The Secret Origin of Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s Breakup

A whole year long, Amazing Spider-Man has teased the readers with its establishment. It has all the usual hallmarks of a Spider-Man comic, but with lurid secrets: Why is Peter Parker persona non grata with everyone he’s normally friends with? Why is mary jane dating a guy who has two elementary school kids?

Apparently six months before the events of last year Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spider-Man did something so hideous and savage that his entire social network stopped talking to him and Mary Jane started dating a single father.

And now Amazing Spider-Man finally gets around to explaining what it was.

What else is happening on the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of books our comics editor has enjoyed over the past week. It’s part society pages about the lives of superheroes, part recommended reading, and part look at this cool art. There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last issue, read this.)

Image: Zeb Wells, John Romita Jr./Marvel

As you might be able to tell from John Romita’s art here, writer Zeb Wells took Spider-Man in a slightly more contemporary direction. Yes, it’s a good old “time flies faster in the alternate dimension” story, but from a real world perspective.

With Mary Jane trapped in an apocalypse dimension, Spider-Man burned all of his bridges, stole a miniature fusion reactor from the Fantastic Four, and beat up Captain America to escape. He did all of this to recruit the only person who would help him (a Norman Osborn desperate for redemption) to turn the fusion reactor into a dimension jump device so he could go back and get her.

But all that fling, slapping, and crazy science took a full day, which was apparently enough time for Mary Jane to meet another survivor, give up, get rescued, fall in love, and make two complete people.

There’s Parker luck, but it’s extreme.

Image: Tom Taylor, Travis Moore/DC Comics

The problem with the Teen Titans these days is that there are just so many completely different and extremely popular versions of them – the Silver Age Team! The team of the 1980s! The Serious Animated Series, The Goofy Animated Series! My particular favorite of the 2018 soft relaunch featuring Bernard Chang’s incredible art! — that no single Titans book could possibly feed all of these audiences.

So I’m really looking forward to seeing how Tom Taylor, a little master of wild continuity swings that are still full of character, plans to weave the wide, wide web of titans together in one book. In the meantime his nightwing is basically a Titans book at the moment, with the classic 80’s/cartoon team cast trying to save a little girl’s soul from hell where her father sold her.

I love a comic where Hell’s filing system combines the worst possible version of every computer interface throughout history.

Image: Jason Aaron, Aaron Kuder, Dexter VInes, Ivan Fiorelli, Javier Garrón, Jim Towe, Alex Sinclair/Marvel Comics

I would say this is Jason Aarons avenger The barrel went out with a bang, but honestly it’s been cranked up to 11 for so long I have the comic book equivalent of tinnitus for it. I’m happy for an author who has spent so long doing something he’s clearly very excited about, and I’m also happy that someone else is taking the reins next month.

Image: Rainbow Rowell, Joe Quinones/Marvel Comics

What’s the best thing in life? It’s Joe Quinones who draws Jen Walters Gunshow for a short story about her trying to get her female superhero friends to a book club spot without hitting.