#Did they like. mean to do that? I mean it's famously an mj line- and even just calling peter “tiger” is specifically a mj thing

[zero-shame]

HE SAID "GO GET 'EM TIGER"!!

HE SAID "GO GET 'EM TIGER"!!!!

THEY GAVE AN MJ LINE TO HARRY OSBORN

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I honestly would love to see Black Cat and MJ just hang out more. Because of the love triangle I’ve always heard about how much they ‘must’ hate each other, but honestly I could picture Pete waking up one day, finding MJ and Felicia in the living room having coffee and asking what she’s doing here and MJ just says, “Dude we meet up like twice a week to hang. We’re going bowling tonight.” or something.

They’re relationship is actually more complicated than simply being catty rivals or some such. 

The harsh truth is, for better or worse, writers pitted the pair against one another lightly in the 1980s, famously the first instance of this was in the iconic ASM #258, the issue both immediately after MJ reveals she knows who Peter is and where Peter learns the truth about the black costume.

Initially the animosity was more on Felicia’s end than MJ’s, whether she meant it or not, she briefly felt Peter was better suited to Black Cat.

MJ became Peter’s confidant not too long before he and Felicia broke up and when she was later reintroduced into the titles MJ became more clearly down on her. This is epitomized in Spec #119 (a great Felicia story).

That issue also  ends though with MJ admitting she has complicated conflicting feelings towards Felicia, the complications of which are wrapped up in her complicated feelings for Peter. In the story Felicia single handily takes down Sabertooth.* In a sense she defended civilians and Peter in doing so and thus MJ is caught between admiration and jealousy.

Their romantic rivalry becomes more out and out mean in Spec #123 and ASM #288 which follows up on that subplot. In the issues MJ resolves to set her and Peter’s ‘will they won’t they’ thing straight only find Felicia in Peter’s apartment (he saved her earlier that day and she needed somewhere to regroup). At the end of that adventure though Felicia basically forcibly stayed in Peter’s apartment so MJ was none too pleased to find her there when she showed up to make Peter breakfast in bed.**

The pair remained in disdain of one another after this but also didn’t interact face to face again until after Pete and MJ got married and more specifically after Peter lost his cosmic powers defeating Tri-Sentinel. Felicia had learned Peter had gotten married and as revenge began dating Flash with the intention of breaking his heart to hurt Peter by proxy. She also delighted in makig him and MJ uncomfortable though.

When MJ and Felicia interacted one-on-one Felicia was shockingly straight up assaulting MJ!

At this point MJ obviously didn’t like Felicia but she was not giving as good as she got. Things began to shift not too long after in a storyline that saw Peter give up his powers and Felicia begin to develop genuine feelings for Flash. During this storyline Felicia stepped up and began acting as the muscle for the powerless Peter. MJ still didn’t like Peter was starting to reluctantly recognize her as more of an ally than an enemy. In particular the story ended with Felicia powerless and deciding to temporarily retire and date Flash sincerely.

Whilst they weren’t exactly friends it did get to a point where MJ was okay with going on double dates with Flash and Felicia, considering the latter was no longer out to get her/hurt Flash/steal Peter away.

However a significant turning point occurred in Web of Spider-Man #80. The story short is that Peter/Spidey is missing after he and Mj got attacked. MJ turns to Felicia for help, citing the fact she still cares for Peter and that’s common ground for them to work with for the moment. She gives her a tracking device Peter made to zero in on him. She even admits she’s out of her league on this front and it’s up to Felicia. Felicia of course helps save Spidey and whilst initially claims her locating him was due to their ‘connection’ (meaning their romantic history) she admits MJhelped witht he tracking device. The issue ends though with Felicia admitting that MJ’s device actually didn’t work, meaning Felicia simply let the Parker couple think it did out of kindness to MJ. This didn’t turn the pair into friends, but it showed they were clearly mellowing towards one another.

This didn’t make them chummy as catty remarks still occurred during later interactions (noticably from MJ). I’m skipping over stuff to get to some highlights, the next of which is a big one. 

In Felicia’s first ever solo mini-seires MJ not only appears int he first issue but they are actually hanging out...together...as friends!

