Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)

Carnage
Name	Mary Jane Watson
Current Alias	Carnage
Aliases	Editorial Names: MJarnage Other Aliases: Em Jay, MJ
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Symbiote Hive Formerly The Mary Janes
Relatives	Anna Watson (aunt) Venom (former symbiote); Carnage (current symbiote)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Eyes	Irises: Green
Hair	Red
Unusual Features	As Carnage, Mary Jane possesses black facial markings, yellow sclerae, red irises, yellow fangs, claws, and a prehensile tongue that are part of her symbiote.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-65, (currently displaced to Earth-616)
Place of Birth	New York City, New York
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Singer; College Student
Education	High School
Base of Operations	New York City, New York
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez
First	Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (September, 2014) (as Mary Jane Watson) King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage #2 (February, 2021) (as Carnage)
First	Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (September, 2014) (as Mary Jane Watson) King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage #2 (February, 2021) (as Carnage)

 You've got an ego and a temper, but you're a good person. 

—Ghost-Spider

History

Early Life

When she was in sixth grade, Mary Jane met and became best friends with Gwen Stacy. When they were teenagers, MJ suggested that she and Gwen establish a band together to become rich and famous, and was dismayed by Gwen - who had recently become the superhero Spider-Woman - not paying attention to her. During her senior year of high-school, MJ got into a fight with Glory Grant that resulted in them sharing detention together. Inspired by their mutual love of music, MJ and Glory founded a rock band called the Mary Janes alongside Gwen and Betty Brant; though MJ's harsh temper and arrogance caused friction, particularly between herself and Glory. When Gwen didn't show up for the Mary Janes' first performance at their senior prom due to fighting the Lizard as Spider-Woman, MJ was deeply hurt and assumed Gwen no longer cared about their promise to become famous together.

At some point, MJ dated a boy but broke up with him over their differing tastes in music. She was also formerly friends with Liz Allan before her unwittingly smug and self-absorbed attitude caused a falling out when MJ tried to inform Liz that her boyfriend had been attempting to cheat on her. Following Randy Robertson - the Mary Janes' manager - bringing Felicia Hardy in as a second vocalist, Mary Jane got into an altercation with her and was nearly strangled with a mic cord. She and the other Mary Janes also participated in a charity wrestling match against Jen Walters.

Involvement in Spider-Woman's Misadventures

Mary Jane's frustration with Gwen spacing out during practise and being late to the opening of their first major concert - which was crashed by the Rhino attempting to carry out a hit on Gwen's father George - led to the latter quitting the band. While the attack led to a surge in the band's popularity, MJ's stubbornly refused to swallow her pride and ask Gwen to come back, leading to Glory quitting as well. When Gwen was found half-conscious in a bar by Randy, MJ accompanied the other bandmates to check on her, but her resentment over Gwen having seemingly bailed on the band's first major gig led to a vehement argument with Glory. With Gwen and Glory both eventually rejoining the band, Mary Jane swallowed her pride and set up a gig headlining for Felicia Hardy's new band in order to piggyback off Felicia's success; though the gig turned out to be a disaster when ninja led by Matt Murdock attacked. Despite deeply resenting Felicia, MJ fought back to back with her until Spider-Woman arrived and drove the ninja off.

Mary Jane was the first of the Mary Janes to figure out Gwen was Spider-Woman after watching her throw Frank Castle through a window; though to her annoyance Gwen - who had lost her powers by that point and was dependent on a limited supply of power-ups - repeatedly refused to admit the truth or engage in superheroics. The other members of the Mary Janes initially dismissed MJ's theory as ridiculous until she was able to definitively prove it by texting Gwen's cellphone while Spider-Woman was on live TV. With Gwen busy superheroing in Madripoor, MJ asked Glory to perform as the band's drummer at their next gig - leading to an argument where Glory once again threatened to quit once the gig was over. On the way to the gig, MJ had an awkward run-in with her ex-boyfriend, who requested she return some records he'd loaned her while they were dating. After doing so, Mary Jane punched out a boy who was harassing Betty Brant, causing Glory to develop a crush on her. At some point following this incident, MJ and Glory entered into a romantic relationship.

Following Gwen's stint in prison for her vigilantism, Mary Jane regrouped the band with plans to go on-tour, though her perfectionism and determination to recapture the Mary Janes' former glory clashed with Gwen's PTSD and she was unamused by Gwen's idea to become a hero for hire. As the band's next big gig approached, MJ's frustration and anxiety over their comeback - as well as jealousy of Gwen's superpowers - led to her lashing out at Gwen during practise, even accusing her of trying to usurp leadership of the Mary Janes when a piece of Gwen's malfunctioning symbiote accidentally latched onto her. The Mary Janes' next gig was thrown into chaos when Man-Wolf's gang bombed the venue, Gwen saving Mary Jane from being crushed by falling debris.

