It’s a new year, which makes it time to let go of old grudges…like the one you have against Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane. Truth be told, she’s the best MJ.
As long as there have been teenagers, there have been trends. Since the advent of social media, trends have come to rule our inboxes and newsfeeds. All it takes is a viral video or a clever meme, and you’ve got yourself a new fad, and teens in particular latch onto those like barnacles to an aircraft carrier.
Trends can brand people and places with unwarranted bad reputations. Take the Waffle House. Last year, videos of WaHo brawls were viral sensations. From there, YouTubers galore jumped on the bandwagon with jokes of their own. Now the Gen Z crowd is convinced that Roadhouse is a Waffle House documentary; all we’re missing is Patrick Swayze cooking hashbrowns.
In comic book circles, there’s no easier target than Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films. For nearly 20 years, Spider-Man 3 ruled that particular roost. It’s a movie so horrendously bad that it seemed tailor-made for memes. The hardest part was narrowing down which scene to lampoon.
Despite Bully Maguire suddenly harnessing the power of jazz and corny dancing, fans have ruled that Mary Jane is the worst part of all three Spider-Man movies.
Much of this started after Spider-Man: No Way Home. When Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprised their roles as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, it triggered nostalgic looks at Sony’s prior Spidey movies. However, it also sparked a flood of hate for Dunst’s MJ. Content creators took jabs at the character, pointing out that she cared more for herself than Peter. Being social media, people jumped at the opportunity to complain and criticize, and suddenly it became trendy to bash the first live-action Mary Jane.
When it comes to criticizing Peter’s movie love interests, taking shots at Dunst’s MJ is the low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to view her as selfish and oblivious to Peter’s well-being. She dated his then-best friend, Harry, rejected Peter when he tried reciting poetry to her, and was engaged to J. Jonah Jameson’s son, whom she left at the altar.
Looking only at the surface, it paints an ugly picture, but that’s not the full story.
The best argument for MJ comes from 2004’s Spider-Man 2. Here we saw the most complex Mary Jane to date. Many fans rank that as one of the best superhero films ever made, and much of that credit should be given to Mary Jane’s characterization. In fact, she’s as much the hero of the story as Spider-Man. Rather than suiting up and becoming a superhero herself, as we often see in the MCU, she takes a more subtly heroic role.
To understand MJ, we have to keep in mind that, as the audience, we’re privy to information that she is not. Viewers sympathize with Peter’s struggle to balance his love life with the pressures of being a superhero. As much as we love Peter, it’s easy to vilify Mary Jane as his heart is torn between what he wants and what he needs to do. The thing to remember is that MJ isn’t aware of this. During the closing moments of 2002’s Spider-Man, Peter rejected her. By the time Spider-Man 2 begins, she has moved on, and that’s where fans take issue. From her perspective, Peter pushed her away, and his efforts were inconsistent at best afterwards. She did what any healthy person would do in that situation and moved on despite still being in love with Peter.
Toward the end of Spider-Man 2, Peter inadvertently reveals himself as Spider-Man. Suddenly, it all makes sense to MJ and why he has been so distant. It’s truly a game changer for her. More importantly, she’s finally able to choose for herself whether or not she wants a life with Peter. To that point, he had made the choice for her. Sure, he thought he was protecting her, but so much heartache could have been avoided if he had trusted her from the start.
Add it all together, and it makes for such an impactful moment when Mary Jane arrives at Peter’s doorstep. She knows the stakes, and she’s willing to take that risk. By accepting Peter for who he is, she saves him from himself. That’s something we didn’t see from either Gwen Stacy or the MCU’s MJ, which is precisely why Dunst’s Mary Jane is the best of all Peter’s movie love interests. In the end, she’s more than a love interest; she’s his hero.