Or at least as frenemies. It’s clear there is still some underlying jealousy or jousting to be had, but they’re very open about it and Felicia is actively confiding in MJ, even talking about how she feels regarding Peter. And not just Peter in general, his then current state of being. This was back when Peter was unravelling due to the aftermath of the Robot Parents crap and becoming more anti-social and obsessive about his Spider-Man life, spending less time out of the costume. It got Felicia and MJ concerned. A very significant line of dialogue in this scene is MJ saying she’ll call Felicia later. It implies that they have hung out together before or are at least okay with doing do again in the near future. 

Also this was at Felicia’s home, so for MJ to have voluntarily gone to the home of the woman who once assaulted her says a lot about how things have changed.

Again skipping over some stuff but the next big moment for MJ and Felicia came in Web of Spider-Man #125 where MJ once again calls upon Felicia’s aid to find Peter (though he’s not in trouble, she just needs him present). The circumstances are decidedly different from Web #80. There is no jousting going on. Partially this is due to their relationship having grown deeper but it’s also due to MJ being pregnant and amidst the chaos of the time (Peter was on trial for murder, Aunt May had just died and MJ had been recently abducted by Kaine) she was clearly feeling very vulnerable. 

Vulnerable enough in fact that Felicia can clearly tell MJ is upset and outright hugs her, offering some support and comfort. 

This time Felicia isn’t seeking out Peter less because she cares for him and more because she wants to help MJ and the baby. If ever there was a moment clearly demarking the pair had fully transitioned into real friendship, this was it. 

Whilst MJ and Felicia don’t directly interact in Web #128 Peter makes a reference to MJ and Felicia talking on the phone for hours.

Skipping waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead now. The tl:dr is that Felicia clearly began to develop some feelings for Peter again during Howard Mackie’s run. This became more significantly a factor in the Evil that Men Do Limited Series where Felicia is putting the movies on Peter and also refers to MJ derogatorily. 

Something to note about Evil that Men do is that it gets a lot of details wrong and it’s continuity is wonky. the first half came out when Peter and MJ were seperated, but the second half came out years later and used then contemporary continuity from when Peter and MJ would’ve been back together. The important thing to note is Felicia went back to having the hots for Spider-Man and also being down on MJ

To my recollection the next time I recall MJ and Felicia having a significant interaction was in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #5. In the issue Felicia has rescued Peter from the Vulture and is helping him investigate Aunt may’s recent kidnapping. Peter was badly beat up so Felicia and Mj were nursing him back to health. The scene where Peter wakes up clearly conveys that there is some tension and competitivness going on between MJ and Felicia even though they are talking in a friendly manner to one another. When Felicia leaves MJ looked really bummed out, which might’e been due to some insecurities regarding Felicia or because of their financial troubles at the time (she was keeping them from Peter).

Later on in Marvel Knights #10, when Peter has resolved to break Norman Osborn out of jail in order to save Aunt May, Felicia going along with him for this, MJ blows up at Felicia and basically tells her to back off from Peter.

In defence of MJ here, Norman Osborn has pushed them to the edge big time so I think she’s having a major wobble regarding Black Cat.

Anyway, she’s not wrong about Felicia as the remaining issues of the arc make it clear that Felicia is absolutely in love with Peter again if Evil that Men Do didn’t make that clear enough.

Next up in Spider-Man: Breakout #2, MJ is similarly pissed off about Peter contacting Felicia for help tracking down the U-Foes.

Frankly...I find this instance rather out of character but I thought I might as well mention it.

Then we have Spider-Man Unlimited volume 3 #14. In this issue, as payback for helping him bust out Norman Osborn, Felicia demands Spider-Man help her steal something from Doctor Doom. Peter isn’t happy about this until it turns out that the item in question was a spider tracer with his finger prints on it, meaning Felicia was trying to once again protect Peter. MJ wasn’t happy to find out Peter was hanging out with Felicia but acknwoeldged she helped protect them.

The next notable interaction was during Civil War when Peter was unmasked, the Parkers were fugitives and Peter was half dead from a beating via the Rhino. Felicia upon learning of this sought out the Parkers and volunteered to even the score with Rhino. When all is said and done, MJ asks Felicia if she wants to give Peter a message from her.

We then transition into shitty post-OMD continuity and frankly I’m not touching 90% of that sans one notable story (Web of Spider-Man volume 2 #11-12) in which Felicia, who has totally forgotten who MJ and Peter Parker are, nevertheless befriends MJ after an adventure to save Peter.

