We'll look at the two mini-series that preceded this in a couple of months in Sunday Splash Page, but for now we'll start at the end. Set in some vaguely mid-2000s Midtown High School, the book mostly follows teenage Mary Jane Watson as she tries to navigate high school and figure out what she actually wants in life.
That is apparently a very difficult question, because MJ vacillates constantly over the course of 20 issues. She wants to try dating Spider-Man, so they give it a shot and it's awkward. So she tries playing a shallow party girl instead - "going plastic," she calls it - but that gets complicated. She tries dating Harry Osborn, but just doesn't like him enough. Harry dates a lot of girls, but isn't above manipulating MJ's feelings to get her back. Meanwhile, her friend Liz Allan's constantly insecure about her boyfriend Flash having a junior high crush on MJ, or some other girl stealing him away. And there's always old Puny Parker, the quiet friend (?).
If I ever had any regrets about being an introverted social outcast in high school, this book killed them, but good. All this drama and arguing and no one being able to stick to anything for more than five minutes seems exhausting.
McKeever keeps adding other characters to provide new angles for drama, but it muddies the water. When you've got Spider-Man and Firestar sort of dating, but Gwen Stacy is figuring out if she's mad at Peter or he's mad at her for telling Mary Jane a secret, and oh, here's Felicia Hardy as the new bad girl at school trying to steal Flash away from Liz, it's a bit much. Things end abruptly, or have to get shoved on the backburner for several issues until there's time for a scene dealing with it. I guess there were only so many permutations McKeever thought he could run through with MJ-Harry-Liz-Flash-Peter-Spider-Man.
Takeshi Miyazawa, who drew the two mini-series, handles the art for the first 15 issues, before Jeremy Haun takes over for the last 5. Miyazawa keeps the characters looking young; rounded, smooth faces lacking even the hint of facial hair - surprised Harry's not trying to grow a crappy mustache. Spider-Man's a skinny teenager, while Peter Parker walks with perpetual slumped shoulders and thick glasses.
It's usually several panels a page, mostly close-ups. Since this is a book about teenagers having big emotions, McKeever gives Miyazawa and Hahn room to focus on expressions and body language. A lot of "panel 1: comment, panel 2: silent reaction, panel 3: reply or follow-up comment." Liz, who is drawn as significantly smaller than the rest of the cast, is all about big gestures and open expressions of emotion (usually anger.) Hahn's not as adept at it - there are some panels where you can guess what he's trying to convey, but the art doesn't carry it - but the effort's there. It's not repeated panels of the two characters with the same expression or posture the whole time.
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