Tell Mister Stark I decline the job offer – Mary Jane May I ask– – F.R.I.D.A.Y No – Mary Jane
Cool. My spider glows for no apparent reason. Tell her (Meaning F.R.I.D.A.Y) I said hi. – Spider-Man (Me: Sigh)
THE WAR MACHINES” PART 3!
• Spider-Man, War Machine and Iron Man team up to stop a brand new threat to the Marvel Universe… like only they can. All this plus more hints to next summer’s insane Marvel blockbuster event.
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTIST: Mike Deodato Jr
PENCILER: Mike Deodato Jr
INKER: Mike Deodato Jr
COLORIST: Frank Martin
COVER ARTIST: Mike Deodato Jr, Frank Martin
EDITORS: Tom Brevoort, Alanna Smith
The Story:
Mary Jane: This time round Mary Jane had less to do as she only appeared in 2 pages of the issue, but what she did in those two page says a lot. For not only does she decline the offer, she also does it in a way that goes opposite of what happened in issue #7, which if I’m honest had me scratching my head and wondering what’s going on.
Spider-Man: After the single page of issue #7, which was given away by the released preview, Spider-Man had a lot more to do as he was given 8 pages, which consisted helping Tony track down Rhodey, fight techno ninjas and someone called Taikyaku Shiro who seems to have the ability to simply grab any tech in her vicinity, including Spidey’s webshooters and use them against him and Tony, oh and did I forget to mention, he also had the job of being annoying to not only myself but to Iron Man as well, which he blames on being Jet lagged, and also referencing 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Wizard of Oz.
My Thoughts:
Mary Jane: As I mentioned in the story section, what Mary Jane did got me scratching my head and wondering what Bendis was up to, because if you look back at issue #7, you will see that Bendis uses the exact same panel to illustrate what happened hours ago, but instead of what we saw in #7, where Mary Jane seems to accept not only the job offer, but Tony leaving for Japan to find Rhodey, so much so, that she volunteers to give him Peter’s Emergency Number in order for Tony to contact him for help, in this issue she does a 180, becoming actually upset at the fact that Tony’s leaving her alone to go to Japan and leaving her with FRIDAY as her guide, soo upset that when he leaves she tells FRIDAY to inform Mr Stark that she declines the job offer, and when aked why, Mary Jane says No to answering it, cutting off the question.
Now I’m not going to pretend to understand what’s going on here, one issue she seems to accept everything and the next she doesn’t and Bendis doesn’t even touch on the fact that she gave Tony Peter’s Emergency Number, as a matter of fact he seems to have totally retconned the whole Mary Jane giving the number scenario, although to be fair, Peter did still show up to help and from that, I can only assume that the event did happen. It’s just the way the Panel played out, because in #8 when he tells Mary Jane he’s leaving for Japan, he was still putting on his armour, but in #7, he completed putting on his armour and was still contacting Peter after the indirect recommendation from Mary Jane herself.
And after much confusion, the only thing left for me, is to speculate on what this means, if it means anything. Because as we all
know from the future Solicitation of Amazing Spider-Man #12, Mary is most definitely part of Invincible Iron Man and to have her decline the offer at this stage, just wouldn’t make sense, the only thing we need, is an answer as to how she would be persuaded to return, and given what happened on the final double page of the issue, with a little help from FRIDAY I suspect, Mary Jane will likely return in order to help FRIDAY in finding out what happened to Tony and Spider-Man, especially since it would involve Peter, because no matter her feelings about his Spider-Man life, she, I still like to believe, backed up by her still having THE number, still loves him, and not to do something to help/save Peter would not sit well with her.
