38 Years Ago, Batman Infiltrated an Historic Spider-Man Story And Most Fans Missed It

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Say it ain't so, Mary Jane Watson. All longtime fans of Peter Parker should probably avert their gaze from this article. That is, unless you're ready for a bombshell revelation that emotionally pits Spider-Man against Batman, and in a way neither Marvel Comics nor DC Comics ever revealed considering — at least not blatantly.

The year was 1987. The issue was The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. The stage was set for a magnificent union between Parker and MJ with their wedding and marriage but, 20 years later, that ended in One More Day, thanks to a deal with the super-powered and villainous Mephisto. And that's where things get absolutely wild, according to Joe Quesada, the former editor-in-chief for Marvel Comics.

No, seriously, strap into your chair for this one, folks.

Mary Jane ... Wayne?

Quesada, in 2010, oversaw a massive plot twist, in that Mephisto actually changed the past altogether in One Moment in Time and, in that story, there was never a wedding or marriage in the first place, and Mary Jane Watson wound up sleeping with ... Bruce Wayne ... per Quesada in an interview with Popverse.

"One of the things that I skipped in the wedding annual, because it was just way too much, was the fact that Mary Jane was being wooed by another guy named Bruce, who picked her up. There’s a scene where Bruce picks up Mary Jane on her wedding night, and they leave, and you don’t know what the hell happened. And, by the way, I’m pretty sure it was Bruce Wayne, that’s what they were intending."

If Spider-Man Only Knew ...

In the end, it was a visual line Quesada didn't want to cross, preferring to instead leave it to the imagination of the reader. To that point, he went on to explain why that portion wasn't visually included in the panels of that story.

"Why Mary Jane was late — that’s a story I decided I didn’t want to tell. I didn’t write it. It’s there. She just got there later. Read the annual. She leaves with Bruce in his car, and they cut. And the next thing you know, it’s the wedding day, and Aunt Anna and everybody’s wondering where the heck Mary Jane is. She’s late and Peter’s late.

"And who drives her to the wedding? I’ll leave that up to the reader. By the way, I didn’t tell that story. My story is, they sit, they park, they talk for eight hours, and she decides to get married. He convinces her to get married."

And with that, disaster was averted, no thanks to the devilish ways of Mephisto. But that doesn't mean Mary Jane Watson went into the union with the same angelic nature as she did in the original timeline, and the world will now always know not only did she and Batman have an encounter before she fully committed to Spider-Man, but also that, in Quesada's version, Bruce Wayne is the reason it happened at all.