The Untold Truth Of Mary Jane Watson

In a lot of ways, the Spider-Man saga is about watching Peter Parker grow up. He starts his superheroic career as a high school student who lets his bitterness at being a social outcast cause him to give into selfishness, and then he has to deal with the consequences of those actions. Over the next few years, readers saw him stand up to a bully, get a job, graduate from high school, deal with college drama, and face all the other milestones that most folks go through, even if they don't fight Doctor Octopus and the Lizard in between. 

In 1987, Peter and Mary Jane reached the next big life milestone together when they were married on the steps of New York City Hall in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. The thing is, it almost didn't happen, at least in the context of the story. By the late '80s, Peter and MJ had been through an on-again, off-again relationship that had seen the stress of Peter's life as Spider-Man causing plenty of problems. Even once they realized they wanted to be married, and even after Peter proposed twice, they both still had a lot of doubts. That was what made ASM Annual #21 such an interesting comic. Plenty of superhero weddings feature villains showing up, but this story was focused on Peter trying to decide if he should break things off, with MJ herself being tempted to run away with a famous actor. In the end, of course, they two got hitched in the ultimate superhero wedding.

As for the real-world motivations behind the wedding, Stan Lee claimed credit for suggesting both the wedding itself and the idea of doing it in the ongoing comic book and the newspaper comic strip at the same time as a publicity stunt. The strip's version of the marriage was dedicated to fashion designer Willi Smith, who created Mary Jane's wedding dress and appeared in the Annual. Sadly, he would die of AIDS-related illness at the age of 39, shortly before the issue was published.