The Watson Family Tree

 

Another chapter in the ongoing series of MC2 Family Trees today, this time covering the family of the most iconic red head of the Spidey mythos, Mary Jane Watson. This is the Watson Family Tree.

 

For the purposes of these family trees, I accept that MC2 characters share their published history (up to a point) with their 616/Main Marvel Universe counterparts. I make exceptions for any retcons implemented after the point the MC2 diverges from the 616 and in cases where it's explicitly or implicitly different (Aunt May really died) or when a writer later introduces a previously unheard of relative (the Lang family and likely the Pym family) who is never mentioned, seen or heard of in the MC2. With the last exception, I would add them to the family tree in later updates should they be mentioned in MC2 material at any point. To be clear, today we will only looking at Mary Jane’s extended family, saving the Parker’s and the Reilly’s for future Family Tree entries and, eventually, a combined and complete unified Family Tree post.

 

The first member of the Watson Family to appear in the pages of Marvel Comics was Anna Watson in Amazing Spider-Man #15, which was also the first mention of Anna’s niece Mary Jane Watson. In Amazing Spider-Man #18, Anna is called ‘Mrs. Watkins’ multiple times and not just by the sickly Aunt May, but by Peter himself. I guess Anna is just too polite to correct him.

 

In the same issue, May also refers to ‘Mrs. Watkins’ husband, though he’s never seen and is never mentioned again so I think we can chalk this one up to May being unwell and confused. Especially considering May and Anna move in together for a long period of time, both at Anna’s House  and in an apartment building!

 

But speaking of husbands, we learn many years later in the pages of Spectacular Spider-Man #257 that as nineteen-year-old Anna Watson moved to California, hoping to become an actress. Anna met, fell in love with and married a radio writer named Jacob Hilliard. Before long, the pair fell out of love and Anna had an affair with another man, Johnny Dipalma, until her guilt led to her coming clean to her husband and ending things. Ashamed, Anna returned to Forest Hills alone and never told anyone what had happened. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol. 11 clarifies Anna is divorced.

 

Mary Jane Watson is first seen, albeit face unseen in Amazing Spider-Man #25 after being mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man #15. She makes her first full-faced appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #42 with her classic line ‘Face it, Tiger, you just hit the jackpot!’

 

As such a significant character in comics, I’ll only try to hit some of the most relevant moments from Mary Jane’s long and storied published history. Mary Jane has her first date with Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #43. The two soon begin seeing other people and the two remain as friends until after the death of Gwen Stacy. When Peter lashes out at her in his grief, Mary Jane shows us for the first time her more vulnerable and caring true self, choosing to stay and comfort Peter rather than run away (Amazing Spider-Man #122).

 

After some time, Peter and Mary Jane dated, sharing their first kiss in Amazing Spider-Man #143 and the two eventually share even more in Amazing Spider-Man #149-150. Peter proposes to Mary Jane in Amazing Spider-Man #182 and Mary Jane returns the ring and turns him down in Amazing Spider-Man #183, saying she’s not ready to be tied down to one man. While she plays this off casually, it’s clear in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #21 that Mary Jane is more conflicted than she let on.

 

Mary Jane continues to grow and develop as a character through the years until she reveals in Amazing Spider-Man #257 that she’s known Peter Parker is Spider-Man for years. Soon after, Mary Jane reveals her own secrets to Peter, opening up about her family past in Amazing Spider-Man #259…

 

But first we have to go back and review some references to Mary Jane’s family in earlier issues. A grief stricken  Peter lashed out at Mary Jane after the death of Gwen Stacy, saying she ‘wouldn’t be sorry if [her] own mother died’ in Amazing Spider-Man #122. Ouch. After turning down Peter’s marriage proposal, Mary Jane reflects on the reasons for her decisions, thinking ‘I don’t think I can go through the tragedy of marrying, only to break up—like Betty and Ned…or like mom and dad so many years ago..’ (Amazing Spider-Man #192). In Amazing Spider-Man #246, Mary Jane has a daydream where she is very successful actress, but her dream turns sour when her sister appears holding two sons, reminding her she too dreamt of being an actress and asks MJ if there’s a part in the story for her. Finally in Amazing Spider-Man #247, Aunt May mentions how Mary Jane and Peter have a lot in common, having both lost so much…

 

