The Wedding! (comics)

infobox Book |
name =
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author = David Michelinie
cover_artist = John Romita Sr.
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Comic, Romance
publisher = Marvel Comics
release_date = 1987
media_type = Print (Comic)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Wedding!" is the title of "Amazing Spider-Man Annual" (Vol. 1) #21 in which Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker (a.k.a Spider-Man) get married. It was published in 1987 and written by David Michelinie, featuring cover art by John Romita Sr.

Plot

Spider-Man is web slinging through town and runs into Electro. He defeats him and then returns home, to find Mary Jane in the process of moving in. MJ leaves for a photo shoot, leaving Peter to ponder how on earth he'll be able to provide for him and MJ.

Peter takes his photos of Spider-Man defeating Electro to the Daily Bugle and is surprised by the staff with a party in honor of his upcoming wedding to Mary Jane. J. Jonah Jameson arrives, clearly irritated, and starts to complain about why they are hosting a party when they're supposed to be working. As soon as Peter leaves, he states that he wants to cut the pay of everyone who didn't attend.

Peter is barely able to sleep that night, contemplating his impending wedding. The next day he meets Mary Jane. He leaps to the ceiling and goes down to one knee, asking her to marry him once again. "I hate cleaning footprints off the ceiling," she responds with a smile. They both eat, but can't help shake their worries about the wedding. Mary Jane leaves for a meeting, where her old boyfriend presents her with two tickets to Paris, that she can only take if she skips the wedding. Peter goes to Aunt May's house, and goes through a scrap book, remembering his most prominent times with Mary Jane. MJ and her aunt arrive, and they announce the upcoming marriage to their family. She leaves in a Ferrari with her ex boyfriend, and Peter takes the subway home. Both are starting to have second thoughts about their marriage. When they meet up again that night, Spidey takes MJ out web-slinging to clear their heads.

The next day, Peter's best man, Flash Thompson, and his best friend, Harry Osborn, take Peter out for a bachelor party, but he's beginning to show his true feelings about the wedding. They try to convince him that love conquers all. Meanwhile, Mary Jane is having a grand party across town. Peter finally decides to go home for the night, and has nightmares about all of his enemies trying to attack MJ, and being helpless to stop them. He wakes up in a sweat, wondering what he should do. Meanwhile, MJ is out with Liz Allan, wondering the same.

Later at City Hall, all of the guests are in attendance, but both Peter and Mary Jane are late, leaving everyone confused. At the last minute, they both appear and are married by Mary Jane's uncle, judge Spenser Watson.cite book | last = Sanderson | first = Peter | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City | publisher = Pocket Books | date = 2007 | location = New York City | pages = 1-2 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1-14653-141-6] MJ gives Peter the tickets to France with which her ex-boyfriend tried to tempt her, and they go off on their honeymoon to begin their life new together, as Mr. and Mrs. Peter Parker. The wedding occurred simultaneously in the "Spider-Man" comic and in the daily news strip.

"Spider-Man: One More Day"

In an attempt to save Aunt May's life, the 2007 storyline, "" erased the wedding from every memory, including Peter and Mary-Jane's memories. Both participants are single again.

Other versions

There have been several references, variants and adaptations of "The Wedding!". Almost always Mary Jane has been replaced as the bride, most prominently with Peter's former girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.

MC2

In the MC2 timeline, Peter and Mary Jane remain happily married, and the annual remains part of it's continuity. Unlike the 616 version, May Parker died of natural causes in "Amazing Spider-Man" Issue 400, and Mary Jane's daughter Mayday Parker, survived a difficult delivery, alhough her death was initially faked by Norman Osborn, she was eventually returned to the Parkers

Newspaper comic

Spider-Man married in the newspaper strip the same time as he did in the comic book.

"What If?"

In "What If?" (Volume 2) #20 and #21, the reader is presented with a variant version of the classic issue, in which Peter had not married Mary Jane, but instead he married the Black Cat, the marriage ends in tragedy with the death of Black Cat and Peter and Mary Jane going separate ways, but at the end seemed to lead to a possible relationship between Silver Sable and Spider-Man. Another version was also seen in "What If?" (Volume 1) #24 - "What if Spider-Man had Rescued Gwen Stacy?". In this issue, Peter ends up marrying Gwen Stacy, but the wedding is interrupted by Jameson, who has been given evidence that proves that Peter is Spider-Man that was mailed to him by Norman Osborne, who ironically seemed to be reformed later.

Universe X

In the Universe X alternate timeline, Peter is shown (while under a hypnotic influence by Spiders-Man) marrying Gwen Stacy and not Mary Jane. Meanwhile, Mary Jane ends up marrying Harry Osborn. In reality however, Mary Jane had passed on, leaving Peter to raise May on his own and in a state of depression. Later in life, May somehow becomes the new host of the Venom symbiote, much to Peter's chagrin.

"Spider-Man: The Animated Series"

In the first episode of "Spider-Man" Season 5, "", Peter and Mary Jane (or rather, her clone) attend their wedding only to have it interrupted by the Green Goblin II, who attempts to get Mary Jane to marry him.

The list of attendees at the wedding were Peter, Mary Jane, Liz Allan, Flash Thompson, Debra Whitman, Felicia Hardy, Wilson Fisk, Robbie Robertson, J Jonah Jameson, Anna Watson, May Parker, Harry Osborn, Curt Connors, Mrs. Connors, the Scorpion and others who were not named. Unlike the comics version, their honeymoon was in Niagara Falls and not Paris. On an interesting note, in the series finale of the show, an alternate universe is seen, in which Spider-Man is engaged to Gwen Stacy.

"Marvel Zombies"

The "Marvel Zombies" #5 cover is a parody of "The Wedding!" It depicts a zombie variant of Spider-Man holding Mary Jane's half-eaten corpse, the heroes and villains in the background are decaying, and the Spider-Man shaped heart in the background has a bite taken out of it.

Trade paperback

A trade paperback, "The Amazing Spider-Man: The Wedding" (ISBN 0-87135-770-4) was published in October 1991, collecting the comic book wedding storyline from "The Amazing Spider-Man" (Vol. 1) #290-292 (July-Sept. 1987), "The Amazing Spider-Man Annual" #21 (1987), and "Not Brand Ecch" #6 (Feb. 1968). It also reprinted the newspaper strip wedding, and the media tie-in live action wedding held at Shea Stadium, and also featured an introduction by Stan Lee.

References