Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: "You're a Strange One, Peter Parker..."

[sandoz_iscariot]

For kingrockwell, who reminded me that all of our SMLMJ posts went poof with SD 1.0. :(

So here are some early scans from the series, back when it was just "Spider-Man Crushes on Mary Jane" ;)



From the end of Mary Jane #1:








Then later, in Mary Jane: Homecoming #4, Mary Jane is left alone after a disastrous school dance:

Comments

[kingrockwell]

aliasjack is only my name over on LJ, since I came up with the handle when I was 15 and would've put it behind me forever if I weren't too cheap to buy a rename card. I've been kingrockwell since we moved to IJ.

Thanks for the scan, though! I'll comment again after I've read them!

[kingrockwell]

*Thanks for the scans
i really hate that my s key only works half the time

[sandoz_iscariot]

Whoops, fixed! XD

[sun_man]

love this book

[unicornicopia]

Alright. I have to confess that I've never liked MJ. My dislike probably started during the 90s tv show, because I thought that Felicia Hardy/Black Cat was kickass and didn't understand why she and Peter weren't together. Later my dislike was heightened by the fact that Kirsten "Amy March" Dunst played her in the film version.

Considering how frakking awesome this is, I'm beginning to think that I've been missing out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/arcath_/]

Yes sir, you have been. All of these little mini-series with her have been real gems.

I think there are three of them right?

[unicornicopia]

I'm a lady ;)

I'll take your word on this series though. I'll have to pick it up.

[sandoz_iscariot]

There are two minis, Mary Jane and Mary Jane: Homecoming, and the 20-issue Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane ongoing. After that the original creators left and there was a SMLMJ Sophomore Jinx mini that wasn't very good and should be skipped. But the two hardcovers collecting all of the McKeever/Miyazawa run are awesome.

[sandoz_iscariot]

Mary Jane has suffered from some bad writing in the past (and yeah, Dunst and the movie scripts did the character no justice) but Mary Jane can be really, really awesome. This series is one of my favorites. <3

[unicornicopia]

To be fair to KDunst, my dislike of her isn't really her fault. I just can't unsee her as Amy from Little Women, a role she played when she was like 10.

This is adorable, though. Thanks for uploading!

[scottyquick]

I'll always remember her as Kiki, myself.

[scottyquick]

OH GOD ME TOO.

I mean, I was just all "Wtf Peter, you can do so much better then this lifeless turd" and then it turns out she's REALLY COOL and I was filled with joy. And then it turns out Peter's the lifeless turd most of the time ...

[unicornicopia]

I'M HAPPY I'M NOT ALONE.

It makes me so sad that so many of the characters I idolized as a child due to their cartoons/whatever are actually not worth the time of day.

[scottyquick]

<img src="http://www.berlinwallpaper.com/Murals/York_HP/BatmanAccent2.jpg> -cough- <small>Okay, okay, he can be when written by Grayson or Dini or Gabrych. But, say, Rucka's psychopath or Morrison's Batgod? Nuh-uh.

[kingrockwell]

Rucka didn't write him as a psychopath, just kind of a jerk.
Now, Dixon, Willingham and Brubaker, on the other hand...

[scottyquick]

I dunno about that. Remember No Man's Land? Helena stayed behind and DARED to take up the mantle of the Bat when he abandoned the city for a few months, and when she came back, he decided to make her fight off an entire army by herself. Because she failed that, he made her give up the symbol and knew that that would make her go inside Two-Face's group, where she was shot multiple times through the stomach. And the gun thing, too.

[kingrockwell]

Okay, so a huge jerk sometimes, my point is it's unfair to single him out when that was a big part of the status quo at the time. And that just as many people will defend the gun thing as will attack it means it's not quite so cut and dry.

[scottyquick]

I AM NOT KNOWN FOR BEING FAIR.

[kingrockwell]

I'm prolly also thinking from the standpoint of his post-NML 'Tec, where, unencumbered by events and status quos, he writes Bruce being a not really horrible person, just standoffish and intense, ie. kind of a jerk.

[perletwo]

wait, what was that again - Helena has ACTUALLY been gut-shot before? And we're still supposed to believe she would wear the Jim Lee belly suit?

