Customer Reviews

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Vol. 2 (v. 2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, v.2"

Written by Sean McKeever

Illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa

(Marvel Comics, 2008)

-----------------------------------------------

Man... This comic is (was) soooooooo very good. Mainstream comics publishers seem to have completely forgotten how to write books for younger kids, and certainly have left most female readers out in the cold for years. "Spidey Loves MJ" is such an intelligent, well-written, charming book, filled with real characters that you actually care about... it's such a tremendous breath of fresh air! Yes, you need to know the Spider-Man story to get into the groove here... But what kid in America doesn't know about Spider-Man anymore? This is a great sideways take on one of the great superheros, adding new dimensions and appeal to a franchise that has seemed played out for years. It's a great title, really. Highly recommended. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

being a teen who is in situations that dont even come close to what happens in this book it feels good to read it. It shows me that wow people are really like this im sure but im just glad i dont have this drama. at some points though you wish you had what mary jane and peter have its really touching

Considering the tone of this series, you'd expect most of the character to have lines similar to those found in Gwen Stacy's narrative about her encounter with Spider-Man, that is, they would say stuff like "like so totally amazing" all the time.

I got the two part set, rather than the individual series, so I noticed a few things over the course of reading both of these. First, the artwork for some odd reason is inconsistent. At one point, Mary Jane will be drawn in a realistic style, and within the same chapter, she's drawn like a shoujo character complete with the cute blush and all. Second, rather than what you'd expect of dialogue for something set in high school, the dialogue and the action is not pandering to pre-teens, it has something to offer even diehard fans. There is a trove of inside humor here (I didn't even know who Liz was before I looked it up on wikipedia), good dialogue (some of which is also funny such as Felicia Harding getting in a "catfight"), and actual drama which works. Since this is set in largely an alternate universe or something, they actually managed to come up with a plausible reason why Gwen Stacy weren't in fact made for each other (beside the whole, you know, falling off the bridge thing that happened in canon). The same is true for why MJ is all crazy about Spider-man (there's an actual backstory). The third thing I noticed, was for some odd reason, the comic was not strictly chronological, but had sequences blended together loosely in order for effect. For example, Peter was breaking up with Gwen while Spider-man was calling it off with Firestar. This was more than a bit jarring, but actually created a nice effect of tying scenes together.

The books actually defined the characters better than the original comics in just about 20 or so sections. But it definitely was not for newcomers, as at no point that I could remember was Spider-man's ID directly revealed (largely because it was from MJ's POV, but still, sorta strange).

Great comic but stop with this one. Season 2 changes writing and art style and tone.