Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Volume 2: The New Girl

Mary Jane (Collected Editions) #4

by Sean McKeever (Writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (Illustrator), Valentine De Landro (Illustrator)

There's a new girl at Midtown High. Her name's Gwen Stacy, and she has her sights set on Peter Parker What's a lovesick Mary Jane to do?

Plus: Mary Jane Watson wasn't always the girl she is today. How did she become the sort of person to push her problems away rather than face them?

And how is it that Peter Parker, Spider-Man and Spidey's origin itself all play pivotal roles? See the birth of the greatest modern super hero like you've never seen it before.

Collecting: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 6-10

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Spider Man, Romance, Young Adult

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2007

About the author

After writing indie comics (such as the ensemble teen-drama The Waiting Place) for six years, Sean got his big break writing an issue of The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Comics in 2001. Since then, Sean has written hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers, including notable runs on Sentinel, Inhumans, Mystique, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Gravity, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans.

Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.

In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sean McKeever keeps writing really great high school romance. I really enjoyed the two-part flashback, except the fill-in art actually made all the characters look older. My only real complaint is that Gwen Stacy hasn’t really developed any personality. I LOVE Brian Michael Bendis’s Ultimate Gwen Stacy, but so far, McKeever hasn’t written her doing much. This would be fine, except this volume of SMLMJ (a great acronym) is “The New Girl.” McKeever does get in one great line about MJ wanting to throw Gwen off a bridge.
I really like Miyazawa’s art. His Spider-Man is a little too doughy, but all his high school kids look great.

[makrigato · Rating 2 out of 5]

not even in a book called "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane" I can see MJ and Peter together. damn my bad luck.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this too fast to review each volume, so I’ll be that ass who does the same review for all of them.

Why not? This reads so breezily and fun, and flows as if the whole story fell out of McKeever’s head in one continuous sheet, that it’s like I sat down for an hour and glimpsed the paradise of Parker in his carefree youth.

“Cute” doesn’t quite cut it. The *art* is cute, but the dialogue is amazingly natural and normal. The scenes between Spidey and his pals and their pals are cute/silly/emotional, but the temptation is to think it’s all juvenile high school horseshit and it’s more than that.

It’s been so long since I read a comic where the characters finest anatomy wasn’t featured by some horny artist, that I honestly don’t know how to react to kids in normal, sometimes even loose-fitting clothing.

Biggest surprise of the whole run? Liz Allen. A character I’ve never quite connected with, seems headstrong and … important to MJ. Like she’s the Greek Chorus of this whole tale, reflecting back on MJ all the tribulations and decisions MJ needs to deal with.

[Jaye Berry]

Begging MJ and Liz to ever talk about anything besides boys!!! The way MJ and Peter are still not together is taking me out but at least we are getting closer to it??

The art is my fave- Peter is so cute aww. The pointless flashbacks and the art for them was so not the vibe.

[ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was confusing at times to figure out which was the past and present but i did like how mary jane was becoming friends with spiderman

[Zuleima Manville · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Gwen in other versions, but not so much in this one. But it is about Mary Jane so that’s probably why.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume Mary Jane struggles dealing with her feelings towards Peter Parker... or more like avoiding them. This volume has a lot of elements I really liked; I think Mary Jane's fear of telling Peter how she feels is very endearing and real, it says a lot about her character, especially after the fact that she likes Gwen and doesn't want to hurt her feelings. Liz and Spider-man console her with advice, which I think is great in a coming of age story. Being single isn't the end of the world, and dating for the sake of dating isn't right. This volume centers a lot around MJ, Peter and Gwen while Harry's character takes a backseat [he's not even on the cover] but there's another great moment with Flash, even after the group broke apart in the last volume.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this volume and got into a great deal more so than the first volume. The majority of the book's artwork is done by Miyazawa and I think his illustrations outdo De Landro's by a landslide.

[Tara]

library copy is missing pages and I'm having trouble finding another copy.

[Kevin Connery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. It

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fun. Light & fluffy, as a teen high school drama should be.