Jameson, Junior, Jonathon

J. Jonah Jameson is the editor of the Daily Bugle and father to Colonel John Jameson III. His father is John Jonah Jameson.

## Jonathon Jonah Jameson, Junior

### Aliases

John Jameson, Junior, J. Jonah Jameson, J.J.J., Jonah Jameson, J. J. Jameson, J. Johnnie John-Man, Jay Jayman, Juhjona Jim-Man, Flat-Topped Fink, J. Jonah Happyface, Spider-Tracer Killer/S.T.K (mistakenly), J. Jonah Jerkwad, Red Rajah

### Relatives

John Jameson III (son), Joan Jameson (wife, dead), Betty Jameson (mother, dead), Jay Jameson (father), David Jameson (stepfather/uncle, dead), Bernice Franklin (sister, dead), Jerry Franklin (brother-in-law, dead), Mattie Franklin (niece)

### Affiliation

The Daily Bugle, Woman Magazine, Fact Channel News

### Occupation

Publisher of the Daily Bugle, Publisher and Editor-in-chief of NOW Magazine, publisher of Woman Magazine

## History

### Early Years

J. Jonah Jameson was raised as a child by Betty Jameson and his stepfather and uncle David. David was an officer of the United States Army, a war veteran decorated as a hero; at home, however, David regularly abused his wife and son. As a result, J. Jonah Jameson grew convinced that "*No one's a hero every day of the week*" and "*Even the real heroes can't keep it up all the time.*" Jonah was a Boy Scout during his childhood. J. Jonah Jameson was struck by lightning twice as a child.

### Teen Years

#### High School

His interests were mainly boxing and photography. He met his first wife, Joan, when they both joined their high school's photo club. When the school's three top athletes started bullying him, he fought back and beat all three of them to a pulp. This impressed Joan, and they started dating. They married as soon as they finished school.

Jameson began his journalistic career by becoming a part-time reporter for New York City's Daily Bugle while he was still in high school. In college, Jonah started a rivalry with Barney Bushkin, the editor of a campus newspaper who rejected Jonah. Barney would grow up to become the publisher of the Daily Bugle's rival, the Daily Globe.

### Becoming Daily Bugle Publisher

Eventually Jameson purchased then financially floundering Daily Bugle, with money obtained from his personal assets and large inheritance. Hence, the Bugle was now owned by Jameson's own company, Jameson Publications. Jameson served as the newspaper's publisher and editor-in-chief and revitalized the photograph-dominated tabloid format. In 1968 Jameson's company purchased the Goodman Building on 39th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan and moved its entire editorial and publishing facilities there. The building became known as the Daily Bugle Building. Jameson's wife Joan died at some point under unrevealed circumstances. She and her husband had only one child, John, who became an astronaut for NASA.

For decades Jameson used his newspaper to crusade in support of civil rights for minority groups and against organized crime. His efforts in the latter area led to his nearly being killed on orders of the Kingpin of Crime. However, Jameson's brush with death did not frighten him away from publishing attacks on, and exposes of, organized crime.

### Targeting Spider-Man

Later, Jameson became notorious for his editorial attacks against costumed "super heroes" in general, and against Spider-Man in particular. Spider-Man first came to public attention as an entertainer who used his powers to perform on television and stage. But when Spider-Man captured a burglar, Jameson became outraged that this masked entertainer would use his dangerous powers to take the law into his own hands. Jameson began speaking out against Spider-Man in his lectures and newspaper editorials. Jameson raised enough public doubt about the mysterious Spider-Man's motivations that Spider-Man was blacklisted virtually overnight by the entertainment industry.

