“Hey”-Mary Jane “What”-Madame Masque “TRESPASSING, CLAANNGG”-Mary Jane
Finding herself in the middle of a fight between Iron Man, Doctor Doom & Madame Masque, Mary Jane falls witness to what could be the destruction of her club and possibly the end of a dream, but from the destruction comes an offer she might not be able to refuse.
The big finale to our big first storyline. Cards are turned over. Truths are revealed. Tony’s life is turned upside down!
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTIST: David Marquez
PENCILER: David Marquez
INKER: David Marquez
COLORIST: Justin Ponsor
COVER ARTIST: David Marquez, Justin Ponsor
EDITORS: Tom Brevoort, Katie Kubert, Alanna Smith
Movie quotes you might recall while reading the issue
I’m gonna make him her an offer he she can’t refuse – The Godfather Part I
Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in. – The Godfather Part III
The Story: After the cliffhanger of the previous issue, we pick up Mary Jane’s story as she looks on in horror as a fight breaks out between Iron Man, Doctor Doom and Madame Masque, for she knows all too well that these things usually don’t end well, and unfortunately for her, that is exactly what happens, because by the end, all she can do is see her new life, her dream, “HER CLUB” be reduced to rubble.
Yet, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, comes a job offer to organise Tony’s life, the question is, will this be a blessing or a curse.
Update: As of yet, there is no mention of the “Place Holder” firefighter boyfriend and I feel if he was still around he would have been mentioned by now, and while there is still issue #6 that might bring him up, if he wasn’t by now, I’ll take that as a good sign that he is no longer in the picture. To add to that, Mary Jane never mentions having a boyfriend when she thought Tony was hitting on her, it was Tony that bought up having someone and that to me is another good sign that he is no longer in the picture.
My losing it: Ooooh boy, talk about a roller-coaster ride of emotion, WOW. I really wish you could have seen me when I was reading it, my emotions were everywhere, I was excited, terrified, elated, happy to the point that I physically shed happy tears, yes I admit it, I cried, I’m doing it right now writing this. So happy, that I finally get to see the Mary Jane I grew up with, the strong, the take no (use your imagination here) from anybody, especially not Madame Masque, and when I read this page (left) I simply lost it, to the point I had to put the book down and compose myself. And through out all this, the art was breathtaking, simply breathtaking and the emotions that each page exuded was more than I could bare. and by the end, I was thankful for a nice simple end that finished off with a talk between Mary Jane and Tony, because that allowed me to decompress and relax.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest,
My Thoughts: This time we finally got to see more of Mary Jane compared to issue #4, and not only that, she is actually in the action, so much so, that she does something that really showed me that Bendis wants Mary Jane to work, eventhough he has to work within certain guidelines, and I 100% believe he succeeded in this issue. He showed Mary Jane as she should be shown. And while some might chide him for her inner monologue about “Her life being screwed” because of super heroes, which she mentions, twice. Personally, I don’t see a problem with it, considering what she went through under Dan Slott, and all Bendis is doing is following on from that. If you give him time, I am sure she will slowly come around to a different way of thinking about Super Heroes.
Now onto my thoughts on the final couple of pages, here we see a dialogue between Mary Jane and Tony, I found it to be well constructed and an enjoyable read, One of things I’m happy about, is that Bendis, right of the bat shoots down the theory that Mary Jane and Tony will become an item, by having Mary Jane accuse Tony of hitting on her and Tony immediately saying he already has someone, and it is further clarified in a future panel. There is even a little bit of humour thrown in which I found very cute, for when Mary Jane mentions that her dream of owning a club are over, not only because of the damage caused to her club, for which Tony has offered to pay for through his insurance, but mainly due to the P.R. Nightmare caused by the same battle from which she can never recover, and to make amends Tony asks if she would consider a career change, to which she replies, with a adorably cute pout, “I don’t want to be Iron Man”, and with a smile, he asks “Would you like to work for him?”. And the job, what he offers her fits exactly into her skill set, essentially she’ll be doing what Pepper Potts use to do. As to how Bendis might differentiate her from Pepper, we’ll have to wait and see.
