MJ and BC #5

[Frontier]

I think more than anything it's a soft reset for her to get everyone to stop being angry about the kids and Paul and have year 2 with her having an active role doing something else

I feel like they'll have a hard time delivering on that, and it especially doesn't sound like something that'll be that fan pleasing.

I gotta see her in a situation where she is on her own

I can see her internal narration now:

"I GOTTA GET BACK TO MY KIDS!!!"

[Mercwmouth12]

I feel like they'll have a hard time delivering on that, and it especially doesn't sound like something that'll be that fan pleasing.

I can see her internal narration now:

"I GOTTA GET BACK TO MY KIDS!!!"

But the run isn't fan pleasing, but in their minds it's the lesser of 2 evils

[jwatson]

This was fun. Definitely will pick this up in trade so i can read the issues that i missed and i think it will read even better in one go. One thing i didn't like here is Sym, after reading New Mutants recently i just was not feeling the Sym love from Maryjane and Blackcat. I absolutely love their chemistry. MCcay can certainly write the heck out of some banter.

loved this page.
SoulSwordSisters.jpg
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[Kevinroc]

I want to start this post by saying this mini is a mess. And I don't necessarily think that's Jed's fault. I have no idea what he was told about the Mystery Box/ MJ's situation, but he had to try to make that work without actually revealing anything. Which is extremely frustrating when MJ suddenly has super powers, the mini goes in on how they work, and then doesn't elaborate on where they come from (yes, yes, I know, MJ's weird watch thing, but this mini doesn't even hint at where she got this device).

The other thing is Felicia's characterization, where she is not confident about her relationship with Peter and thinks Peter x MJ are going to get back together and she needs constant reassurance from MJ. I'm not sure why the decision was made to characterize her in this way. It makes Felicia seem weak. (And it doesn't even attempt to tackle the meta aspect of the cyclical nature of comics and that the fandom has made it very clear how unhappy they are about the current state of Peter x MJ and everything surrounding that.) On the surface, doing a story about MJ and Felicia teaming-up again but now their relationship positions are reversed (Felicia is with Peter and MJ isn't) isn't necessarily a bad idea, but the execution of this thing means it falls far short of the original Beyond one-shot.

The other thing I want to talk about is the pacing of this thing. It didn't need to be five issues. Never mind that it ties into an event that ended months ago (an event that wasn't very popular in the first place).

So is there anything to this mini? Kinda.

The art's nice. This is the first Marvel work from Vicenzo Carratù, and they're not bad at this whole drawing comics thing. Definitely won't object to them getting more work in the future.

When MJ and Felicia aren't worried about the mystery box or what will Peter think, they have good chemistry and are fun to read. (The problem is how much of their characterization is shackled by the Wells run.)

If there's another team-up in the future, maybe they both shouldn't be with Peter and are trying to date each other.

[jwatson]

I want to start this post by saying this mini is a mess. And I don't necessarily think that's Jed's fault. I have no idea what he was told about the Mystery Box/ MJ's situation, but he had to try to make that work without actually revealing anything. Which is extremely frustrating when MJ suddenly has super powers, the mini goes in on how they work, and then doesn't elaborate on where they come from (yes, yes, I know, MJ's weird watch thing, but this mini doesn't even hint at where she got this device).

The other thing is Felicia's characterization, where she is not confident about her relationship with Peter and thinks Peter x MJ are going to get back together and she needs constant reassurance from MJ. I'm not sure why the decision was made to characterize her in this way. It makes Felicia seem weak. (And it doesn't even attempt to tackle the meta aspect of the cyclical nature of comics and that the fandom has made it very clear how unhappy they are about the current state of Peter x MJ and everything surrounding that.) On the surface, doing a story about MJ and Felicia teaming-up again but now their relationship positions are reversed (Felicia is with Peter and MJ isn't) isn't necessarily a bad idea, but the execution of this thing means it falls far short of the original Beyond one-shot.

The other thing I want to talk about is the pacing of this thing. It didn't need to be five issues. Never mind that it ties into an event that ended months ago (an event that wasn't very popular in the first place).

So is there anything to this mini? Kinda.

The art's nice. This is the first Marvel work from Vicenzo Carratù, and they're not bad at this whole drawing comics thing. Definitely won't object to them getting more work in the future.

When MJ and Felicia aren't worried about the mystery box or what will Peter think, they have good chemistry and are fun to read. (The problem is how much of their characterization is shackled by the Wells run.)

If there's another team-up in the future, maybe they both shouldn't be with Peter and are trying to date each other.

Oh it was definitely held down by what it couldn't tell because of Amazing. In this issue alone the peter/felicia thing was hinted at again and felicia insecurity over it. I mean girl if you have to keep asking you probably shouldn't be doing it because to me that is just messy. Also MJ saying it's been a lot longer than 6 months and showing more passion for the kids than the issues of Amazing did immediately make it feel like they were hers but more couldn't be said. But those things were kind of easy to ignore knowing that they could have been delved into deeper and other things in this mini but it also doesn't seem like this mini is actually caught up and is still happening during Dark Reign so i can overlook most those things here for what was a fun story.

[Kevinroc]

Oh it was definitely held down by what it couldn't tell because of Amazing. In this issue alone the peter/felicia thing was hinted at again and felicia insecurity over it. I mean girl if you have to keep asking you probably shouldn't be doing it because to me that is just messy. Also MJ saying it's been a lot longer than 6 months and showing more passion for the kids than the issues of Amazing did immediately make it feel like they were hers but more couldn't be said. But those things were kind of easy to ignore knowing that they could have been delved into deeper and other things in this mini but it also doesn't seem like this mini is actually caught up and is still happening during Dark Reign so i can overlook most those things here for what was a fun story.