I bring up this story simply because your original question was regarding MJ and Felicia friendship.

This story’s canonicity can be debated for a few reasons, it doesn’t make sense in general because the mindwipe was asinine shit and it has 0 follow up. In fact it doesn’t even really jive with later appearances of MJ or Felicia. It is amusing though that it completes a sort of trilogy wherein MJ and Felicia become more friendly in Web of Spider-Man.

Anyway, that brings you pretty much up to date.

Essentially there are two distinct eras for MJ and Felicia’s relationship. The 1980s-1990s where they have a clear arc transitioning from acquaintances who’re not that fond of one another to rivals to frenemies to outright friends. 

Then you have the 2000s and beyond which pits the two against one another again but in a very different dynamic to before as MJ is Peter’s wife and recognizes Felicia’s as an ally.

It’s not impossible to reconcile the two narratively but I’m not going to do that here. 

I think the second era might’ve been done in order to inject more tension into the Spider Marriage and in fairness, it did work. It was dramatic.

But I personally prefer the second era much more as it portrays a clear character arc. As a bonus I should mention that, since it diverged from Spider-Man continuity in the late 1990s, in Spider-Girl MJ and Felicia’s relationship continued to develop in a friendly manner to the point where Felicia would pay Mj a visit in her office and the pair would chat about their daughters and their mutual problems. In MJ’s case a difficult pregnancy and in Felicia’s her rebellious daughter who wasn’t fond of her same sex partner.

To bring this right around to your OP, the scenes of friendship have more or less happened in canon and in stories that are pseudo canon. 

*Bear in mind this was the same decade where Sabertooth participated in the infamous Mutant Massacre storyline where he and his peers mass slaughtered a bunch of defenceless mutants. Readers knew he was no pushover.  

**Because you see according to Joe Quesada, Steve Wacker, Dan Slott et al Mary Jane was clearly not dating Peter at this time and I think we’ve all brought groceries to our ex’s apartment (that we own a key to) in order to make them breakfast in bed. It’s the single most platonic gesture possible.

[fan-girly-girl]

Boh

Summary: 

Boh /boh/ noun, Italian slang word 1. Telling someone you either don't know or don't care about the person's question or situation. Commonly used in Italy.

"Boh!"

"W- what?" Said a confused Peter.

"It's my new superpower. It's like I was born to say this word." MJ's intrigued eyes then trailed down to the cute gift bag clutched onto Peter's hand as if he was hiding an engagement ring for her and was about to propose. Not that that's what she had in mind. At the moment. "So... what's in the bag?" She asked curiously.

"Oh, uh... boh." Peter shrugged casually.

MJ hummed at his cleverness. "Nice."

MJ was the type of person to not give a shit about people's business. And discovering the word, "Boh," gave her an advantage to let other people know that. That is if they speak Italian. Or if that person is Peter Parker, who already learned that phrase from the one and only. Although, for a super honest pessimist, MJ would never mean to use the definition of boh when it comes to Peter Parker on her mind.

A/N: All characters belong to Marvel Studios and this is my first fic since 3 years, so hopefully it's way less crappy than the ones I wrote in middle school because ngl they were shitty af. Anyways, enjoy! 

Chapter 1. I feel like chet

The Italian word, "Boh," generally means, "I don't know," or "I don't care." That was all MJ thought about whilst making use of her new "superpower" after obtaining it from Italy. It was very effective on strangers who were possibly trying to hit on her with cheesy pickup lines. Well, she didn't know if they were either pickup lines or were just asking her for directions in Italian while giving her goo-goo eyes. Either way, boh was the best way to make all of MJ's minor problems go away. And by minor problems she means people.

Boh made her demeanor more self-explanatory, since she's always known to be shamelessly honest and direct with people. Unless if one of those people was Peter Parker. No matter how many times he undoubtedly bails out on his friends because of his "Stark internship" or immediately freaks out when he sees Brad breathe in MJ's direction, boh would never describe how much she really did care about— scratch that— loved the way he adorably acts like an idiot.

MJ wondered if that time she got that $70 Black Widow themed phone case for Secret Santa was from Peter, since:

1) There was no one in the math club who told her who her Secret Santa was for some reason.

