Since the launch of the current volume of Amazing Spider-Man in early 2022, there have been lingering questions about why Peter Parker and Mary Jane – who were back together just before the start of the new volume – are broken up again, and why all of Peter Parker’s friends are so upset with him.
Now, as of May 10’s Amazing Spider-Man #25 from writer Zeb Wells, artists Kaare Andrews and John Romita Jr., inker Scott Hanna, colorist Marcio Menyz, and letterer Joe Caramagna, we’ve finally got the full answers to those questions – along with a few new mysteries still left to be solved.
Spoilers ahead for Amazing Spider-Man #25
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April 19’s Amazing Spider-Man #24 set the stage by revealing that Peter and MJ’s predicament started when servants of a dark god known as Wayep managed to trap Mary Jane in a desolate alternate dimension.
Peter Parker is left in the mainstream Marvel Universe where he’s forced to team up with Norman Osborn and steal from the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to build a machine that can reach into the alternate reality where MJ is trapped with Paul – the guy she’s been seen in a relationship with in the current storyline.
Amazing Spider-Man #25 now takes readers to the alternate dimension where MJ and Paul were trapped. The thing is, even though for Peter it was only a matter of hours between when they disappeared and when he rescued them, for Paul and Mary Jane, four whole years had passed.
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And in that time, they had to rely on each other heavily to survive – especially after finding two children who happen to look exactly like MJ and Paul, who have also been seen in the core MU since the family’s rescue.
This led to Paul and MJ falling in love and forming a real family bond which has lasted into their return to the real world – causing MJ to break up with Peter in favor of Paul and their adopted (though mysteriously resemblant) children.
As for the question of “What did Spider-Man do” to make everyone angry with him, it all comes back to him stealing technology from his friends in the FF and the Avengers, and basically being a sad jerk about it when they confront him.
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So what does that mean for Peter and Mary Jane in the future? It’s hard to say. There’s enough mystery around the still ongoing plotline to suggest that it might somehow wind up with Pete and MJ back together – though Marvel has seemed deeply avoidant of that coming to pass, now even going so far as to introduce alternate realities and warped timelines to keep them apart.
May 31’s Amazing Spider-Man #26 has been foreshadowed as an issue full of heartbreak and gut-wrenching revelations just like #24 and #25 before it, so there’s still plenty of time for another tragic twist of some kind.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 video game may give Peter Parker and Mary Jane the happy ending they deserve.
