Mary jane: A victim of her own success.

Mj went from a fun side character, to a legitimate romantic rival (because of how much people liked her), to the main love interest (because the writer liked her). Pretty standard character journey initially. However, this lead to writers making changes to her so she "better fits" the role. Initially it was minor details that could be chalked up to character development. The first major shift was her ultimate version(2000). She was less a revamped mj, and more the standard " best friend turned girlfriend" found in teen romances at the time. Soon after came raimmi mj; who was also mostly defined by the standard idea of a main love interest(for the time).

Sure we got versions that generally represented her character well, spectacular & 94 , but those either downplayed her flaws or her personal wants respectively. Again, to sell her better as the final girlfriend. This all culminates in the comics; where they won't fully revert her back to Peter's flirty friend (because that's not how people saw her anymore thanks in part to them), they won't really move forward with her as a love interest, and they just won't completely sideline her because of her popularity. So now they need new ways to use her that still conflicts with the image they created. Funny thing is, I wouldn't even say most writers(outside comics) hate/don't care about her. They just either feel, or were told, they can't sell a new Spider-Man adaptation if she isn't his main love interest in some way. So they alter her to fit the story they already planned to tell.

Some of her fans also aren't helping. Many of them using her as a spring board to vent about larger issues they have with Spider-Man. Which is relatively normal for fiction, but the issue is you can't even really have a earnest conversation about her without some type of hollow grandstanding. I get the feeling if they were in charge, we would just get new ultimate mj(2024). Nice, but kind of boring.

I used this specific picture because it shows both why people initially thought she was fun, and a personality no writer in charge of her wants to portray outside of comics(or in them). It's too vain for the idea of the perfect love interest, in pretty much any time period, and nobody wants to give her an arc to change that.

Sidenote: while a similar issue exist with Peter's character; he's popular enough that most writers know they have to keep a handful of his traits(or they change him in the exact same way like playing up hi nice side).