Marvel fans hold Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane sacred, but it nearly didn’t happen, thanks to an unexpected cameo by Batman himself, Bruce Wayne. Or at least, his Marvel stand-in. Decades later, readers who revisit the issue where Peter and MJ tied the knot are still asking: What really happened with Mary Jane and “Bruce” the night before “The Wedding”?
Popverse raised the question in response to a resurfaced interview with former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, who infamously ordered Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage erased from canon in 2007’s “One More Day.”
Entitled “The Wedding,” Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 was written by Jim Shooter and David Michelinie, with art by Paul Ryan.
Revisiting Mary Jane’s Questionable Encounter With A Bruce Wayne Stand-In The Night Before She Married Peter Parker
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, Written By Jim Shooter And David Michelinie; Art By Paul Ryan; Published In 1987
Spider-Man Annual #21 cover, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson walking down the aisle at their wedding
It’s an often overlooked part of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, that the drama of the issue involves both Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker having last-minute doubts in the lead up to their wedding. However, while Peter does a lot of webslinging and thinking, Mary Jane’s side of the equation involves her hanging out with a rich guy named Bruce.
“I’m pretty sure it was Bruce Wayne, that’s what they were intending,” Popverse quoted Joe Quesada as saying in a 2010 interview. Looking at the issue, the parallels are clear. More than just sharing a first name, the one glimpse of Bruce the Annual gives readers depicts a character who looks a lot like the Caped Crusader.
Beyond that, he’s not much like Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, in terms of personality. Marvel’s Bruce doesn’t care that it’s the eve of MJ’s wedding; he wants to take her to Paris. It’s clear he’s trying to seduce her. He’s basically the rich playboy DC’s Bruce is sometimes portrayed cosplaying as, in order to provide cover for his crime-fighting activities.
Mary Jane Spent Her Last Night As A Single Woman With “Bruce,” Who Looked Suspiciously Like Gotham’s Richest Man
What Really Happened? It’s A Marvel Mystery That Will Likely Be Answered
In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, Mary Jane does act flirtatiously with Bruce. That much is true. There is even one moment where Peter gets suspicious, noticing her vague, gender-neutral reference to “a friend,’ right before she’s picked up by someone in a red sports car. It’s a bit of an awkward subplot leading up to the biggest wedding in Marvel Comics history.
MJ gets in Bruce’s car the night before the wedding, and though she obviously didn’t jet off to France with him, it is Bruce that drops her off at the church in the morning, in her full wedding dress and everything. The implication is that they spent the night together. Probably platonically, but the story intentionally leaves it open to interpretation.
So, yes, it’s possible Mary Jane slept with a Batman-analog the night before she married Spider-Man, though it’s more likely the intention was that she didn’t. It’s a canon question rendered moot by the “One More Day” retcon decades later, but it remains one of the most intriguing unanswered questions in Marvel Comics’ long history.
First Appearance
Amazing Fantasy
Alias
Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
Alliance
Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
Race
Human