A bachelorette party in today’s Savage Dragon #238 appears to depict Mary Jane Watson getting ready for her nuptials. Does that mean MJ and Peter Parker are headed to the altar in the Image Comics superhero universe?
Spoilers ahead for Savage Dragon #238, on sale now.
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Series creator Erik Larsen, who worked on the Spider-Man titles at Marvel before co-founding Image Comics 25 years ago, would not speak to the possibility, but leaves it open to fan interpretation.
“It could be anybody, really,” Larsen told ComicBook.com. “That question remains unanswered.”
In the issue, Malcolm Dragon’s wife Maxine is invited to a bachelorette party in Toronto. Since she has been having trouble making new friends, he convinces her to go and have fun, in spite of the fact that she doesn’t really know anyone at the party, and that Angel Murphy (Malcom’s kinda/sorta adoptive sister) is seriously injured and in the hospital.
A throwaway line of dialogue references the fact that all of the other girls at the party are models, like Maxine’s one acquaintance there is, and that she has only been invited along because of her fame from being married to a superhero and starring in a reality show.
The model line particularly sticks out when the bride-to-be appears onscreen and it is a statuesque redhead with green eyes and dimples, whom Maxine calls Mary Jane.
This Mary Jane does not particularly look like the MJ of Erik Larsen’s run on the Spidey titles — back then he used to depict her with a huge head of curly hair — but bears a resemblance to some convention sketches he has done in recent years, in which his Mary Jane seems more on-model for the 21st Century. Perhaps more importantly, that hairstyle matches what Mary Jane wore in her wedding in the comics.
Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were married in the comics from 1987 until 2007, when the “One More Day” storyline by Joe Quesada and J. Michael Straczynski saw them split up by a deal made with Mephisto in order to save the life of a dying Aunt May.
Maxine herself, whose maiden name was Maxine Jung Lai, has occasionally been referred to as MJ in the book, a likely nod to Mary Jane’s nickname.
Larsen has a number of characters in Savage Dragon who are inspired by or parodies of existing characters like Shazam and John Byrne’s Next Men, as well as a number of public domain superheroes who appear from time to time. Most of the time, these serve as gags or one-off stories, but some have become more engrained in the DNA of the comic.
Savage Dragon #238 is available in stores and online now. You an check out the official solicitation text below.
“BLOOD HUNTERS” When word gets out about the healing properties of Malcolm Dragon’s blood, the world comes knocking at his door looking for a cure. Every person with a catastrophic disease, every desperate family member, every doctor hoping to bring back salvation descends on Toronto seeking Dragon’s blood. But though the demand is great, its source is finite—and the effects of this “cure” are often horrific!
