Guess who's back, guess who's back? Yup, my (and Peter Parker's) favorite redhead makes a return for season two of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.Regrettably, I didn't buy a single issue of any of the previous three Mary Jane series. I feel like scum for not doing so because I've heard nothing but good things about them from the reviews on Spiderfan.org. Ah well, that's what trades are for and rest assured, I will be picking the digest trades of Mary Jane, Mary Jane: Homecoming, and the hardcover of SMLMJ.
Terry Moore handles the writing duties for season two of SMLMJ. I haven't read any of his other works, but if the first issue of season two of SMLMJ is any indication, he's a very worthy successor to Sean McKeever. My comic shop was sold out of the first issue but I was told they would be getting more next week. I don't know if they didn't get a lot of copies in, or a lot of people had it put on their comic files. So in addition to getting SMLMJ #1 on my file, I've got the whole series on hold for me. Nothing is gonna stop me from reading this series. Nothing.
SMLMJ #1 is a more or less a setup issue. We open with MJ's hilarious dream about Spidey Kong and then we're off to see MJ starting her sophomore year in high school. Liz now has black hair, and MJ is going to start working part time at a hair salon. Between work, school, and drama club, MJ is gonna be one busy teen. Speaking of drama, Zoe, a student in the drama club appears to be having some troubles and if I had to guess, I'm betting that, like MJ, she comes from broken home. When asked to act like she needs help, she cried and simply said "help," convincing the drama teacher that she was a real need of help. The teacher thought she was acting but she wasn't. That was a genuine cry for help. I want to see more unfold on Zoe's problems.
If anything is really different with MJ in season two of SMLMJ it's that MJ is seriously crushing on Peter. Girl isn't even trying to hide it. MJ openly flirts with Peter during football practice, a nice step up from MJ not being able to tell Peter how she felt about him in vol. 1 of SMLMJ.
Shame that this is only a 5 issue mini-series because I'd gladly read this if it were on-going. Not too many first issues are able to hit the ground running but this one succeeds. Craig Rousseau does a good job with the art. In fact I wouldn't mind seeing him on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man sometime, or Ultimate Spider-Man.
With no MJ in the Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, (don't get me started on Amazing Spider-Man. I'm not even going there) reading SMLMJ #1 made me realize how much I miss the character. She is without question my favorite female character in comics. It seems like only a handful of writers are really trying to make MJ interesting. Far too many of them have fallen back on having her worried about Peter when he's out as Spidey or making her nothing more than a model. She's far, far more than that.
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