So the question is, Will Mary Jane take him up on the offer? To get our answer, we’ll have to wait till issue #6 issue #7 comes out, which should be February 3rd, 2016. For the moment, I would say, with pretty good certainty, that she will. Than the question becomes, will working for Tony Stark, be a blessing or a curse. You be the Judge!
The Art: What can I say about David Marquez’s art that I haven’t already said. The way Mary Jane’s drawn is simply beautiful, actually the whole issue is beautifully drawn, but Mary Jane especially, it’s been a loooong time since I’ve seen her drawn that way, the way he drew her, especially on that page was simply breathtaking, to the extent that I have literally gone Homer Simpson with his depiction of Mary Jane. Some might question me as to why, the simple answer is that David’s art exudes emotion and he does it without dialogue that’s how good he is. Take a look at the example below and see for yourself. One of these days I would like to read an issue where the whole story is told with just David’s art and no dialogue.
MY GRADE:
A*
Overall, the entire issue, was brilliantly put together, I enjoyed every page, every word, every emotion, to me this issue did justice to not only itself, but to Mary Jane as well, it showed what Mary Jane was and could be again under the right writer, and with this issue, Bendis has proven himself to be that “right writer”, for he has brought back something someone I thought lost long ago.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Invincible Iron Man #6, scheduled for February 3rd, 2016
Author: Mohammed << Head here for my previous posts
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@#2
@#3
I prefer to think of it as some writers have the skillset to understand and respect characters well, so therefore they faithfully represent those characters well in other books.
Others may call themselves writers but have got no idea about the character or how to write compelling character driven stories.
-But my contention is still why would the job Tony is offering appeal to her passions? PR, potentially, but organization isn’t exactly something she’d like doing, let alone for someone she should neither like nor feel safe around given his exposure.
It might not be, but as I said, she, at least to me, has no other options open to her. It’s like anybody needing a job, you want the job your passionate about, but if that’s not available, you take what’s available in order to earn a living and while Tony isn’t exactly doing it out of charity, he is giving her an opportunity, even though it is a way of making it up to her for what happened. As for her feeling safe I doubt she’ll be following Tony everywhere like Pepper use to and I’m sure Tony will do all he can to keep her safe.
All I can really say is, give her and Bendis a chance, she & he might surprise you.
I can potentially see her not wishing to go back into acting and realistically the stuff with the club would follow her, but I don’t think the latter should count given that realistically far more things would follow her and drag her prospects down.
But my contention is still why would the job Tony is offering appeal to her passions? PR, potentially, but organization isn’t exactly something she’d like doing, let alone for someone she should neither like nor feel safe around given his exposure.
-Isn’t she getting insurance money though? And she could in theory start up another business. Or she could simply make another club but get someone else to front it for her.
She is, she could, possibly. all that can happen, but, as I’ve been saying, with her previous history in running clubs and having these incidents happen at said clubs, would have damaged her reputation so much that it would put a stop her running one again, and even if she could get someone to front for her, because of that damaged reputation, no bank will front her the money, because that will be the only place she would be able to get funding.
-or else go back to her original passion in acting
Same thing as I said when I mentioned her and modelling, with her current mindset that is not something she wants to do any more, right now she would consider it as going backwards and all she wants to do is move forward. and anyway the incidents that happened at her club would follow her where ever she went and that could be enough for those studios to refuse to to employ her, as they wouldn’t want to attract such attention.
-I did.
Glad to it, being my first foray into reviewing I wasn’t sure if my style came over well, especially the “My losing it” part.
I don’t see anything in Marquez’ depiction of MJ, which I think is pretty spectacular by the way, that make it seem like it’s based more on Ultimate MJ then 616. The most notable thing about how he draws her is probably the freckles.