[scottyquick]

Multiple times. Nearly cost her her life, one of her CMOA.

And she doesn't even have any fucking scars ;_;

[perletwo]

Downright miraculous what those 700 crunches a day can do for a girl, ain't it? insert 'wahhh wahhh waaah' sound effect of FAIL here

[unicornicopia]

SERIOUSLY. Kevin Conroy's Bruce Wayne is my true love was one of my first crushes. LOOK AT THAT GQMF.

Comic book Batman? Meh.

[skalja]

Hey, just because Peter's gotten a lobotomy now doesn't mean he's a lifeless turd. >:|

[scottyquick]

Peter's a buttface! Peter's a buttface!

[skalja]

No, YOU'RE a buttface! And a poopyhead too.

[scottyquick]

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY SAY SCANS DAILY IS FULL OF MEANIE GIRLS!

[skalja]

*steals your lunch money*

[scottyquick]

Tricked you! I'm bringing pizza!

(with black olives, om nom nom)

[skalja]

Eww, olives. You win! :P

[scottyquick]

You, are clearly a crazy lady. Olives, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes = best pizza ever. Maybe some feta cheese and green peppers.

[skalja]

Yeah, no. I'm more of a Hawaiian gal. :D

[scottyquick]

EW PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA YOU ARE ICKY

[skalja]

I R TEH MULTIKULCHURAL

[arilou_skiff]

Yes she is.

Though I still like Firestar better in this. Because... Well, I don't quite know why.

[skalja]

MJ is one of the more fascinating characters around in comics, not least because she seems to have become who she is despite her writers, not because of them. "Hey, let's make a crazy party girl just to hang around and act as a foil to Gwen -- OH WAIT."

That said, you seem to have encountered her two worst incarnations. I am very sorry.

[scottyquick]

Oooh, what's the other worst?

[skalja]

Well, the op referred to the 90's cartoon and the movie.

Honestly the 90's cartoon wasn't that bad characterization-wise but her VOICE and the character design were both so godawful that they practically overwhelmed everything else, plus she spent half the series as a damsel in distress ... and movie MJ is basically the polar opposite of comic MJ.

Caveat that there are adaptations that I have not seen such as the 60's cartoon, the super sentai Spider-Man and the 70's live-action show, but I'm not sure any of those actually had MJ in them because they were all relatively early in the franchise.

[tsunamiwombat]

...Dawww ;_;

QUUESSAADDDDAAAAA! XO ~shakes fist~

[kingrockwell]

I'm not crazy about the art in the Homecoming scans, but this is pretty nice!

[thirdblindmouse]

That's so adorable. Damn. Igottanotgetintoanothercomic... >_<

[perletwo]

So why was the dance a disaster for MJ? Back when I was reading in the late 70s/80s, MJ was considered the Queen S**t of the high school scene IIRC.

[sandoz_iscariot]

She's popular in this 'verse too, and gets elected Homecoming Queen with Flash as King. But that causes all the love triangles that had been simmering to that point to explode. MJ is dating Harry and Flash is dating Liz, but Flash wants to date MJ and Liz is kiiiiiind of a crazy jealous bitch, everyone starts yelling at each other right in the middle of the dance floor and MJ flees. Teenagers.

[perletwo]

Aaand MJ, who from that description is blameless except for just being there, winds up crying into her coffee.

Though it is kinda nice to know the cool kids didn't have it that much easier than I did in high school. These were the best years of our lives why again?

[sandoz_iscariot]

Man, if those were supposed to be the best years of my life, I have a pretty horrible 60 years ahead of me...

[yaseen101]

Tell me about it. I just finished High School this year and my last year WAS TOTAL DISASTER. I got hit by a case of both Parker luck and the Matt Murdock mental case.

[freddie_mac]

*sigh* I love you S_D, really I do. When I mistook this tag ("char: electro/max dillon,") for "electronic dildo", my only question was what have they done to Spidey now. I never once thought that "electronic dildo" would be an inappropriate tag. Granted, S_D 3.0 has only been up a few days, but S_D members are always ahead of the curve, right?

[joysweeper]

Aaaaaw. I like SMLMJ.