Spider-Man: I’ll be honest here, when I heard that Spider-Man was guest staring in the book, I had high hopes for the character, not only because it was Bendis writing him, but also the possible reunion between him and Mary Jane, which once again did not happen this time round, sigh, maybe next issue, unfortunately, whether it was due to how he is being written in his own book, or something else, I just couldn’t get excited about Spider-Man being here, because every time I read a line or viewed Spidey’s action scenes, which weren’t all that exciting by the way, all I could see was an annoying character who was trying too hard to be funny, to such an extent that I simply turned off from him, and concentrated on the rest of the book, and by doing so, it’s actually a great read. And before I forget, once again Spidey does not bring up the question as to “HOW” Tony got hold of his “Emergency Number”, for someone whose supposed to be a genius, asking the obvious questions seem to go over his head.
The Art:
Mary Jane: What can I say about Mike’s art that I haven’t already said in previous reviews, I know what, this time I can say that there is improvement of his depiction of her, this time I could see that she’s upset about something, without dialogue. given that, he still has a way to go before I can say he’s at the level of David Marquez.
Spider-Man: As with Mary Jane Mike has improved his depiction of Spider-Man, actually it was the only good thing about him 
in the whole
book. I especially liked two scenes he did, one of which apparently give tribute to a certain Superman Vs The Amazing Spider-Man 1976 issue.
MY GRADES:
Mary Jane: Portrayal: B+ Art: B+
Spider-Man: Portayal: C- Art: B+
Be sure to keep an eye out for
Invincible Iron Man #9, scheduled for May 4th, 2016
Note: according to a recent Newsarama article, the image of Mary Jane donning Iron Man’s Armour WILL NOT be used as the cover for issue #9 or even I assume a variant and will be replaced with the first image.
Which would also means that the woman in the armour is more likely NOT Mary Jane but <<her from the final page of Invincible Iron Man #7
Author: Mohammed << Head here for my previous posts
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I know it been a while since I posted my review, but I just remember this and thought it should be added.
I added it to my thoughts on Spider-Man in the issue.
“And before I forget, once again Spidey does not bring up the question as to “HOW” Tony got hold of his “Emergency Number”, for someone whose supposed to be a genius, asking the obvious questions seem to go over his head.”
@#4- Personally, I have a feeling that there was a change behind the scenes that went on.
The fact that the cover for #9 changed completely, to the point that it isn’t even going to be used anymore, mere weeks before it ships out to stores, may imply that things shifted around a bit.
Maybe nothing too drastic, but more of a “Actually, we would like this story thread to be set up here and we need this rewritten.” It’s just that the end result means that a major subplot needs to be changed.
Very odd. It could just be a simple mistake, but it does seems to say that something behind the scenes is going on. I wonder if the same panel was used because they needed to fix it right before publishing. This is when having access to original scripts would really be interesting.
No Prize time: Tony suited up and Mj gave him Spider-Man’s number.
Then he needed the bathroom and powered down.
Then he got back in again and just reiterated what he was doing for clarification and summation.
I wonder if this has something to do with the changing of issue #9’s cover.
I love the artwork on the cover, though I really don’t understand what the Spidey symbol and exclamation mark in Spider-man’s dialogue balloon are supposed to indicate. It kind of detracts from the artwork — the tone even — and, I guess, in that regard, is a perfect representation of the impact Spider-man’s presence seems to have in this issue.
I’m pretty much in agreement that MJ won’t be leaving the book next issue. Given the big deal that was made for her joining the cast, and the fact that she will be showing up in ASM a week later, and her relationship with Tony is how she is supposedly entering the story, I doubt that she’ll actually decline the offer.
I do think that this action is pretty much going to be part of MJ’s larger “arc.” Of her dealing with her attitude towards Peter and Spider-Man and the world of superheroes in general. Given what her new role just might be, I’d theorize that it’s to set up certain things to be explored later on, perhaps not even in Iron Man.
Essentially, this is perhaps trying to fix the personae of “I can’t handle it, I don’t want it” that the Wacker era afflicted MJ with, and move it more towards “I can handle it, and I do want it’ attitude to make MJ much more of a substantial and “heroic” individual.