Mary Jane Watson is now a superhero - that's the headline

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Spider-Man's ex-wife and on-and-off again love interest now has superpowers including control over pudding

Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 art
Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 art (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

First, she was a mom...

Now Mary Jane Watson is a superhero.

Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

That's the main thrust of December 21's Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 by writer Jed MacKay, artist Vincenzo Carratù, colorist Brian Reber, and letterer Ariana Maher, the start of the Dark Web tie-in five-issue limited series.

Sure, Spider-Man's ex-wife and long-time love interest MJ and Felicia Hardy are battling the demons unleashed by Chasm (AKA Ben Reilly) and the Goblin Queen as part of the main Spider-Man/X-Men Dark Web crossover event, but make no mistake, Mary Jane having superpowers (and apparently having had them in secret for some time) is what the debut issue is all about.

Readers first learn of the stunning revelation just four pages into the story, as Black Cat happens upon MJ with red energy crackling from her eyes and fists (see above), protecting her new love interest Paul and his children (for whom she's now a mother figure) from the attacking demonically possessed objects found around New York City.

And Felicia is as surprised as the rest of us.

22-page story short: MJ has superpowers; is very protective of that secret and doesn't like to talk about it; Paul knows, but Peter Parker doesn't and she wants to keep it that way.

MJ tells Felicia she trusts her not to tell Peter, and the trust between them becomes complicated as Felicia in inner monologue wrestles with telling MJ that she and Peter are romantically involved again, but she never gets a moment.

But that's a story for another day and a subsequent issue.

a page from Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 doesn't contain Mary Jane's superhero origin story, we only learn that she can "reach out" and feel the energy of a new superpower and "grab it" and "pull." That last part is a slot machine analogy because MJ's superpowers manifest themselves like a 'jackpot' with her getting a new, different superpower every time she pulls, a play off of the character's famous "Face it, Tiger, you hit the jackpot" tagline.

The jackpot-like device is also interesting given the existence of the superhero Jackpot, who was teased as potentially being Mary Jane (but wasn't) during her introduction in 2007.

art from Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The jackpot theme lends itself to less-than-spectacular luck of the draws, however, as in the final pages, facing off demons from Limbo, MJ manifests the superpowers of having the form of and control over pudding.

No... really. You read that right.

And green pudding to boot. Look, right there. 

art from Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The story leaves off there, with many more questions about MJ's superpowers, when and how she got them, how long this new status quo will last, and what flavor the pudding is to be addressed another time.

Why aren't Peter Parker and Mary Jane together in Spider-Man comic books?

Michael Doran

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.