2) Peter was absent on the day of Secret Santa, so that could mean he couldn't have the time to tell her that day because he had to save New York or something like that. But then again, a few other people were absent too.

3) Even if Peter couldn't tell her on Secret Santa, he could at least tell her the next time he saw her again at school.

Which then left MJ with one conclusion: Peter was too shy to tell her it was from him because he was the only person who heard her say that Black Widow was her favorite hero and there was a possible chance that why he would be too shy to tell her so soon was because he had a crush on her. But she could be jumping to conclusions, which made her sound like a hopeless romantic afraid of commitment.

(A/N: Shout-out to my girl mxmtoon, who you can find one of her songs from above ^ and more on Spotify and Youtube and also Tik Tok if you're into that kind of stuff.)

MJ still kept the Black Widow phone case on her Stark phone and sometimes even cherished it when people thought she wanted to be anti-social with her phone. Even though the red hourglass symbol printed on it was so scratched out that it only looked like a black phone case with bloody scratch marks from some crazy, wild animal, like a bear or a wolf, or a wolverine. Hell, it could even be a symbol of the mutant, Wolverine, himself. MJ would have thought of that new concept as the more the merrier, because she usually likes it when some things are broken. And as out of topic as this sounds, she'd sometimes have these weird dreams of her and the Wolverine in another universe where she worked for him as one of his acrobats while he ring mastered in an old-timey circus. She even had no problem with that because she got to sing while sky dancing with some guy who reminded her so much of her childhood crush, Troy Bolton, from High School Musical.

Anyway, if having MJ's special Secret Santa gift remind her of her random visions, then the gift itself wouldn't feel so special to her anymore. And it wasn't only because one of her idols were no longer represented on a piece of technology.

Or represented through a public memorial like Iron Man. I mean, she took on her life to save the universe too, so where's her funeral? MJ randomly complained to herself.

It was also because she thought it would have upset Peter a little bit since she knew how much he spent on it. Which was really uncharacteristic of her to care so much about letting someone down, as the girl who is obsessed with telling the truth when she knows how much it could hurt someone's feelings. But why should a phone case make her worry about being validated by a high school loser who just happens to have a personality bound to give someone cavities with a head of cute and fluffy clumps of chestnut hair and a chiseled jawli- Oh my God, please stop it with whatever you're thinking about right now! MJ mentally scolded at herself.

She couldn't be falling for him too. And why would she add the word, "too"? How would she even know if he likes her back? Why should she even care? Since when does Michelle Jones ever care about one's perspective on her? Boh. She then remembered the lucky phrase and took a deep breath and remembered why she procured it. It was more helpful when Ned came to stop her off-of-the-railed train of thoughts by asking her some irrelevant question about which locations in Venice are more romantic to spend time with Betty.

Responding with a careless tone like usual, MJ shrugged and said the Palazzo Dario, also known as "the house that kills." According to what MJ Googled before the trip, Palazzo Dario was a famously haunted house in Venice that had a history of murders, suicides, accidents and bankruptcies of people who have ever been associated with the house. Of course, she told Ned that information just to let him know that she was messing with him. Also because she doesn't want to risk some of her friends being cursed by a suicidal ghost of the builder's daughter, despite her statement of not believing in ghosts.

"Come on, I'm pretty sure you Googled more than just Top 5 Haunted Places in Venice." Ned says.

"And how would you know that?" MJ raised her eyebrow suspiciously and out of habit.

"Peter told me he saw you also look up some romantic areas of Europe in the library last week."

Peter saw that? And was so interested enough to tell Ned about it? MJ thought in sudden intent.

She wondered if she should be either concerned or a little hopeful of having Peter as her vise-versa stalker. But then, Ned suddenly looked nervous and regretful as if he wasn't supposed to tell her about Peter possibly stalking her.

"I- I mean, like 'cause, um..." Ned stammered. "E- everyone knows you like to look up weird stuff on the internet and... Peter thought it was weird of you to look up something unusual for someone like you."

Now MJ raised both brows in utter suspicion and slight offense by Ned saying someone like her. "So is he, like, spying on me?"

"W- whaaaat? Pfft, no, he... he's just... uh, very observant, you know?"

Hmmm...

