![]() A series that shows Peter slowly descending into madness as he hunts down Mary Jane’s phantom kidnapper could have had a lot of potential, and when Paul Jenkins jumped on PPSM, he even addressed this idea a bit. Again, the fact that Peter’s nutty actions are ultimately validated by Mary Jane being alive feels irrelevant in the moment of reading these stories fresh and taking them at face value. Naturally, it’s a bait and switch and instead appears to be part of a larger scheme to kill off Spider-Man, but it does lead to a rather interesting subplot that questions whether or not Peter is just still stuck in the denial phase or if he’s possibly losing all of his marbles in the wake of MJ’s death. At the very end of PPSM #14, Peter gets a phone call that simply states that Mary Jane isn’t dead and is being held hostage inside Doctor Doom’s castle. ![]() PPSM #14 then segues nicely to a two-parter involving a trip Peter takes to Latveria to try and rescue MJ. And while we can all pick nits over whether or not Marvel should have ever resurrected these characters (I’ve long been in the camp that Norman’s return has proven to be a good thing while Aunt May’s return, coupled with some retcons to her character, has been rather useless to the long-term outlook of the series), you can practically see the tongue firmly in Mackie’s cheek as his script discusses these surprising life/death reversals. As part of his inner-monologue, Peter takes for granted that MJ is still alive despite witnessing her plane exploding because other characters he saw die like Norman Osborn and Aunt May had come back from the dead. ![]() Spidey and Hulk have never truly meshed well together in a comic in large part because it’s just so unbelievable that Spider-Man would be able to survive an attack from the “Jade Giant,” but in this instance, the Web Slinger is being fueled by his inconsolable grief and anger, which pairs well with a character that’s best known for being “angry.” Over the course of the issue, Spider-Man is coming on so strong against the Hulk, who he blames for MJ’s plane crash, that the big green guy is taken aback by his would-be adversary and seems uncertain in how to respond (making the fact that he doesn’t just squash Spidey like an ant a believable outcome).Īdditionally, the comic does a great job providing meta-commentary on some then-recent events in Spider-Man history. The issue also marks a masterful use of a guest star - in this case, the big green Hulk who is rendered magnificently by John Romita Jr. Mackie’s script doesn’t quite have the same fevered emotional pitch and sorrow that oozes from every page of “No One Dies,” but it’s really a wonderful look at Peter’s all-too human inability to accept the death of his wife (granted, Peter’s denial would eventually be proven prescient but that fact is really immaterial to the larger theme of this book). A few years back, following the death of Marla Jameson, we got one of Dan Slott’s greatest stories ever with “No One Dies,” and “Denial” in its own unique way, is worthy of being compared to this recent classic. Peter Parker: Spider-Man #14, dubbed “Denial,” is pretty much a snapshot of everything you’d want (and come to expect) in a comic book story that addresses any kind of tragedy in Peter’s life. 2 #14-15 and Peter Parker: Spider-Man #14-15:Īs emotionally manipulative as “Time Enough …?” was with its shocking ending of Mary Jane presumably dying in a plane crash, in looking back at some of the storylines that dealt with the aftermath of this issue, MJ’s apparent demise seemingly inspired some of Howard Mackie’s best writing of the Volume 2 era - with one notable exception.īut first the good. In this installment, we’re discussing Amazing Spider-Man vol. Each installment will discuss a different arc and whether or not it achieves its goals of presenting something new and/or gripping about the Spider-Man character and mythos. ![]() Volume 2 Review is a regular feature that looks back to the late 1990s when Marvel rebooted its Spider-Man series for the very first time. ![]()
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