The secret origin of Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s breakup

All year long Amazing Spider-ManThe set-up has teased readers. It has all the usual hallmarks of a Spider-Man comic, but with glaring mysteries: Why is Peter Parker persona non grata with everyone he’s normally chums with? Mary Jane dates a man with two kids in elementary school.

By all appearances, six months before the events of last year’s Amazing Spider-ManSpider-Man #1 did something so heinous that his social network stopped speaking to him. Mary Jane started dating a dad who is single.

Here we are. Amazing Spider-ManIt is now time to explain what the problem was.

What other things are happening on our favorite comic book pages? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. The context may be lacking. The comics will be fantastic. If you haven’t read the previous edition yet, please do.

Zeb wells, John Romita Jr./Marvel

As you might be able to tell from John Romita’s art here, writer Zeb Wells has taken Spider-Man in a somewhat timey-wimey direction. Yes, it’s a good old “time moves faster in the alternate dimension” story, but from the perspective of the real world.

Spider-Man destroyed his relationship with Captain America when Mary Jane became trapped in apocalyptic dimension. To escape, he stole a small fusion device from the Fantastic Four, and smashed it into pieces. He did all this to recruit the only person who’d help him (a desperate for redemption Norman Osborn) turn the fusion reactor into a dimension hopping device so he could go back and get her.

Mary Jane was able to spend a day with him, despite all the web-slinging, punching, and mad scientist work. In that time, she met another survivor. Mary Jane gave up her hopes of being rescued.

There’s Parker luck, but this is extreme.

Image: Tom Taylor Travis Moore/DC Comics

The problem with the Teen Titans these days is there are just so many completely divergent and extremely popular versions of them — the Silver Age team! The team from the 1980s! The goofy and serious cartoons! My particular favorite of the 2018 soft relaunch with Bernard Chang’s incredible art! — that no single Titans book could possibly feed all of those audiences.

So I’m really looking forward to seeing how Tom Taylor, a bit of a master at wild continuity swings that are still full of character, plans to bring the wide, wide web of Titans together in one book. While waiting for his book, I’m enjoying the newest installment of Titans. Nightwing is basically a Titans book at the moment, with the classic ’80s/Cartoon team lineup trying to rescue a little girl’s soul from hell, where her dad sold it to.

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 that Jason Aaron’s Avengers run went out with a bang, but honestly it’s been cranked up to 11 for so long that I’ve got the comic book reading equivalent of tinnitus for it. I’m happy for a writer to have spent so long doing something he’s clearly very excited about, I’m also happy to see someone else take the reins next month.

Rainbow Rowell, Joe Quinones/Marvel Comics

What do you think is the best of life? It’s Joe Quinones drawing the Jen Walters gunshow for a short story about her trying to get her female superhero friends in one place for book club with no punching.