Flashback

Present

Copycat. MJ mentally scoffed. "And why would Peter observe me out of all people?" She tried her best to sound cool and witty about it but it was so hard not to sound so desperate because of the fact that Peter knows her favorite superhero and he was very intrigued of her internet history in a non-creepy way.

Now Ned looked like he knew he was going to be a dead man. "Um... boh?"

And now Peter told Ned her new catchphrase.

"It's an Italian phrase I learned by myself." Ned lied, assuming that MJ didn't know the meaning of the word. "-And not from Peter, if that's what you're asking."

"Why would you think I'd assume Peter taught you that?" She hummed in suspicion.

"No reason." Ned smiled nervously.

Everyone loves you to death, Ned, but you can be a really bad liar. MJ mentally sighed while hiding a soft smile. She was still glad that people, like Ned, considered her their friend no matter how many times she claimed that she has none.

Before MJ could lightly interrogate Ned some more, Betty stepped in, interrupting the conversation, and asked him to take some pictures of her by the gondolas. MJ wanted to get her hopes up into thinking that Peter did like her, but when you're known to be the high school bookcase and anti-social pessimist, it's hard to believe that anything can happen.

Maybe the real reason why Peter didn't tell her about the phone case was because he was too embarrassed to let anyone think he was going to spoil the emo girl out of traditional rules based on a Christian holiday. And maybe during the times he saw her do anything uncharacteristically weird, he'd tell Ned about it just to make fun of her behind her back. And the "boh" thing was probably all the more to make fun of her— Wait a second, Peter would never make fun of people who are less weaker than him! Or anyone in general. Not even Flash or Brad.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

It’s really obvious Joe Quesada was responsible for One More Day guys, not J. Michael Straczynski

Another reason why blaming Straczynski for One More Day is wrong?

The worst parts of it were the deal and the involvement of Mephisto.

And I strongly suspect that those elements were Quesada’s doing not Straczynski’s.

Not gonna lie some of this is based upon cultural prejudices so you’ve been warned.

Simply put the big notion that JMS would be responsible for Mephisto’s involvement is premeditated upon the idea that magic and mysticism was a major theme in his run on Spider-Man.

But here is the thing though.

Traditionally in the Western world AND in the Marvel universe there has usually been subtle lines of delineation between the kind of worldly mysticism and magic of other cultures, stereotypical ‘the wise old man from the East’, and the occult devil worshiping kind.

How many ‘wise man from the East who knows ancient magic’ have you (unfortunately) seen wherein their portrayed in a way that conveys wisdom, power and other positive attributes (not saying this means it’s not racist, but you see what I mean).

In contrast you have the people who help out Damien in the Omen movies, who’re decidedly agents of utter evil.

This applies to the Marvel Universe too. Not unsurprisingly given that these are American characters, written by American writers set usually in fictional American settings.

Consequently you have the kinds of magic and mystical sources Doctor Strange, the Norse Gods and other entities are associated with but in-universe guys like Mephisto, Ghost Rider and Damian Hellstorm are narratively coded differently. 

Doctor Strange might fight forces of evil but they are usually Eldritch Abominations akin to something from Lovecraft. They’re broad forces of nature a lot of the time and even the ones who aren’t tend to be incredibly powerful magical jerks.

The Norse Gods are more grandiose and traditionally Epic, as are the members of the Greek pantheon.

Mephisto and characters associated with demons and Hell though are often portrayed as sadistic and encounters with them have horrible personal costs that usually play out as Aesop fables of some kind.

Why is recognizing this distinction important?

Because throughout his run Straczynski on Spider-Man expressed a clear preference for the former types than the latter. Even evil characters associated with mysticism weren’t strictly speaking demonic. His concept was to emphasise the spider aspect of Spider-Man. The animal and nature connection, hence Morlun, Shathra and the Other were magical but all connected in a ‘circle of life, law of the jungle’ kind of way. 

Morlun and Shathra were evil but basically just wanted to eat Spider-Man. In the Other Peter died and was reborn as a spider in real life sheds its skin. Encounters with Doctor Strange similarly presented the forces of magic as relatively neutral, bigger than distinctions between good and evil but subject to abuse by individual people (huh, almost like it was riffing on ‘great power comes great responsibility’ or something)? 