Mary Jane was furious when Gwen informed the band she had decided to start attending university in an alternate reality - Earth-616, chastising Gwen that the band needed her and leaving Gwen dismayed that she wasn't more understanding; though she later began making an effort to keep her temper in-check. When Gwen was late for band practise - having been kidnapped by the Jackal of Earth-616, who had followed her into Earth-65 - MJ tracked her location via her phone and led the other members of the band in storming Man-Wolf's hideout. MJ was promptly taken hostage, but used her self-defence training to break free and help Gwen subdue the Jackal, expressing irritation at Gwen's superheroing once again interfering with band practise. To make it up to MJ, Gwen took her and the other Mary Janes to Earth-817, attending concerts by alternate-universe versions of their favorite bands.

Carnageized

Sometime after Gwen was exiled to Earth-616 by Sue and Johnny Storm, MJ and the other Mary Janes were captured by the Jackal, who bonded a sample of Gwen's symbiote to MJ in the hopes of luring her back to Earth-65. Coincidentally, at that exact moment Gwen attempted to use her Ticket to the Multiverse to return to Earth-65 in order to escape an attack on the Earth by the dark elder god Knull. Instead of opening a portal to Earth-65, the amulet summoned MJ to Earth-616 using her and Gwen's shared symbiote as a conduit. Confused, Gwen grabbed MJ in order to break her fall, but the two of them landed in a puddle of living abyss and MJ was immediately taken over. Willingly succumbing to Knull's will, MJ was dubbed Carnage in honor of the late Cletus Kasady, and was commanded to kill Gwen and take her artificial symbiote for the dark god to study.

Transforming an electric guitar into a battle-axe, Carnage rebuked Ghost-Spider's attempts to talk her down, sneering that Gwen felt threatened now that she wasn't the only one with superpowers and accusing her of having made the world worse for her so-called friends before abandoning them by jumping ship to a different universe. Briefly restrained by Gwen, Carnage mocked her for assuming her symbiote - which was comprised of the sample of Gwen's symbiote mixed with Knull's living abyss - still belonged to her; slamming Gwen into a pool of living abyss so that Knull could seize control of her as well. Gwen managed to break free and renewed her attempts to talk MJ down, Carnage mocking her for not being willing to fight back until she touched a nerve. As they brawled, Carnage disregarded Gwen's warning that her symbiote - which was partially comprised of Gwen's own - would kill her; though Gwen briefly managed to get through to MJ by begging her not to let the symbiote eat her alive. The Carnage symbiote reasserted its control over her, and Carnage accused Gwen of trying to trick her into depowering herself. Realizing Gwen might be right, Carnage noted that since she may not have much time left she shouldn't waste it fighting Gwen, web-swinging away in search of innocent people to slaughter in the name of Knull.

Sarcastically flirting with Ghost-Spider, Carnage began abducting people to create a new band. Following her to Madison Square Garden, Ghost-Spider challenged her to a battle of the bands and used the sound waves to destabilize MJ's bond to her symbiote enough to force its gummy spiders to attack the living abyss corrupting them, causing it to separate from MJ. Groaning that she didn't feel so good, MJ passed out in Ghost-Spider's arms and Gwen attempted to open a portal to Earth-65 to take her home. When this failed due to Knull's presence, Gwen carried MJ to safety and promised to find a way to heal her - not noticing MJ still had some of the Carnage symbiote in her.

Personality

Arrogant, hot-tempered, and self-absorbed, Mary Jane Watson is driven to make the Mary Janes a success and harshly critical of anything she sees as an obstacle to this -- namely Gwen Stacy's chronic tardiness. MJ was the first of her friends to deduce that Gwen was Spider-Woman, the others not believing her until she was able to definitively prove it. Despite her self-absorbed and vitriolic attitude - which has led to falling-outs with several of her friends, MJ is staunchly loyal to and protective of the people she cares about - punching out a boy who was harassing Betty Brant, and attacking a man who accused Gwen of being Spider-Woman.

MJ's harsh attitude towards Gwen stems from feeling neglected by her when they'd been friends since the sixth grade, jealousy over Gwen having superpowers, and what is implied to be a secret unrequited crush on her. When bonded to the Carnage symbiote, all of MJ's suppressed rage, jealousy, and resentment erupted to the surface and she willingly embraced Knull's dark influence in exchange for the power she had craved and the chance to take revenge on Gwen for having abandoned her.

Attributes

Powers

Seemingly those provided by a typical symbiote, combined with those of Earth-65's artificial Venom symbiote.

Weaknesses

Seemingly those provided by a typical symbiote.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Guitar

Weapons

As Carnage, MJ has claws, fangs, and can project tendrils from her symbiote. She also wields a battle-axe formed from an electric guitar augmented by her symbiote.

Trivia

• Em Jay wore a Scarlet Spider costume for Halloween.
• Em Jay Watson was voiced by Erika Harlacher in Spider-Geddon: Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider.
• Seanan McGuire had wanted to make Mary Jane the Carnage to Gwen Stacy's Venom ever since she took over writing the Spider-Gwen series, but had struggled to find a plausible way to make it happen until King in Black was proposed by Donny Cates. Even then, Marvel's editorial nearly vetoed her proposal out of the belief there were too many symbiote characters already, until the success of Absolute Carnage convinced them otherwise.

See Also

• 46 appearance(s) of Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)
• 8 minor appearance(s) of Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)
• 7 mention(s) of Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)
• 62 image(s) of Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)
• 3 quotation(s) by or about Mary Jane Watson (Earth-65)