I'm a sucker for romantic stories. I love True Story Swear to God, or just about anything by Andi Watson. But I also need to be swept up in the story, which isn't easy when Straczynski is throwing coincidence after coincidence into the plot and doing his usual "fun but real people don't talk like this" dialogue. Kudos for not making this "will they or won't they?" issue with Peter and Mary Jane into a talking heads issue, and there are certainly some great insights into the Peter/Mary Jane relationship, but Straczynski's attempt to blend humor, action and way too many cutesy moments ultimately turns what could have been a great story into merely a good one.
Of course, there is one aspect of the book that is an unqualified great, and that's the artwork. Romita Jr. and Hanna have been blowing the doors off with their art, and the work here is no exception. Romita gets to handle a lot of the biggies here, with appearances by Dr. Doom and Captain America, and I love his take on both of them. I also love his designs for the bad guys in this issue and some of the spectacular action sequences that he delivers. But what impresses me is that on top of all this super-hero action, he also absolutely nails the emotions of the two main characters in the story, all the more impressive given that one of them spends most of his time in a full face mask.
That mixture of action and human emotion doesn't seem to come so easily to Straczynski, but I do have to give him credit for trying. The structure is a little artificial, but I found the fight-talk-fight-talk nature of this issue to be an interesting way to do this story, and though both sides of the story have some flaws, they also both undeniably have their strengths. In the case of the action sequences, the strength is the use of Captain America and the way that both he and Spider-Man leap to Doom's defense without a second thought. No need to explain it deeply, it's just what heroes do, especially the driven by guilt Spider-Man.
But the real highlights are to be found in the dialogue between Spider-Man and Mary Jane. The split between the two of them was, to be generous, contrived (to be less generous, stupid), but Straczynski gives Mary Jane's departure reasons after the fact. Being the wife of a super-hero does come with strings that don't necessarily have to do with the obvious risk of being a hostage or even the less obvious problem of being unsure if your husband is coming home. And a few words from Peter speak to the universal feelings of anyone in love, even if they're not super-heroes, and made me absolutely believe for a moment in the relationship, which is probably Straczynski's biggest accomplishment this issue.
If only Straczynski didn't undercut it with some hokey dialogue and moments. I love the occasional goofy stupid joke, like the Doom/metal detector bit near the end, but some of them just kick me right out of the story. Having Peter and Mary Jane both say "Typical Parker luck" simultaneously or the "how do you speak in all caps" gags are perfect examples. They don't kill the book, but they provide a groan instead of a laugh, and they work against the tone that Straczynski is going for.