With all that covered, let’s look at Mary Jane’s secret origin in Amazing Spider-Man #259. Mary Jane tells Peter about her parents, Philip and Madeline who met in college and fell in love. Philip majored in Modern American Literature and Madeline was a drama student. After they graduated and married, Philip convinced Madeline to forget her ambition of pursuing acting in New York City and instead they moved to small college town where he’d been offered a teaching position. The couple had their first child, Gayle eighteen months into their marriage and four years later Mary Jane was born. Years later, Philip had become a full Professor who was popular with his students and respected by the college administration. While Madeline devoted herself to her children, Philip was unsatisfied with his life, wanting to become a writer and prove himself to the world. Philip would become angry and blame his poor attempts at writing on his wife and children.

 

Philip began moving the family from place to place, changing jobs frequently. Madeline endured the constant moving but neither her nor the children liked it, with the disruptions making it harder for the girls to make friends. In an attempt to be noticed, Mary Jane became a class clown while Gayle studied dance to deal with her loneliness. Their home life continued to deteriorate until Philip physically assaulted Gayle. Distraught at what had happened, Mary Jane ran away but was soon reflexively hiding her pain behind her cheery persona.

 

Madeline had had enough, taken the girls and leaving Philip while he was away from the house. Following a messy divorce which saw Philip sue Madeline for desertion, the girls and their mother were forced to turn to family for help. Mary Jane attempted to make the most of things as they shuffled from one relative to another, but really only enjoyed visiting her father’s sister, Anna Watson.

Mary Jane tells Peter that her father moved to Oregon without saying goodbye and never answered her letters. Maybe we’ll with him further in a separate post. Meanwhile, Madeline found them a permanent residence with her cousin Frank Brown. Frank’s wife had died a year prior and he wanted Madeline to keep the house and look after his three children. With a stable place to live, Gayle had begun dating a boy named Timmy Byrnes, captain of the school football team and a top student. While Mary Jane enjoyed performing in her drama department, Gayle announced she and Timmy would be getting married after they graduated. Despite Madeline’s objections, the couple were soon married and had left town, with Timmy planning to pursue pre-law in college with Gayle taking a job to support them. But things didn’t go according to plan…

 

Gayle announced they were having their first child happily, while Timmy was less excited at the prospect of parenthood at the age of nineteen. By his second year of undergraduate study his grades were slipping and he began to blame it on Gayle and the baby. With their marriage failing, Gayle turned to her now unwell mother for help, eventually disclosing she was pregnant with a second child, which led to Timmy packing his bags and leaving his family.

 

Mary Jane secretly empathized with Timmy, feeling a desire to run away herself. Madeline declared that they wouldn’t desert Gayle, but in the coming months her own health deteriorated, and they learned she was dying. Mary Jane quit her extracurricular activities and worked after-school jobs to help pay the bills. Despite her determination to live long enough to see her second grandchild, Madeline didn’t make it. Afterwards, Gayle tried to convince her sister they could work things out together, but a distraught Mary Jane declared she wasn’t going to waste her life trying to make someone else happy and she wanted more from life. Mary Jane ran away from her sister and had been running ever since (Amazing Spider-Man #259).

With no secrets between them, Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship grows stronger than ever before and soon Peter pops the question a second time in Amazing Spider-Man #290.  After some soul searching and reflection during a visit to Pittsburgh where she meet her nephews Tommy and Kevin, helps her sister Gayle get freed from jail after being manipulated by their father and battles the Spider-Slayer of Alistaire Smythe  (Amazing Spider-Man #291), Mary Jane agrees to marry Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #292.

 

Soon afterwards, the couple would face the reality of their decision, both arriving at the realisation they truly want to marry one another in the end. The wedding is conducted by Mary Jane’s Uncle Spencer aka Judge Spencer Watson (who was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man #291) in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 and the couple honeymoon in Paris in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #7.

 

While the couple collectively face many, many trials and tests as newlyweds, including Peter being buried alive and Mary Jane facing off with cigarettes, stalkers and symbiotes perhaps their greatest challenge came in Spectacular Spider-Man #220 and Amazing Spider-Man #398 when Mary Jane tells Peter she is pregnant.

This was at the commencement of the now legendary (and infamous) Clone Saga and indeed, Mary Jane is pregnant throughout the entirety of the Saga. These same events play out in the MC2's past also, as seen in Spider-Girl #48-#49. Mary Jane apparently goes into a particularly painful and unusual labor after her food is spiked by Alison Mongrain (Sensational Spider-Man #11).

