Chi-Town’s Breakdown: The Amazing Mary Jane #3

 Comics                          Crawlspace.com 
Leah Williams (Writer)                      Chi-Town Spidey (Review)
Carlos Gomez (Artist)                        Brad Douglas (E.I.C)
Lucas Werneck (C0-Artist)
Carlos Lopez  (Colors).
Various Artists (Cover Artist)           
Kathleen Wisneski (Asst Editor)
Nick Lowe (Exec. Editor)
C.B. Cebulski (E.I.C)
                                              Recap:  The funding that flooded in when superstar director Cage McKnight announced he was making DOWN IN FLAMES, UP IN SMOKE (working title)--a movie about the life of Spider-Man super villain Mysterio–dried up when a video of Cage acting more like, well, Mysterio leaked from the set (because he’s Mysterio in disguise.). Mary Jane is the only one who knows but far from the only one invested.  The production is packed with newcomers, rejects, and outsiders who are only getting this shot because Mysterio’s given it to them.  MJ rolled up her sleeves and found an unconventional investor–right before Mysterio’s former cohort-in-crimve Vulture attack the set with the Savage Six!  

Story:  The Savage sit is destroying the set and Mary Jane and crew are doing everything possible to get people out and safe at the same time.  Especially superstar Sonny Diperna (WHO?!).  Mysterio manages to fool the Savage Six and send them on a walking goose chase, but because they know where the set is the crew is forced to shoot the rest of the film in an abandoned zoo.  New crew members have been hired, Screwball, H.E.R.B.I.E 1.05, and Master Matrix have come into the mix.  While filming to finish up this what looks like to be a mistake of a movie, the actor that is playing Spider-Man freaks out and quits when an accident happens on set.  The film can’t finish without someone to play Spider-Man and Mary Jane knows the one person that could actually do it, but she’ll have some explaining to do if he comes swinging on it.  

Thoughts: Oh boy..I had some problems with this issue.  You all know me, Crawlspacers, I am a huge Mary Jane fan and so far Leah Williams and Carlos Gomez have done a splendid job in the last two issues, but with this one, not so much.  Talking to our other MJ fans, our very own Mohammad did enjoy it, but it wasn’t “A Material” and newest Crawlspacer “Vauntt” has stated “If there’s anyone in the world that wanted this comic to be a hit, it’s me. That being said, I didn’t care for the story.”  I agree with both of them and I’ll tell you why, but let’s start with what I liked first.

Of course, this is Mary Jane’s title and even though she’s sharing this with other characters, she’s never pushed aside.  The focus does remain on her and her characterization, which is strong.  Williams hasn’t lost sight of that.  MJ proves that she can still be strong, confident, brave and sexy in any given situation.  It’s not very hard to see why, if you know the character’s history you can’t help be have a great amount of respect for Mary Jane.  Especially what she means to Peter Parker.  Given the three issues, she proves that it’s about the art of the project, not how much she’s in it.  I like how she cuts her screen time in order to save the film given the how they are days behind schedule.  Beck even acknowledges that and awards her decision by giving her producer credit.

This is a whole new direction for Mary Jane and her career.  If you remember Amazing Spider-Man #25, she was more focused on the art than the fame when it comes to entertainment.  She has basically taken the driver seat and make this film work, despite the hurdles that they have been coming about.  That being said, that leads to one the things I didn’t care for..

 I don’t know anything about the movie business, but I’m pretty sure this movie should have been scrapped right when the Savage Six rampaged the set.  It’s Cage McKnight’s popularity and Mary Jane’s driven logical passion that is keeping it alive, but I highly doubt even that should have kept this film a float.  Once the Savage Six showed up, that should have been the last straw.  Not to mention that video of McKnight raging when viral, you would have thought the real Cage McKnight would have saw that by now.  If Screwball is added to crew, that’s like adding semi truck of gasoline to an already blazing inferno!  I mean the characters name is SCREWBALL!!  Red flag!

The art on the book threw me off as well.  I’m not sure why there’s a revolving door of artwork in this book, where it doesn’t need to be.  I do prefer Comez’s art over Werneck’s.  Although Lopez did the coloring for both, Comez’s art really pops out of the panel and gives the characters (Especially Mary Jane) live energy where has Werneck’s art seems to fall a little flat in some panels.  At this point it’s only a mini so I would prefer Comez to be the consistent artist for this book and if this series does go ongoing, for him to remain the consistent artist.  Not saying Werneck’s art isn’t appealing, he did bring some sassiness to his Mary Jane illustration, but it was Gomez that emphasis it in every panel MJ is on.

Is it me, or did anyone else feel that Sonny Diperna is a character created by Williams as a retort against Martin Scorsese comments against the MCU.  I could be wrong, but I looked up Sonny in the Marvel Wiki and didn’t see anything.  Top ace award winning actor comes into a small budget film to embrace the now crafted art of the movie industry just to prove the high exec’s that want this movie to fail, wrong.  Seem’s legit.  

Final thought is that Mary Jane is going to make that call to Peter and come clean.  Remember back in issue one of this series, MJ wasn’t that truthful to Peter.  He has no clue that McKnight is actually Mysterio, MJ left that key part out.  Reason to my understanding is that MJ wants this to succeed so she can jump start her career and to let Peter know that, would only worry him.  Now it seems that there’s not backing out and she’ll have to tell him since he’s the only person she knows that can replace the part of Spider-Man.  With the Savage Six hunting this crew down, wouldn’t be a bad idea to actually get some help on this one.  It’ll be interesting to see the conversation these two will have and I honestly hope Peter doesn’t put full blame on MJ.  ASM 1-5 Peter split in two and didn’t come clean to MJ until issue 5.  However, that is something that Peter has been often to do, not think that is, whereas Mary Jane, it’s a bit uncharacteristic to her persona.  

GRADE: C