After 19 Years, Marvel Can Finally Fix Their Longest Lasting Spider-Man Mistake

Published Aug 16, 2026, 6:37 PM EDT

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

Almost 20 years later, it may finally and begrudgingly be time for fans and readers to move on and wipe their memory of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s relationship/marriage as they knew it in Earth-616 Spider-Man lore. None of that character development has mattered since Marvel Comics’ controversial “One More Day” storyline retconned it, and the current run of The Amazing Spider-Man is long past having Peter and MJ rekindle what they lost.

Marvel is hotly approaching The Amazing Spider-Man’s biggest milestone ever, issue #1000, and all we know about Peter and MJ’s futures with any degree of certainty is that Peter will soon be an Avenger and MJ will soon be rid of the Venom symbiote. Peter and MJ may never get back together, and, funny enough, this is the same predicament that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter and MJ are confronted with following Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

The MCU Did Spider-Man’s ‘One More Day’ Way Better

Credit: Jay Maidment /© Marvel Entertainment / © Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Marvel could’ve theoretically retconned its “One More Day” retcon at any point if it had truly wanted to, regardless of how definitive this retcon seems. Fortunately for the MCU, the retcon introduced at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home is much more compartmentalized and impacts the overall lore a lot less.

What’s maybe most baffling is that Peter had literally only been dating MJ for a week when he had Doctor Strange cast a spell that would erase her and everyone else’s memories of him, meaning what little they lost could never compare to what Peter and MJ lost in Marvel Comics.

For instance, Peter only truly had close relationships with MJ, Ned, Tony Stark, Aunt May, and Happy Hogan. Plus, Tony and May died before the memory wipe spell was cast, and Happy was only a part of Peter’s life because of those two people, so it’s not as if Peter lost all that much.

By the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, MJ, Ned, Jean Grey, Punisher, Hulk, and possibly Dr. Bruce Banner all know that Spider-Man is secretly someone named Peter Parker, even if none of them have retained or reclaimed their memories of who Peter is and how they knew him previously. And for Peter and MJ, their relationship couldn’t be dangling on a more awkward precipice.

MJ learned who Peter was and what she means to him when she discovered his letter aboard Frank Castle’s lair/home, where she told Peter she doesn’t love him—how could she, when he’s a stranger to her now? This conversation goes about the only way it could, with the romanticized and idealized version of it having been depicted when Jean inhabits MJ to needlessly and cruelly antagonize Peter further by kissing him and dropping herself off a rooftop.

The MCU’s Peter And MJ—Will They, Or Won’t They?

Credit: MovieStillsDB

If the MCU’s Peter and MJ aren’t going to be together, either, then it’s terribly odd that MJ will still seemingly play such a big role in Peter’s life. The only rational reason to keep Peter and MJ apart in the MCU (and thus keeping Tom Holland and Zendaya apart) would be to debut a new love interest, and it seems fairly clear that won’t be happening.

Peter is so in love with MJ that he’s physically repulsed when a girl who lived on the same floor of his apartment building tries talking to him, compelling him to move to the building’s asbestos-filled storage unit, which is actually a surprisingly gorgeous and spacious attic loft. Likewise, besides sharing an opaque bathhouse pool while at least semi-naked, there is nothing even remotely sexually charged about Peter and Yelena’s relationship.

Peter suddenly flirting with or having a crush on a new love interest would be alarming and jarring after he spent all of Spider-Man: Far From Home pining over her and four years after Spider-Man: No Way Home yearning for her. MJ supposably still has a boyfriend, played by Eman Esfandi, but the door is left wide open to her falling for Peter again.

Indeed, MJ is somehow able to access the roof of Midtown School of Science and Technology in order to clutch the Black Dahlia necklace that she wouldn’t remember having received and ruminate on the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Who knows, maybe the MCU’s Avengers: Secret Wars will retcon a bunch of Spider-Man lore anyway.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.

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  Peter Parker / Spider-Man

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  Jean Grey

Four years after No Way Home, Peter Parker lives alone, forgotten by everyone he loves, and devotes himself entirely to being Spider-Man.