Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #15

Background

After giving Peter an Ultimatum that either he tells her why he is constantly deserting her, only to come up with lame excuses why, or they are through as a couple, Peter finally tells Gwen some big secret that is the cause of his strange behavior. But Gwen feeling like she needs to confide about her current relationship status with the one person who seems to really be interested, tells Mary Jane, her only other friend in the high school, that Peter shared with her his big secret without actually telling MJ what it is. Mary Jane is left feeling hurt and just a little bit jealous.

Mary Jane then goes and unburdens herself to Liz saying how much it pains her to think that Peter thought she was unworthy enough for him not to share with her his secret. Liz, being the big mouth that she is, goes and tells Harry and Flash, which then leads to most of Flash's friends knowing the existence of some secret Peter has.

After Flash and his cronies give Peter a hard time about it, Peter confronts Gwen about how his having a big secret has gotten around the school; Gwen apologizes but swears she only told one person- Mary Jane.

Story 'The Goodbye Thing'

At the Coffee Bean, Peter meets up with Mary Jane after both of them forgot that it was closed down. Outside on the street, Peter lays into her asking her what's up with her and why it is that MJ seems to be spreading his personal business around. MJ tries to fight back saying that the act she's been putting on is no different then the act Peter has himself. Peter doesn't have much of a leg to stand on here so he tries to avoid the subject.

After learning that MJ doesn't know why Peter is so mad, he tells her its because of the secret he told Gwen and not her. Mary Jane still doesn't know why he's mad at her, seeing as how she only told Liz. The moment that that realization came out of her mouth, she knew exactly what Liz did.

Pete goes on to explain that some secrets are so big and so important that by keeping them a secret, you're actually protecting people from getting hurt, and the only reason Peter told Gwen about this huge secret was because he was trying not to lose her. He never told MJ because, when they were friends, it always seemed to him that instead of opening up to each other, all they really did was try to keep everything buried. After Peter and MJ get what's been bothering them off of their chests, Peter goes and tries to call Gwen who won't pick up her phone.

At Mary Jane's house, Liz shows up. Sitting her down next to her Mary Jane, being very diplomatic about everything, tells Liz that if she can't be quiet about the things they talk about together, then MJ will just have to stop sharing with her all together. After MJ mentions that Peter's all mad at her, this sets Liz off screaming about how she only told Harry and Flash, plus what's the big deal anyway. MJ tries to argue her point, but Liz takes off in a huff.

Gwen, trying to get out of the house to get her mind off of things, crosses paths with Liz at the mall, who looks pretty pissed off. Gwen approaches saying how great it is to window shop when you're upset. Liz gives her some attitude but it doesn't really effect Gwen any and the two end up sharing some fries to talk about things. Gwen tells her about the problems she's having with Peter and Mary Jane and she asks Liz why MJ made such a big deal about Peter's sharing his big secret with her. Liz says that it's not her place to talk about this and if Gwen wants to know something about MJ, then she really needs to actually talk to her herself. Gwen tries to get her help to fix this mess that everything is in and when Liz tells her she can't help her, Gwen says how unfair it is, which sets off Liz who gets up to leave. Gwen realizes that Liz knows something and gets up to try and stop her. Liz screams that she can't help Gwen fix this mess, because she's the mess to begin with. Very melodramatic.

Once she sort of fixes things with Peter, Mary Jane keeps going and tries to fix things with Spider-Man, by leaving a big sign on her open window for Spider-Man, who obviously shows up. Mary Jane apologizes for the way she treated him and he accepts her apology. After talking a little while MJ mentions that she's no longer upset that she can't be with the "guy" she really likes anymore. Yeah, she'd still really want to, but after talking to him today, she totally could see that he was in love with another person. Looks like Mary Jane (as well as the rest of us) are just going to have to wait.

Peter finds Gwen sitting outside her house and knows that he's made such a mess of everything with the way he treated her when he thought it was her who told everyone about his secret. It's finally revealed that the secret Peter has is that he's been anonymously taking photographs of Spider-Man and selling them to the newspaper (I was so right). Gwen wants to know why was it that Peter told her his big secret and not Mary Jane. If he kept his secret to protect everyone, why did he tell her. Obviously Peter mentions that the only reason he told Gwen his secret was because she backed him into it and he had no other choice. Gwen looks him right in the eye and asks him if she got in the way of him and Mary Jane getting together.

Gwen spills everything she learned from Liz about how Peter made Mary Jane choose between him and Spider-Man, and he was rejected only one day before he and Gwen met. Gwen then asks him if he's in love with her. Peter looks at her but can't say anything. She hugs him and then runs off crying knowing the truth.

At a new coffee shop (man, these kids drink a lot of coffee) Mary Jane meets up with someone very unexpected; Harry Osborn.

General Comments

Pete's mad at Mary Jane, Mary Jane then gets mad at Liz, Liz gets mad at MJ then gets mad at Gwen, Gwen then gets mad at Peter and then we're back to square one again. Pete goes storming off to confront Mary Jane who tells him that she only told Liz about his having some big secret and it must have been her who told everyone at school. They make up. Mary Jane confronts Liz about her telling everyone about what they talked about and they both get pissed at each other.

Later Gwen sees Liz at the mall and goes over to talk. After a little while into their conversation Gwen realizes that Liz probably knows what's really going on but Liz doesn't really want to talk to her about this, especially after she just got through fighting with Mary Jane about this very thing. But it's revealed later that Liz sort of fills Gwen in on everything that has happened between Peter and Mary Jane anyway.

After making up with Peter, MJ decides she also needs to make up with Spider-Man. Leaving him a sign on her bedroom window, Spidey drops in so that MJ can apologize for the way she treated him. He accepts of course and he learns that Mary Jane believes that Peter is in love with Gwen, and that she's really happy for him.

Gwen and Peter meet up and Peter tries to apologize for getting so angry at her but Gwen is looking for some answers instead. She asks why he felt the need to protect Mary Jane from knowing about him secretly taking dangerous photographs of Spider-Man, but it was ok for him to tell Gwen this. Gwen soon realizes that Peter still has feeling for Mary Jane so Gwen takes off crying.

And to cap everything off, Mary Jane decides to give Harry a second chance. Now that it looks like Peter might not be with Gwen anymore, Mary Jane is already making herself unavailable. Insane.

Overall Rating

Great issue with a lot of things coming to the forefront. Gwen learns about Peter and Mary Jane's history and in the process learns that Peter still harbors feelings for MJ, Mary Jane confronts Liz about how she can't keep anything to herself, Peter and Mary Jane finally talk together and get some much needed things out in the open, Mary Jane makes up with Spider-Man - there was just loads of things revealed to all of the characters in this one.

And in the traditional Peter Parker fashion, just when it looks like he's no longer dating Gwen, who believes he's still in love with Mary Jane, MJ goes running back to Harry to give him a second chance. Will these two ever get a chance together? Well, obviously yes. We all know our Spider-Man history. It's still fun to see a fresh, new approach to Peter Parker and Mary Jane's early years right before they get together.