Mary Jane's Return and Amazing Spiderman #28

It all started back in issue #13 of the new Spiderman re-launch, Mary Jane, our favorite red head, dies in an explosion. A very unexpected event that at first startled fanboys everywhere. Now, almost twenty issues later, those same startled fanboys are given another unexpected twist to the Spiderman stories. So sit back, and relax as you find out a big part of Spiderman's future, and about the Amazing Spiderman #28.

To the left are some of the pages out of this month's comic. Click on their thumbnails to see a larger picture of them, or read the text below for the caption bubbles.

Page One
"Hello?"
"I know you're there."
"I can tell."
"Please talk to me."

Page Two
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"I'm tired..I jut want to go home..to my husband..."
"...to my life."
"Answer me. Why?"
"Please!"
"I think I'll go crazy if you don't."
"How long have I been here?"
"Where am I?"
"Oh God. Please...just tell me something."
"I just..."
"...want to go home."
"Please?"
"Hello?"
"No...don't go."
"Please."

Page Three
"Well, hel-lo there!"
"You must be Randy's friend right? He said you'd be bringing the tv by."
"Pelar...isn't it? Is that a French name? I love French!"
"Er. No...it's Peter...Peter Parker. I'm...from Queens."
"Whatever."
"Name's Fallon."
"Come in."
"Welcome to my humble abode, Pierre!"
"It's Peter."
"Uh-huh."

As you can tell just from the first two pages, Mary Jane is the one who is beggin to be released. Joe Bennett, penciler of this issue, shows alot of detail that the reader should note while going through the comic. Especially in the fight scene between Jimmy 6, Spiderman and the Enforers. Well, I guess that now the guests in this comic are no secret anymore.

To start out, Randy is still trying to hook Peter up with some of his friends, and the thing that he hasn't noticed yet, is that Peter doesn't dig the rough type when it comes to dating. Jill and Glory also don't yet relize that Peter is getting pretty tired of the whole dating game they are playing, trying to hook him up with people he doesn't know. This is the reason for Peter's angry discussion with Glory, Jill and Randy.

Then, a scene with Jill, coming on to Peter. Howard always writes Jill as a good friend, while Mackie writes a Jill that wants to be more. Mackie has always seen those two as a good couple. But alas, Jill's love might be put at a stopping point after Peter tells her that he found the right woman for himself, but that she was taken away. Immediately Jill gets the picture. Mackie finally realizes that Jill and Peter wouldn't work out for the Spiderman stories, and cools them down.

The fight between Jimmy 6 and the Enforcers was placed in the comic for odd reasons, and while it was a good fight, there should have been some other way for Mackie to accomplish his goals. The fight draws Spiderman in front of a billboard which at the time is being repaired on the side of a building, and consequently at the same time has a picture of Mary Jane. Mackie also had a tv crew crew capture the live action of the fight to be used in affiliation with Mary Jane's stalker. Mackie, in a desperate attempt, to follow his same routine that he's had on the Spiderman comics revamp, has had Spidey get nailed one time after another, getting his face beat in, and in this comic, it stays the same. Spiderman gets his tail stomped, but Spidey gets them in the end. Which makes a fanboy question Mackie alot, how can the same superhero who beat the Juggernaut, also beat the Enforcers, when he has even more experience against the Enforcers? Their good, but not to that extent, Spiderman's ability to fight and win cannot continue jumping around, it must have a scale that it's set at. When he beats the Juggernaut, and outsmarts him, he will not be beat by the Enforcers, no matter what hard problems he is having in his life!

Jimmy 6 was one of my favorites, I like the whole sort of "gang leader" type of identity that he holds. And I like it when he is in any of the Spiderman comics, but Mackie, again, he does it all wrong. He brought Jimmy 6 into this issue by having him fighting the Kingpin, (which can be for many reasons) but Mackie chooses to have them fighting over a poker game! A dumb poker game, who is the Kingpin to be mad at Jimmy 6 when he's got his own millions. He's not gonna, it's not realistic. Mackie needs to get on the ball.

Ok, all of the basics of the comic have been covered, and your probably wondering why this article has Mary Jane's Return in the title right? Well, here we go, enough of Jimmy 6 and the Enforcers, and enough cutting Mackie down, here comes the part you've been waiting for, the part about Mary Jane's Return to the Marvel Industry.

First, we find out that Mary Jane is being held prisoner by her stalker, the same stalker all the way back around issue twelve. She is in a storage closet of some kind being held in a diner. As the tale gets deeper, we find out that the stalker as a connection with Peter, and that feelings that Peter has, he has too. We also find out that Mary's stalker has been into her for sometime because of all of his swimsuit and modeling pictures of her.

When Mackie first introduced the stalker, he was talkative, but now we see that he has changed and now doesn't say a word but instead seems afraid of Mary Jane, or talking to her. This may be because she might recognize his voice, and then he might feel obligated to let her go.

Along the subject with Peter and the stalker having the same feelings, this may be a clone of Peter's, a far fetched idea; but when it was when Ben Reilly was around too. Personally, I think that to have Ben Reilly back, or someone like him, would be a good story. Although he might not be in the comics for long because of his love for a married woman, but if the story took a twist torwards Peter getting the man help or for the man to continue to hold Mary, and to give Peter signals that she was alive, that would be interesting. Maybe the stalker doesn't want to hold Mary Jane hostage, but because of his mental illness can't get rid of her, so he might try to tell Peter that where MJ is at, but won' be able to.

Now back to the story, while the tv crew is catching the live fight between Spiderman and the Enforcers, (told above) the stalker is watching. And as he looks at Spiderman, staring at the billboard of Mary Jane, it acts as a symbol between the two. And torwards the end of the comic it almost seems like the stalker is ready to let Mary out of the closet. The stalker is kept in shadows and darkness through the whole issue, but it seems through the artwork like they are trying to hard to have the stalker's hair style be identical to Peter's. Mackie has always loved using clones, and might be taking that route, (as stated above) the only resemblence between this stalker and the stalker around issue #13 is his love for lollipops and Mary.

While it is obvious that the girl in the closet is Mary Jane, it is also apparent that she is healthy and okay. Througout the whole comic she is pleading with the stalker to talk to her, and to tell her where she is and how long she has been there. It's also obvious that Mary Jane is back, but if Marvel is going to pull this route, they should take care of her this time.

That's the whole story, and it really is worth the read, if there's one comic you pick up from the store, make it this one. It was enjoyable reading, and the artwork wasn't bad. One more note, for those of you who appreciate and love the old school Spiderman logo on the comic covers, don't worry. The logo will be back on issue #30.

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