Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #13
	Story Title: 'The Parker Thing' Writer: Sean McKeever Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa & Rick Mays Colorist: Christina Strain Letterer: Dave Sharpe Cover Art: Tak, N. Lee & Strain Asst. Editor: Nathan Cosby Editor: Mark Paniccia Published by: Marvel Comics
	Reviewed by: Bruce Logan

This month, MJ…isn’t such a good friend. Trying her level best to maintain her ‘shallow’ façade, she is finds that trying to play a dumb, well, redhead, doesn’t quite sit with the whole ‘making and keeping real friends’ routine. Having already alienated her old friends (and ex-boyfriends) which means just about everyone from Liz to Harry, this issue we see her shoving her foot her mouth with the ‘new gal’ too, that being Gwen Stacy.

It is not clear whether MJ’s outburst against Gwen was an impromptu one or a deliberate one. It seems to be of the spur of the moment kind but with everything recent with her and her reaction at the end of the issue, this instance too is doubtful.

Elsewhere, with the target of both girls’ attention, namely one Peter Parker, he plays his part as Mr. Oblivious, right until things reach at a crossroad between him and Gwen. The tired and just about to give up (because of his frequent and unexplainable disappearances) Gwen is about to break up with him. This leads to Peter saying those fateful words, ‘But it has to be our secret.’ Now, unless this story has things go differently than the main MU or even any other setting of the Gwen-Peter dynamic, Ol’ Webhead isn’t going to go webbing off in front of the fair Gwendolyn. What this also means is that at least for now, MJ is going to have to keep resorting to her Spidey for a sounding board. Her Spidey being the stuffed doll that she has of the webcrawler, after all, she did bid ‘farewell’ to the real one a couple of issues back.

Onto the art, and whether as a possible replacement for outgoing regular, Takeshi Miyazawa or just as a fill-in for the flashback scenes, this issue has two artists in it. Rick Mays’ works well in the setting and even though he has/keeps to his own style (thankfully so), he is able to strike the right cord for this teen-tale.

Conclusion: With (writer) Sean McKeever rumored to be heading for DC and Miyazawa leaving too, I cannot help but feel that this series might be heading towards a quick ending. This has been an enjoyable ride and interestingly enough even for ‘soap opera’ style story, SMLMJ has more depth and less useless angst than many of today’s BIG titles.

RATING: 8.5/10