Time to wrap this one up. I wonder how the writers felt about this format. In an era where 5- and 6-issue stories were the norm, so far it’s been 3 per writer, except Bob Gale doing a one-off back there. Do they like it? Do they want more space? I guess most of them have other outlets to tell longer stories. I don’t know about Bob. But in the 6-issue “ready for the trade” era, does Marvel really want these short stories? I mean, I guess so, since they published them. I don’t know, it just seems restrictive. With ASM publishing 36 issues a year, you could do six 6-issue arcs. One for each guy and another for half of them. I guess this just seemed better?
On the one hand, “my dimensional compressor!” is a goofy and pretty half-ass origin. On the other hand, credible sources of superpowers only get harder to come by over the years, so I tend to give them a lot of leeway. We’re a long way from “Uh, radiation!” cutting the mustard. Ultimately, do you want new characters or not, right? Guys, I just looked her up, curious how much staying power she has, and found out Paper Doll’s real name is Piper Dali, and I am so upset right now.
I miss Mary Jane. According to my WordPress tags, this is the 925th post she’s appeared in on the blog out of a total of 2101. Nearly half of every comic I’ve looked at from 1962 to 2008. She was so much more than Peter Parker’s wife, she was an integral part of the book whether they were together or not, and now she can’t be. I mean, she absolutely could be, but they have, understandably, decided not to use her much post-OMD. And it’s lame. MJ is so unnecessary to the Spider-Office post-OMD, in fact, that in a few years, she’ll be joining the supporting cast of a different superhero. Because her home title doesn’t want her. It’s kind of insane. And then it gets worse… But, as always, I’m getting ahead of myself. Spider-Man is trying to get a photo of them, while somehow not realizing who that is, only remarking that she “wears her hair like Jackpot.” Har har har. Our hero flashes back to the DB!, where Robbie was chewing out Dexter Bennett for endangering Bobby Carr and those around him with his nonstop Carr coverage. Robbie said if they do manage to get a good shot of Carr’s girl, it will be like taking out a hit on her, but Bennett had no concerns.
I have really missed Joe Robertson in these pages, and I hope this doesn’t mean he’s going away, too. Back in the present, Spidey sees the visual effect he associates with Paper Doll’s power, and , webbing his camera to the tree, leaps into action. And while he’s gone, the camera somehow gets a perfect shot of Carr & MJ. That branch is better at working a camera than Peter, apparently. Spidey finds 2 security guards smushed flat just before a 3rd shows up and blames him for “skinning them alive.” Our man rightly says they don’t have time for this, because the killer could be in the house.
Mary Jane, what with her years of experience, grabs a lamp and smashes Papey over the flexible head with it. This draws her attention, and Carr tells MJ to run to the back of the closet and “it’s your birthday!” MJ doesn’t know what that means as she races into a closet bigger than my house, but she soon finds a panic room with a keypad and gets it. They’re so serious that Carr’s panic room key is her birthday? For shame, MJ, this guy sucks. Carr grabs Paper Doll’s legs and tries to hold her back, upsetting her, yelling at MJ to call the cops. His heroic defense of MJ is nice, at least. Then Spider-Man finally reaches the bedroom, throwing golf balls at the villain. I know it’s a big house, but come on.
The banter continues until Papey tags Spider-Man’s arm with her powers, and he’s in a bad way.
What does MJ know? Peter didn’t seem to remember anything at the end of ASM 545, not even the encounter with Mephisto. Does MJ remember everything? I guess I have no idea. Soon, Peter is in Bennett’s office, saying he’ll give him pictures of Spider-Man taking out Paper Doll, but not of Carr’s private life, pictures of which, he says, he hasn’t even looked at. Bennett, of course, is not on board, so Peter snaps his memory card in half. And then Bennett fires him. “Hilariously,” he gets Peter’s name right when doing so, and then rattles off a bunch of info about him while kicking him out. Dumb.
Hope her plane doesn’t explode! A clumsy and unsatisfying explanation for why Jackpot is a bunch of MJ cliches as she walks back out of the book. I think I know when she’ll be back. I know a time she comes back, but maybe we see her before that, I don’t know. I gotta say, coming out of a long stretch of books where I knew everything important that was gonna happen (1987-2007, in fact), it’s weird not really knowing. I know bits and pieces. But for all my dumb encyclopedic knowledge of Spider-Man, only grown larger by doing this blog, so much of 2007-2022 is unknown country to me.