McKeever, Sean
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3 out of 5
(1 book)
Mary Jane: Homecoming
(Art by Takeshi Miyazawa)
Book 2 of the series set in Mary Jane's teenage years. Having overcome her crush on Spider-Man, MJ focuses on getting ready for the Homecoming dance. However, her boyfriend Harry Osborn has been forbidden to see her by his father, Flash Thompson's crush on her raises its head again and tension flares between MJ and her best friend Liz Allan.
This book unashamedly describes itself as teen melodrama and that's exactly what you get, so if you're not into boyfriend troubles, high school politics and prom dresses, then this probably isn't for you. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of those things myself but I am a sucker for two things; a bit of romance and Mary Jane Watson.
MJ is one of my favourite Marvel characters and was by far the best partner for Spider-Man in the mainstream continuity (damn you 'One More Day'!), so it's nice to see her take centre stage here. She's such a cool, intelligent and charming character that it makes total sense that within this narrative her problems mostly derive from the fact that everyone thinks she's great. It's a nice change to see a teenage character struggling with popularity rather than the opposite.
Ultimately though this is still teen melodrama and doesn't do much beyond the obvious turns such stories take, with Spider-Man dipping in and out of the narrative almost just as a brief reminder that this is all taking place in the same universe as the Green Goblin, because you wouldn't know otherwise. That said, its nice to see MJ make a bit of a connection with the brilliant-but-reclusive Peter Parker.
3 out of 5