Why Zendaya's Michelle Is the Perfect Love Interest for This Peter Parker

(Warning - Spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming to follow)

Spider-Man: Homecoming has finally hit theatres to tremendous applause with a current 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. I just got back from the theatres and my inital thoughts are that this was such a different take on Spider-Man but also #superheroes as a whole. This was essentially a young adult take on the web-slinger and I loved it!

As I said though, this was a different take on the Spider-Man mythos and plenty of comic book purist are going to be pissed by a lot of changes, but I think Marvel has proven they know what they're doing when it comes to these creative alterations. After all, if you want the same story from the comics then just go read the comics.

One of the biggest changes that is sure to get fans enraged is a rumor proving true which is that Michelle, the mysterious young woman portrayed by Zendaya is in fact playing the #MarvelCinematicUniverse's version of Mary-Jane Watson. This can be assumed by her claiming her friends call her "M.J." - Mary Jane Watson's nickname in the comics and films - near the end of the film when the films assumed love interest heads out west and more than likely out of the MCU for good.

Obviously unless this is just a massive tease by #Marvel, we can assume that the traditional Mary-Jane Watson will not be present in the MCU and instead we are getting MIchelle, whose middle and last name we're still unaware of.

At first I was a bit concerned, I knew fan backlash was more than likely going to be hectic and while I don't mind M.J. being black or any other ethnicity and I could MAYBE get over her hair not being red, but I wanted her to at least keep her name! After I left the theatre I stopped and replayed her scenes in my mind and it hit me, I really loved her character.

At first glance she's just the artsy girl who doesn't care for friends and is a bit of a loner, but she's more than that. She has friends despite her claim to not since she call out for someone to help her "friends" in the film and is seen dancing with them at the homecoming dance. Of course, also telling the main core of characters that her friends call her M.J. is essentially her inviting our main characters to be her friends.

She's not the loner she claims to be, but maybe just reserved, possibly because she's had some trauma in her life? This being a semi-original character could grant us with an original story and character arc for the main love interest. When have we ever seen that in the MCU?

Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, and Betty Ross are all portrayed great and have their moments, but they're just the typical love interest archetype and if we're being honest, that's exactly what Mary-Jane is in both the comics and the original Spider-Man trilogy where Kirsten Dunst played her.

Marvel is obviously trying to stray away from the typical love interest woman roles with Agent 13, Hope Van Dyne, Gamora, and Elektra are all amazingly deep and developed characters who are far more entertaining than classic damsel in distress characters. Michelle is witty, brash, and seems to have an untapped story behind her personality that can be explored in further films.

The MCU love interest has evolved into more than just a plot device. Michelle fits this mold and while her name is more than likely not Mary-Jane Watson and she isn't sporting red hair (yet?) she is still an interesting character that fits into a Spider-Man franchise that seems to be more keen on diving into the psyche of the teenage mind and and heart as apposed to just Peter web-slinging his way through New York.

I'm excited to see where Marvel takes this character and I hope we see Michelle developed further because she seems like such an interesting twist on the Spider-Man lore.