@#9: Isn’t she getting insurance money though? And she could in theory start up another business or else go back to her original passion in acting. Or she could simply make another club but get someone else to front it for her.
I’m not hating on Marquez, just an observation. I think Kubert though did a lovely rendition of MJ.
I did.
-About Pepper Potts
She can’t be used since she now runs her own company.
-I know this is building upon what Slott did…but that was OOC too, so we shouldn’t be building upon that
Yes Bendis is building on how things were left, and although he might have wanted to quickly fix things, that not how Bendis writes, he does things naturally, unlike Slott he lets the story not the plot tell itself. All I can say is give him time and I’m sure he’ll fix the damage caused by Slott, now that Mary Jane is no longer under his influence.
-About her taking the job
Mary Jane actually has no other option available to her, she put EVERYTHING into the club and now that her reputation as a club owner is a “PR Nightmare” no club she sets up in the future will work, same goes if she wants to be hired as a club manager. So the offer from Tony is her only option to earn a living. And while you might ask, why doesn’t she just go back to modelling, with her current mindset that is not something she wants to do any more.
-As for the art, it was good but am I the only one who thinks he draws MJ in a way that evokes an adult version of teen Ultimate MJ?
Personally I don’t see it, all I saw was a beautiful depiction of Mary Jane that I have’t seen for a looong time.
-Regardless, good review bro.
Thanks, while you might not agree with some of my points, I do hope you enjoyed reading it.
Honestly this didn’t impress me at all. MJ being bad ass was nice but her Superhero phobia and the ‘Are you really not hitting on me at my lowest point because men just do that’ rubbed me the wrong way especially the former. I know this is building upon what Slott did…but that was OOC too, so we shouldn’t be building upon that. I mean I actually don’t think she’d adopt this job even back in the days when she was with Peter. It’s one thing to risk your neck and family for your relationship when there is a secret identity protecting you. It’s another to do it just for your job.
At the same time if she’s this put off by superheroes why would she even consider working for one with a public identity? Not to mention being a personal aide doesn’t seem like a job MJ would be interested in. she has the skills for it but it doesn’t speak to her passions…and it kind of just makes her MCU Pepper Potts at which point I question why not simply use Pepper?
As for the conversation, it seems to shut down the possibility of MJ becoming super powered or a love interest, but I’m wary of this being a fast one or something changing minds over at Marvel. I’m still on my guard.
I’m also umming and arring over MJ’s nightcub career being kaput. On the one hand this issue’s treatment of that was realistic but remember her clubs were destroyed twice before and attacked three times, so if she recovered from those would this one really finish her off? I guess it is possible given the scale and the fact that this was opening night.
As for the art, it was good but am I the only one who thinks he draws MJ in a way that evokes an adult version of teen Ultimate MJ?
Regardless, good review bro.
Oh and on Pedro, on the one hand, not explaining where he is would usually be something I’d call unacceptable in a comic like this as it’s a big deal if her relationship status has arbitrarily changed off panel for reasons never gone into….but then again their relationship relied upon OOC BS anyway so screw him.
Its like with Carlie Cooper, the quicker we forget about them and other writers ignore them, the better.
@#4
As a matter of fact, Mary Jane never mentions having boyfriend when she thought Tony was hitting on her, it was Tony that bought up having someone and that to me is another good sign that he is no longer in the picture.
@#4 Thanks for reminding me
As of yet, there is no mention of the firefighter and I feel if he was still around he would have been mentioned by now, and while there is still issue #6 that might bring him up, if he wasn’t by now, I’ll take that as a good sign that he is no longer in the picture.
Whatever happened to that firefighter MJ was going out with?
I know what you mean. Its like: “We can’t write the characters in their own books, but hey someone else can write them better in another book.”
Other writers writing Spider-Man characters well, outside Spider-Man’s book……the whole story since 2007
… too bad Bendis can’t write her this well in Spider-man’s book! Thanks Slott!!!