The Chi-Town Breakdown: MJ/BC #3 (Volume 2)

THE GIST OF IT…  Dark Web was a complete waste of time, but it’s now OVER  (Thank God!)…HOWEVER  (DAMN IT!)… the finale didn’t show Mary Jane or Black Cat escaping Limbo.  That’s a plot hole that needs to be fixed and Jed MacKay is on the case.  One thing about these spin offs that I can say, they did a lot better job in story telling than the main book did!  Hit n’ Miss in a couple of areas, but STILL, a better job!  Let’s dive in Crawlspacers and see what the fans favorite felumptious feline is finessing with the readers red-hot ravishing redhead!

(Writer) Jed MacKay
(Artist)Vincenzo Carratu
(Colorist)Brian Reber
(Editor) Devin Lewis
(EIC) C.B. Cebulski
Date Released 2/15/2023
Issue Number #3  LGY N/A
Price Tag: $4.99

STORY:   S’ym will team up with Mary Jane and Black Cat to get to the “Soulsword”, but once obtained, all truces are off and that goes for everyone else waiting outside the Screaming Tower who want to rule Limbo.  They avoid the..uh…er..”obstacles?”..ah, screw it, they avoid the booby traps (I’m not proud of myself for saying that phrase while reviewing a book staring two gorgeous looking women) on the way to retrieve the sword.  Felicia feels that she has betrayed Mary Jane, about keeping the recently started “forced intimate relationship” with Peter hidden from her.  S’ym tells them The Screaming Tower’s purpose to to contain The Guardian, then they come face to face with it.  MJ spins for a power upgrade and gets 💀💀 and a BAR which grants her “Mist Powers”.  She deduces that her run of bad luck stems from Black Cat’s “Bad Luck Powers”.  Subconsciously, Felicia’s power consider MJ an “enemy” because she TOO, loves Peter.  

PARKER “LUCK”:   Felicia and Mary Jane like each other.  Let’s get that out of the way, there is no bitterness (at this point) between them.  MJ’s new found powers are having a string of bad luck because Felicia’s powers consider MJ an “enemy”.  She did share “the same toothbrush” with Peter (Again, not proud of myself for using a Dan Slott line as a metaphor).  The question is WHY?  I could be thinking outside the box here with what MacKay is implying so I’m going to break this down into two parts.

1. Typically one could think that Felicia feels guilty that she’s moving in on MJ’s man so quickly.  It’s normal behavior for this character, especially since in their last adventure she told MJ that ship has sailed and had no intention of charting that course again.  Felicia’s powers are just on protective instinct mode and doing everything to make sure she insures the win.
2. MJ is (supposedly) married with kids.  Felicia knows(?) that.  So WHY are her powers effecting MJ in this way?  On paper, Peter dating status is “on the table” and fair game to any lady caller.  UNLESS, in MJ’s mind, he’s not.  Mary Jane still loves Peter and is very worried about him.  To be honest, this WHOLE MYSTERY BOX in the main title is killing this portion of the story, never the less, MJ is being effected by Felicia’s powers.   It could be that in MJ’s mind maybe Peter isn’t free as the reader may think.  It could be MacKay giving hope to all Peter/Mary Jane shippers out there.

MacKay can only do so much with what he can work with, given the limitations in ASM.  S’funny how the X-Men office didn’t give a thwip during the Dark Web event and just solved the event in one issue.  I am really hoping it’s the second option, that there is still “unbreakable love” between Peter and Mary Jane and THAT’S why Felicia’s powers are effecting her in this certain way.

FORESHADOW?:   Marcio Menyz is the colorist for ASM and more importantly ASM 21-26 that is supposed to reveal everything that we have been waiting a year for.  He tweeted this out last year in April (I’m not on Twitter).  I think it should be noted just because of what I talked about above.

Of course, this was a year ago when he made this tweet and based on our reviews from this site and everywhere else, it hasn’t been “the best” that they have been giving.  Even the good stories have the dreaded “Mystery Box” HOLDING IT DOWN from being “the best”.  The best customer service is delivering a product that they will like.  If you can’t assure your customers of that, what’s the point of buying the product from them?  Watch out for those “assurances” and “guarantee’s” my friends.

S’YMING AROUND:   S’ym is an enjoyable character in this issue.  If you’ve seen Star Wars: The Bad Batch (you really should btw), he reminds me of the fun characterization of Wrecker.  I can also see Jed MacKay putting himself in S’ym’s characterization because writing Mary Jane and Black Cat is a delight for him.  He’s already rocking the Black Cat series and his first MJ/BC one shot was PERFECTION.  This would have been great too, if it weren’t for the illogical editorial enforced agenda shenanigans happening in ASM.

GRADE:   I was going to go into a little bit more, but there’s not much more to breakdown for you all.  It’s been three issues of Felicia struggling to keep her secret from MJ.  “Should I tell her?”, “I should tell her.”, “Now’s not a good time”, “She’s gonna figure it out?”, “No, it’ll hurt her.”, “Why is this so hard?!” have been the constant theme for three issues!  I don’t put this blame on MacKay, he has limitations on what he can write because of Well’s run on ASM.  It’s a sucky situation and he DOES make the best of it.  Carratu does a good job illustrating the comedy expressions of Felicia and MJ when they are in a bind.  You get a laugh out of it.  HOWEVER, the timing of this book coming out is off since ASM 19 is already out and that happens AFTER this mini is concluded.  The whole Mystery Box in ASM is also a key factor on how this story is playing out.  We’ve past Dark Web and this book is still in that event!  That being said, giving this one a C. 

Next Dark Mark will conclude the Worst Date Ever!

Then after that, I start off what all of us have been waiting for.  ANSWERS!