Mary Jane is taken to hospital where she learns from a Doctor Folsome that her regular doctor is not available. In the birthing suite, Mary Jane asks if her baby is breathing and is told by Folsome ‘everything is going exactly as planned’ as an unseen Norman Osborn watches on. Following an agonising delivery, Mary Jane again asks Folsome ‘why isn’t she crying’ before breaking down in tears. The doctor offers his condolences, while Mongrain (disguised as a nurse) wheels an unidentified ‘package’ to her car. Alison meets up with her employer at the docks where she is told she is going to Europe with a sizable bonus as she boards a yacht. Mongrain’s employer tells her she can call him by his real name: Norman Osborn (Amazing Spider-Man #418, Spider-Girl #48). Unbeknownst to both of them, Kaine will track down Mongrain, recover baby May and return her to her parents…

 

Backtracking a bit now to before all that, so that I can talk briefly about a few other family members who have gone as yet unmentioned. Kristine ‘Kristy’ Watson is Mary Jane’s 13 year old cousin who first appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #145 and is deserving of her own post some day. Kristy’s parents are the rather unlikeable Lou Watson who is uncaring and abusive (much like his brother Philip) and Sybil Watson who acts oblivious to the events occurring around her (Web of Spider-Man #58).

 

Mary Jane does an amusing impression of an ‘Aunt Martha’ in Amazing Spider-Man #259. This may or may not be the same Aunt Martha mentioned by Kristy in Web of Spider-Man #69. Given she’s mentioned twice by two characters who are cousins, I think the common link is the most likely answer: this Aunt Martha is presumably another sibling to Anna, Spencer, Philip and Lou Watson.

 

Finally, apparently related on Madeline’s side of the family, we have Mary Jane’s late Scottish aunt Mary Macleod who I’ve already dedicated an entire post to so go and check it out here. While she doesn’t physically appear, having died prior to the events of the graphic novel Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth, Mrs Macleod does provide some fantastic flavour and history to the Watson Family Tree.

Some questions do arise when taking all these facts into account which don’t have definitive answers so I’m going to do some deductive reasoning to account for the known facts, combined with some educated guesses so that we aren’t removing anyone from the family tree: For Frank Brown to be Madeline’s cousin, one each of Frank and Madeline’s parents must be siblings. It’s most likely that Frank’s surname came from his father, so either his father is Madeline’s uncle which means her maiden name was likewise Brown which rules out the Macleod family surname OR Frank’s mother is Madeline’s aunt which means the name Brown was acquired through marriage.

 

Mary MacLeod cannot be Madeline’s sibling if Brown was their family name, as Mary doesn’t appear to have married. So, either MacLeod is Madeline and Mary’s maiden name and Frank’s mother married into the Brown family or we must find another workable solution. I propose that it’s more feasible an older woman like Mary Macleod is actually Madeline’s aunt (and Mary Jane’s great-aunt) meaning we can make this work without omitting anyone! This does mean that Frank’s mother would have to be a Macleod and his father a Brown but leaves the possibility of either Madeline’s father or mother being a Macleod…so we still don’t know her maiden name for certain, but we can fit everyone into the Watson Family Tree.

 

I have omitted a few characters from this MC2 Family Tree for reasons I’ll elaborate on separately. Here they are for the sake of completeness:

 

• There are various unidentified relatives, presumably mostly or entirely from Madeline’s side of the family, glimpsed during flashbacks in Amazing Spider-Man #259

• Regarding the above mentioned relatives, either both Madeline and Philip’s family have an ‘Aunt Martha’ or at some point Madeline took the girls to stay with a relative from Philip’s family as was the case with Anna Watson. For now, I’ve placed Martha as a sibling of Philip for now, but I’m certainly open to differing opinions on this! She could just as easily be the sister of Sybil or there may be two Martha’s. Don’t come at me DC, fans.

 

This was certainly an eye-opening and time-consuming project! A huge shout out to Ron Frenz, Big Al over at the Hellz yeah, Spider-Man: The Web Wielding Avenger blog and arias-98105 for always being fountains of knowledge and fantastic resources on all things Spidey.

Until they start pruning these family trees, I remain

 

frogoat