Same deal with Loki in JMS’ run. Loki wan’t presented as evil and the force he and Spidey teamed up against was just a force of trickery and chaos, not strictly evil but a threat to public safety all the same. Even Dormammu is more an 1960s fever dream conception of evil than strictly speaking clearly demonic within a Judea-Christian context.

What I am saying is for Straczynski to then turn around and make use of Mephisto actually seems to go against his preferences in dabbling with magic and mysticism. It’s too obvious for him, too black and white.

But then we have Quesada.

Quesada who famously was raised Catholic. And not just incidentally Catholic. Catholic to the point where he is majorly associated with the most famous Catholic superhero ever who also just so happens to dress as a devil. I am of course speaking about Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil.

Providing artwork along with the writing of fellow Catholic Kevin Smith, Quesada infamously produced the Guardian Devil storyline in the late 1990s and early 2000s and thereby helped save Marvel (and secure start him on the road to becoming EIC) by introducing the Marvel Knights line of comics.

So prolific was this story that the ramifications of it are still felt to this day in Daredevil and artwork from it is still used in promotional material for the character.

And WHAT does the Guardian Devil storyline happen to involve?

It involves Daredevil believing he’s encountering the anti-christ and the death of his long time love interest Karen Page, thereby making him single, something people at Marvel were evidently interested in since the story itself tries to have Daredevil call up his ex Black Widow for sex even before Karen has died.

....Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Not convinced?

Okay.

How about the fact that Quesada once tried to justify One More Day by putting across a weird, weird story about his mother:

Let me digress for a bit, I promise there’s a point to this story.

I was raised by a very middle-class family. We went through some very rough financial times, but for the most part we were eventually okay. Both my mom and dad were old-school: To them, what was most important was that their kid had more in life and more opportunities than they had growing up. Many years ago, after my grandfather passed away, my father inherited the house owned by my grandfather. My dad was an amazing man, but he wasn’t great with money and he had a tendency to worry about things to extremes. My mom, having known him for so many years, knew this all too well. They had separated for some time and eventually reunited, so there was a lot of water under that bridge. Sometime after receiving the house, both he and my mom decided that they wanted to sell it, take the money and move to Florida, and buy a house there. My mom was especially pleased with this idea because owning a house was a proper inheritance to hand down to their son when the time came.

So, as planned, off they went to good ol’ Miami. My mom was thrilled, but only momentarily. They had some money in the bank, but my dad decided to rent a home instead of buying one. For three years, he rented, despite my mom and I encouraging him to stop wasting money on rent buy a proper home. My dad always panicked when it came to big money issues and I suspect that’s why he hesitated. But one day he finally gave in and decided to go house shopping.

After months and months of looking and finally finding a place, and then going through all of the time it took to close the deal, he did it — he signed on the dotted line. The very next day, my mother showed him a half dollar-sized bruise and lump over one of her breast. It was cancer and it was very advanced. We were both floored. How could she hide this from us? I asked my mom how long she knew she had the lump, and she said that she’d discovered it right around the time that my dad started to get the itch to buy a house. She had decided not to say anything because if my father had known that she had this medical issue, he would have begun worrying about medical bills and would have never bought the house.

I was furious at her; I understood why she did it, but the cancer eventually took her from us way to soon. In her world, she wanted to make sure that our family had a home and she put that above her health. After knowing my dad for all those years, she knew exactly how he would have reacted. The truth of the matter is that she was right — he would have stopped looking for a home, he would have worried himself sick about what was coming down the road. What she failed to see, however, was that no house, no inheritance, could ever make up the loss of her in my life.

So, to me, MJ was doing the same thing. Not only did she force the issue, but she did everything she could to make sure that Mephisto wouldn’t screw Peter in the deal. And then in the end, when Peter is at the crossroads, she gives him the okay and the confidence to join her in the pact when she simply says, “Be my hero.

Putting aside how a house isn’t the same thign as a fucking wife and relationship, that story sounds waaaaaaay too personal and waaaaaay too close to One More Day for him to just conveniently have it as an appropriate analogy to explain someone else’s  story decisions.

And frankly a story like that would turn psychiatrists’ eyes into dollar signs. 

It’s really fucked up and even more fucked up that he walked away thinking and feeling about it this way.

Basically it HEAVILY implies OMD was half about him working through his issues with his mother’s death as much as it was about him hating Spider-Man being married (and apparently wanting him to sleep with a woman called Carlie who was named after his daughter and  no I’m not making that up).

