I’m betting it’s the one hidden behind a question mark, but I’m no expert. PPSM continues to be plagued by Bart Sears this month as we pick up where last post left off. They sure aren’t doing a very good job of keeping the books separate. Mackie said ASM would be huge superhero stuff and PPSM would focus on street level stuff and more on Peter Parker, as the name implies, but we’re 5 months in and we’ve done crossovers 2 of those months (And PPSM was about Thor stuff one of them, too). The guy they seem to call when no one else is available, Mark Bernardo, colors this one. The first 3 pages are devoted to recapping ASM 5 as a badly out of it Spider-Man flees the evil Spider-Woman with the good one in tow. Then he takes a page to recap Mattie’s deal since the relaunch. Then she wakes up and recaps her deal BEFORE the relaunch, herself. Sheesh! And she doesn’t bother to explain anything like “who’s her dad? What’s his connection to Osborn? Why’d she take his place in the ceremony?” You know, things you might wanna know.
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“Now that you’ve promised, I can pass out again!” This is not great stuff. Meanwhile, a weirdly dark haired MJ exercises for no reason other than showing off the goods while she and Aunt May discuss her finances. This is the 2nd issue in a row where May has misgivings about MJ’s money and MJ says her business manager is taking care of it and everything’s fine. I think they call that “foreshadowing.”
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We’re into the earliest days of artists drawing MJ without the dimples and cleft chin and not getting checked by their editor for it. Mary Jane is one of a very, very few female characters instantly recognizable, even in black & white, due to those choices John Romita made, and I don’t know why you’d let them go, but they only become more lax about it over time. What’s all this with the phone, then? Where it’s headed is absolutely insane, I can tell you that. Meanwhile, as implied, Spider-man turns up at Black Cat’s place with Mattie.
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At least Sears is somewhat equal opportunity with the lovingly rendered butt shots. Part of being the guy who made it his mission to draw people who look like they have no skin and their costumes painted onto their muscles. A page of evil Spider-Woman feeling where Mattie is, then…
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Somewhere, Shantal is weeping at being cut out of the friend trio. Phone callS, eh? Back at Felicia’s, evil Spider-Woman comes smashing through the window as Felicia’s about to order food.
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Cut to The Bugle, where Betty tells the gals Peter dropped off some photos and left, but not to worry, that MJ knows how trustworthy he is. The noose tightens! Back at the fight, the terrible choice turns out to be a real easy one, as Spider-Man dives out the window, saves Felicia, and gets them back before evil Spider-Woman can do anything. She sure wasted her chance. Spidey and BC put a hurtin’ on evil S-W and send her packing, but she says this isn’t over. Spidey gets a tracer on her as she flees so this can continue into ASM 6.
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Felicia Hardy, shown to have long-since made peace with MJ and even been there for her when no one else was during the clone garbage, suddenly, inexplicably trying to steal her man and calling her “whoever” suuuuuure don’t feel good. Especially since their friendship is going to continue to this very day, albeit as a background element, most of the time. Speaking of MJ…
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Boy, that 8th panel could be clearer. Looks like an arm came out of MJ’s mouth! Weird, also, for it to say “THE END” when the Spider-Woman business goes right into their next published comic. Seems like they’d want to direct you there. Ah, well. The letters this issue are dedicated to people talking about Aunt May, either furious she came back, or furious she’s still a confused old woman on the edge of death all the time (As she was in PPSM 2, which these would be commenting on). Fair point, the last, one that gets dealt with eventually. May will get a radical, inexplicable, but let’s be honest, necessary revamp many years hence, where she essentially becomes 20 years younger. More self-sufficient, stronger, living her life. It’s really hard to justify the woman who spent the prior 50 years doing little more than having a truly impressive string of heart attacks and worrying that Peter isn’t wearing a coat, but it makes her such a better character. There’s a real inciting event for that revamp that happens much sooner, but that would be getting ahead of myself.