Soon afterwards, while John Jameson was on a mission orbiting Earth, his space capsule developed a faulty guidance module which caused the craft to spin out of control. Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson first met when the former went to a NASA office to volunteer his help in rescuing John Jameson. When Spider-Man managed to save the younger Jameson, the elder Jameson then publicly accused the superhero of sabotaging the capsule in order to save it as a publicity stunt, and then denounced his illegal break-in at the military base. As a result, Spider-Man became an outlaw. Shortly after this, he hired a young photographer named Peter Parker who sold him pictures of Spider-Man's fight with the Vulture, not realizing that Parker and Spider-Man were the same person. Despite the fact that Peter's photos were amateurish, Jonah decided to bring him in, one of the reasons being that while making a background check he learned that Peter had lost his Uncle Ben not long before.

When the Vulture escaped from prison and resumed his crime spree, he attacked the Daily Bugle and demanded the money from their safe. Jonah refused and was rescued by Spider-Man but blamed him for the damage to the Daily Bugle building caused by the battle, so Spider-Man webbed his mouth shut.

At least once, Jameson has come to the realization that he detests Spider-Man for being the self-sacrificing hero Jameson hates himself for not being. However, this insight is apparently too painful for Jameson to bear, and he seems to ignore it. Jameson has continued his denunciations of Spider-Man over the years, basing them on his opposition to vigilantism. Although Jameson apparently dislikes all "super heroes," he presumably is more tolerant of those who work with the government, such as the Mighty Avengers. It should be noted that Jameson, a civil rights advocate, has never acted out of bigotry against superhuman beings; he does not, for example, share the widespread racial prejudice against superhuman mutants.

Despite Jameson's stand against vigilantism (which once even caused him to oppose Kraven the Hunter's idea of hunting down Spider-Man because he considered it illegal), he himself commissioned various secret attempts to bring Spider-Man to "justice." For example, Jameson had Dr. Farley Stillwell transform a man into the Scorpion to fight Spider-Man, and commissioned the creation of the first "Spider-Slayer" robots from Spencer Smythe to battle Spider-Man. He also once hired the second Mysterio to defeat Spider-Man but Mysterio ended up being defeated and sent to prison. Jameson quickly fled to France where he was kidnapped by the criminal known as the Cyclone. Still, he did not give up and hired Stillwell's brother Harlan who created the Fly who shot Stillwell and kidnapped Jameson to lure in Spider-Man.

## Personality

Jameson is a very complicated individual. He comes off as a bad-tempered, bossy, demanding and loud and rather bitter old man. His most infamous trait is his immense, almost irrational hatred of Spider-Man, and his constant attempts at proving that Spider-Man is a public menace. It is unknown why exactly Jameson hates Spider-Man so, but he alludes to several reasons. On one side, it shown that his hatred of Spider-Man is not exclusive, but comes from a general distrust of super heroes and superhumans, as Jameson believes them to be irresponsible and untrustworthy. Other times, it's shown he doesn't hate Spider-Man *per se*, but rather sees the hero as a figure he can slander in order to sell papers, as he is a publisher, therefore is doing it not out of malice, but rather using Spider-Man as a way to push his wares so he can get more money.

Another side of Jameson is his long-time and open support of equality. Under his purview, the *Daily Bugle* upheld support for the Civil Rights movement, rights for racial minorities, and mutants, often speaking out against those with anti-mutant policies.

Another reason Jonah hates Spider-Man is because he believes he overshadows his son, John Jameson, whom he believes does not receive the recognition he thinks his son deserves, and that Spider-Man steals it. His love and pride of John is one of his much more positive traits, as he thinks of John, who is an astronaut, as "a real hero". This is not limited to just John, but to all public servants, such as firefighters and police officers.

As time passed, however, it was shown that his hatred had grown beyond mere jealousy. On different occasions, he contributed in creating enemies for the wall-crawler. He notably convinced his newly-superpowered son ton try and arrest Spider-Man and worked with Alistair Smythe to create Spider-Slayers.

## Attributes

### Abilities

Jameson is trained in boxing and later, Tai Chi, therefore he is a trained combatant, proving his skills when he beat three men with only the use of boxing and street fighting techniques.