Mary Jane Homecoming #4

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Story: The Homecoming Thing
Reviewer: Paul Sebert

Writer: Sean McKeever
Art: Takeshi Miyazawa
Colorist: Christina Strain
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Production: James Taveras
Editor: McKenzie Cadenhead
Publisher: A Marvel Pop-Art Production

Must resist urge to break out in song…

Cheer up Sleepy Jean
Oh What Could it Mean,
To a DayDream Believer
And a Homecoming Queen…

*sighs* Just maybe one Monkeys verse, that’s all.

Ok right after our last issue left off everything was looking up. Flash Thompson won the big game, the gang was reunited, and the Midtown High School dance went perfectly. Heck Spidey even managed to capture the Vulture. It was all going perfectly until the homecoming King and Queen are announced and wouldn’t yah just know it: they chose Flash and Mary Jane Watson. That’s kind of a pain as MJ’s best friend Liz Thompson not only had her heart set on that award, she’s kinda been obsessing with the fact her boyfriend’s kind of got a crush on our heroine. It’s a shame but it looks like Mary Jane had a pain at the party.

What a shame Mary Jane
had a pain at the party.
What a shame Mary Jane.
What a shame Mary Jane
had a pain at the party.

Ah darn it. Not again. Now I’m quoting Beatles lyrics.

Anyway with drama between the kids reaching near-Countdown levels, it’s up to writer Sean McKeever to tie-up a lot of loose-ends in one nice neat little package. As he has throughout his short career Sean McKeever has shown a talent for writing convincing teenage dialog without talking down to his audience and here is no exception. The resolution of the situations at hand are convincing without feeling contrived. More importantly, they leave enough in the air that one would hope to see Marvel turn this ongoing, turned 2-part mini-series into a trilogy. In a small hand full of issues McKeever has fleshed out a group of supporting characters in a young Spidey’s world into a group of full-fledged three dimensional beings who’s adventures can be every bit as entertaining as your typical superhero romp.

On the artistic end of things, Takeshi Miyazawa’s art has a wonderful larger-than-life pop-art feel to it. While his pencils carry an obvious Manga influence, it also reminded me a bit of a Darwin Cook’s work. The colors by Christiana Strain are also a joy to look at.

In a summer filled with over-hyped, over-extended mega-crossover events it’s little books like this that really make my day.