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MJ is one of the best characters in the MCU, and I think it's awesome and incredibly important that she's played by Zendaya. Her big reveal at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming was a brilliant adaptation of a major moment in Spidey comics history: 
Mary Jane Watson was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 in 1965. Thing is, we didn't see her face. Steve Ditko never drew it. He left the book before "MJ" appeared fully and John Romita Sr. was the first to draw her face.
In the now iconic panel, Romita revealed how stunningly beautiful MJ was! The joke was, Peter was avoiding a blind date with MJ, the niece of a friend of Aunt May who wanted to set them up. And MJ knew how lucky Peter just got. She was right. She's always been right.
So how do you re-create this in a modern film? Answer is: you can't. Unless you're doing a long-form show, but not with a major motion picture, with casting news, and set pics, and so on. UNLESS--
You introduce a character who IS exactly like MJ, other than her name. She's funny, sarcastic, smart, doesn't have time for bullshit, figures out Peter's secret while still in high school, but she's also a bit insecure and clearly putting up a wall so she doesn't let people in.
In the same way comic MJ didn't "fully appear" until almost a YEAR AND A HALF LATER, Spider-Man: Homecoming didn't let us know we were getting to know MJ until the very end of the movie!
And her name might not be "Mary Jane Watson", but she's MJ, she wants to be called MJ, and she occupies the same space that MJ does in the comics. A white Mary Jane Watson will never show up in the MCU, unlike the "Mandarin", who we might still get a new version of someday.
Tessa Thompson's "Valkyrie" looks VERY DIFFERENT than her comics counterpart. And as far as I know, she's never been called "Brunnhilde", the character's name in the comics, IN THE MOVIES. Does that mean "Scrapper 142" isn't Valkyrie? Of course not! She's taken on that role.
Is Sam Jackson's Nick Fury NOT the "real" Nick Fury? Are we expecting a white Nick Fury to show up at this point? Nope. Even though the comics told us white Fury was the father of black "Nick Fury Jr.", who is now Fury full-time in the comics. Sam *IS* Nick Fury, period.
The point is, MJ is an incredible character in the comics who has never really been given her due in movies until now. Zendaya's MJ is awesome, relatable, and a great role model for young girls & boys to look up to. She's the perfect MJ. And she's gonna be around for a long time.