Take all this context into account and it becomes really, really unlikely that the ideas to use Mephisto and erase the marriage via a deal with him was Straczynski’s doing.

[fan-girly-girl]

Boh

Chapter One: I Feel Like Chet

Summary: 

Boh /boh/ noun, Italian slang word 1. Telling someone you either don't know or don't care about the person's question or situation. Commonly used in Italy.

"Boh!" 

"W- what?" Said a confused Peter. 

"It's my new superpower. It's like I was born to say this word." MJ's intrigued eyes then trailed down to the cute gift bag clutched onto Peter's hand as if he was hiding an engagement ring for her and was about to propose. Not that that's what she had in mind. At the moment. "So... what's in the bag?" She asked curiously. 

"Oh, uh... boh." Peter shrugged casually. 

MJ hummed at his cleverness. "Nice." 

MJ was the type of person to not give a shit about people's business. And discovering the word, "Boh," gave her an advantage to let other people know that. That is if they speak Italian. Or if that person is Peter Parker, who already learned that phrase from the one and only. Although, for a super honest pessimist, MJ would never mean to use the definition of boh when it comes to Peter Parker on her mind.

A/N: All characters belong to Marvel Studios and this is my first fic since 3 years, so hopefully it's way less crappy than the ones I wrote in middle school because ngl they were shitty af. Anyways, enjoy!

The Italian word, "Boh," generally means, "I don't know," or "I don't care." That was all MJ thought about whilst making use of her new "superpower" after obtaining it from Italy. It was very effective on strangers who were possibly trying to hit on her with cheesy pickup lines. Well, she didn't know if they were either pickup lines or were just asking her for directions in Italian while giving her goo-goo eyes. Either way, boh was the best way to make all of MJ's minor problems go away. And by minor problems she means people.

Boh made her demeanor more self-explanatory, since she's always known to be shamelessly honest and direct with people. Unless if one of those people was Peter Parker. No matter how many times he undoubtedly bails out on his friends because of his "Stark internship" or immediately freaks out when he sees Brad breathe in MJ's direction, boh would never describe how much she really did care about— scratch that— loved the way he adorably acts like an idiot.

MJ wondered if that time she got that $70 Black Widow themed phone case for Secret Santa was from Peter, since:

1) There was no one in the math club who told her who her Secret Santa was for some reason.

2) Peter was absent on the day of Secret Santa, so that could mean he couldn't have the time to tell her that day because he had to save New York or something like that. But then again, a few other people were absent too.

3) Even if Peter couldn't tell her on Secret Santa, he could at least tell her the next time he saw her again at school.

Which then left MJ with one conclusion: Peter was too shy to tell her it was from him because he was the only person who heard her say that Black Widow was her favorite hero and there was a possible chance that why he would be too shy to tell her so soon was because he had a crush on her. But she could be jumping to conclusions, which made her sound like a hopeless romantic afraid of commitment.

(A/N: Shout-out to my girl mxmtoon, who you can find one of her songs from above ^ and more on Spotify and Youtube and also Tik Tok if you're into that kind of stuff.)

MJ still kept the Black Widow phone case on her Stark phone and sometimes even cherished it when people thought she wanted to be anti-social with her phone. Even though the red hourglass symbol printed on it was so scratched out that it only looked like a black phone case with bloody scratch marks from some crazy, wild animal, like a bear or a wolf, or a wolverine. Hell, it could even be a symbol of the mutant, Wolverine, himself. MJ would have thought of that new concept as the more the merrier, because she usually likes it when some things are broken. And as out of topic as this sounds, she'd sometimes have these weird dreams of her and the Wolverine in another universe where she worked for him as one of his acrobats while he ring mastered in an old-timey circus. She even had no problem with that because she got to sing while sky dancing with some guy who reminded her so much of her childhood crush, Troy Bolton, from High School Musical.

Anyway, if having MJ's special Secret Santa gift remind her of her random visions, then the gift itself wouldn't feel so special to her anymore. And it wasn't only because one of her idols were no longer represented on a piece of technology.

Or represented through a public memorial like Iron Man. I mean, she took on her life to save the universe too, so where's her funeral? MJ randomly complained to herself.

