Though the details may be different from any Spidey tale we’ve seen before on page or screen, Spider-Man: Far From Home deals with the most classic kind of Peter Parker story: How does poor Pete balance an ordinary teenage life with the commitments of being a crime-fighting superhero?

The latest installment in the shared Sony/Marvel franchise sees Tom Holland’s attempts to (a) enjoy his class trip abroad and (b) declare his affections for his friend Michelle Jones (Zendaya) foiled over and over again by pesky superpowered villains that threaten all of Europe. Don’t you hate when they do that? But part of Peter’s plan to woo MJ—which he lays out right at the top of the film—involves locating a Venetian necklace in the shape of a black dahlia. This just happens to be MJ’s favorite flower—because, Peter explains, of the “murder.”

That’s a surprisingly mature joke for a Disney-associated film, and it gets repeated a few more times over the course of Far From Home. It’s also only the latest in a series of Michelle Jones details that position her as a superhero love interest unlike any other. This post contains some frank discussion of her plot in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The Black Dahlia murder, for anyone unfamiliar, is one of the most famous and famously gruesome unsolved mysteries in American history. The grisly, posed remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short were found in a vacant lot in southern Los Angeles in 1947. Though the LAPD investigated 150 suspects, no one was ever formally charged with the crime. The youth and beauty of the victim, coupled with the glamour of Hollywood and the depravity of the crime scene, kicked off a media frenzy and public fascination that survives to this day. The press dubbed the case “the Black Dahlia murder,” thanks to a nickname the staff at a Long Beach drugstore gave the dark-haired Short.

Short’s murder has inspired countless true crime books and noted novels, like John Gregory Dunne’s True Confessions (1977) and James Ellroy’s Black Dahlia (1987)—which in turn led to film adaptations starring the likes of Robert De Niro and Scarlett Johansson. Mena Suvari played the ghost of Short in 2011 and 2018 episodes of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, and the murder was at the heart of Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins’s 2019 TNT miniseries I Am the Night, starring Chris Pine. (Because it’s 2019, I Am the Night had a true crime podcast to go with it.) “I was truly frightened in a way where I was like, ‘I can’t. I can’t. This is too dark,’” Jenkins told Vanity Fair of her research into the case.

“She was a prostitute, she was frigid, she was pregnant, she was a lesbian,” journalist Anne Marie DiStefano wrote in 2006, rattling off just some of the myths about Short for a Portland Tribune article. “And somehow, instead of fading away over time, the legend of the Black Dahlia just keeps getting more convoluted.” If this all sounds unexpectedly dark and twisted for a superhero film, then it’s worth looking a little closer at some of the references built into MJ’s introduction in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Director Jon Watts has said that one of the main inspirations for Zendaya’s character is Ally Sheedy’s iconic outcast Allison from The Breakfast Club.

This makes Michelle a nice, sharp contrast to Peter Parker’s usual love interest, Mary Jane Watson, who is usually more in the vein of Molly Ringwald’s Claire. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with Mary Jane or characters like her, but it is exciting to explore something new.

Though she has very limited screen time in Homecoming, Michelle’s interests shone through especially in her reading material. Never without a book, audiences noticed her with mature titles like Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent, Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove, Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes, and W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage.

Michelle’s morbid literary taste extends to her wardrobe: She has a shirt with poet Sylvia Plath, who famously killed herself in 1963, on it.

In Far From Home, MJ trades in the Plath shirt for both a suffragette image and, later, a graphic of Joan of Arc—which is, we hope, a reference to Zendaya’s costumed appearance as the famous French martyr at the 2018 Met Gala.

Though a taste for dark classic literature and historical martyrs doesn’t necessarily mean MJ would share the nation’s rising obsession with true crime, Michelle’s fascination with a famous unsolved mystery like the Black Dahlia murder is also right in line with her other key character trait: a naturally inquisitive mind. We see that brain at work in Homecoming as MJ is the only one of her classmates, other than Ned (Jacob Batalon), to sniff out Peter’s secret identity.

Far From Home makes it clear that this Spider-Man girlfriend won’t get a silly crush on an anonymous hero without knowing exactly who is under the mask.

So Michelle’s morbid taste in fiction and love of real-life mystery makes it not at all surprising that she would be drawn to the Black Dahlia case. This conveniently allows Peter to fixate on a traditionally romantic and feminine item for MJ without losing touch with her non-conformist personality.

A collection of interests and hobbies aren’t the only things that set Zendaya’s MJ apart from the pack of Peter Parker girlfriends who have come before her. Even since the introduction of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts in 2008’s Iron Man, Marvel Studios has attempted to avoid some of the boring ruts past comic book girlfriends found themselves in. The likes of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), and so on aren’t likely to find themselves helplessly in need of rescue. They’re warriors in their own right, and even Pepper gets to wear a super-suit.

Crucially, MJ isn’t a warrior. Her extremely human, teenage self is a key component of that friendly, neighborhood vibe that keeps the Spider-Man franchise a smaller-scale, down-to-earth story. (Note that none of these new Spider-Man villains are actually superpowered: Both Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio are normal guys who accomplish all they do thanks to some advanced tech.) MJ, Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May, and the rest of Peter’s allies need to represent the normal life that keeps tugging on his heartstrings.

But even so, these films go to great lengths to ensure Zendaya’s MJ isn’t damseled. It’s a refreshing departure from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, which puts Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson in danger every chance it gets. Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movies even imperiled Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy to death.

In Homecoming, MJ conveniently sits out her class’s field trip to the Washington Monument and is spared the harrowing elevator disaster that threatens Liz, Ned, and the rest. In both the Venetian and Prague skirmishes in Far From Home, she’s largely out of harm’s way. (In Prague, Ned once again plays the damsel as he and Betty (Angourie Rice) dangle perilously at the top of a Ferris wheel.) When Far From Home’s villain finally focuses on Michelle as someone Peter would care about, she’s in a pack with Betty, Ned, Flash (Tony Revolori), and Happy (Jon Favreau), and does her amateur, teenaged best to defend herself. Michelle isn’t exactly “rescued” by Peter Parker, who is too busy trying to save the world; if anything, she rushes into the thick of it to try to help him. Isn’t that the MJ we both need and deserve?

— Our cover story: How Idris Elba became the coolest—and busiest—man in Hollywood

— Our critics reveal the best movies of 2019, so far

— Plus: the 12 best TV shows of the year, thus far

— Why The Handmaid’s Tale has a serious villain problem

— Can Democrats win back the internet in the age of Trump?

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.