Comics 
Crawlspace.com
Leah Williams (Writer) Chi-Town Spidey (Review)
Carlos Gomez (Artist) Brad Douglas (E.I.C)
Carlos Lopez (Colors). Mark Alfrod (ASM Review)
Various Artists (Cover Artist)
Kathleen Wisneski (Asst Editor)
Nick Lowe (Exec. Editor)
C.B. Cebulski (E.I.C)
Recap: Once upon a comic, Amazing Spider-Man #830, to be exact. Mary Jane decided to take an offer from her old booking agent, Brett Hoskins. Seems her talents weren’t unnoticed in the events that happened in Amazing Spider-Man #826. It’s a lead part in a movie written by new comer director, Cage McKnight. She would travel off to California to shoot the film for two months, what she doesn’t realize is that Cage McKnight is actually Mysterio. Also, her rekindled romance with Peter Parker has evolved even further, when she landed in California she didn’t know that Peter had planned on preposing to her before she left! Will she discover that the beginning of her new career is actually a planned orchestrate trap? Will she find out about that engagement ring that Peter has for her? Is that cheesecake at her hotel that satisfying to subside any frustration that may come her way? Face it, Crawlspacer’s, it’s the series that Chi-Town Spidey was destined to review.
Story: LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! Mary Jane is acting out a sizzle reel and * both her and the A.D. know the writing is bad in this movie. She has already figured out that this is a biopic on Mysterio. ** Someone like Debra Whitman could be easily be fooled, but not MJ. Our strong, determined redhead decides to quit, right there on set, since McKnight isn’t forthcoming with the answers to her questions and concerns. Cage comes clean and reveals himself to be Mysterio. He explains this movie is his last chance to do right for a girl he cared very much about and only Mary Jane can play that part! MJ is reluctant but agrees to still be apart of the movie ONLY if she gets to change a few things! Mysterio hears her out and agrees. Afterwards Mary Jane shares what she learned today over the phone, with Peter. We end the issue with the Savage Six planing to go all Rotten Tomatoes on Mysterio!
Thoughts: Good Lord, what an amazing job Leah Williams did with the script. You can tell, she did her homework in this issue. Let’s start off with the characterization of Mary Jane. It’s her time to shine and her character is right on cue where it should be! Williams writes Mary Jane as a strong and independent person that shows class, can be sassy, and professional within her acting career. Almost INSTANTLY MJ knows something is completely off beat with this movie and when it’s revealed that Mysterio has taken the identity of famous director Cage McKnight, she’s alarmed but does take time to listen and understand WHY he’s doing this. Right off the bat she figures it out. I expected the “Master of the Illusion” to pull off a better con, but his ego has completely took over allowing Mary Jane to see through the mist. She’s no fool and Williams assures the reader of that which is always welcomed. I for one, am pretty tired of the general public classifying Mary Jane as the “damsel in distress”. She’s not, she’s so much more than that and we see that reflection in this issue!
Mysterio knows his time is up, this coming from the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. Even though he’s come clean to MJ, he’s also hiding on minor detail from her! He’s working for Kindred! This is Mysterio’s “Last Meal” as it where and he needs to make it count. If you are wondering who the girl is that Mysterio is referring to, I’m taking a stab that it’s Betsy Schneider from Spider-Man Tales: Webspinners issues 1-3. The real Cage McKnight btw, Williams gives us a chuckle that he out studying for his version of Jaws but with penguins. I like the banter between Mysterio and Mary Jane, it’s well written. You have stuntman that became a supervillain, that is now working with an actress who happens to be the true love of the superhero that considers that supervillain on of his greatest enemies. You want that kind of stuff in your comic book and Williams delivers. I like how Mary Jane is taking charge of the situation. Making something bad into something good for her career, like semi-referencing her own history and comparing it to her characters. Genius move on Williams part! Beck seems to going along with it as well hearing MJ’s thoughts and actually agreeing with her.
Peter and Mary Jane Relationship: This has to be my favorite part of the issue. I love how flirtatious Williams makes these two be to each other. It feels natural, in balance and enjoyable. These two are in a long distance relationship for the time being but Williams and the beautiful artwork of Carlos Gomez makes it feel like they are both in the room together. I like to point out that Mary Jane isn’t as honest as she would like to be with Peter. Peter still thinks it’s Cage McKnight shooting the film still, not Mysterio. MJ believes that this is a huge chance for her career to take off despite the situation and wants Peter to acknowledge that…but not be too concerned as well. MJ did clobber the Chameleon with a baseball bat! They both deeply love each other, the writing and the artwork acknowledge that. I don’t fault MJ for not being 100% honest with Peter, he did the same thing, when he split in two in Spencer’s ASM 1-5 run. It took him awhile for him to come clean with her and I suspect the same thing will be with MJ. Really digging the artwork of Carlos Gomez and the colors that Carlos Lopez provides that make the illustrations pop out! This is a good team for this mini series.
Everything works in the book. The writing, the art, and the coloring. One could argue that the plot is a little far fetched and corny at times, but isn’t that standard for any romance title. It’s a fun ride and everyone should get on board with it. Leah Williams is doing an excellent job with this and the artwork done by Carlos Gomez is mind blowing! I really want to see his artwork more in a Spider-Book. Do yourself a favor and pick it up, you won’t regret it. It’s a solid and strong start for this mini series which could be more if sales are good! So go buy it!
* Not sure how the script got “bad” when in ASM #830 the story was good when Peter and Mary Jane were rehearing lines. Not letting it effect my grade since the could of been a rough draft.
** THAT one’s for YOU Alfred!
Next issue, THE SAVAGE SIX! 
GRADE: 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
The only thing I’m iffy on is MJ not telling Peter about the villains on set with her or Mysterio. I don’t get that
Deb Whitman would have figured it out faster, but then become convinced she was going crazy to think it! Plus, who is this Alfred? Batman’s butler? 🙂
I enjoyed it, but felt that it felt a bit off of how the movie story was set up in ASM, but like William Sinclair said earlier, probably the result of two writers moving forward before the other was completely finished. I’d give it a B-. Not sure yet if I want to spend money on #2.
Good review!
You know, looking at that variant cover with her in the bar, I think the artist was invoking Emma Stone for MJ’s look. Which honestly, I think works.
I really enjoyed it, thought Mysterio and MJ were written spot-on, and the bit with Peter was really sweet. I’d really love for this to become a regular title, so I’m going to make a point to recommend it to a few of my comic reading friends. It was really nice reading this side by side with the latest issue of ASM, they feel very intertwined, though I think someone who hasn’t caught up on ASM could probably read this issue without getting too confused, it’s presented in a way that anyone could understand it without necessarily knowing all the details.
As for the script suddenly being bad, I think that’s just a symptom of two different writers working on two different titles with connecting stories, there are bound to be a few inconsistencies. Personally, I think MJ working with Mysterio on a terrible movie will be a lot more fun than if the script was actually good, something that was shown during the sequence where she insisted on script edits.
I’ll give it a B+. Good companion to The Amazing Spider-Man comic so I’ll keep reading!