J. Jonah Jameson
J. Jonah Jameson is a male comic character that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
He was the son of J. Jonah Jameson, Senior though he never raised his child as he had to leave his family with instead his brother who was a military man raising the boy as his stepfather. Jonah recognised his father but had never met him as he had been living outside the country most of the time. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #579)
His adoptive father David Jameson was an alcoholic who often berated the young Jonah and abused the boy despite the pleas of his wife Betty. This culminated one day in him standing up to his father which earned his respect with David making Jonah smoke cigarettes. Jonah regularly cried at his fathers treatment but after regular beatings he learnt to stop. At school, he was subject to bullying but the tough life he lived under his fathers roof led to him acting out violently at his attackers. This attracted one of the girls at school named Joan who persistently stayed around him. One day, he brought her home when David Jameson came back drunk with Jonah standing up to him but to save Betty any further embarrassment he decided to spoke his fathers cigarette. Afterwards, he vomited with Betty staying by his side and commenting how bad David Jameson was with this being considered the most romantic thing said to Jonah. He eventually married her and loved her deeply as he felt that she was a good influence in his life. (Spider-Man's Tangled Web v1 #20) From the marriage, he had a son that he named John Jameson with him being proud of the boy. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #1) Whilst working at the Daily Bugle, he went on assignment to Korea with it expected to be a short trip. During this time, his wife Joan fell ill and died whilst he was away with him being distraught for her being alone and not being there for her. (Spider-Man's Tangled Web v1 #20)
Daily Bugle
He later approach Dr. Marla Madison as he knew of her as he was friends with her father and wanted to work on a business proposal with her in destroying Spider-Man due to her expertise as an electro-biologist. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #162)
After Harry Osborn's death, Jonah came to believe that Spider-Man was responsible which was when he received news that Cletus Kasady had escaped Ravencroft. Jameson retired to his office which was when he was confronted by Carnage who was on the window and intended to use Jonah to find Venom. (Spider-Man Unlimited v1 #1)
Upon the formation of the New Avengers, Tony Stark invited Jameson to Stark Tower as the team wanted him to end his campaign against Spider-Man who was now part of the team. In exchange, they offered an exclusive to the Daily Bugle with Jameson seemingly agreeing but his newspaper than criticised the New Avengers line-up where he had bad press written about several of the new members. (New Avengers v1 #15)
He later had to fight a buy-out of the Bugle by Dexter Bennett with Jonah scrambling to get the finances to retain over 50% of the shares in the company. This meant he froze all payments to staff to secure the funds he needed as he was desperate to retain control over the Bugle with many of the staff working in solidarity with him. At this time, Peter Parker who was struggling financially came to be paid for his pictures as he needed them to pay his bills. When he asked for the payment, this caused Jonah to lash out at him calling him an ingrate for all he had done for the young photographer. This led to Parker in turn angrily responding stating that his photographs were the ones that made Jameson famous and without them Jonah was nothing. An angry Jonah was ready to reply in a rage when he suffered a heart attack from all the stress he was facing at the time. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #546)
Mayor Jameson
During the attack, he told his driver to make way to the spa where his wife and stepmother were staying it. They arrived at the scene just as the Slayer-Swarm was defeated by Spider-Man. However, Alistair Smythe was not affected by the signal that overloaded his minions senses and he attempted to kill Jonah. However, Marla Madison-Jameson jumped in the way with her being mortally wounded where in her last moments she told her husband Jonah to stop hating people before she died in his arms. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #654) After her funeral, the psychotic gunman named Massacre took hostages at his old workplace who he threatened to kill. Mayor Jameson authorised his chief of police to have a police sniper to kill Massacre but the supervillain was saved by Spider-Man who made a vow that no one was going to die under his watch. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #656)
