Sean McKeever (1) (1972–)

Perhaps because his name is in the title now, Spider-Man, along with his alter ego, Peter Parker, is in Super Crush much more than the previous volumes of the series. This is a good thing, since it is his presence that stops this from being a typical high school relationship drama. After the devastating events of Homecoming, Mary Jane has distanced herself from her friends, which means she's hanging out much more with nerdy Peter Parker, who's been tutoring her. Ahem. Also she's joined the show more drama club, and guess what? She's the best at drama ever. Okay, I get it, MJ is wonderful, let's let her have some flaws beyond her inability to cope with her own wonderfulness.

Between boyfriends, Mary Jane resolves to pursue Spider-Man more doggedly than ever, not that Peter thinks this is a good idea. There's some silly stuff about a jealous girl in drama club, but that leads to some excellent scenes where Peter and Liz team up to help Mary Jane without letting her know she's being helped. It all culminates in a frankly devastating scene where Mary Jane, on her way to her long-awaited date with Spider-Man, brushes right past Peter holding a rose and declaring his affection. Ouch. You feel for MJ because she can't get what she want, and you feel for Peter because he has the girl he wants, but he can't get her! Of course, the comic's ending makes it look like things are coming together... and then there's another wrinkle. Whoops, and I guess I gotta get the next volume ASAP.

As always, Miyazawa's art is great, and there is humor aplenty. My favorite was when Mary Jane recounts something Spider-Man said to a female superhero that she overheard: "...and then he's all, like, 'ooh, Heat Girl, you're so hot!"

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The teen drama here was IMMACULATE, and Mary Jane’s spontaneous personality changes were relatable. Highschoolers are just trying to find themselves in the midst of so much schoolwork and dating and whatnot. The girl went from popular to goth to flirty in a matter of days. The rebrand is strong with this one!

Dialogue was very dated and corny at times (hey, missy! Like, totes, girl), but this is from the early 2000s. It definitely shows in the clothing too. Dresses over jeans, anyone? The show more animesque artwork was cute. show less

There's a new writer on Birds of Prey again, and this time it's Sean McKeever, known to you and me as the writer of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood are still there on art, in their fourth volume, which makes this the most consistent Birds of Prey art team to date. Bravo! Also they still rock.

Metropolis or Dust never quite clicked for me-- it certainly doesn't rise to the heights of Mary Jane, though of course McKeever's doing nothing like that book here. There are show more two main plots: Oracle, Misfit, and Black Alice investigating a magical weapons ring, while Lady Blackhawk and the Huntress look into someone from Lady Blackhawk's past.

The former of these is... not great, with an out-of-character Superman, not to mention the constant bickering between Misfit and Black Alice, which is not at all interesting. I've seen a decent amount of fan venom addressed toward Misfit on-line, but I like here... except in this book. Which is odd, because McKeever is actually really good at writing teen characters normally. The vague conspiracy and villains didn't really light the imagination much.

The other one has a lot of good moments-- Lady Blackhawk attacking a volcano is great, and the underwater scenes are gorgeous and spooky-- but overall it's kinda meh. Are we still doing this Unwilling Bride of Evil thing in the 21st century?

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This picks up right where Super Crush left off, with the arrival of new girl Gwen Stacey at the exact moment that Mary Jane Watson decides to tell Peter Parker that she has feelings for him. But first, events are interrupted by a two-part story called "The Origin Thing," where MJ discusses the events of a year ago with Liz Allan, the events that led to her losing her carefree attitude. The flashback format lets regular artist Takeshi Miyazawa take a break while Valentine De Landro fills in. show more The story of the flashback is kinda weird-- MJ is dumped, so she turns goth, but then she decides that she's not a goth, so she just goes back to normal-- but De Landro's presence makes the whole thing terrible. Putting characters in the hands of a different artist is like recasting characters on a television show: even though the dialogue is the same, the delivery is completely different. Things just don't sound right coming out of these characters' mouths. It doesn't help that De Landro draws some ferociously ugly art... especially at moments where the characters are supposed to be smiling and attractive!

Thankfully, things are soon back to normal, with Mary Jane, Gwen, Liz, Peter, Flash, Harry, and Spider-Man rotating affections in their usual complicated dance; by the end of this volume I'm pretty sure we've seen every possible permutation of male/female pairings. I feel like it shouldn't work, but it does; just flipping through the pages now to remind myself of what happened, I have a strong sense of affection for the story-- and those heartbreak moments (like where MJ sees Gwen kissing Peter) are always killer. There's more Spider-Man in this volume than in the previous ones, too, especially his ongoing battle with the prosaically named "the Looter," the climax to which was hilarious and fantastic. The issue where Gwen relates a Spider-Man/Sandman battle in flashback is also great, even if we have to put up with another fill-in artist: McKeever puts Gwen's rendition of the dialogue in the balloons, such as, "Hi, I'm Peter Parker? And I act like I like you? But now I'm totally gonna ditch you without warning for no reason whatsoever."

Other things are silly, though, like a subplot about the football players considering wrecking the school play. And of course MJ continues to be the best at everything ever without even trying; the entire male population of the school falls in love with her after her play performance. The bit where a writer for the school paper tries to get Harry and MJ to explain why they are such big flirts is also weird, though it has some nice moments. I do like that the MJ-is-so-popular subplot gives us some moments of vulnerability from our often-invulnerable heroine.

Things go as they do for most of the book, until the last third, when Miyazawa departs permanently, David Hahn taking over. Hahn is okay. I suffered from the dialogue-just-sounded-wrong problem again, but since he's there for five issues, I was able to get used to it eventually. (Except for his weird eyes.) Firestar comes back, which is one of the best plots in the whole series: she attempts to put the moves on Spider-Man, not Peter Parker, at a moment where he's feeling particularly vulnerable. Meanwhile, Harry Osborn is receiving advice from his evil father on how to win MJ to himself forever; he alternates between seeming manipulative and seeming like he genuinely wants to be with MJ. The Felicia Hardy subplot isn't so great, but on the whole, the end of the book comes together very nicely, just in time for Sean McKeever to jump ship too!

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