resulting in the creation of the Kindreds, and Ben briefly resurrecting Gwen in "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" (2016–2017), with the embodiment of Death herself confirming in Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider (2017–2018) that all clones Ben created of deceased people had their souls intact on being brought back, while clones of living people had unique souls of their own. In the alternate realities of Ultimate Marvel and Spider-Gwen, a still-living Gwen respectively becomes their universe's versions of Carnage and Spider-Woman.
Mary Jane "MJ" Watson is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, making her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25, and subsequently designed by John Romita Sr. in #42. Since then, she has gone on to become Spider-Man's main love interest and later his wife. Mary Jane is his most famous and prominent love interest due to their long history, and one of the most iconic in all of comics.
Harold Theopolis "Harry" Osborn is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31.
Elizabeth "Liz" Allan, also known as Elizabeth Allan-Osborn and commonly misspelled as "Liz Allen", is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the character's earliest appearances, she was a popular girl at the high school Peter Parker attends. She has been a regular supporting character in the various Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Venom series in an on-and-off basis, and has ties to the Green Goblin and Molten Man. She is married to Harry Osborn, the mother of their son Normie Osborn, and the CEO of Alchemax. Liz Allan would later become Misery upon being bonded to the Symbiote that is a hybrid of the Anti-Venom and Carnage Symbiotes.
"The Night Gwen Stacy Died", alternatively known as "The Green Goblin's Last Stand", is a story arc of the Marvel Comics comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man #121–122. The two-issue story was written by Gerry Conway, with pencil art by Gil Kane and inking by John Romita Sr. and Tony Mortellaro.
Normie Osborn is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the grandson of Norman Osborn and the eldest son of Harry Osborn.
Richard and Mary Parker are fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are the parents of Peter Parker, the superhero known as Spider-Man.
Spider-Man Family is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics.
Randolph "Randy" Robertson is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a supporting character in Marvel's Spider-Man series and is depicted as the son of Robbie Robertson, and the husband of Janice Lincoln.
"One More Day" (OMD) is a four-part 2007 comic book crossover storyline, connecting the three main Spider-Man series published by Marvel Comics at the time. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, with art by Quesada, the story arc concludes the fallout of Spider-Man's actions during the 2007 Civil War crossover. "One More Day" starts in The Amazing Spider-Man #544, continues in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 and The Sensational Spider-Man #41, and concludes in The Amazing Spider-Man #545.
"Brand New Day" is a comic book storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man, published by Marvel Comics beginning in 2008. It chronicles the start of Spider-Man's adventures in the aftermath of the status quo-altering "One More Day" storyline, and continues afterwards into "Spider-Man: Big Time". Although the banner only runs across the front covers of #546-564 and the Spider-Man: Swing Shift one-shot, "Brand New Day" is also used to refer to the entire 102-issue run of stories featured in Amazing Spider-Man #546-647 and accompanying tie-in series, one-shots, and annuals.
Norman Virgil Osborn is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 as the first and best-known incarnation of the Green Goblin. He has since endured as one of the superhero Spider-Man's most prominent villains and is regarded as one of his three archenemies, alongside Doctor Octopus and Venom.
"One Moment in Time" is a 2010 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics starring Spider-Man. Written by Joe Quesada and illustrated by Paolo Rivera, it was originally published in The Amazing Spider-Man #638–641, and immediately follows "The Gauntlet" storyline. It is notable for revealing what changes the villain Mephisto made to save the life of Peter Parker/Spider-Man's aunt, May Parker, and dissolve the wedding of Parker and Mary Jane Watson at the end of the 2007 "One More Day" storyline.
Dr. Ashley Kafka is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is usually depicted in stories revolving around the superhero Spider-Man. Introduced in The Spectacular Spider-Man #178, she was created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Sal Buscema. The character was inspired by therapeutic hypnotist Frayda Kafka. In the comics, Dr. Kafka is a psychiatrist at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, and an occasional ally of Spider-Man. After having been killed by Massacre, Dr. Kafka was twice "reanimated" with her soul intact in a cloned body by Ben Reilly and Norman Osborn, dying again in the former body to the Carrion Virus before going on to become the Queen Goblin in the latter body after being magically corrupted by Osborn's "sins" by the Beyond Corporation.
The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several noteworthy concepts besides its fictional characters, such as unique places and artifacts. Since the introduction of Peter Parker as a character in 1962, with the superhero alter-ego, Spider-Man, a number of these locations have been prominently featured in connection with storylines specific to this character. These have then been carried over to depictions of Spider-Man in film, video games, and other media. There follows a list of those features.
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows is two series of comic books published by Marvel Comics. The series revolves around Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson having remained married and raising a daughter named Anna-May "Annie" Parker, with Mary Jane and Annie further becoming the superheroes Spinneret and Spiderling. The original series was a 2015 comic book limited series that tied into that year's Secret Wars event. Following the event's end, the popularity of the series led to a sequel ongoing series set in the alternate reality of Earth-18119, which was published from 2016 to 2018.
The Kindreds, or simply Kindred, is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Introduced in 2004 as Gabriel and Sarah, the alleged twin children of Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy, with Gabriel becoming the Grey Goblin and later the second American Son, their true origin is later revealed during the Sinister War story-arc as a series of constantly dying and recreated clones of Peter Parker and Gwen, created by a corrupted A.I. copy of Harry Osborn, that were then transformed into demonic revenants by Mephisto as Kindred.
"Sinister War" is a 2021 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, starring the character Spider-Man and written by Nick Spencer. The story deals with Spider-Man being in the middle of a conflict between multiple teams of villains, including the Sinister Six and Savage Six, orchestrated by Kindred. The storyline received mixed reviews from critics with many deeming it as an underwhelming conclusion to Nick Spencer's Spider-Man run due to inconsistent art, sluggish pacing, and Kindred.