It was said that during this time that his approval rating had gone down due to his persistent pursuit of Spider-Man with his diverting of funding to the anti-Spider-Man vigilante force being unpopular among the people. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #666) Afterwards, an epidemic developed among New York citizens when numerous people began to manifest powers similar to Spider-Man. This saw a number of criminals using their newfound abilities to commit criminal acts with superheroes and native New Yorkers moving in to stop them. Mayor Jameson declared a state of emergency and had the entire city on a quarantine lockdown as he funded efforts to contain its spread whilst having resources dedicated in finding a cure. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #668) Whilst at Horizon Labs, he discovered that he had been infected by the spider-flu but decided to move to his emergency headquarters despite requests for him to stay under quarantine. The mayoral motorcade was attacked by spider-monsters with Jameson helping Spider-Man in stopping the creatures due to his abilities. During this time, he had Alistair Smythe shipped from Rykers Island in order to use him to find a solution to the spider infestation. During this time, he entered into stage three of the infection and became a spider-monster where he was goaded by the Spider Queen into biting Smythe in order to eliminate him. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #670)
Threats & Menaces
Jonah then established a blog called Threats & Menaces in order to continue his journalistic career with him believing that this reinvented him and kept him on the ground with his readers. During this time, he attempted to bring a story to the Daily Bugle stating that Spider-Man was allied with a fugitive named Theresa that held S.H.I.L.D. but Robbie Robertson refused due to the bad reputation Jameson had acquired recently. Whilst leaving, he bumped into Betty Brant who joined him on the scope even though Robbie had told her not to cover it. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #4) Jonah managed to arrange a recorded interview with Spider-Man in exchange for informing him of his findings surrounding Teresa Durand and to not write anything bad about the vigilante for the next year. During the meeting, Jameson broke down following a comment from Spider-Man leading to him confessing that all he had was his hatred of the mask and that he had no one. This led to Spider-Man unmasking himself revealing that he was Peter Parker and that he was there for Jameson and that he was entrusting Jonah with his secret identity. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #6)
He was then given an invitation by Mayor Wilson Fisk for an award for his services to the city with him being asked to attend the Century Club gathering for the presentation of the award to be administered by Spider-Man. Upon arriving at the scene, Jonah and Spider-Man came under attack from the Enforcers who successfully captured the two. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #11)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Due to his adoptive fathers treatment of him, Jonah learnt to eventually stop crying as it avoided getting beaten up and kept his feelings to himself. (Spider-Man's Tangled Web v1 #20)
He claimed on one occasion that Betty Brant was a like a daughter to him. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #665)
When he was a young boy, he was noted to had idolised Bucky and wanted to grow up to be like him as a partner to Captain America. This changed after the death of Bucky whereupon he no longer wanted to be such a hero and he came to believe that the idea of a sidekick was relegated to old comics. (Young Avengers v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
He was shown as being a member of the Midtown Business Executives Club. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #23)
Notes
- J. Jonah Jameson was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko where he made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #1 (March, 1963).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the 1960s animated television series where he was voiced by actor Paul Kligman.
- In Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the 1984 animated television series where he was voiced by actor William Woodson.
- In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, J. Jonah Jameson made guest appearances in the animated television series where he was voiced again by actor William Woodson.
- In Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the 1990s animated television series where he was voiced by actor Edward Asner.
- In Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the MTV animated television series where he was voiced by actor Keith Carradine.
- In The Spectacular Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Daran Norris.
- In Ultimate Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor J.K. Simmons.
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced again by actor J.K. Simmons.
- In Avengers Assemble, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced once more by actor J.K. Simmons.
Films
- In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, J. Jonah Jameson made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting.
- In Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson made his first live-action appearance where he was portrayed by actor J.K. Simmons.
- In Spider-Man 2, J. Jonah Jameson returned in the live-action sequel film where he was again portrayed by actor J.K. Simmons.
- In Spider-Man 3, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the live-action film where he was once more portrayed by actor J.K. Simmons.
Video games
- In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the video game where he was voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Marvel Heroes, J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the MMORPG where he was voiced again by actor Kyle Hebert.
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v1:
- Superior Spider-Man v1:
- Amazing Spider-Man v5:
External Links
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