(Peter Parker: MJ, I...) Am Spider-Man. (Peter Parker: What?) That's what you were gonna say, that you're Spider-Man.
„
~ Michelle revealing that she knows that Peter is Spider-Man.
“
I don't really have much luck when it comes to getting close to people. Um... so I lied. I wasn't just watching you because I thought you were Spider-Man.
„
~ MJ to Peter.
“
If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed.
„
~ MJ to Peter.
Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson is the deuteragonist of the Spider-Man trilogy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She is a student at Midtown School of Science and Technology and the love interest and ex-girlfriend of Peter Parker. After Doctor Strange cast the memory spell, MJ, along with everyone else in his life, forgot Peter Parker entirely, though unlike Ned and Happy Hogan, she vaguely recalls knowing him.
Dave McNary, writing for Variety, used the surname "Jones" for the character in an article about Spider-Man: Homecoming.[1] Secondary sources subsequently commonly list her surname as "Jones", despite the name being unofficial.[2] In Spider-Man: Far From Home, a view of the character's passport shows only the mononymous name Michelle.
Personality[]
“
You’re a smart, young woman with a bright future ahead of her.
„
~ Agent Cleary to Michelle Jones about her intelligence.
MJ is snarky and coy, but also kind and friendly. She often acts as the voice of reason, and she provides the troubled Peter with much-needed comfort and advice.
Her superficial cynicism is mainly a shield that she uses to protect herself from disappointment or sadness. Despite her snark, she was also simply too shy to pursue friendships or romances with sincerity, although does gradually try anyway, as she manages to enter Peter's small circle of friends, with his intellect and kindness causing him to return the affection she secretly held for him.
She also seems to be one of the smartest students in the class, as the only one figuring out Peter's identity by herself, and feels embarrassed that the rest of the class haven't figured it out. She was even aware of Agent Cleary’s interrogation techniques and her civil rights as she kept her cool during her interrogation about Peter’s fiasco with Mysterio.
As she becomes more optimistic, she still understands pessimistic feelings well enough to be able to sympathise with those who suffer from it, as despite a near-death experience, she offered words of comfort to her rescuer, the Amazing Spider-Man, since he was still traumatised and depressed from the death of his girlfriend, Gwen.
History[]
Background[]
Michelle Jones-Watson was born on June 10th, 2001 in New York City, New York to unnamed parents, and has mentioned that her father left the family before returning at some point.
Spider-Man: Homecoming[]
Michelle "MJ" first appears as Peter Parker's classmate, when Peter is at the school office. She sketches him, as she claims to like sketching people in crisis. She meets Spider-Man when he is about to save his classmates from dying in a elevator crash. Later, after Liz Allan moved away, Peter and MJ develop romantic interest in one another.
Avengers: Endgame[]
While MJ is not directly shown in Avengers: Infinity War, she is among those killed by Thanos in the Snap. However, MJ was brought back to life when the Hulk undid the Snap in 2023.
Spider-Man: Far From Home[]
Eight months after the revival, dubbed the Blip, the class goes to Venice on a school trip. Unbeknownst to MJ, Peter Parker tries to romance his way in on her on the plane. However, Peter's plan backfires. Later, in Venice, Peter tries to tell her that he is in love with her. However, MJ reveals that she knows that he is Spider-Man and is similarly interested in him. She also plays a key role in foiling Quentin Beck's drone attacks by revealing that the Elementals are a ruse through a dropped projector. Because of this, Beck created the Elemental Fusion to kill Peter and his friends to protect his secret. Peter defeats Beck, but afterwards, Beck's crew sent doctored footage of him in the battle to frame Peter for the destruction and reveal his true identity to The Daily Bugle, which MJ also viewed together with Peter.
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
With Parker's identity exposed, he and MJ attempt to resume their normal lives, but this was thrown into jeopardy when Peter sought help of Doctor Strange to make the world forget his identity as Spider-Man. This resulted in visitors from other universes being sent to the MCU, she and Ned worked with Peter to track down and capture the rogue visitors, but then went against Strange in order to try and redeem the visitors instead of sending them to their deaths.
Ultimately, the majority of the visitors would betray MJ and her friends, who then encountered other versions of Peter from alternate universes. MJ and her allies successfully sent the visitors back to their home universes, but tragically, instabilities in spacetime caused by Doctor Strange's spell meant that MJ had to forget her entire history with Peter. The two shared a farewell kiss before MJ's memories were erased, and she resumed her new job as a barista. Sometime later, Peter visited her and Ned where she worked and gave them the letter detailing who he was and meant to them. Ultimately, between seeing a cut she gained at the Statue of Liberty still on her cheek, she and Ned had gotten into M.I.T. (which, due to their affiliation with Peter, had been rejected) and both generally appeared safer away from him, Peter renages on his promise to give them back their memories of him and leaves the shop, though not before MJ regains enough memory to realize she knows the stranger from somewhere.