Dark Web.

Dark Reign was when Norman Osborn was basically in charge of SHIELD (which he renamed HAMMER) and was over a decade ago.

[Frontier]

I want to start this post by saying this mini is a mess. And I don't necessarily think that's Jed's fault. I have no idea what he was told about the Mystery Box/ MJ's situation, but he had to try to make that work without actually revealing anything. Which is extremely frustrating when MJ suddenly has super powers, the mini goes in on how they work, and then doesn't elaborate on where they come from (yes, yes, I know, MJ's weird watch thing, but this mini doesn't even hint at where she got this device).

The other thing is Felicia's characterization, where she is not confident about her relationship with Peter and thinks Peter x MJ are going to get back together and she needs constant reassurance from MJ. I'm not sure why the decision was made to characterize her in this way. It makes Felicia seem weak. (And it doesn't even attempt to tackle the meta aspect of the cyclical nature of comics and that the fandom has made it very clear how unhappy they are about the current state of Peter x MJ and everything surrounding that.) On the surface, doing a story about MJ and Felicia teaming-up again but now their relationship positions are reversed (Felicia is with Peter and MJ isn't) isn't necessarily a bad idea, but the execution of this thing means it falls far short of the original Beyond one-shot.

The other thing I want to talk about is the pacing of this thing. It didn't need to be five issues. Never mind that it ties into an event that ended months ago (an event that wasn't very popular in the first place).

So is there anything to this mini? Kinda.

The art's nice. This is the first Marvel work from Vicenzo Carratù, and they're not bad at this whole drawing comics thing. Definitely won't object to them getting more work in the future.

When MJ and Felicia aren't worried about the mystery box or what will Peter think, they have good chemistry and are fun to read. (The problem is how much of their characterization is shackled by the Wells run.)

If there's another team-up in the future, maybe they both shouldn't be with Peter and are trying to date each other.

I'm surprised the artist is new. This art wouldn't have been out of place in the Black Cat series.

I know they advertised this as a first arc but so far we haven't heard about a follow up and the ending didn't seem to imply more, so I'm curious to see if there is plans for a follow up.

[Kevinroc]

I'm surprised the artist is new. This art wouldn't have been out of place in the Black Cat series.

I know they advertised this as a first arc but so far we haven't heard about a follow up and the ending didn't seem to imply more, so I'm curious to see if there is plans for a follow up.

They've been teasing that MJ might die in ASM 26, which they wouldn't be able to do if they had already announced a new MJ/BC follow-up.

[Frontier]

They've been teasing that MJ might die in ASM 26, which they wouldn't be able to do if they had already announced a new MJ/BC follow-up.

I guess they're probably misdirecting people one way or another.

[Johnny]

But I am expecting something happening with the kids (who obviously MJ cares more about than anything) will drive her to become a full Superhero. Whether that actually works is another story, especially with writing like this and in ASM.

Yes more and more feels like that was the primary reason Paul and those kids were created. Either to have something happen to them that would turn MJ into an actual superhero after all the teasing, or just so when she does become a hero she could have some sort of supporting cast going forward that's not connected to Peter or his main cast. When Wells mentioned her "origin as a superhero" I think that's what we've supposedly been seeing since the first issue, so whatever happens to her in #26, sooner or later she will likely be spun off into her own superhero title. Hope there have been enough people who like her characterization in this run, cause I wonder how that would sell.

[Kevinroc]

Yes more and more feels like that was the primary reason Paul and those kids were created. Either to have something happen to them that would turn MJ into an actual superhero after all the teasing, or just so when she does become a hero she could have some sort of supporting cast going forward that's not connected to Peter or his main cast. When Wells mentioned her "origin as a superhero" I think that's what we've supposedly been seeing since the first issue, so whatever happens to her in #26, sooner or later she will likely be spun off into her own superhero title. Hope there have been enough people who like her characterization in this run, cause I wonder how that would sell.

I don't think that was the original idea behind the current volume of ASM.

[KangMiRae]

Yes more and more feels like that was the primary reason Paul and those kids were created. Either to have something happen to them that would turn MJ into an actual superhero after all the teasing, or just so when she does become a hero she could have some sort of supporting cast going forward that's not connected to Peter or his main cast. When Wells mentioned her "origin as a superhero" I think that's what we've supposedly been seeing since the first issue, so whatever happens to her in #26, sooner or later she will likely be spun off into her own superhero title. Hope there have been enough people who like her characterization in this run, cause I wonder how that would sell.

Don’t worry, they’ll flood the market with variants to overcompensate for the eventual decline in sales post issue #1 and #2, and then claim the book is a banger and everyone likes Jackpot.

[Johnny]

I don't think that was the original idea behind the current volume of ASM.

Either way, I think the end result is likely to go in that direction. If they're serious about making her a superhero she needs to stand out on her own and giving her a "family" as a supporting cast that's not connected to anyone other than her should be a start. I guess.

[Johnny]

Don’t worry, they’ll flood the market with variants to overcompensate for the eventual decline in sales post issue #1 and #2, and then claim the book is a banger and everyone likes Jackpot.

Ah touche.

[Kevinroc]

Either way, I think the end result is likely to go in that direction. If they're serious about making her a superhero she needs to stand out on her own and giving her a "family" as a supporting cast that's not connected to anyone other than her should be a start. I guess.

I wouldn't be surprised if her "family" ends up going away in some form (dying, most likely).

I guess they could always bring back MJ's sister if they need someone.