Though it was heavily rumored beforehand, the final reveal that Zendaya’s character Michelle Jones was a revamped version of Mary Jane Watson was one of the coolest moments in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Once you know the twist though, there are a few hidden references to the fact that MJ will go on to be integral to Peter Parker’s life, and one fan has just pointed us in the direction of a pretty neat one.
Reddit user u/MrBubbles9039 shared a screenshot on the Marvel Studios subreddit taken from the scene where MJ is staring up at the Washington Monument, during the section of the film where the Midtown Academic Triathlon team have travelled to D.C. The character is wearing a shirt with a picture of famed poet and writer Sylvia Plath on it. The Redittor notes that Plath once wrote a poem called “The Spider.”
On the one hand, MJ’s shirt choice is completely in keeping with her personality. She’s a great reader and has an interest in the morbid – Plath is known for her struggles with depression that ultimately led to her suicide. On the other, though, it’s also a neat bit of foreshadowing.
If you’re thinking this might just be a coincidence, it should be noted that MJ’s reading choices throughout the movie are very clearly deliberately chosen for their parallels to the life of her future boyfriend the web-slinger. She’s seen reading W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage at one point, which features an orphaned boy who lives with his aunt and uncle. Another of her literary interests is Vladimir Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading, including a thread about a man befriending a spider in his prison cell.
MJ and Peter officially started their romance in Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s sequel, Spider-Man: Far From Home. It’s unknown what’s next for the couple now that Parker’s publicly been accused of murder, but we’ll find out in July 2021’s Spider-Man 3.