Homecoming was actually the second of two, 4-issue mini-series that preceded Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. However, the first mini-series (titled simply, Mary Jane), didn't have a splash page. And both mini-series (and really, the 20-issue ongoing that followed) are part of a single, continuous arc anyway, so it seems to work.
As far as the mini-series, everything builds to Homecoming, mostly because Liz Allan is obsessed with being named Homecoming Queen, and Flash being named Homecoming King. So everything has to be perfect for her big moment. Get that? Everything. Must. Be. Perfect. McKeever writes her as so high-strung and insecure I'm surprised her head doesn't fly off. It is funny to watch her yell at Flash for almost beating up some guys pranking MJ, but she flips out and nearly attacks a cheerleader from another school for talking to Flash. That Flash actually got in the way of that makes him the bravest man alive.
As for Mary Jane, she's trying to amp herself up for going to the dance with Harry Osborn, when really, she wants to go with Spider-Man. Harry's nice, and he takes her nice places, although that makes her self-conscious about her own financial situation, but he doesn't excite her. So she's going back-and-forth on that, trying to find a spark with Harry that's only occasionally there, while Liz keeps pointing out how ridiculous it would be to go to the dance with a guy in a costume. When she's not yelling at Flash for one thing or another.
Then it turns out Flash has a crush on Mary Jane, which is manageable, until Flash hears from Harry (while Flash is trying to get Harry to fix things with MJ, after Harry broke it off because she wouldn't help him cheat on a test) that MJ had a crush on Flash in junior high. And then Homecoming doesn't go the way Liz wanted, even beyond Spider-Man and the Vulture almost ruining the game-winning field goal, and things blow up real good. Emotionally. No actual explosions.
In the earliest issues you can see Miyazawa finding the range, so to speak. MJ's hair has a lot more bounce and curl in it early on compared to later. Not Todd Mac or Erik Larsen level curls, but not Romita Sr. hair that hangs straight down. And there's a few panels where the shape of her face or the size of her forehead shifts dramatically. But by the end of Mary Jane, he's found his groove (although Flash Thompson's affection for cowboy hats is an interesting choice.)
In the first mini-series, McKeever makes a couple of references to MJ's mother that never really get expanded on. She interrupts a call between MJ and Liz by loudly demanding MJ come down for supper, and the school counselor (who I think turns out to be the Looter), makes a remark about whether MJ's mom is working at the moment, since MJ's grades are sliding since she started working to pay for her Homecoming dress. Probably could have done more with that in the ongoing, and cut down on constantly expanding the net of people caught in relationship drama. Instead, he introduced a story right at the end about Flash taking a job to help his family pay bills, and the parents stay entirely off-screen, referred to, but never seen.
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