In the year, 2003, a comic by the name Sentinel was released. Two years later, the comic was canceled, but the writer,
Sean McKeever had just made his impression on a larger audience than his first comic series, The Waiting Place. Being a part
of that audience, I was excited when I heard that he was doing a new comic called, Mary Jane. So when I picked it up, was
it any good?
The story of Mary Jane revolves around...well Mary Jane and her experiences with friends and events in her life. If you're
wondering if this is the same Mary Jane from the Spiderman film, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the comic is based on
the characters of the Spiderman franchise, and no, due to the fact that this comic is in a different universe than the other
Spiderman titles. Now this particular issue deals with Mary Jane thinking about who she wants to take to the Homecuoming dance.
After she thinks that she found the right guy, an event that will change her for good happens....
The art by Takeshi Miyazawa is quite good. With a great sense of storytelling and a style that matches the comic well,
Miyazawa's work is excellent. On top of that, McKeever throws in some great characterization. All of the characters seem grounded
in the sense that they're quite believable. McKeever's dialogue, though not his best, is actually good.
With all of those praises, there is still one point of the story that makes it hard to give this a high rating. Near
the end of the comic, Spiderman rescues Mary Jane and
talks to her. Now this wouldn't be a problem if
Peter Parker,
who in reality is Spiderman, said something to Mary Jane and her friends earlier that day. Now like the
Justice League Adventures TPB, wouldn't the writer figure out that the main character might actually recognize the voice of the hero.
Overall, this comic is not that bad. With great characters and artwork, it is a great comic. However, with a major hole
in the plot, this comic doesn't reach it's potential. Hopefully, McKeever is just getting use to writing these characters.
This comic receives 3.5* out of 5*
