Marvel: Mary Jane: Inspired by the Best-Selling Ultimate Spider-Man Graphic Novels [Hardcover]

Judith O'Brien (Author), Mike Mayhew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2003

Written by the award-winning romance and young adult novelist Judith O'Brien, this traditional prose novel is a high school romance updated for today's teens! The new girl at Midtown High, Mary Jane Watson juggles and struggles with her parents' divorce, her love of ballet, and her burgeoning new bond with class nerd Peter Parker - who's about to undergo a stunning transformation of his own.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10-This retelling of the Spider-Man story from love-interest Mary Jane's point of view makes for a compelling read. The superhero elements are tangential to the teen's personal problems-her absent father, self-centered mother, financial woes, and struggle with anorexia. The novel begins with Mary Jane and Peter Parker as nine-year-olds working on a science project together. Peter may be nerdy, but Mary Jane warms to him and his loving parents, so different from her own. When her drunken father smashes their project, humiliates her in front of her classmates, and then disappears for good, Mary Jane and her mother are forced to move out of Manhattan. Six years later, she ends up at the same Queens public high school as Peter, who now lives with his aunt and uncle after losing his parents to a plane crash. The rest of the story centers on Mary Jane's family woes and the stresses of starting a new school, while Peter's transformation after his spider bite and an evil plan engineered by classmate Harry Osborn's father are more peripheral. Her crush on Peter intensifies, but his newfound athletic prowess makes the rest of the girls at their school pursue him, too. Pencil drawings of characters and scenes are a good addition to the story. Serious superhero fans may wish for a little more action, but for romance, teen angst, and a touch of fantasy, this Spider-Man spin-off can't be beat.
Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (July 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785113088
• ISBN-13: 978-0785113089
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little bit childish, but a good read., November 8, 2004

By 

Katie Chichinsky "Katie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel: Mary Jane: Inspired by the Best-Selling Ultimate Spider-Man Graphic Novels (Hardcover)

Mary Jane, by Judith O'Brien, immediately caught my eye in the bookstore. Being a teenage female Spiderman fanatic, I bought this book right away. All in all, I enjoyed the book, and am hoping towards reading the next one soon.

My first impression once I started reading was that the prologue of this book seemed to be a little bit childish, and immature. Thankfully, by the time Mary Jane started high school, it seemed to have redeemed itself. It didn't exactly follow what some fans would precede as the proper Spiderman storyline, but it was entertaining none the less. Mary Jane, who wants to be a ballet dancer, struggles with an eating disorder as she moves to a new place. To her surprise, Peter Parker, a child she knew from fourth grade is once again in her class. As she remembers their close relationship in the fourth grade, her feelings overwhelm her.

The one part I loved about this book was the in-depth detail of Mary Jane and Peter's relationship, which isn't exactly shown in comics and movies. Although some of their dialogue was cheesy and made me laugh out loud, don't most things? I have to admit that after reading the prologue I wasn't suspecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did...I guess it comes from being a Spiderman freak.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a day off and enjoys a good sappy romance, especially involving the man in spandex we all love.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My review, June 30, 2004

By 

Fred (USA, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Jane TPB (Paperback)

OH my goodness. This was one if the best books i have ever read. I have never been into comic books or anything like that.This book is about Mary Jane and Peter Parker. When Peter is bitten and becomes the school heartthrob, Mary Jane finds herself thinking about him all the time. But she finds herself with a eating disorter she struggles to see herself for the person she is. With her love of ballet and her disorter she finds herself in events that help her grow as a person and grow into a relationship with Peter. But wheni picked up this book i didnt put it down until i was finished! I am really excited to read the second one. And if im right i am hoping that the second book is as good as the first one. And i am also looking foward to the next movie.As a girl i like romance books with a little bit of action. This book brings both of those features and many more good ones. If the series is like the movies, I am excited to c the sequal to this great book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not that bad, January 22, 2004

By 

Nina Chapman "Nina" (Champaign, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel: Mary Jane: Inspired by the Best-Selling Ultimate Spider-Man Graphic Novels (Hardcover)

So maybe the writing is not mindblowing, but I did enjoy this book while reading it. I finished it in two days and don`t regret buying it at all, though that`s partially because probably no one will buy it since the amount of female comic book fans out there is very slim, and I kind of feel sorry for the author because of that.
I will get the bad out of the way before I give this book some of the praise it`s starved for. Admittedly the writing style is kind of primitive. O`Brien is not very good at "small talk" writing as I guess you could call it, and what I mean by that is the writing of less significant scenes that serve as transitions between the exciting parts. The important parts, however, are written fine. There are even a few very funny parts and smart descriptions.
There are some parts of the story that are a little too predictable if you`re too familiar with the original story, especially if you`re like me and have read Ultimate Spider-Man, the comic that this is based on, and seen the movie which is based mostly on Ultimate. But there are plenty of original storylines to help the unpredicatbility as well.
One thing I did like about this book was the cleverness in the adaptation. All of the characters that have always been in this story are here: Peter, Mary Jane, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Harry and Norman Osborn, and Flash Thompson. The way Flash`s character was handled in this version was very amusing and hilarious. But I especially like the way the author did Peter. Peter Parker in this book is very quiet and awkward at school but is a nice and funny guy if you catch him in his spare time at home. This is exactly what Peter should be like. O`Brien also puts an interesting twist on things by having her Peter Parker swear a lot and do certain rebellious things after he goes through his spider-bite changes.
This book also has very nice illustrations throughout the whole book, and for the nice cover art and everything this is really not a bad price for the book you`re getting.
Overall, I thought this story was just cute. Don`t look too far into it and what it says about females and it`s just a nice story about two high school kids and what they`re going through.