It was also because she thought it would have upset Peter a little bit since she knew how much he spent on it. Which was really uncharacteristic of her to care so much about letting someone down, as the girl who is obsessed with telling the truth when she knows how much it could hurt someone's feelings. But why should a phone case make her worry about being validated by a high school loser who just happens to have a personality bound to give someone cavities with a head of cute and fluffy clumps of chestnut hair and a chiseled jawli- Oh my God, please stop it with whatever you're thinking about right now! MJ mentally scolded at herself.

She couldn't be falling for him too. And why would she add the word, "too"? How would she even know if he likes her back? Why should she even care? Since when does Michelle Jones ever care about one's perspective on her? Boh. She then remembered the lucky phrase and took a deep breath and remembered why she procured it. It was more helpful when Ned came to stop her off-of-the-railed train of thoughts by asking her some irrelevant question about which locations in Venice are more romantic to spend time with Betty.

Responding with a careless tone like usual, MJ shrugged and said the Palazzo Dario, also known as "the house that kills." According to what MJ Googled before the trip, Palazzo Dario was a famously haunted house in Venice that had a history of murders, suicides, accidents and bankruptcies of people who have ever been associated with the house. Of course, she told Ned that information just to let him know that she was messing with him. Also because she doesn't want to risk some of her friends being cursed by a suicidal ghost of the builder's daughter, despite her statement of not believing in ghosts.

"Come on, I'm pretty sure you Googled more than just Top 5 Haunted Places in Venice." Ned says.

"And how would you know that?" MJ raised her eyebrow suspiciously and out of habit.

"Peter told me he saw you also look up some romantic areas of Europe in the library last week."

Peter saw that? And was so interested enough to tell Ned about it? MJ thought in sudden intent.

She wondered if she should be either concerned or a little hopeful of having Peter as her vise-versa stalker. But then, Ned suddenly looked nervous and regretful as if he wasn't supposed to tell her about Peter possibly stalking her.

"I- I mean, like 'cause, um..." Ned stammered. "E- everyone knows you like to look up weird stuff on the internet and... Peter thought it was weird of you to look up something unusual for someone like you."

Now MJ raised both brows in utter suspicion and slight offense by Ned saying someone like her. "So is he, like, spying on me?"

"W- whaaaat? Pfft, no, he... he's just... uh, very observant, you know?"

Hmmm...

Flashback

Present

Copycat. MJ mentally scoffed. "And why would Peter observe me out of all people?" She tried her best to sound cool and witty about it but it was so hard not to sound so desperate because of the fact that Peter knows her favorite superhero and he was very intrigued of her internet history in a non-creepy way.

Now Ned looked like he knew he was going to be a dead man. "Um... boh?"

And now Peter told Ned her new catchphrase.

"It's an Italian phrase I learned by myself." Ned lied, assuming that MJ didn't know the meaning of the word. "-And not from Peter, if that's what you're asking."

"Why would you think I'd assume Peter taught you that?" She hummed in suspicion.

"No reason." Ned smiled nervously.

Everyone loves you to death, Ned, but you can be a really bad liar. MJ mentally sighed while hiding a soft smile. She was still glad that people, like Ned, considered her their friend no matter how many times she claimed that she has none.

Before MJ could lightly interrogate Ned some more, Betty stepped in, interrupting the conversation, and asked him to take some pictures of her by the gondolas. MJ wanted to get her hopes up into thinking that Peter did like her, but when you're known to be the high school bookcase and anti-social pessimist, it's hard to believe that anything can happen.

Maybe the real reason why Peter didn't tell her about the phone case was because he was too embarrassed to let anyone think he was going to spoil the emo girl out of traditional rules based on a Christian holiday. And maybe during the times he saw her do anything uncharacteristically weird, he'd tell Ned about it just to make fun of her behind her back. And the "boh" thing was probably all the more to make fun of her— Wait a second, Peter would never make fun of people who are less weaker than him! Or anyone in general. Not even Flash or Brad.

Her realization thankfully snapped her out of her light panicking. God, she never felt this insecure since Peter's old obsession with Liz. And it was a long-ass phase that both Peter and MJ had to suffer through because of their oblivious love triangle. Now that MJ realized it, "boh" was not really a superpower. It was a repellent. But not a repellent to keep people away. It was more like a repellent made to keep MJ away from getting the chance to have a happier social life.