The Madonna reference on this cover was pretty dated when it was new, let alone now. Comic book characters are, of course, not real, and will be interpreted by every one who draws them, and even the most “on model” characters will look different from artist to artist and era to era, but all that being said… this doesn’t look like Mary Jane Watson to me. I mean, these days, 95% of artists can’t even be bothered to remember she has dimples and a cleft chin, literally the only defining characteristics she had in a sea of same-y looking perfect comic book women, so at least they got that, but… It just doesn’t look like MJ to me. The glasses probably aren’t helping. Inked by the legend George Perez out of nowhere. Inside, we have guest inks by the legend Dick Giordano. A very unusual issue and it hasn’t started yet!
Yeah, it’s gonna be like that. We’re gonna really dig in to Conway’s revelation that MJ has known Peter is Spider-Man literally the whole time, the retcon I’ve had a lot of fun with in the eras it affected. It’s a bit odd to be done with them.
Inside, Mary Jane looks like Mary Jane. That cover was probably a tough ask, really. With dialogue right out of Parallel Lives, even. On the next page, MJ very briefly recaps her bad homelife as a child and her sister’s doomed marriage as she tells us that if there’s anything that scares you or worries you, just laugh it away.
Busiek is threading a really delicate needle here, writing the modern conception of MJ as a complex person pretending to be all surface IN the all surface voice Stan Lee created for her, and he’s pulling it off. But we can’t spend too much time with MJ since she literally can’t interact with anyone in the cast without creating a continuity error, so we check in on Peter Parker, in gym class, where Tiny wants to including Jason and Flash is being weird about it, and so Jason storms off as he has been. Liz confers with Peter about the situation, again voicing the idea that everyone knows even tho Jason was driving without a license and ran a red light, Sally MUST have been pushing him to do it, so it can’t be his fault. Which is… insane. Insane. I mean, we, the readers know that’s true, but everyone letting Jason off the hook just doesn’t fly. But, at any rate, Liz things Peter must have an idea of how to get Jason back into the group, because he’s smart and she knows he’s not afraid of Flash. And Peter thinks he just might have an idea.
The Radioactive Man is, hands down, THE villain who should been left in the 60s. An uncomfortable-at-best Chinese Communist caricature AND his whole power is being radioactive. Just should let this one go. But this is comics, so they didn’t, and not only is he still appearing in contemporary stuff, but here he is giving everyone in the museum cancer, too.
The Radio Man’s thrown whatever blocks the door, trapping all the regular folks in there with the superfolks, and then Spidey makes the mistake of knocking RM into a display of some unfortunately placed radioactive ore samples. Now he tells us his radiation is out of control, and all he can do is reach critical mass and explode, killing everyone in the city. I mean, could he know that for sure, immediately? He burns a whole in the floor and leaves, saying his only solace is knowing Spider-Man can’t get far away enough to survive.
Good stuff! Back home, MJ and Anna debate whether there’s any real danger, Anna telling us there’s traffic jams as people try to flee NY. MJ just grabs her coat and goes for a walk, trying to find a distraction, and instead sees a Tv in a window showing footage of Spider-Man having tracked Radioactive Man to The Brooklyn Bridge. MJ hails a taxi in that direction.
Radio Man says he can feel that he’ll explode in seconds, which, again, seems hyper aware on his part, but Spider-Man leaps onto the hood of the car he’s standing on, launching his foe into the air and…
Well, that wraps up the super plot, but we have Peter Parker business to attend to, as MJ wonders what’s going on at his place after all this. The answer is a surprise “Welcome Back Tiny And Jason” party.
Jason’s turn on Peter… in his own house… is kinda horrible. But I guess kids can be mean, especially vulnerable ones. It was a nice study of who MJ is mixed in with the usual Spider-Stuff. Next post, we’ve already seen one of my absolute least favorite villains debut, and now it’s time for the other one…